Deep Horizon Blog

May 21, 2007

THE CENOTES OF THE EJIDO TULUM – “THE BEGINNING”

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:44 pm

THE CENOTES OF THE EJIDO TULUM
 

                      ¨THE BEGINNING¨

       

 By STEVE GERRARD – NACD CAVE DIVING INSTRUCTOR #39


      My first visit to the Caribbean coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula was during April, 1982 on a seven day cruise trip from Tampa, Florida.  The ship anchored offshore at a tiny fishing village called Playa Del Carmen that had two sand roads. One was named Juarez that connected to Highway 307 and the beach road would later be called 5th Avenue.  My father – Robert – and I were on a seven day cruise ship trip from Tampa, Florida.  We participated on a two scuba tank dive trip on a local fishing ponga boat and dived on a nice, shallow reef off Punta Bete.  I did not realize that I would be returning for many more visits and eventually live on this beautiful coast.
 

     That next visit arrived during the week of May 27th, 1986 as I was invited to fly from my home in Tallahassee, Florida to Cancun as a guest of Parker Turner.  Parker and I had met him three months earlier as Parker was a cave diving student of mine.  Parker and his wife Penny had lived in Cancun for nine months during 1984 -1985.  It was during that time Parker met a couple – Mike and Kathy Madden – who had opened a new dive store named CEDAM DIVE CENTER located at the new hotel located at Aventuras Akumal.  Parker and Mike began diving together and were fascinated by a cenote called the Carwash located on the Coba Road seven kilometers from the village of Tulum.  This cenote was known locally as Cenote Aktun Ha.  This cenote was very popular for open water diving with the Akumal Dive Shop in Akumal, particularly when the ocean was too rough for boat diving and for swimming for the people of Tulum.  Mike and Parker realized the cenote had not been explored by cave divers as no one locally was trained for such a specialized activity.  Parker had some experience with cave diving during the summer of 1971 while as a teenager he worked at Pop’s Skin Diving Shop located in Clearwater, Florida.  He was being mentored by the cave diving legend and the first equipment inventor of reels and primary lights – Frank Martz who lived nearby in Largo, Florida.  Tragically, Frank died in September, 1971 while diving a very deep blue hole cave in the Bahamas and his body was never recovered. This event discouraged Parker from continuing with cave diving until this exciting new opportunity with the Cenote Carwash.  Parker and Mike began exploring the cave passages and their first discovery was a small room downstream they named “Chamber of the Ancients”.  In this salt water room they found a unique limestone feature that had a carved shelf and contained charcoal.  It is believed that an Indian culture pre-Maya was burning wood in search for fresh water as the charcoal was later carbon dated to be 9800 years old. Parker and Mike realized they needed more training if they were to continue exploring the Cenote Carwash safely and successfully.
 

    They decided to fly to New Orleans, Louisiana and attended the four days 1985 DEMA Scuba Trade Show during the last week of January.  Their goal was to find and hire a cave diving Instructor and obtain more cave diving specialized equipment.  While visiting the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) booth they met NSS-CDS Cave Diving Instructor Jeff Bozanic and invited him to come to the Yucatan and teach a cave diving course.  Jeff flew to Cancun from Miami, Florida in March, 1985 for a two week visit and taught the first cave diving courses in Mexico.  The students were Parker, Mike, Johanna De Groot of Holland and Hector Indriago of Caracas, Venezuela.  After the courses were successfully completed and everyone was cave diving certified, Jeff returned to Miami, Florida.  It was a few weeks later that Parker and Mike wanted to share a secret with their friend Hector.  Exploring upstream the Cenote Carwash, they discovered a pretty room that was much decorated.  Parker thought it was the most beautiful place he had ever viewed in his life.  They took Hector to this room for him to witness.  After the dive, Parker asked Hector what he thought of this room.  Hectors reply was, “It was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes!”  That’s it!, Parker shouted.  We will call it “The Room of Tears”.  Thus, was the beginning of countless discoveries to occur in the future.
 

     The reason why Parker took a cave diving training course from me during March, 1986 was Parker desperately wanted a NACD cave diving certification card.  Jeff Bozanic, at that time, represented only the National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section.  I was the President of the NACD and the only  Instructor teaching cave diving as a full time job.  Jeff gave Parker my name to contact.  Parker’s obsession with the NACD was because of Frank Martz. The NACD had just officially started their cave diving training program in 1970 and Frank was designated a Cave Diving Instructor.  However, after his death, his name was never officially recognized as a Cave Diving Instructor by the NACD.
 

     During the summer of 1985, Parker and his wife Penny returned to Parker’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, USA because Penny was pregnant and they decided to have the child in the United States.  The third week of March, 1986 Parker drove from Louisiana and was a guest at my home in Tallahassee, Florida and we began the cave training course for him.  We instantly bonded both with our personalities and we shared the same birthday – June 9th.  Parker was one year older than me.  During this enjoyable week of cave diving, Parker introduced me to his brand new SONY 8mm video camera and these powerful strobes lights he obtained from a German company in Europe.  He was using the new SONY yellow underwater video camera housing.  In addition, Parker was continuously telling me of this exquisite room he found in Mexico that he named “The Room of Tears”. After we completed the week of diving and training, Parker had earned his NACD cave diving certification.  It was two weeks later that Parker called me on the telephone and invited me to fly to Mexico as he had access to a two-bedroom condo at Half Moon Bay in Akumal and help him shoot a video of “The Room of Tears”.  I did not anticipate that this trip would be a life changing event for me.
 

    On Saturday afternoon, May 27th, 1986 I arrived at the Cancun International Airport as Parker picked me up in his 1985 Chevrolet Astro van that he kept in Cancun. He had flown into Cancun from Shreveport a week earlier.  We drove south on the old black asphalt Highway 307 with no shoulders and jungle surrounding both sides.  This was definitely a new frontier!  My purpose for this trip was to help Parker and his friend Mike Madden shoot an 8mm video tape of this magical room called “The Room of Tears”.  I was to be the Safety Diver.  This week would be the first time in history of cave diving that an underwater 8mm video tape would be filmed.  Our first day of diving on Sunday, May 28th, Parker introduced me to Mike and Kathy Madden.  This couple owned and operated their new dive store – CEDAM DIVE CENTER – at the Aventuras Akumal resort hotel, which is now the Royal Oasis Resort.  Mike had put together several sets of double Aluminum 80 cubic foot cylinders for cave diving.  Parker and I loaded his van with two sets of doubles and prepared our equipment for my first introductory dive at the Cenote Carwash and to “The Room of Tears”.  Upon our arrival to this cenote on the Coba Road, I had no clue that in future years I would have the opportunity to be the first or among the very few to be exploring the many cenotes found along this seven kilometer area of dense jungle.
 

     .Parker explained a brief history of the cenote and how it got its name as the tale was told that the taxis of Tulum would wash their cars during the 1970’s as the remains of a cement base with steel rods to hold a water pump still exist at the southeast end today .  We donned our wetsuits, strapped into our gear and entered the water.  Wow, it was definitely warmer water than in Florida. Parker tied off his guideline from his primary reel and we began our swim upstream.  He informed me of a much smaller cenote located 330 meters further into the cave, which was named Luke’s Hope after a Canadian tourist open water diver who had become lost in 1984 and accidentally found it thus saving his life.  This opening to the surface was clogged with a huge curtain of tree roots. It was 40 meters beyond this cenote that Parker and Mike had found a small hole on the left side of the main cave passage that led them to two rooms.  This tunnel they called the Madden-Turner passage with the first room they named the Cristal Palace.  As we slithered down a steep slope from the Cristal Palace we entered into the area that Parker was so proud of.  As I entered the chamber, my vision clearly understood Parker’s enthrallment as the columns, stalactites, soda straws and the array of color grabbed you as if sucked into a children’s kaleidoscope of magic and allure.  I was impressed and sold!  The best of the best had begun.
 

     I now knew that I was shown something very special.  We spent the next four days shooting video footage as Mike operated the camera with Parker and me as the cave diving team being filmed.  With one dive on Monday, May 29th, Parker and Mike took me downstream to the room they named  “The Chamber of the Ancients” and I got my first glimpse of the charcoal and the rock formation they called “The Fire Pit”.  It was a gorgeous, small hall of cobalt blue salt water and beautiful decorations.  As we were exiting the Chamber, right below the saltwater/freshwater halocline level, Parker and I immediately recognized and identified a tiny creature known as Remipedia. This troglobitic animal is the world’s oldest living crustacean first found in the Bahamas by Dr. Jill Yager (now retired and living in Puerto Morelos) in 1980.  This centipede looking organism was the first discovery anywhere besides the Bahamas.  The sighting soon became big news in the science world!
 

     On my last diving day, Friday, June 3rd we finished our filming and Parker wanted to begin the editing process.  Therefore, Mike and I chose to dive Cenote Cristal located three kilometers south of Tulum on Highway 307.  It was first explored and being mapped by Jim Coke who worked at the Akumal Dive Shop.  Jim moved to Akumal in 1984 from Ohio in the United States and he too, clearly recognized the potential of the cenotes.  He took his cave diving training course in North Florida from NSS-CDS Cave Instructor Mark Leonard of Lake City, Florida the fall of 1985.  Mike and I swam upstream on a passage beyond an area called the “Double Domes”.  We found the end of the exploration line as we had brought with us an exploration reel.  We installed another 500 feet/156 meters of line before we had to call the dive on our air supply.  I was surprised by the difference of this cave compared with the Cenote Carwash as the walls, columns, everything was stained a very dark brown color by tannic acid.¼br />  

    On Saturday, June 4th, Parker wanted to present the edited but raw footage of the 8 mm video film to any interested hotel guests and divers of the hotel resort in Aventuras Akumal.  He invited Jim Coke and Johanna De Groot over from Akumal Dive Shop to view the work.  The 17 minute presentation in the hotel salon was a huge hit and both cave divers were impressed in what we had done.   I was quite proud to be a part of it.  On Sunday Parker took me back to the airport for my return flight home to Tallahassee, Florida.  Somehow, I knew I would return as several people had expressed interest in cave diving training as the word got out that I was a NACD cave diving Instructor, the Editor of the NACD Journal and the President of the NACD. How true that quickly became as my next visit was in August, 1986.¼br />  

Steve Gerrard resides in Puerto Aventuras and continues teaching safe cave diving training courses and guiding qualified cave divers.  The video of “The Room of Tears” has been converted into a DVD format and several copies have been presented to members of Ejido Tulum – proud owners of the Cenote Carwash, Cenote Cristal and Cenote Escondido.  The DVD is available for purchase.   Tragically, Parker Turner died on Sunday, October 17th, 1991 while diving at Indain Springs Cave System, Wakulla County, Florida. It was a freak, unusual geological event where a steep slope of sand shifted 150 feet/33 meters from the cave entrance and temporarily blocked the cave passage. Parker’s actions to solve this horrible dilemma saved the life of his diving partner – Bill Gavin.  Parker’s death is the only cave diving accident NOT the result of human error.  Steve dedicated his book THE CENOTES of the RIVIERA MAYA (January, 2000) to the memory of Parker Allen Turner.
  

 

DR. CARLOS BUENROSTRO VASQUEZ

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:38 pm

DR. CARLOS BUENROSTRO VASQUEZ
 

On Saturday, May 19th I conducted an Underwater Cave Photography shoot for Dr. Carlos Vasquez.  We performed the dive upstream CENOTE DOS OJOS and the cavern zone. I shot 190 images with my Nikon 100 Digital camera system.  Carlos spent the week with Kate Lewis for the Intro to Cave diving training.  Carlos lives in San Diego, California with his office located in Tijuana, Mexico.
He plans to return for more cave diving later this year.  It was a great pleasure for me to capture images of Carlos as I truly believe he learned much from his first visit diving the cenotes of the Riviera Maya.  Thank you for the opportunity to help show the correct and safe way!

VINA & JOE DANGELMAIER

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:31 pm

VINA & JOE DANGELMAIER
 

For Monday, May 14th and Tuesday, May 15th I had the opportunity to teach an Introduction to Cave Diving course for Vina Dangelmaier of Southlake, Texas.  Vina and her husband Joe stayed at the Porto Bello Condominiums II located at the Puerto Aventuras south marina.  Vina was cavern diving trained and certified by NSS-CDS Cave Instructor Reggie Ross in North Florida.  Joe is Full Cave trained and certified by NSS-CDS Cave Instructor Ralph DeFiliano.  The couple stayed for one week.  Joe was being guided by Cave Instructor Harry Gust while I was teaching the course for Vina.
 

We began the course at CENOTE EDEN where we performed open water drills and two cave dives.  While at CENOTE EDEN, Dennis Weeks brings Gary Jenrette for a day of diving and Harry Gust brings Joe.  For lunch, Vina and I had a great meal at Gringo’s Dave Restaurant in Puerto Aventuras.  After lunch and lectures, we dive at CENOTE CHAC MOOL perform one dive upstream and one dive downstream practicing “touch-contact/share gas” and lost line drills.  The next day we travel to CENOTES DOS OJOS for two dives.  Our first dive is upstream swimming the north line and our second dive is downstream traversing to CENOTE MOTT MOTT and beyond before swimming back to CENOTE DOS OJOS EAST.  While at CENOTE DOS OJOS, my good friend Sergio Granucci was guiding two cave divers from Switzerland a DPV dive to the CENOTE THE PIT; using two of my SUBMERGE DPVS.  Lena Ericson was there was guiding four more cave divers from Switzerland as the entire group was staying at Villas
DeRosa/Aquatech.  For lunch, Vina and I drove to Oscar’s & Lalo’s Beach Restaurant at the Bahias Punta de Soliman.  Vina thought it was a great location and ambiance for a great meal of Pollo Fajitas.  After lunch, we traveled to CENOTE DOS PALMAS for two outstanding cave dives; the first one downstream and our final dive upstream.  It was a great two days of diving as we completed three lost line drills, five touch contact/share gas drills, and the usual close/open valves, buoyancy control, trim, matching, gas management, bubble check, dive planning and awareness skills.  Vina wishes to return in August to do the Apprentice Cave portion of the cave diving training.
 

Vina continued diving with Joe and Harry as I had two more students from England to begin on Wednesday, May 16th their Cavern/Intro to Cave courses.  Joe & Mia took me out to dinner on Thursday evening to Richard’s Steakhouse in Puerto Aventuras. What a wonderful couple and a very successful course for Vina.

CENOTE THE PIT – NEW RULES!

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:24 pm

CENOTE THE PIT – NEW RULES

I was informed by Louis and Ruebin of the Oscelote Dive Center located at the Highway 307 entrance for the CENOTES DOS OJOS that new rules were decided by the the Ejido Jacinto Pat.  First, the dive site fee for CENOTE THE PIT is 150 pesos per diver.  Second, any diver who wishes to dive CENOTE THE PIT must dive with a designated guide approved by the Ejido Jacinto Pat.  I was informed that I am a designated guide.  I do not know the list of those who would be designated a guide.  Louis and Ruebin at the Oscelote Dive Center can give you the BEST information!

GARY JENRETTE

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:19 pm

GARY JENRETTE
 

On Thursday, May 10th and Friday, May 11th I had the great pleasure of guiding and diving with Gary Jenrette of Indian Hills, Colorado.  Gary was trained and certified by Larry Green in North Florida.  Gary’s visit to the Riviera Maya included a wedding of a friend at the Shangri-La Resort located north of Playa Del Carmen and spending vacation time with daughter and friends at the Playa Azul Condominiums at Half Moon Bay in Akumal.  Our first day of diving was at CENOTES DOS OJOS where we performed an upstream dive 2500 feet/7565 meters in and a downstream traverse dive to CENOTE DOS PALMAS, CENOTE TIC NE HA (HIGH VOLTAGE) and CENOTE TAPIR’S END.  For Friday we dived CENOTE CHAN HOL as I showed Gary this beautiful cave system featuring the Maya pots, the animal bone vertebrae, the human made carvings into the rock and the human skeleton.
 

For Monday May 14th and Tuesday, May 15th Gary continued diving with Dennis Weeks (owner of the Aquanauts Dive Store in Puerto Aventuras) as I had an Intro to Cave course to teach. They dived CENOTE EDEN and the GRAND CENOTE.  Gary’ introduction to the beautiful cave systems of the Riviera Maya was a huge success and he will return for more outstanding cave diving.

BONNIE COTIER & STEVE HUBIN

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:14 pm

BONNIE COTIER and STEPHEN HUBIN
 

  

   Beginning Saturday, May 5th, (Cinco de Mayo) 2007, I had the pleasure to dive and quide Bonnie and Stephen of Tampa, Florida.  This cave diving couple took their cave diving training in Florida with NSS-CDS Cave Diving Instructor and Training Chairman John Jones of Lake City, Florida.  Bonnie is a Marketing Artist and as a volunteer hobby raises working dog puppies prior to their formal training as Seeing Eye dogs.  For their first visit to the Riviera Maya they chose to stay at the Akumal Villas located on the south side of Akumal.  They asked me to share my knowledge and experience about cave diving the beautiful cave systems of the Riviera Maya.
 

   For our first day I chose CENOTE DOS OJOS for two cave dives.  Our first dive we swam upstream from CENOTE DOS OJOS WEST and made it several hundred feet beyond the shallow air dome.  For our second dive we safely traversed downstream to CENOTE DOS PALMAS and on to CENOTE TIC NE HA and exiting at the CENOTE TAPIR´S END.  We stopped in Chemuyil for pizza at Leo’s Pizza on our way back to Akumal Villas.
 

      Our second day, Sunday May 6th we dived at CENOTE EDEN of the SISTEMA PONDEROSA and swam downstream to the famous air dome named ¨The CHAPEL¨.  They were very impressed with the highly decorated ceiling of this room located about 1900 feet/576 meters downstream from CENOTE EDEN.  For lunch, we ate at The Pub Restaurant located in Puerto Aventuras. For our afternoon dive we chose CENOTE CHAC MOOL and swam downstream to the Monster Room to observe the 40 foot/12 meter dripstone stalactite.
 

     Our third day, Monday May 7th we dived CENOTE CHAN HOL where I showed them the maya pots, the animal bone vertebrae, the human made carvings in the limestone rock and the human skeleton.  We had lunch at the Tulum Beach area at Piedra Escondida Restaurant & Hotel.  For our afternoon dive we dived at CENOTE CALAVERA (TEMPLE of DOOM) swimming to the Hall of Giants and beyond the Old Florida Section.  Bonnie and Steve took Tuesday off traveled to Cozumel on Wednesday, May 9th diving with Charro and son Simone.
 

     Our fourth day of cave diving was Saturday, May 12th as we dived CENOTE TUHS KUPAXA viewing the mastodon bones and CENOTE TRES ESTRELLAS.  We stopped in Chemuyil for Pizza Leo at Pizza Leo’s for our second visit.  While at Pizza Leo I chatted with NACD Cave Instructor Steve Keene and Sue Sharples of Indiana along with cave divers Tom Taylor of Colorado and John Hannon of Massachusetts.
 

    Our fifth day was Sunday, May 13th we dived at SISTEMA TAJ MAJAL and I took photos of various formations in the Chinese Garden Room with the help of Bonnie and Steve.  After the dive I took them to Leon’s Del Mar Café on X’pu Ha Beach for a great meal.
 

     For Monday, May 14th and Tuesday, May 15th my good friend – NACD Instructor Rogelio Mier took over as guide (I had a course to teach) and showed Bonnie and Steve CENOTE CARWASH, the GRAND CENOTE, CENOTE MAYAN BLUE and SISTEMA CAMILO – CENOTE MUCHACHOS.
 

     For Bonnie & Steve, their two week vacation was a huge success and just the right recipe for them to relax and enjoy their first visit to the Riviera Maya and the incredible cave systems and cenotes.  My special thanks to my friend – Pablo Diaz- Manager/Owner of the Akumal Dive Shop for taking care of Bonnie and Steve for their open water diving.

May 7, 2007

SISTEMA TOUCHA HA (ZAPOTE)

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:43 pm

SISTEMA TOUCHA HA (ZAPOTE)
 

On Friday, May 4th, 2007 John Turner and I dived at CENOTE VACA HA with the purpose to confirm the connection between this cenote and the off limits cave system known as SISTEMA TOUCHA HA (Monkey Water) or also known as SISTEMA ZAPOTE.  This connection was made three years ago by a cave diver from Poland known as RIXI who worked at the Aktun Dive Center. I had spoken with RIXI several times and was always impressed with his exploration feats!  I wanted to know if side mount configuration was necessary and the answer is definitely NO.  Sure enough, I found the braided #36 line I had laid on March 10th, 1992 as I saw three of my home made arrows and one belonging to Hilario Hiler.  It was nice to see old friends.  The depths of the passage were between 72 – 79 feet/22 – 24 meters.  I will return for more dives as I definitely want to visit THE STADIUM Room and the incredible MONSTER CANYON of the upstream area of this great cave system – SISTEMA TOUCHA HA.

ILKKA HASSINEN, JUSSO METTALA & HEIKKI TEPPO of FINLAND!

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 6:33 pm

ILKKA HASSINEN, JUUSO METTALA & HEIKKI TEPPO of FINLAND

      Beginning on Saturday night, April 21st, 2007 I had the great pleasure to pick up at the Cancun International Airport my three cave diving students of Finland.  They were Ilkka Hassinen (43) of Oulu, Finland; Jusso Mettala (40) of Oulu, Finland and Heikki Teppo (38) of Hameenllinna, Finland.   We stopped in Playa Del Carmen at the Wal-Mart for them to pick up groceries and supplies for their kitchens as they were renting the two condo suites in Puerto Aventuras. They began their complete cave diving training course on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007.  We planned for them to sleep late because of their 14 hour flight from Helsinki and then spent the remaining day with orientation, equipment configuration and lecture discussions.  We had lunch at Richard’s Steakhouse in the marina.
 

On Monday morning, April 23rd we traveled to CENOTE EDEN and performed land drills and completed three dives with skills in the open water, one dive downstream through the cavern zone and beyond and one dive upstream diving the River Run passage.  For lunch we ate at The Pub in the Puerto Aventuras marina.  Our afternoon dives were at CENOTE CHAC MOOL with one dive upstream practicing their second touch contact/share gas drills and the second dive downstream practicing their first of three lost line drills.
 

For Tuesday, April 24th we dived at CENOTE TAJ MAHAL for two dives practicing touch contact/share gas drills and their 330 foot/100 meter no mask swims.  For lunch we at ate at the Lol Ha Outdoor Beach grill in Akumal.  For our afternoon dive we returned to CENOTE CHAC MOOL for a downstream dive to the Monster Room and the giant dripstone stalactite formation with more practice with touch contact/share gas drills on our return swim to CENOTE CHAC MOOL.
 

For Wednesday, April 25th we spent the entire day at CENOTE DOS OJOS with dives upstream and downstream.  We practiced more lost line drills and began working with our first jumps, gaps and permanent ¨T¨ intersections along with more touch contact/share gas drills.  We stopped at CENOTE TAK BI HA and showed where the IMAX film ¨Journey to the Amazing Caves¨ and the motion picture film ¨The Cave¨ were staged from.  The afternoon dive included CENOTE DOS PALMAS, CENOTE TIC NE HA and CENOTE TAPIR´S END.  We packed sandwiches in the cooler for lunch between dives.
  For Thursday, April 26th we dived at CENOTE VACA HA where performed three jumps and our third lost line drills.  For a break and afternoon of rest I dropped the guys off at the Tulum Ruins for them to have an opportunity to visit and learn more about the history of the Maya culture.  I stopped at LABNA HA for a great visit with Sergio Granucci.  That evening we continued with the never ending discussions on the information from our cave diving work books.  We now have completed two tests and one quiz.
 For Friday, April 27th we performed dives at CENOTE CALAVERA (Temple of Doom) working permanent ¨T¨ intersections, jumps and circuit dives.  For lunch we stopped at Oscar Y Lalo´s Beach Restaurant at Soliman Bay, which the guys thoroughly enjoyed the Caribbean beach ambiance.  We performed two more dives at CENOTE MINOTAURO with four jumps, two ¨T¨ intersections; two touch contact/share gas drills involving three minor restrictions.  In total we negotiated nine minor restrictions with the two dives.
 For Saturday, April 28th we dived at CENOTE TORTUGA working with four permanent ¨T¨ intersections, one jump and our entangled ¨cut line¨ drills and
our final touch contact/share gas drill through a minor restriction.  For lunch we ate at the Casa Cenote Restaurant at Tankah Beach and showed the guys CENOTE MANNATI and the exit spring.  For our afternoon dive we had a great dive at beautiful CENOTE NATURAL BRIDGE.
 For our graduation dive we dived at CENOTE DOS OJOS and traversed upstream 4500 feet/1364 meters to CENOTE TIKIM CHI and back with 180 minutes of bottom time. We returned to Puerto Aventuras to review the 94 questions/200 plus answers of my final exam that I gave them two nights before.  They answered question #92 correctly as that question was a pass or fail question with NO forgiveness.
  In total, we completed 1240 minutes of bottom time during 18 dives involving three lost line drills, 8 touch contact/share gas drills, 12 permanent ¨T¨ intersections, 15 jumps & gaps, 13 minor restrictions, cut line drill, one fin swim, exit on back up lights and the usual timed shut down valves and switch regulators, matching skills, and safety ¨S¨ drills along with the continuous practice of buoyancy control, swimming techniques and hovering.
 On Monday, April 30th I took the guys to Playa Del Carmen for them to find a hotel as Heikki found the one he liked on 8th Street near 10th Avenue.  We walked to the beach for a few refreshments and I had made the arrangements with CHARRO & SONS at DIVE with MAYTE in Cozumel.  They took the 7:00 a.m. ferry to Cozumel on Wednesday, May 2nd for a great day of wall and reef diving with Charro’s son – Simone.  They flew back home to Finland on Friday, May 4th.   From their feed back to me; their trip and diving was a huge success and we shall see what they write on my GUEST SIGN INS on my web site.  It was a great pleasure and honor for me to dive with more diving friends from FINLAND.  Heikki was definitely the group leader who did an outstanding job putting the trip together.  Ilkke, Jusso and Heikke were superbly prepared for this training course as they pre-planned this trip six months in advance.  Their diving skills and attitude with safety and COMMON sense was “why” they succeeded so well and clearly proved they are outstanding divers!
 I owe a big apology.  In an earlier blog, I had commented that the DIVERITE 905 Dry suits were made in Sweden.  I was corrected of this huge and insensitive mistake by my former student – PETTERI HANNULA – that these dry suits are made in FINLAND.  Because I live in Mexico, I BEG for your forgiveness.  I will now be in big trouble with my former 11 students from Sweden.  It is like this: as a MIGHTY Seminole, I cannot find a neutral zone with Gaytors, Hurricanes, Bulldogs or other critters in our competitive world.  As the famous motion picture actor Burt Lancaster said in the movie –The Professionals – “Peace, Brother!”

May 1, 2007

MY TRIP TO THE UNITED STATES

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 4:34 pm

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Good morning from Puerto Aventuras!


  Yesterday I returned from an eight day road trip in the United States.  I flew into Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Thursday, April 12th and rented a car.  I first visited my brother, Jeff, in Ft. Myers, Florida Thursday evening.  Friday morning I was in Englewood, Florida getting my mail and making a few deposits at my bank.  Friday.  Friday afternoon I was in Tampa, Florida visiting Bert Wilcher at his dive store – Tampa Adventure Sports. I had a great two hour visit with Bert.  Friday night I made it to Chiefland, Florida where I met my friends Bob Thorpe and Ken Bosko of Traverse City, Michigan.  We had an enjoyable BBQ dinner at Barbecue Bill´s Restaurant and stayed at the local Holiday Inn Express.  Saturday morning we performed a pleasant cave dive at Manatee Springs State Park entering at Friedman Sink.  We swam 600 feet/182 meters upstream and then turned around and swam the complete traverse to Manatee Springs.  The distance was over 2500 feet/758 meters.  It had been 15 years since I last dived this cave system in 1992.  Mike Lewis – the state park ranger still remembered me.  After the dive I got cleaned up back at the motel, we had lunch at a local Hardee´s and I drove to Gainesville, Florida and Bob & Ken travelled to Troy Springs on the Suwannee River for a dive.  I stopped at Lloyd Bailey’s dive store to say Hi but Lloyd was at Ginnie Springs teaching a NACD Intro to Cave course. I next visited Steve Gamble (Gamble’s Dry suit – DPV Repair business) as I was picking up a repaired dry suit belonging to Dennis Weeks, who is now the proud owner of the Aquanauts Dive Store in Puerto Aventuras.  I stayed for 90 minutes as Steve is a former student from 16 years ago as we had a very informative chat about many topics.  I also picked up DPV O rings for Dennis, my lawyer ¨Sharky¨ Labarthe of Cancun and my good friend Rogelio Mier of Cancun.  Steve repairs about 500 dry suits a year.  I asked him what was the worse dry suit to use for cave diving.  Steve’s response was fabric dry suits as tend not to hold up in underwater caves as well as they get ripped quite easily.  This is good for his business.  Steve believes probably the best material that has evolved in recent years is the compressed neoprene dry suits.  Examples are the BARE hyper compressed metalite neoprene dry suits, BROOK´s 1800 C-4 4mm compressed neoprene dry suits, WHITE´s Legend C-2 dry suits and ATLAN´s Northshore Compressed 4 mm neoprene dry suits.  In addition, DIVE RITE´s 905 butyl rubber dry suits are growing in popularity, which is made in Sweden.
      Continuing with my journey I travelled to Ginnie Springs to attend the NACD 1000 member celebration party held at the Devil’s Eye Spring pavilion.  In addition, I delivered 15 of my books – THE CENOTES of the RIVIERA MAYA – to Connie Lore for Ginnie Springs, which of course they made me autographed them.  During the party picnic I saw Evelyn Dudas, Cindy Butler, Ron Aiello, Richard Dreher, Jim Wyatt, Wayne Kinard and several other folks.  In addition, I picked up my Salvo 10 watt HID light from Cory of Salvo and delivered his repaired dry suit from Steve Gamble.  I had a great chat with Mark Long who the last time I saw was during Steve Berman’s Memorial service in 2001 at Hornsby Springs.  At 6:00 P.M. I attended the Spring Quarter NACD BOD meeting, which I was very impressed how it was organized and conducted in a very professional manner.  During the meeting I saw and shook hands with Barry Miller of Salvo Diving. After the NACD BOD meeting had adjourned at 9:00 P.M. I had a closed door meeting with NACD BOD Directors and we had a great discussion with excellent results.  My goals and objectives were met.  I got to personally meet Jeff Bauer, Rick Murcar, Tracy Grubbs, Jim Wyatt, Richard Dreher along with seeing Deborah Green and Larry Green.  It was important that all these folks get to meet and see me in person.  I have known Larry Green since 1988.  After that meeting I stayed afterward to visit with Connie Lore.  My plan was to drive to Tallahassee late that night but I decided to stay at Ginnie as a huge storm front was over the Tallahassee area and two Florida Highway Patrol officers working at Ginnie suggested to me it was not wise to drive U.S. 27 with this storm approaching.  I heeded their advice.  The next morning I drove to Tallahassee to visit my friend Trisha Radulovich and her friend Mike Wiesenbaker who usually writes the reports and shoots photos for the WKPP Exploration project at Wakulla Springs.  I arrived at noon and Trisha and I went out to lunch at a local Chilli’s Restaurant and then we drove south to Wakulla County as I wanted to see the new steps at Emerald Sink.  This outstanding sink hole is scheduled to open soon for ALL cave divers.  This site will be managed by the Wakulla Springs State Park.  The water was crystal clear.  I also looked at McBride’s Slough, which is fenced off and leased by a local hunting club. I was disgusted that this spring was no longer accessible for cave diving as I have many fond memories diving this cave and camping out.  I also saw my secret parking spot when I made my 30+ commando sneak dives into Sally Ward Springs (Numero Uno) from 1988 – 1992.   We drove down to the town of St. Mark’s and on our return to Tallahassee we stopped at Dave Young’s property located on the Rhoads Cemetery Road in Woodville as Dave owns his own sink hole.  It was very impressive as he has done a great job of landscaping and building of decks.  We then returned to Trisha’s home in Tallahassee and Trisha cooked and presented an outstanding dinner for Mike and me.

     I got up the next morning at 3:00 A.M. and hit the road driving on Interstate 10 to head west for New Orleans.  I arrived in Metairie, La. by 9:00 A.M. and called my friends Tom & Cheryl Malcamp.  Our plan was I would return that late afternoon as I was driving down to Galliano, Louisiana as I had an appointment for a job interview with Edison Chouest Offshore.  I got there by 11:30 A.M., filled out a job application in the personnel office.  During that time, my Celestial Navigation Instructor – Captain David Fahey – at the Ft. Lauderdale Professional Maritime Institute walked in as he was applying for a Captain’s job.  Dave lives on Longboat Key, Florida.   What a small world!  I met with National Recruiter Justin Getzinger.  He had reviewed my resume that I had presented on CD disc and offered me a job.  The question with Justin was when I can start as I still have several cave diving course obligations this week and in May. It will be in the middle of June when I can work.
       Driving back to New Orleans, I called Cheryl Malcamp to tell them when I would arrive, which was 4:30 p.m.  We had a great visit as they live in their remodelled home in Metairie.  Sadly, their properties on Frenchman Street in New Orleans were flooded from the Hurricane Katrina disaster and they are in the process of selling.  They successfully had sold one property and another had recently failed to sell after an initial offer.  The bureaucratic system of the United States Federal Government is a living night mare.  Cheryl cooked a fantastic dinner and afterward we reviewed a DVD disc of their diving live aboard trip to the Island of Bali and Komodo Island in Indonesia.  The photos of the Komodo dragon lizards were superb!  I must say that the abundance and diversity of this extraordinary sea life was quite impressive and sold me as my next fun diving destination.
    

     The next morning I departed at 4:00 a.m. for Houston, Texas for a meeting with James Penny of Transocean Deepwater Offshore Drilling.  I arrived at 11:00 a.m.; unfortunately James Penny was out of his office.  Though I had received an email to submit a PDF file resume by mail, the procedures to apply are now strictly on-line at the Transocean web site.  OK, no problem and that I did.  Now it is a game of waiting, which I am not very optimistic.  We shall see what happens.  My original recruiter from six years ago, Mark Overstreet, had left Transocean a month earlier and now works for Santa Fe/Global Offshore Drilling.  Geez, things continuously change, just like Playa Del Carmen.  After lunch and performing emails at a local Fed Ex – Kinko’s, I decided to drive on to Austin, Texas to visit with my sister Mary and her family.  Six months earlier, they had moved from Burlingame, California and her husband, Jim Stair, accepted a position as Chief Engineer with Dell Computers.  My visit was fun and the city of Austin was fabulous.  My sister took me to the famous Hula Hut Restaurant located on Lake Austin where we had lunch on Wednesday, April 18th. I tried to call Jim Bowden and left a message on his cell phone.  That evening Mary took me out to dinner at the Barton Creek Country Club they had joined.  The club house was fancy as I expected as there are four golf courses on the property.  Out of curiosity I asked her how much was the family membership.  She said $40,000.00.  I swallowed trying not to blink an eye as I now realized I do live in the jungle.  Another reason for dinner out was to ease the pain for her as somehow, while using her laptop computer to have access to the internet Wednesday morning, I gave her computer a nasty virus from my personal flash drive.  Let’s just say I am in the permanent DOG house.  On Thursday my sister and I tried to visit the Governor’s Mansion but reservations 24 hours in advance were required.  We toured the Texas state capitol building and sat down in both the State Representatives and Senate chambers as they were in session.  It was fun watching government at work.  We then walked over to the Texas State Theatre to watch an eighteen minute film on the history of Texas, which was very entertaining.  After that, we walked over to the University of Texas campus with the goal to tour the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.  While in a snack shop I informed my sister Mary that Kevin Durant was standing behind her while in line to pay for a soft drink.  She said who was Kevin Durant?  Kevin is 6 feet nine inches tall and the star freshman basketball player for the University of Texas.  This year he was awarded the NCAA Division I College Player of the Year and has declared for the NBA draft.  He is expected to be either the #1 or #2 pick of the NBA draft in June along with Grey Oden of Ohio State University.  Her reply was ¨Oh really¨!  We then walked over to the University of Texas football stadium, which is going under an expansion renovation at the north end zone.   We decided that time had run out to visit the library as she had to pick up her new bicycle and her two kids from school – Daniel and Lauren.
 

     I got a message from Jim Bowden and I returned the call.  We had a great chat.  He lives on a ranch 45 miles outside Austin and was in town on Wednesday to drop off tanks at the Aqua Sports dive store but was not sure if he could make it into Austin on Thursday.  He was getting ready to travel to north Mexico for a short cave diving trip.  He loves diving the cave systems along the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains along the huge Mante agriculture valley.  I have dived the area three times with my last visit in 1995 collecting rare snails for the Smithsonian Institution.  Jim was also preparing for a trip to Italy as he has been helping Bill Stone with his autonomous Depth X hydrobot.  This is a NASA funded project with the goal of this device to be sent to Jupiter’s moon Europa.  It will dive 30 miles below an ice capped lake to try to collect data and find extra terrestrial life forms.  The trip to Italy was to field test the hydrobot to depths of 200 meters.  The mission to Europa is scheduled, I believe, for the year 2015.
 

     My departure from Austin, Texas was a 6:30 A.M. flight on Southwest Airlines to Houston’s Hobby Airport and then on to Ft. Lauderdale.  There I caught the 2:15 P.M. Spirit Airlines flight to Cancun.  I took a bus into Cancun and then a taxi to my lawyer’s home – Sharky – to retrieve my truck and drive home to Puerto Aventuras stopping in Playa Del Carmen to pick up a few groceries.  I considered my trip a fun and huge success except for the virus I gave to my sister.
  Maintain and be safe!
STEVE
Stevegerrard@cavediver.com
www.steve-gerrard.com
www.cenotesoftheRivieraMaya.com

Cell Phone – 9 84 127 1550
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“IDEAL” MANIFOLDS … Not So Ideal?

Filed under: Cave Diving — Steve @ 4:25 pm

 Sistema Sac Aktun
 “Ideal” Manifolds… Not So Ideal?

By Jeffrey Bozanic, NSS-CDS 181, NSS 22353 Fellow

October 2005


 The Benjamin Conversion manifold, or as it is more popularly called, the dual valve manifold, was utilized for cave diving and other environments in which regulator redundancy was deemed beneficial throughout the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. This manifold was a vast improvement over the pre-existing manifolds of the day, as they allowed two independent regulator systems to be used on the same set of doubles. Thus, if a regulator failure occurred (either first or second stage), the diver still had a viable option for self-rescue from the cave. During this time, cave divers worried about a few possible failures that could still result in catastrophic gas loss from the primary gas supply. These included:

  • Burst disk failure
  • Sudden, massive failure of one of the cylinder neck o-rings which seals the manifold
  • Loss of integrity of the manifold itself

These concerns lead to the development of the “Ideal” or isolation manifold, which allowed the two cylinders to be isolated from each other, maintaining at least part of the gas in the event of one of the failures listed above. It was considered a vast improvement, and very quickly replaced the use of the “unsafe” dual valve manifold. It is the primary manifold used today for all forms of technical open circuit diving. Yet, my opinion is this valve does not add safety, rather it significantly reduces it.
During the twenty or so years in which the dual valve manifold design was in use, there was only one recorded failure of the type listed above that occurred while diving. This event occurred during a cave dive while using a Sherwood manifold incorporating a metal-to-metal seal. Immediately prior to the dive, the double cylinders were accidentally knocked off the preparation platform. They fell about three feet to the ground, landing on the manifold. The manifold was closely examined prior to diving, but was not leaking, and the divers elected to dive. After the cylinder pressure had been reduced to about 1500 psi, the manifold catastrophically failed, and both divers exited successfully sharing gas from the remaining rig. It was suggested at the time that the fall caused a displacement cylinders relative to each other, which did not manifest itself until the pressure reduction allowed the metal-to-metal seal to shift and lose integrity.
In addition, in 30 years of accident data collection, there are two instances of in-water burst disk failure recorded. Both events occurred with cylinders that had been pressurized beyond the working pressure of the cylinders (in one case almost to the hydrostatic test pressure!), and occurred within minutes of the cylinders being placed in the water (prior to cave penetration, while in a safe environment). Also, in both instances, the burst disks had not been replaced in many years. It can be hypothesized that the old disks had metal fatigue from small flexing associated with repetitive filling and emptying over the years, and failed due to thermal shock when placed into relatively cold water after being sun warmed on the surface. Cave divers used to alleviate this risk by double disking or soldering the disks shut, but these are not recommended procedures. A far better practice is to replace all burst disks annually. As both of these incidents occurred at the surface, prior to beginning the dive, an isolation manifold would not have benefited the divers, since they would have called the dive anyway.
In contrast, since the isolation manifold was introduced in the early 1990’s, there have been many, many incidents related to misuse of the manifold. Most of these have been rectified without harm to the divers involved, but all of them had the potential for very serious consequences. The types of problems associated with this design of manifold along with representative case histories include:

  1. The isolation valve being closed prior to the dive.

Case #1: This involved a cave diver who began the dive with 3,000 psi (200 bar) in his doubles. He and his buddy did a S-drill prior to descending, indicating that both regulators were working fine. About 15 minutes into the dive, he noted that the pressure on his SPG was not dropping as expected. He reached up, opened the isolation manifold, and watched as his pressure dropped from 2,700 psi (180 bar) to 1,700 psi (110 bar). He called the dive, and exited the cave with no further incidents.
What happened was that the diver was in the practice of always leaving his isolation manifold open. However, when he had it filled, apparently the fill station operator closed it. Thus, only one cylinder was being utilized during the dive. The diver using the cylinders did not check the isolation valve, since it was “always” open. The pressure drop seen was due to the S-drill usage, BC and drysuit inflation, and cylinder cooling after being placed into the water.

  1. The isolation valve being closed during filling of the cylinders.

Case #2: A cave diver planned a nitrox dive to a depth of 110 ffw. Prior to the dive he analyzed his cylinders and found that he had EAN32, as expected.  He proceeded to a depth of 50 ffw, whereupon he began to experience symptoms of CNS oxygen toxicity. He immediately began sharing gas from his buddy, and aborted the dive.
After examining the cylinders on the surface, the team found EAN32 in one cylinder, and 100% oxygen in the second. Apparently, at some time during the blending process, the isolation valve was shut, resulting in only one cylinder being properly prepared. This was the cylinder that was analyzed, and so everything appeared normal prior to the dive. At no time prior to the dive did the diver check the isolation valve.

  1. Roll off of the left manifold valve.

Case #3: A cave diver swimming through a tight cave passage experienced a sudden failure of his gas supply. He switched regulators, and aborted the dive. After surfacing, he found that left manifold valve was closed. It had been open prior to the dive, as evidenced by his utilization of that regulator for the entire period up to the sudden supply failure. His forward movement through the overhead environment resulted in the “auto-shutdown” of the valve, as the hand wheel turned shut off as it scraped across the ceiling.
These failures are only representative of those in the files, and related to me anecdotally from other sources. Cases like this are very numerous, and any of them could have resulted in a fatality. In my opinion, it is only a matter of time until one does.
One might argue that these incidents did not need to occur, and that it was the divers’ fault for not checking the isolation valve prior to their dives. I do not disagree with this. However, when a piece of equipment opens itself up to a multitude of cases of “pilot error,” while not providing any concrete improvement in other areas of safety, then the net result is one of additional risk with a commensurate reduction in safety. For this reason, and the history of misuse of the manifolds in the field, my belief is that we should go back to using the standard dual valve manifold of the 1980’s or adopt another type of technology.
NOTE: This is one of a series of articles planned for Underwater Speleology, NACD News, and other journals of interest to the technical diving community which will discuss findings from the combined accident analysis files collected by the cave diving community.


About the Author:
Jeffrey Bozanic
P.O. Box 3448
Huntington Beach, CA 92605-3448
(714) 775-4462
E-mail:  JBozanic@HQonline.net

 

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