My World of Caving and Cave Diving

Eric demonstrating his patented entry styleSo much has happened since I last decided to create a blog entry.  I apologize each time but I am not this time.  Personally, I think I am the only one who reads theses (if I am wrong send me an e-mail and tell me differently).

On the caving side of our lives, we had a great trip to TAG with Robert, Tom and Mike.  I loved frogging Stephen's Gap (I will NEVER do that again).  Tumbling Rock was a incredible!  I never expected to climb a 400' mountain 4 hours back in a cave but by the same token I never realized the largest waterfall in Alabama (300') is also in this cave -- King's Shower.

One the diving front, we were able to do some great dives at Twin Dees this year but we lost it as soon as we got it.  The ability to dive Twin Dees is controlled by Weeki Wachee.  If the flow is too low at Weeki Wachee, Twin Dees is a cesspool.  If the flow at Weeki Wachee is high then the flow at Twin Dees will be too great to navigate the solution tube entry.

I also have some notable cave diving topics.  I (and many others) assisted Marc Singer and Brett Hemphill in their dive to survey the end of the lines at Manatee Springs.  They went to the end of both the siphon and spring tunnels and performed survey work for Mike Poucher (check out Mike's new map of Manatee Springs on his site -- it is incredible!).  I actually did some work on this project as well; I was part of a team that did water sampling in the Milk Tunnel.  The picture to the right is Eric entering the water for our water sampling dive.

Last, but not least, I was privileged to be a member of the support and setup team that help Jerry Murphy and Jill Heinerth push the upstream side of McCormick Sink.  They  actually make the connection to Rose Creek Sink downstream.  Congratulations to both Jerry and Jill for an exceptional dive -- I was honored to be part of the team.  Now Joel, Eric and I will take on the task of surveying McCormick but for now I am off to Mexico with Connie LoRe, Bert and Tampa Adventure Sports -- it has been far too long since I visited the pristine and awe inspiring caves of the Rivera Maya!