The Phreatic Zone

PHREATIC ZONE - The zone below and including the water table in which all pore spaces or fissures are totally filled with water. Also referred to as the saturated zone.

AQUIFER - A saturated geological unit (eg. sands, gravels, fractured rock) which can yield water to wells at a sufficient rate to support a well.

SEMI-CONFINED AQUIFER - A semi-confined (leaky) aquifer is a completely saturated aquifer overlain by a semi-impervious layer and underlain by a impervious layer. Lowering of the potentiometric head in a leaky aquifer by pumping will generate a vertical flow of water from the semi-pervious layer into the pumped aquifer.

CONFINED AQUIFER - A confined aquifer is a fully saturated aquifer whose upper and lower boundaries are impervious geologic units. Water is held under pressure and the water level in wells stands above the top of the aquifer. Completely impervious layers rarely exist in nature and hence truly confined aquifers are relatively rare.

UNCONFINED AQUIFER - An aquifer whose upper boundary is defined by the water table (water is at atmospheric pressure). Water usually saturates only part of the geologic unit and there is no upper confining layer. Also called a “water table aquifer”.

GROUNDWATER FLOW SYSTEM - The total system which describes the movement of water in the subsurface from the point where it enters the ground to where it leaves. Water moves in the direction of decreasing pressure that may be upward in some localities.

HYDROGEOLOGY - The subject dealing with the occurrence, characterization and movement of water below the earth’s surface.

HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE - The continuous circulation of moisture and water on earth. The amount of water never changes but its state and position in the cycle does change.

KARST - A carbonate rock terrain where fractures have been enlarged by chemical solution or physical erosion.

KARST WINDOW - An opening to the Aquifer i.e Mexico - Cenote, U.S - Sink Hole or France - Gouffer.

SORPTION - The attachment of dissolved ions to rock minerals, generally by electromagnetic bonding forces.

UNSATURATED ZONE - The zone above the water table in which soil pores or fissures are less than totally saturated. It is also called the vadose zone or the zone or aeration.

WATER TABLE - The top of the zone in which all pore spaces or fissures are totally filled with water.

TALUS CONE - Debris from the collapsed sink hole, directly under the Karst window

Jarrod Jablonski, GUE Founder and President

The history of underwater exploration is filled with striking personalities and noteworthy actions. However, with the emergence of scuba diving, underwater exploration took on a new form. Initially driven by commercial and military interests, underwater exploration with scuba would later grow to include recreational divers, who embraced underwater exploration as their life’s passion and who sought to develop the best tools possible to complement their exploration needs. While the sport was in its infancy, and choices were limited, these divers did not vary greatly in terms of their equipment and configuration. Furthermore, given that training options at the time were also limited, these divers also shared very similar techniques.

As more people took up scuba diving, however, variation in equipment, training, and equipment configuration grew. With ever-growing numbers of people finding pleasure in open water, no decompression diving, came a collective identity reflecting the interests of its participants-recreational diving. An entire industry would soon follow to serve these interests. Concurrently, another identity would take shape, one tied to a group of divers, some coming from within recreational diving, some from without, that pushed the limits of recreational diving, by committing themselves to the exploration of increasingly more demanding environments; e.g., ice, caves and deep wrecks. Over time, these two groups would diverge and each would follow its own trajectory. The somewhat vague (in part arbitrary) categories of “technical” and “recreational” diving were set up to describe these two trajectories.

Given the different orientations of recreational and technical divers, it should come as no surprise that different training practices, equipment choices, and configurations would emerge to answer to the wants of each. The evolving idea of what it meant to be “recreational” led to some divergence regarding what one needed to know to remain safe during dives of minimal difficulty. Therefore, dive training tended to become shorter, with minimal treatment of topics such as gas planning, breathing gas concerns, decompression and crisis management. Likewise, this shift led to greater variation with respect to equipment choices and to how this equipment would be configured. However, the needs of technical diving required generally greater knowledge of these areas, more precision, more attention to detail, refined skills, practiced crisis management, a sound configuration, and well-crafted and well-maintained equipment. Conventions foreign to the recreational diving community, such as the “thirds rule,” the use of a long hose, and the use of a redundant regulator, emerged expressly to address the needs of the technical diver. However, in time, it became apparent that the more precision and the more proficiency that were required to pursue eXploration-level technical diving, the more need there was for a unified system. This is because it was impractical, if not impossible, to operate efficiently as a team if individuals were not functioning under a common set of constraints.

Regardless of environment, there exists substantial variation among divers with respect both to the value they place upon efficiency and to how intensively they seek to extend the limits of their diving practice. I would argue that what position divers take on issues of efficiency is largely tied to the nature of their diving. For instance, it is clear why early divers did not consider the need for standardization urgent. This is because their diving was less aggressive and, thus, less likely to call attention to the value of efficiency. However, as diving becomes more aggressive and more complex, the benefits of precision and efficiency become progressively more obvious; individuals undertaking such dives quickly realize the benefit of standardizing nearly all aspects of their diving to make it more efficient. So, when evaluating different equipment configurations — from those used in the early days of underwater exploration, to those representing general Hogarthian ideas, to the evolving principles of Doing It Right-it would be useful to keep in mind the ties linking efficiency to complexity.

As a greater number of divers (both recreational and technical) discover the value of efficiency as a means of improving the quality of their diving, standardization, in both training and equipment, seems the likely future of diving practice.

The public first became aware of the movement toward standardization, and of its value, when the Hogarthian diving system became popular. This scheme was composed of a rough set of ideas and equipment recommendations that served as useful standards for measuring desirable aspects of diving configurations. Cultivated by a small collective of cave eXplorers — e.g., Bill Gavin, William “Hogarth” Main, Lamar English, George Irvine and myself — the idea behind this “system” was that there were preferred methods of configuring equipment, and that these methods had a profound effect upon diving efficiency. Bill Main invested considerable time seeking the most streamlined configuration possible, which resulted in his middle name being chosen to represent the overall “system.”

Though useful, the Hogarthian system did not require the use of a specific piece of equipment or a particular configuration. Therefore, it did not provide divers with an objective diving standard that would ensure efficiency in the water and was thus limited in its utility. However, by promoting the idea that a careful selection of equipment and configuration could substantially impact the success of a dive, Hogarthianism introduced a dynamic, new paradigm to divers and encouraged them to seek improvement through minimalism and streamlining. Armed with this new perspective, many divers (myself and the above explorers included) sought to assemble the most efficient equipment configuration possible, often sharing our findings with the public at large.

Rather than provide divers with an objective standard to assemble their configuration, Hogarthianism offers a loosely knitted set of ideas that, in the interest of diver efficiency, promotes an ethos of careful gear selection. However, this lack of an objective standard does not permit divers to understand what exactly constitutes a Hogarthian diving configuration; instead this “system” varies according to how different advocates of Hogarthian diving see the links tying together equipment, streamlining and efficiency. This disparity of opinion, along with Hogarthianism’s singular emphasis on equipment (versus general diving practice) has led to considerable confusion among the diving public (it is extremely difficult to standardize, in both theory and practice, what, in all respects, is largely subjective in nature). Eventually it became clear that both a more complete system and greater standardization were needed; to be as useful as possible, the components of the system would need to be objectively arrived at and standardized. George Irvine and I, having worked extensively with the Hogarthian system, and having written extensively about it, worked toward this new paradigm. This new paradigm emerged as Doing It Right or DIR.

As the first holistic diving system ever crafted, Doing It Right began to gain significant popularity in the mid-1990s; a key component of its success was the detail and care that guided its growth. By adhering firmly to standardization, DIR initially faced opposition from diving quarters that saw the loss of “personal preference” as a notable sacrifice. Even so, with the gradual recognition that it is impossible for a team of divers to be efficient in the water without notable uniformity in equipment, training and configuration, opposition began to erode and today continues to erode. This is because divers have begun to realize that in terms of wasted energy and effort there is a significant penalty for stubbornly seeking to maintain an individual “style.” Why reinvent the wheel alone when there is a proven system that ensures safety, efficiency and success in the water?

Because DIR’s insistence on standardization is frequently misunderstood, it sometimes becomes a source of tension among divers. This is because some see the insistence on uniformity as an indictment of practices that do not abide by DIR principles. However, there is nothing essentially hostile or critical about DIR; in its most basic form, it is ultimately pragmatic, promoting the concept of uniformity within and among teams of divers. However, to be fair, there is a certain degree of legitimate tension generated by imprudent advocates ofDIR, who, having personally benefited from the system, take it upon them to become almost evangelical in the promotion of what they understand to be its tenets. However, this is not an intrinsic weakness of DIR; all successful movements have their zealots.

DIR, by crafting a set of objective standards meant to regulate diving practice, triggered a paradigm shift in diving, one that will forever modifY the way that divers evaluate their diving. It is now part of our ethos to believe that divers acting cohesively and with shared purpose are more efficient. Nonetheless, considering standardization in isolation is unfair to the system’s holistic approach.

As a well-defined, standardized system, DIR was designed to maximize efficiency across multiple environments in order to promote safety and fun. Among its key principles are:

Unified Team

Central to the DIR diving system is the concept of a unified team. This system pairs divers of similar capacity within an environment that they are properly prepared for. Teams of individually capable divers produce a level of safety and efficiency beyond what is capable while diving independently. Few things are as rewarding as diving within a group that maintains a similar degree of care and focus. Any diving activity where the concept of a team is marginalized will always fail to maximize its potential with respect to fun and safety.

Preparation

For DIR, preparation for diving involves five primary components. These are: pre-dive preparation, mental focus, physical fitness, diving experience and dive planning. Divers who try to circumvent any of these areas are not adequately prepared for the dive and stand a good chance of experiencing reduced comfort, a missed dive opportunity, or even a dangerous situation. With ill effects, far too many divers assume that dive preparation begins the day or even hours before the dive.

Streamlined Equipment

The elements comprising a standard DIR equipment configuration have been endlessly discussed and are now well known. For those seeking more information on this subject, please refer to my book, Doing it Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving.

In short, the DIR configuration was designed to work in all situations and to ensure safety and promote a diver’s efforts, not undermine them. Streamlined and minimalist in nature, the DIR configuration was designed to maximize a diver’s efficiency while minimizing his/her risk. Items should not hang free or protrude from the diver’s body, increase drag or cause entanglements.

Balanced Rig

The DIR rig is a carefully weighted rig; one that ensures that while a diver is not overweight, s/he is able to hold a decompression stop in the face of a catastrophic gas loss. This requires a careful assessment of the component parts of one’s configuration, and how these each impact-statically and dynamically-on the buoyancy characteristics of the configuration as a whole.

Cylinder Labeling

DIR embraces the uniform practice of marking cylinders with the Maximum Operating Depth (MOD) in a clear and easily identifiable manner, and utilizing only this data to identifY bottles. This practice prevents divers from becoming accustomed to unreliable identification procedures.

Standard Gases

DIR promotes reliance on standard gases for all phases of diving. Standard gases help to insulate divers from the risks of inappropriate gas ratios, provide a common platform for cylinder marking and gas mixing, ensure team symmetry and vastly simplifY decompression logistics.

Conservative Gas Parameters

DIR promotes conservative gas parameters for all phases of diving. Among these are: ENDs of GUE DIVING

To a careful reader, a casual review of diving history will reveal a movement toward greater standardization. DIR’s place in history is assured given its role in introducing a new paradigm to the diving public, one where standardization provides divers with the key to efficiency, safety, enjoyment and success. Though there is still variation among divers, in time, the desire for proficiency will force them to migrate toward a known paradigm that through its insistence on standardization ensures phenomenal success in both extreme diving projects and recreational venues. For this reason, the trajectory that the history of diving will follow will speak volumes to the effects of the DIR movement.

However, as with all great movements, comes inevitable corruption and fragmentation. Today, DIR has spread to every corner of the globe, with self-appointed DIR groups emerging in dozens of different countries. Given their physical separation, their lack of centralized direction, their own specific agendas, beliefs, power struggles and constraints, these satellite groups cannot help but to promote a version of DIR that is uniquely their own. This version of”DIR” will likely have little resemblance to the original. This will be the case, however well-intentioned, however devoted to the founding principles of DIR, these satellites may be.

The unavoidable division of DIR is the result of many factors, ranging from breakdowns in channels of communication, to differing interpretations, to personal agendas, to private experiences, to power plays, to simple disagreements among proponents. As individuals and groups appropriate DIR they will often make choices very different from those that I and other founders of D IR would have made. It is now necessary for us to recognize that DIR will be repurposed by those it has influenced in ways that serve their own interests. Nonetheless, in the end, I believe that these systems that appropriate DIR can only benefit the future of the diving industry. Even so, I believe that to enhance the safety, fun and efficiency we sought to ensure when we first started to build DIR, it is necessary for us to ensure greater standardization across a series of domains.

From the outset I believed that a diver’s training, his/her equipment, his/her configuration, his/her knowledge and skill set should all contribute to greater safety and enjoyment in the water. For this reason, I founded GUE. The DIR system is at the core of GUE training. This is not surprising, given the extent to which my efforts helped to shape both DIR and GUE. However, with the passage of time, GUE has shaped its own identity, one that is not identical to that of DIR. And though being DIRis a necessary condition of being a GUE diver, it is not a sufficient condition; it is not enough. There is more to being a GUE diver than being DIR, among other things, it entails a standardized measure of competence (training) and commitment to both civility and non-smoking, aspects to which DIR in-itself does not speak. Over time, GUE Vice-President and long-time DIR supporter Dr. Panos Alexakos and I came to see that there was really no way to reign in the particular interpretations of the ever-growing numbers of DIR advocates and that it would be a waste of resources and energy to struggle with them over the correct interpretation of DIR. With this in mind, we have struck out on a new road, a distinctly GUE road that looks fondly upon DIR as the foundation that can empower the organization toward a new and unique future.

J. Michael Wisenbaker, Archaeologist, Florida Division of Historical Resources

First labeled a separate geomorphic unit in 1966, the Woodville Karst Plain (part of the Gulf Coastal Lowland physiographic region) stretches from the southern edge of Tallahassee, Florida, to the Gulf of Mexico. Its distinctive northern border known as the Cody Scarp formed about 100,000 years ago during a Pleistocene interglacial when the Gulf lapped ashore near the present Leon County Fairgrounds. The Apalachicola Lowlands (which begin just west of U. S. Highway 319) serve as the western boundary of the karst plain, while the Wacissa River in Jefferson County marks its approximate eastern extent.

The Woodville Karst Plain, capped by less than 20 feet of quartz sands, gently slopes toward the Gulf. Relict dunes and terraces associated with ancient sea stands now mantle St. Marks (early Miocene) and Suwannee (Oligocene) Limestones. The porous sands have allowed acidic water to move rapidly through the underlying soluble carbonates. Dolines, springs, and karst windows are the most obvious evidence of this process. Several lost rivers in the area flow a short way before being captured by subterranean conduits. Corrosion continues to wear down the entire foundation of this plain.

As for the hundreds of sinkholes found here, many remain dry depressions, others hold tannin-surface water, and those breaching the aquifer are filled with clear groundwater–unless fouled by murky runoff or topped with algae-laden thermoclines. One simple way to tell whether the water in a sink is groundwater or surface water is to measure its temperature. Groundwater in these sinks stays a constant 69 degrees throughout the year, whereas the temperature in surface water features varies with the seasons. Many “sinks” in the area would more accurately be called karst windows since they merely expose collapsed segments of underground streams.

Of Florida’s 27 first magnitude “springs,” 26% fall within the 288,000 acre Woodville Karst Plain. These include: Spring Creek Spring, St. Marks Spring, Wakulla Spring, Wacissa Springs, Group, Kini Spring, River Sink Spring, and Natural Bridge Spring. Four of these seven karst features, however, are not true artisan springs. St. Marks Spring represents a river rise, while Kini Spring (aka Upper River Sink), River Sinks Spring (aka Lower River Sink), and Natural Bridge are karst windows. Despite what we choose to call them, they comprise an impressive list of hydrologic marvels — as more than 64.6 million gallons of water a day course through each of them.

Presently, the Woodville Karst Plain contains more than 22 miles of known conduits, all of which have been physically tracked by cave diving explorers. The longest surveyed underwater cave in the United States, known as the Leon Sinks Cave system with its 58,444 feet (more than 11 miles) of mapped phreatic passages, makes up about half this total. This cave stream, exposed to the surface by 26 karst windows, probably contributes much of the 252 million gallons a day flow at Wakulla Springs.

E. H. Sellards, the first person to head the Florida Geological Survey, had predicted more than 80 years ago that this underground river fed Wakulla. For the past 25 years, exploration of this labyrinth by cave divers seems to have validated his theory. Divers made a quantum leap in the late 1970s when they began to extend their ranges with scooters. Staging air and other gas mixtures (needed for deeper areas because breathing air below certain depths is dangerous) within the caves allowed them to reach even greater distances.

In 1987, the U. S. Deep Caving Team surveyed over two miles of conduits in Wakulla Springs. They found that the primary passageway heads southwest from the spring entrance. About 900 feet into the cave, a chamber called the Grand Junction Depot splits into four separate passages known as Tunnels A, B, C, and D. The apparent water quality of one feeder cave differs from the others. While Tunnels B, C, and D carry air-clear water, Tunnel A bears a charge laced with tannic acid. The fluid in Tunnel A appears to match that in the Leon Sinks Cave System, and affects the day-to-day visibility at Wakulla Springs.

To explore the subaquatic caves and related karst openings more systemically, parker Turner founded and headed the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP). In 1991, Turner tragically died in a freak diving accident that buried his safety line to the surface at Indian Springs. Fortunately, his efforts were not in vain. Florida State University established the Parker A. Turner Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honor. It will provide support for a graduate student to conduct research in underwater speleology. A committee representing the National Association for Cave Diving, the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society, academia, and other friends of Parker will award the scholarship.

Currently sponsored by the National Speleological Society, the WKPP supplies data on groundwater and hydrogeology and provides support for private and government entities. A few months ago, WKPP divers made a major push into Tunnel A at Wakulla Springs. They reached 6,129 feet from the cave mouth at depths averaging just under 300 feet. This added several hundred feet of surveyed passage to the system. last year, the aquanauts also discovered and explored a conduit in the long stretch between Sullivan and Cheryl sinks. This uncharted artery led toward Big Dismal Sink (with its 12,000 feet of mapped passages). Now, only about 400 feet of unexplored cave separates the two systems. If linked to Big Dismal, the Leon Sinks Cave System would encompass almost fourteen miles of underwater cave. Thus, with each season, we move ever so close to solving the riddle of the sinks in the Woodville Karst Plain.

In contrast to the shallow clear conduits of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, which presently hold the world’s longest surveyed water-filled cave, the deep dark tunnels in the Leon Sinks Cave System can only be dived a few months each year. Explorers must wait for droughts to allow for the tea-colored surface runoff to be flushed out of the system. Still, the Leon Sinks Cave System covers more than twice the distance of the state’s longest dry cave — Warren Cave in Alachua County.

Underwater cavities in the karst plain range in size from a room named the Black Abyss — large enough to hold a sixteen-story building — to minuscule fissures. While the caves here lack calcite speleothems found in the cenotes of Mexico or the blue holes in the Bahamas, many possess colorful bands and formations of chert and geothite. The absence of speleothems suggests the grottos must have been filled with water for most of their existence.

Several species of globally imperiled blind crayfish and other rare troglobites inhabit the caves. These include Hobb’s cave isopod (Caecidotea hobbsi), Hobb’s cave amphipod (Crangonyx hobbsi), Horst’s cave crayfish (Procambarus hortsi), and Woodville cave crayfish (Procambarus orcinus). Although not especially common around small karst windows, some specialized flora fill ecological niches along the rims and walls of dolines. For example, rare plant such as Venus-hair fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris) sprout in the rock cracks and crevices of sinks in the Woodville Karst Plain.

Researchers from various institutions have begun making small strides in understanding this important karst region. For example, investigators have employed dye and isotope tracing studies. One graduate student in geology wrote her master’s thesis on uranium isotope disequilibrium studies at Wakulla Springs. Another geology student is using this method in an attempt to show how stormwater runoff may be affecting groundwater quality at springs and wells in the karst plain. An oceanographer is examining how tides influence spring flow in the region. Biologists are sampling the DNA of cave crayfish to get a better handle on their population genetics, while others are delving into photo and chemical reception of the troglobites.

Opportunities still abound for serious scientific research in the Woodville Karst Plain. hardly any archaeological work has been done on karst features in the area. The one thesis produced so far lacks guidance from anyone truly knowledgeable about prehistory and karst. For example, the student never mentions the possibility that some shallower drowned sinks in the karst plain may have served as rock shelters for Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic peoples when water tables were much lower than now. The silty cavern floors may harbor a lode of information about early human settlement and subsistence.

In terms of vertebrate paleontology, Wakulla Springs preserved many Pleistocene megafauna, including almost an entire mastodon (Mammut americanum) skeleton. A Mastodon tooth also turned up in the down stream siphon at Venture Sink, one of the 26 openings into the Leon Sinks Cave System. A WKPP diver recently reported and gathered samples of an extensive scatter of fossil dugong (a Miocene relative of the manatee) bones about 1,200 feet into the cave at Indian Springs. Although the Florida Geological Survey has produced excellent background reports on regional geology, karst geologists still have ample opportunities to do site-specific studies.

Some work of the cave explorers, scientists, and government officials has already paid dividends. Specifically, Wakulla County recently passed a “Green Line” ordnance prohibiting any businesses that deal in potentially dangerous substances, such as gas stations and dry cleaners, from operating within a specified distance of the Leon Sinks Cave System. The water quality at Wakulla Springs, however, still seems to suffer from development and lodging activities upstream. Circumstantial evidence of this rests in the time the water stays clear seasonally. The springs’ clarity seems to be diminishing as more and more growth spreads into this fragile landscape.

With these thoughts in mind, perhaps other karst scientists and students throughout the country may wish to become involved in the fascinating research potential of the Woodville Karst Plain.

The Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP)

The mission of the Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP) is to explore, survey, connect and protect the underwater cave systems of North Florida’s Woodville Karst Plain by promoting public awareness and education through the excitement of exploration and scientific discovery.  Through partnerships with state, federal and private landowners the WKPP is uniquely positioned to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of valuable data necessary for researchers and policy makers to formulate responsible land use decisions necessary to protect these resources for future generations. 

Article by Parker Turner June 26,1991

The WKPP grew out of the exploration of upstream Sullivan Sink in 1985. There was no formal organization though a standard philosophy toward equipment and techniques began to emerge. In 1986 Bill Gavin exposed Parker Turner to the techniques developed by him and Bill Main during the Upstream dives. Turner had already been inspired by tales of the earlier explorations of John Zumrick, Sheck Exley, and Paul Deloach and their attempts to connect downstream Sullivan to the Emerald cave system. Dr. Zumrick passed the survey data on to Gavin and Turner and they began to organize an attempt to connect the caves.

Gavin developed new techniques and equipment, and Turner contacted decompression expert Dr. Bill Hamilton who produced a set of trimix tables for the project. Explorers Bill Main and Lamar English along with Turner and Gavin would make up the primary dive team while professional surveyor, Bill McFaden (then chairman of the NACD Exploration and Survey Committee) would act as support diver and cartographer. After many dives from both directions Sullivan was connected to Emerald and at 41,000 ft., became the longest underwater cave in the world.

Tragically in May 1988 Bill McFaden drowned 50 ft. short of the entrance of Little Dismal Sink after being overcome by a series of problems during a mapping dive. Bill Gavin, who was working in another part of the cave repeatedly rescued McFaden from problem after problem nearly losing his own life in the process. Organized cave diving was stunned by the loss. Turner was appointed Chairman of NACD E&S Committee in place of McFaden. Saddened and shocked by McFaden’s death the members of the connection team began to formulate a loose set of agreements regarding deep cave diving procedures.

On June 19th 1988 Gavin, Main, Turner, and English traversed from Sullivan to Cheryl sink, breaking the world’s records set by the British at the Kelds Heald U.K. and John Zumrick at Promise sink USA. Later Turner negotiated continued access to the Leon Sinks Geological Area, by drafting a set of standards regarding mixed gas diving and exploration and research of caves in the protected zone. The permit is issued to the NACD E&S Committee and signed by Turner.

In September 1989, Turner was appointed Cave Diving Coordinator for FSU. While working in this capacity, Turner became further convinced of the need for organization and standards for deep cave exploration. The original members of the connection team were joined by Sherwood Schile and Steve Irving, who using the old Sullivan techniques rapidly proved themselves on deep gas dives in the Forest and at Innisfree Sink.

Unable to utilize their NACD affiliation to seek funding, the Sullivan Divers applied for project status from the NSS. On October 24, 1990 Dr. Art Palmer on behalf of the NSS, welcomed the WKPP as an official NSS project.

At the January 1991 Board meeting the NACD turned over complete supervision and control of exploration and research diving in the Woodville Karst Plain to the NSS WKPP. recreational access was permitted to the NACD based on a permit program designed by Turner. The WKPP serves as the qualifying agency for Exploration and Research in the Appilachicola National Forest.

Exploration continues today with The Leon Sinks Cave System reaching 48,754 ft. In response to their commitment to safety and professionalism, FSU’s Academic Diving Program has issued reciprocity to the WKPP.

This excellent article was written by Paul Larrett (Cave 2, Tech 2) back in 2001 and well worth digesting!

REGULATOR ADVICE.pdf

Thanks to all the teams who have published their footage..

Should you wish me to remove it, please email me via the bio page

I’ll updated this as I stumble across them!

Some excellent film

http://www.dir-austria.com/web/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=81&func=select&id=1

Short but nicely done

http://www.dir-cz.cz/new_web/showpage.php?name=video

A good resource for skills and a taster and some nice wallpapers

http://www.frogkick.nl/index.htm?http://www.frogkick.nl/bibliotheek.htm

Not only loads of cave video, but an excellent cave diving resource

http://speleonet.typepad.com/speleonet/cave_diving/

Lots and lots of cave video

http://www.cavediver.net/archives/Video/videoclips.htm

http://www.stajniakleina.pl/stajnia/…olnarjanos.wmv

http://www.diablodivers.com/secondary/Advent/cenote_cavern_dives.htm

http://www.pvv.org/~olafb/dir-no/video/MayanBlue-3MB.wmv

http://www.stajniakleina.pl/

http://www.coastalkarst.org/

http://fue.no/files/video/MaxPenProd-TempleOfDoom.wmv

When I was playing about with weigthing and trim a while back, I came up with the idea of an adjustable tailweight….This was ideal for finding out my exact CoG (Centre of Gravity) when trying to hone my horizontal trim and to balance my rig.

To counter head down/floaty feet

Mid position

To counter head up/feet down

 The best way to find your correct weighting is to get down to say 30bar and strart stripping weight, piece by piece from your weight belt and hand it to you buddy.

 Once you find the weight that is right for you…..get moulding your weight and if your going to use the wifes soup pot…buy a replacement quickly!

 *When melting lead, use protective equipment in a well ventilated area!

Scuba diving and in particular, technical diving is a sport where the choice and configuration of equipment provokes considerable interest and debate. Spend a day on any charter boat and you will see so called “technical” divers sporting an infinite array of equipment and gadgetry all configured differently and much of it, unnecessary and unsuited to the intended mission. The “more is better” mentality prevails. 

Leading technical divers discovered long ago that a delayed response to an emergency situation in the water poses an unacceptable risk and that the risk can be managed by minimising, standardising, streamlining and simplifying the basic equipment configuration. 

The Basic System

The DIR diver is immediately recognisable by his equipment configuration. The basic system shown utilises a stainless steel backplate, rigged with a one-piece harness and a back mounted buoyancy compensator, or ‘wing’ sandwiched between the backplate and a pair of steel cylinders. The backup regulator is mounted on a short hose and hangs around the neck for easy access. The primary regulator is mounted on a 2m hose which runs down, behind the wing on the right side, under the hip mounted primary light canister, across the chest, around the neck and into the mouth from the right side. This is the regulator donated to a buddy in an gas-share

The Backplate & Harness

The DIR harness is made from one continuous length of webbing woven through the backplate to form the shoulder loops and waist straps. The waist straps are fastened using a high quality, stainless steel weight belt buckle. There are no quick releases or other potential failure points. The crotch strap has a loop in the front, through which the waist strap passes.It is immediately noticeable that the DIR harness is not adorned with multiple d-rings to hang “gear” from. There are just 3 d-rings on the harness and two on the crotch strap. The two chest-mounted d-rings carry the backup lights, held close to the harness with small sections of bicycle inner tube placing them in a protected position under the arms where they go virtually unnoticed until required. The right chest d-ring carries the light head, when not in use and the primary regulator, when not being breathed. The left chest d-ring, together with the left hip d-ring carries stage cylinders. There is a single submersible pressure gauge clipped off to the left hip d-ring. The front crotch strap d-ring is redundant unless a diver propulsion vehicle (DPV) is used so it is kept out of the way by passing the loop through the d-ring before securing the harness. The remaining crotch strap d-ring (or ‘butt’ ring) is used to carry additional equipment such as reels and/or spools. 

The DIR harness follows the contours of the body with no protrusions or encumbrances and leaves the entire chest area clear and unobstructed. No weight belt is worn. Positive buoyancy is offset by the weight of the backplate (approx. 2.5kg) with any additional weight carried between the cylinders and the backplate in the form of a V-weight, the position of which can be adjusted along the length of the cylinders to achieve perfect in-water trim. By eliminating the weight belt, DIR divers eliminate a potential source of danger in the form of accidental release. 

Good Trim

With all this heavy equipment, some divers believe they must use large buoyancy wings with as much as 100 pounds of lift, or even dual bladder wings for “redundancy”.

In truth, most divers are either over-weighted, have difficulty “getting down” and/or have difficulty in maintaining neutral buoyancy in the last 10m or so of their ascent to the surface. Poor technique and poor equipment selection often cause these problems but they can be overcome by understanding how to ‘balance’ the rig. There are two criteria that must be met for a rig to be considered ‘balanced’. First, the diver must be weighted so that he can swim up from depth with full cylinders and without the use of the wing for buoyancy. Second, with near empty cylinders the diver must be able to comfortably maintain neutral buoyancy at a depth of 3m with little or no gas in the wing. The DIR diver understands the concept of a balanced rig and carefully selects cylinders, exposure protection and buoyancy compensator according to the prevailing conditions. The DIR diver makes use of a simple set of wings with generally no more than 55 pounds of lift. The wings are not restrained by elastic cords and are free to wrap around the cylinders providing the buoyancy where it is need without trapping gas. This system facilitates a streamlined posture and the all-important horizontal ‘trim’. The DIR diver maintains this horizontal ‘trim’ with the feet up during descent, ascent, throughout the dive and particularly during decompression. Good ‘trim’ and a refined finning technique is paramount during all dives. Poor ‘trim’ combined with poor finning technique is inefficient and leads to disturbance of sediment resulting in reduced visibility. 

The wing inflator hose is routed along the corrugated hose to the inflator fitting and held tight to the corrugated hose with small sections of bicycle inner tube, minimising the risk of entanglement and keeping the rig clean and streamlined. Both the dry suit feed and the wing inflator hose share the same type of fitting so that, in the event of a failure, the wing can be inflated with the dry suit 

Gas Shutdown

The use of an isolation manifold is essential when diving with twin cylinders since it enables a faulty regulator to be isolated whilst still maintaining access to all the gas in both cylinders.

The manifold uses redundant barrel type o-rings as opposed to facing seals. This gives a more positive seal and is more tolerant to impact. The nuts normally used to tighten the centre section are left loose allowing the isolator to rotate slightly in the event of an impact. In true DIR tradition, as many potential underwater failure points as possible are eliminated. Soft rubber knobs are used on all cylinder valves which are kept fully open at all times. 

One of the essential skills practised and refined by DIR divers is the gas shutdown. The isolation or shutting down of a cylinder must be an intuitive reaction to an emergency situation. Correct choice of exposure protection and undergarments must permit easy access to all cylinder valves. 

Donating the Primary Regulator

Primary and backup regulators
The backup regulator is instantly accessible as it hangs around the neck on an elastic necklace. This is YOUR backup and is breathed if you need to gas-share. The backup regulator feeds from the left post and, with practice can be deployed hands-free. 

The primary regulator is the one donated to a buddy in an gas-share scenario and is mounted on the long hose. Deployment of the primary regulator and long hose is simplicity itself. The regulator is removed from the mouth and passed up and forward whilst ducking the head slightly. In the event that the primary regulator is grabbed spontaneously (a common scenario in a ‘real’ out-of-gas situation) simply ducking your head allows the long hose to deploy freely, while placing your mouth in immediate proximity to the backup regulator. 

Donating the regulator in your mouth to an out-of-gas diver is one of the cornerstones of the DIR configuration.

Donating the primary regulator guarantees that the out-of-gas diver receives a working, high performance regulator immediately. Divers need not swim side-by-side whilst sharing gas. The long hose allows divers to swim in single file to negotiate narrow passages in caves or while penetrating a wreck. 

Positioning of the primary and backup regulators on the manifold outlets is of paramount importance. The primary regulator must feed from the right post. When diving in an overhead environment (wreck or cave) it is the left post which will roll shut on contact with the overhead. The right post will roll open. Imagine the scenario where two divers are exiting a wreck or cave whilst gas sharing. The out-of-gas diver leads with the donor behind. If the donor has his primary regulator on the left post and makes contact with the roof of the cave or wreck and rolls the valve shut, the out-of-gas diver is suddenly out-of-gas again! However, if the donor has the primary regulator on the right post and the backup on the left post, the donor will probably notice his valve make contact with the ceiling and simply reach back with the left hand and turn the valve back on. 

All second stage regulators are left finger tight on their hoses so that they can be quickly and easily swapped in the event of failure. The locking pins are removed so that the faceplate can be removed underwater to clear debris. 

Light Cannister Placement

The primary light is a vital piece of equipment to the DIR diver. It is used for signalling, maintaining buddy contact and in keeping with the DIR philosophy of “less is best” performs multiple functions. The canister aids routing of the long hose and provides a source of ditchable weight. These days, primary lights tend to use HID (High Intensity Discharge) technology providing a burn time of up to four-and-a-half hours from a 6 amp, 12 volt battery. 

The canister is mounted on the right side of the waist belt, as far back towards the backplate as possible and is held in place with a separate weight-belt buckle which retains the canister when de-kitting on the surface prior to entering a RIB for example. 

The light cord is just long enough to reach from the canister to a functional position in the left hand. The light head is mounted on the back of the hand leaving the fingers free to manipulate reels or other equipment and the light can be focused to achieve a penetrating tight beam used for communication. 

Backup lights are simple three “C” cell, twist-on lights. There is no external switch and only a single O-ring sealing the unit. These lights use a 4.5 volt bulb and are ultra reliable. When a backup light deployed, it must work. The last thing you need is a blown bulb. The lights are attached to the chest D-rings by stainless steel bolt snaps. A backup light is deployed by first removing it from its rubber retaining ring and then turning it on, only then is it unclipped from the d-ring, meaning that if it is dropped, at least it can be seen. 

Instrumentation
In keeping with the DIR principles of streamlining and eliminating possible failure points, the DIR diver rejects bulky consoles, in favour of a single submersible pressure gauge. The 24″ high-pressure hose is run straight down from the left post. A stainless steel bolt-snap is tied to the pressure gauge fitting with cave line and clipped off to the left hip d-ring. 

All remaining instrumentation is wrist mounted. A bottom timer sits on the right wrist where it can be easily illuminated by the light in the left hand. A backup timer sits on the left wrist and has its strap removed and replaced with two elastic cords thereby eliminating another potential failure point. 

Other equipment details
The concept of minimalism, streamlining and the elimination of all possible failure points extends to even the most basic items of dive gear. Stiff rubber jet-fins have their straps discarded and replaced with stainless steel spring straps with no quick-release catches to break or otherwise get snagged. A small knife with a serrated edge is carried on the waist strap where it can be reached easily with either hand. DIR divers do not strap knives to the leg or arm. 

Additional equipment is carried in a large cargo pocket on the left thigh. Depending on the dive, the pocket carries items such as a spare mask, safety spools, surface markers, line arrows, spare bolt-snaps and a whistle. All these items are clipped off to small loops of elastic cord in the pocket. To locate an item, simply pull all the equipment from the pocket, whilst still attached to the elastic cord, locate the item required, unclip it and stow the remaining items. 

DIR divers choose the traditional stainless steel bolt-snap as the preferred method of attachment for all equipment. Any attachment which has the potential to trap line is rejected. Bolt-snaps are tied on using cave line. There is nothing attached to the diver which cannot be cut free with the knife. 

How can I find out more about DIR diving?

Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) provides formal training for DIR technical, cave and rebreather diving. GUE provides an intense diver training programme, with an emphasis on diver awareness, problem solving, stress management and conservation. GUE’s web-site provides detailed information about DIR diving, exploration, training and equipment configuration. Visit www.gue.com for details. 

Thanks to Bob Cooper for writing this article (Apr 2001)

Having seen one of these bad boys in action on Cave 1, this was my first close look….and first impressions were good!

They have a more robust feel than that of the Halcyon Scout or scout copies i.e Photon or Solaris with the added security of a 2nd O-Ring, deeply knurled handle and a heat dissipation tube inside.

Out of the box
Instructions, spare O-Rings and catalyst pellets for NiMh cells

Stipped down

Side By Side with the Scout

Colour temperature comparisons, Heser on left

And again, Heser on left

Beam Pattern taken from 10M, Heser on right

Unfortuantely I do not have any footage of the heser versus rivals underwater, but I can assure you of one thing…..There really is no comparison for burntime, beam and colour temperature!!

The Halcyon Scout LED upgrade will cost you £88 each, added to the £59 for the standard scout which weights in at a hefty £147 per backup!

The heser is £110 to your door through Jack@dublinbaydiving.com

Click the picture to view the website

AGIR wings are the first wings designed specifically for European (e.g. Faber) double cylinders. They have the lift capacity of 38lbs / 17,3kg and 56lbs / 26kg. They are designed for use with medium- to heavyweight doubles together with aluminium deco cylinders and “common divegear”.

habrok- has fast become popular among divers (not just techdivers), who want comfortable and perfect trim both swimming and / or on deco. The design itself gives great stability, and prevents front tip over.

Additional advantages:

Short zip, not one inch more than necessary. A zip is a weak point, so it´s minimal.

Room enough for the backplate. It will not be squeezed to the cylinders.

Several holes for finding the right trim.

Rubber protection under the zip to avoid impact damages.

Cover made of nylon coated cordura

Innerbladder of strong 420 denier “puncturesafe” cordura lifejacket fabric.

Thicker cord to dumpvalve for easy grip.

The OPRV (dump) is placed to give best performance,
then used get the right leveltrim.

Price: €460/£315