Just wondering if any op is taking divers out there. It was one of the most phenomenal dives of my life about 25 years ago.
Key West, Is Any Op Still Diving the Wilkes-Barre?
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Scott L
Contributor
That's a big boy dive Guy. Didn't know you did that sort of thing in the past. 
OP
Yeah, back in the day . . . Did it on my "open water" card cause that was all there was in the mid-70s. Had great mentors and eventually got a lot of deep diving experience. did the WB in the early 80s with Reef Raiders and Capt Billy Dean.
Had to have logged 200 dives, and 10 dives below 180 feet and you had to show your actual log books. You either had to be an instructor or have an instructor as your buddy and who also would vouch for your skills. One of my best friends buddied with me for that dive. Back then it was in double 80s and AIR, as nitrox was still yet to come. First day was stern, depth self-limited to 180 (deck level, didn't really need to go to the sand as all the good stuff was deck level and above), bottom time 20 mins and about hour and 20 or so of deco. Deco was done on your back gas at the 40 and 30 stops, then they had industrial 02 cylinders on the boat, with lines down to the 20 and 10 foot stops, to a distributor/first stage that each had 4 second stages on it (dove in three teams of 2 buddies) so we each grabbed an O2 reg and just hung on the line and breathed the O2. No one carried stages or deco bottles.
Second day was the bow, depth 210, time 15 mins and similar deco set-up. I was buzzing and definitely narced on that second one. One guy on another team wanted to bring up a porthole and spent his whole dive fumbling to get his tool on the bolts, and never made any progress for the entire 15 mins, and his buddy was really mad that the whole dive was wasted on that! (it cost 300 per day, back then, to to that trip).
The wreck was awesome, but the fish life was just unbelievable. Wreck had numerous hammerheads and bulls, goliaths, a school of african pompano, actually saw cubera snappers and more large amberjack than you could count. On deco saw wahoo and kingfish, and schools of amberjack would rise up from the wreck to check us out. It was not boring deco, for sure.
That particular trip the current was zero, and the vis was 150. You could literally see the stack when you hit about 30 feet on the descent. In fact, the trip had only been planned for the stern and for one day, but all six of us decided to do it again, and hit the bow, because we felt we would never see conditions like that again and luckily they were able to run the trip the next day. We did have one buddy pair have to stay shallow due to narcosis on the second dive.
The stern was my favorite, by far. My buddy shot a slide of me over the top of the guns, which I think I still have around, somewhere.
I don't think I would even be allowed to do this dive anymore, but I am considering spending thousands of $$ updating my training so it more closely matches my experience
. Seriously, though, I fully know that modern trimix/deco procedures, redundancy and all of that would make this dive safer and also more enjoyable (no narcosis) than before.
Had to have logged 200 dives, and 10 dives below 180 feet and you had to show your actual log books. You either had to be an instructor or have an instructor as your buddy and who also would vouch for your skills. One of my best friends buddied with me for that dive. Back then it was in double 80s and AIR, as nitrox was still yet to come. First day was stern, depth self-limited to 180 (deck level, didn't really need to go to the sand as all the good stuff was deck level and above), bottom time 20 mins and about hour and 20 or so of deco. Deco was done on your back gas at the 40 and 30 stops, then they had industrial 02 cylinders on the boat, with lines down to the 20 and 10 foot stops, to a distributor/first stage that each had 4 second stages on it (dove in three teams of 2 buddies) so we each grabbed an O2 reg and just hung on the line and breathed the O2. No one carried stages or deco bottles.
Second day was the bow, depth 210, time 15 mins and similar deco set-up. I was buzzing and definitely narced on that second one. One guy on another team wanted to bring up a porthole and spent his whole dive fumbling to get his tool on the bolts, and never made any progress for the entire 15 mins, and his buddy was really mad that the whole dive was wasted on that! (it cost 300 per day, back then, to to that trip).
The wreck was awesome, but the fish life was just unbelievable. Wreck had numerous hammerheads and bulls, goliaths, a school of african pompano, actually saw cubera snappers and more large amberjack than you could count. On deco saw wahoo and kingfish, and schools of amberjack would rise up from the wreck to check us out. It was not boring deco, for sure.
That particular trip the current was zero, and the vis was 150. You could literally see the stack when you hit about 30 feet on the descent. In fact, the trip had only been planned for the stern and for one day, but all six of us decided to do it again, and hit the bow, because we felt we would never see conditions like that again and luckily they were able to run the trip the next day. We did have one buddy pair have to stay shallow due to narcosis on the second dive.
The stern was my favorite, by far. My buddy shot a slide of me over the top of the guns, which I think I still have around, somewhere.
I don't think I would even be allowed to do this dive anymore, but I am considering spending thousands of $$ updating my training so it more closely matches my experience
. Seriously, though, I fully know that modern trimix/deco procedures, redundancy and all of that would make this dive safer and also more enjoyable (no narcosis) than before.
Wookie
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I'll take you, either by liveaboard, or by small boat if you don't want to see the other awesome wrecks we have to offer. I also mix trimix. You can't go on an OW card, at least, not with me.
OP
Wookie that's great to know, for when I update my training (do you take AOW?)
Personally I would like to do this once I am trimix certified, so I could actually operate my camera. Do you have the o2 on a downline like when I did it or does everyone carry their own deco bottles now?
Also, to divert this a little, can you either recommend or pm me the name of a technical instructor who you respect that I might contact?
Thanks
Personally I would like to do this once I am trimix certified, so I could actually operate my camera. Do you have the o2 on a downline like when I did it or does everyone carry their own deco bottles now?Also, to divert this a little, can you either recommend or pm me the name of a technical instructor who you respect that I might contact?
Thanks
Wookie
Proud to be a Chaos Muppet
Staff member
ScubaBoard Business Sponsor
ScubaBoard Supporter
Scuba Instructor
Wookie that's great to know, for when I update my training (do you take AOW?)
Also, to divert this a little, can you either recommend or pm me the name of a technical instructor who you respect that I might contact?
Thanks
Everyone carries their own gas, especially on the Wilkes, where current can go from zero to hero in no time at all, and you may be picked up miles down current (my record is a 6 mile drift). There are countless numbers of tech instructors who either live here or visit to conduct their tech checkout dives in the winter in the Pompano-Fort Lauderdale area. You can't hardly swing a cat by the tail and not hook yourself a tech instructor....
OP
I will be swinging my cat later this summer . . .
---------- Post added March 28th, 2013 at 03:50 PM ----------
Scott, have we ever met? Perhaps we can do some diving ("rec" for now) some day. Maribi and I dive Palm Beach/Jupiter all the time.
---------- Post added March 28th, 2013 at 03:50 PM ----------
That's a big boy dive Guy. Didn't know you did that sort of thing in the past.
Scott, have we ever met? Perhaps we can do some diving ("rec" for now) some day. Maribi and I dive Palm Beach/Jupiter all the time.
100days-a-year
Contributor
There is nothing like the bow dive and mix is def the way to go.Coming down the mast and seeing those big guns is pretty amazing.My DW will just hang on the down line taking pix as it is rare to not see a mix of pelagics circling the divers and bubbles.
Scott L
Contributor
Yes, we have met 3-4 times. Last, at the GUE Barbque at Tiger Tail Lake in January. I tag along with the Volker's on dives from time to time. I think we were all on a night dive on the Narcosis for GG aggregation season months ago. Yes, let's go diving again.
If you have a rope long enough for Wookie's cat, I recommend Chris Brown at Silent World Dive Center in Key Largo for trimix/tech diving.
Silent World Dive Center
mntlblok
Contributor
How's about one of you guys posting some video of some of them african pompanos and hammerheads for us so's I don't have to go to the trouble of getting tech certified and deco-ing forever?? TIA
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