Bonne Terre Strategie?

[Scuba J7]

From their website it would appear you have to use their cylinders, but I’ve seen people with their own cylinders down there. If you take your own cylinders and plan on getting them filled there, I would leave anything O2 clean at home, and have whatever you use inspected afterwards.

It is not clear to me re tanks reading this post, are you required to use their tanks or can you bring your own?

 

[Sam Miller III]

1) 6 hour drive ? from Illinois to St Louis Missouri ? Approximately where do you live in Illinois ?
(In Kalifornia during rush hour on the freeway it takes us that long to travel a mile-or less!)

2) Last evening my wife Betty and I were discussing the great time we had with the two Bonne Terre mine guides so many years ago. They had never dove open water, but were very comfortable in the salt water open ocean and for some unknown reason had by I assume natural selection we buddied up with them for most of the week.

The word had got out among the staff and other vacation divers that we were not typical divers (FYI google my name +diver -or- SCUBA- I have received more awards than any one should receive)

On the very last day of our visit we had made one dive and were underway to the second and last shallow dive site of our week long vacation.

I speak Spanish and had been speaking "Spanlish" all week with the crew. I inquired in Spanish as to how long to the next dive site ? Their reply in Spanish "45 minutes."

I returned to my seat along the gunnels informed my wife and our week long buddies buddies that we had 45 minutes to relax

Then I said what the heck ? Why not ? So I said " You are from the 'Show Me State' --- Pull out your dive bags start fiddling with your equipment" which they did. Soon the entre boat of divers were pulling out there dive bags, preparing their equipment and putting on their wet suits

As soon as every one was fully prepared to dive we shoved out bags under the seat and resumed out conversations for another 40 or so minutes to we arrived at the last dive site.

Some started chuckling that they had been had others were so hot the deck was steaming .

At the end of the dive and our vacations the Missourians insisted that it would be their honor to carry our equipment to our room for packing - Who could refuse that offer ?

We will never forget those two Missourians and the fun we had !

And those wazzzz tha dazzz of out dives ....

Sam Miller, 111

 

[flyingDiver75]

I did a weekend trip to Bonne Terre last January doing 3 dives on Saturday (1,2,4) and 2 on Sunday (3,5). I scheduled directly with West End divers. While it is above average in price and rules, I found the dives to be fascinating. I found the 'canyon' and archway swims are pretty epic and not at all captured well in any published photos - the best I can say is it felt like diving in a flooded Mines of Moria under a full moon. I hope to return to do more of the advanced trails early next year.

Some notes from my experience based on your questions:

• I would rent their weights and minimize what you need to carry down / up
• Plan to hike out between dives. As already stated, bathrooms are only available topside. You can't go up or down without a staff member due to insurance so if you opt to stay down and then change your mind, you may be stuck until after the next dive.
• We were given the option to leave our wet gear on the dive dock overnight to save a round trip with the heavy stuff
• Dive 1, you will likely be required to do a full mask clear at 20' at the beginning of the dive
• Dives are done as a group - about every 20 minutes they will check air at a stopping point (at least for trails 1 - 5). Divers below threshold will go to the surface with a DM and usually surface swim above the remaining divers back to the dock. So if you run low early, you won't limit anyone else's dive. We had at least 3 rear-guard DM's on every dive, even on Sunday when there were only 4 of us.
• A 'full' dive is close to an hour if you're good on air. There are small variations they can add to most of the trails if enough divers still have air remaining.
• Most of the trails have a lot of up and down. I found this fun and a great way to solidify my drysuit skills.
• There's no current, so you are swimming a lot compared to a usual ocean dive. My SAC ran 25% higher than average.
• Water is ~52F so don't skimp on warmth. My 2mm gloves were not nearly enough. I bought a set of XS Scuba 5mm Dry Gloves after Bonne Terre and they are great for cold water. I dove a drysuit - so the rest of my body stayed warm.
• A limited number of air-filled LP100's were available for rent for a small extra charge (basically the same price as Nitrox AL80's). The DM's proactively offered the larger tanks to the divers who needed them most after the 1st couple of dives established the group dynamic and who the air hogs were. Average depths were pretty shallow - so Nitrox for NDL was not really a factor.
• The Saturday group will likely have a wide range of experience. We had everything from divers doing their 1st OW dives after certification to instructors. Expect that the dives will mostly be conducted as if everyone was fresh out of OW class.
• We were allowed the use of low-power (<100 lumen) lights after dive 2 if I remember correctly and they did let me run my hand-held goPro at that point but I doubt they would have let me use anything larger.
• Our guides were positive, professional, and and worked to provide a fun experience -- within the limitations Bonne Terre enforces via the group diving and other various rules.

Here's what I have on the actual dives:

1. 50 Minutes, Max 48', average 31.4'
2. 49 Minutes, Max 53', average 31.0'
3. 54 Minutes, Max 49', average 25.3' (Trail 4)
4. 54 Minutes, Max 55', average 37.1' (Trail 3)
5. 44 Minutes, Max 74', average 43.0'

FWIW - I posted my best video clips and photos on Flickr, but they really didn't come out well given the lighting (or lack thereof).

 

[Scuba J7]

it felt like diving in a flooded Mines of Moria

This is exactly what I tell people it was like.....after I ask if they have seen LOTR

 

[Schwob]

Dives are done as a group - about every 20 minutes they will check air at a stopping point (at least for trails 1 - 5). Divers below threshold will go to the surface with a DM and usually surface swim above the remaining divers back to the dock. So if you run low early, you won't limit anyone else's dive. We had at least 3 rear-guard DM's on every dive, even on Sunday when there were only 4 of us.

@flyingDiver75
Oh, thank you for explaining that (sigh of relief!) ...and all the other detailed info you gave.

All:
Just as fyi in case others are contemplating...
I heard from a guy at DRIS (phone) that it's 58 steps or such down + 1/8 of a mile or such of a path... so maybe about the same as 1000 steps on Bonaire (my interpretation/guesstimation - did not count...) except a heavier suit and more weight, but due to their rules no lights (even if a camera goes...) and no tank to schlepp... so, actually easier... - I would judge... sight unseen... If true then I am not worried about that.. (famous last words maybe...) ... Reading reviews, I somehow arrived at the impression that this is some epic long stair climb down into the Abyss

 

[flyingDiver75]

It's not a terrible climb - although you have to be careful with your footing since it is damp. Unless you were the guy in our group who thought it would be fun to make the dives with a steel twin-set ...

 

[tkaelin]

I was a rescue diver at Bon Terre many moons ago. It was regimented then for the customers but safety was a primary factor. The owner then, well that's another story. Despite all the effort, expense and guests being required to follow the regiment, the diving was unique and the experience overall worthwhile. Back then we were still exploring unopened areas and designing the "trails". The water is gin clear and sailing through rooms filled with clear 200' ft deep water at say 50' is the closest you will come to flying through the "air".

 

[guruboy]

How much gas do you use per dive? One AL80 ?

 

[tkaelin]

Back then we used aluminum 80s and they were adequate. And yes we dove with a single tank. It was cavern, not cave diving so you can surface if need be anytime along the dive.

 

[Snopes]

@flyingDiver75 did a great job of covering about everything you need to know.

I dove over there about a month ago and had a somewhat different experience. I went to the mine by myself and none of the divers from Saturday returned on Sunday. I ended up getting a personalized trip of trails 3 and 5 with the dive leader and 3 other staff divers. Wonderful experience. The folks I dove with have always been professional and knowledgeable.

I will add a bit about the weights. I originally planned to use their weights that they already have down by the dock, but found out they were going to charge me $25 to use them, so I ended up slogging my weights down there. The trip back up them was clearly worse. Regardless, I plan to go back whenever they have enough divers who are interested in trails 6 - 10!