kykajun
Guest
Hey everybody! Just wanted to post a little report on the Guinness Record attempt at Gilboa this past weekend.
First of all - to all the people who said it would be a CF --- not the case! Sure there were some issues and glitches, but overall it was an experience I'm glad I attended.
My wife and I towed our camper up there Friday night after work - so we were really late getting in - but there were volunteers still there at 10:15pm to show us where to park our camper and register. When we registered, we were assigned a specific lane and a Lane Shepherd, who was responsible for keeping track of the folks in their lane. There were 20 lanes overall - with lines laid out to mark the boundaries of each. Saturday afternoon, divers assembled at their assigned docks--I believe there were 5-7 docks, which each served 4-5 lanes. As we went down to the dock our names were checked off the list, along with our starting air pressure. Entry was giant stride, seated entry or steps. Once in the water we assembled with our lane shepherd and surface swam over to our respective lanes. It only took 30 minutes to get all 794 divers in the water and into their lanes. After that, a quick prayer, and a shotgun blast and we all submerged.
The goal was 20' for 20 minutes--that way no-one could dispute that it was a valid dive from a logging perspective. Sure, it was crowded - but man a sight to see! People hanging out on platforms, sitting on submerged cabin cruisers...My camping neighbors, who run a dive shop in Michigan played cards on the platform--they had little plastic playing cards that were neutrally buoyant -- Pretty cool!
Water temp was about what you would expect in a quarry. Vis at the beginning while we swam out to the lanes was 40+ feet (they had kept people off the bottom the day before). Of course once we submerged, it got pretty mucked up - but still no problems keeping track of your buddy, etc.
Local TV did a feature story on it, so that was cool. Life care air support was there, along with several ground medical rescue units--as well as drysuit rescue divers in each lane. So - it was very safe - no one had to use the air lift support. I only heard of one diver with some kind of mild heart issue that had to leave the water. Other than that, it went off without any safety hitches!
Bottom line -- we didn't break the record of 958 set in the Maldives in 2007. We had 794 - but this was in COLD water and there is no fresh water record. They're going to petition Guinness to see if they'll set up a fresh water record, so we will have set that one. This was their first attempt at the record and they have already started taking registrations for next year - same weekend in July (3rd). I'm going to register now - I hope to see some of you guys up there next year!
First of all - to all the people who said it would be a CF --- not the case! Sure there were some issues and glitches, but overall it was an experience I'm glad I attended.
My wife and I towed our camper up there Friday night after work - so we were really late getting in - but there were volunteers still there at 10:15pm to show us where to park our camper and register. When we registered, we were assigned a specific lane and a Lane Shepherd, who was responsible for keeping track of the folks in their lane. There were 20 lanes overall - with lines laid out to mark the boundaries of each. Saturday afternoon, divers assembled at their assigned docks--I believe there were 5-7 docks, which each served 4-5 lanes. As we went down to the dock our names were checked off the list, along with our starting air pressure. Entry was giant stride, seated entry or steps. Once in the water we assembled with our lane shepherd and surface swam over to our respective lanes. It only took 30 minutes to get all 794 divers in the water and into their lanes. After that, a quick prayer, and a shotgun blast and we all submerged.
The goal was 20' for 20 minutes--that way no-one could dispute that it was a valid dive from a logging perspective. Sure, it was crowded - but man a sight to see! People hanging out on platforms, sitting on submerged cabin cruisers...My camping neighbors, who run a dive shop in Michigan played cards on the platform--they had little plastic playing cards that were neutrally buoyant -- Pretty cool!
Water temp was about what you would expect in a quarry. Vis at the beginning while we swam out to the lanes was 40+ feet (they had kept people off the bottom the day before). Of course once we submerged, it got pretty mucked up - but still no problems keeping track of your buddy, etc.
Local TV did a feature story on it, so that was cool. Life care air support was there, along with several ground medical rescue units--as well as drysuit rescue divers in each lane. So - it was very safe - no one had to use the air lift support. I only heard of one diver with some kind of mild heart issue that had to leave the water. Other than that, it went off without any safety hitches!
Bottom line -- we didn't break the record of 958 set in the Maldives in 2007. We had 794 - but this was in COLD water and there is no fresh water record. They're going to petition Guinness to see if they'll set up a fresh water record, so we will have set that one. This was their first attempt at the record and they have already started taking registrations for next year - same weekend in July (3rd). I'm going to register now - I hope to see some of you guys up there next year!
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