Deep Thought
Contributor
Last week Dec. 28 - Jan 4 I was cave diving in High Springs area and had some excellent dives at Peacock, Little River and an ok dive at Manatee. The water clarity was very good at Peacock, and Little River had a lower flow so it was easily swimmable and vis was pretty good most of the dives. Manatee is a higher flow cave, very dark cave walls and not very interesting features until you get past the sink, which we did not drop in at....but its an ok dive...
What surprised me was the number of fully closed circuit rebreathers at the dive sites. When I initially trained in cave it was on O.C., then I switched to CCR Cave in 2001, and it was very rare for me to see a rebreather in N. Florida cave sites. This trip I would say there was about 4 out of 10 cave divers using rebreathers. The most common rebreather was the Megalodon, then the rEvo, a couple Inspirations from our group, and saw one very modified KISS (Brett Hemphill at Manatee) and an RB80.
The group I was diving with had two open circuit divers that did every dive we did without issue, so rebreathers are not necessary for the dives we were doing but an alternative. The only dives I saw that would necessitate CCR's was the cave mapping that Brett and buddy were setting up at Manatee.
Years past when it was not as common to see other CCR divers, there was an occasional whisper or sneer from MVI divers, but on this trip it was blatant loud conversations - the kind that are so loud they ignore that you are present... talking authoritatively about how unnecessary CCR's are for cave diving, YBOD's, Dangerous, Expensive, yada-yada... It would be like a guy driving a Ford Taurus commenting about how ludicrous it is for a person to drive a Corvette to the grocery store. The fact of the matter is, what a person dives or drives does not have to be justified if they enjoy diving/driving....
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Deep Thought
What surprised me was the number of fully closed circuit rebreathers at the dive sites. When I initially trained in cave it was on O.C., then I switched to CCR Cave in 2001, and it was very rare for me to see a rebreather in N. Florida cave sites. This trip I would say there was about 4 out of 10 cave divers using rebreathers. The most common rebreather was the Megalodon, then the rEvo, a couple Inspirations from our group, and saw one very modified KISS (Brett Hemphill at Manatee) and an RB80.
The group I was diving with had two open circuit divers that did every dive we did without issue, so rebreathers are not necessary for the dives we were doing but an alternative. The only dives I saw that would necessitate CCR's was the cave mapping that Brett and buddy were setting up at Manatee.
Years past when it was not as common to see other CCR divers, there was an occasional whisper or sneer from MVI divers, but on this trip it was blatant loud conversations - the kind that are so loud they ignore that you are present... talking authoritatively about how unnecessary CCR's are for cave diving, YBOD's, Dangerous, Expensive, yada-yada... It would be like a guy driving a Ford Taurus commenting about how ludicrous it is for a person to drive a Corvette to the grocery store. The fact of the matter is, what a person dives or drives does not have to be justified if they enjoy diving/driving....
Get Wet
Deep Thought
