I wanna do it all

[LiteHedded]

Yes.

Remember they explored this on air- decompressing on air. No O2. This is also long Before there were good u/w light systems.

It was Jim Wyatt, Sheck Exley, Tom Mount and several others.

They had to drycave into the site then systematically explore the lake for passages. They got just under 2000 feet of line in on the first tunnel. There's no flow so silting was a real issue- as was the unknown nature of the tunnels they were in.

I think it's safe to say Jim was exploring caves before JJ was born (or at least walking)....

---------- Post added January 15th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ----------



The style of diving for caves Edd would say one Jim would say another- but neither would say this agency or that was "where it's at".

That was my point.

---------- Post added January 15th, 2015 at 12:17 PM ----------



Clueless. Totally clueless.

what is your point? that people were exploring caves before gue existed?

David Rhea has been teaching cave diving for 30 years and was the NACD training director for 4 and board member for 9 of them.
jarrod was exploring caves well before GUE came into being

i'm struggling to sort out what you're trying to say beyond you really like Jim Wyatt (i do too. nice guy) and that cave divers from other agencies can be good. did anyone dispute any of this here before you showed up?

 

[PfcAJ]

Is there another agency that has so many instructors with so much deep and long cave experience? Rhea, Messersmith, and Jablonski have done some real big dives. I'm surprised there's an argument against going to the guys that have done and are doing the type of dives OP enquired about or another instructor that uses the exact same methods that those guys utilized on their dives...

 

[Omisson]

what is your point? that people were exploring caves before gue existed?

David Rhea has been teaching cave diving for 30 years and was the NACD training director for 4 and board member for 9 of them.
jarrod was exploring caves well before GUE came into being

i'm struggling to sort out what you're trying to say beyond you really like Jim Wyatt (i do too. nice guy) and that cave divers from other agencies can be good. did anyone dispute any of this here before you showed up?

I GUESS YOU MISSED this was a response to PfcAJ's GUE is "where it's at" in Cave Diver training. My points were:

1) teaching and exploring are not necessarily one to one correlates.

2) there are far more NACD NSSCDS instructors then GUE who are at the top of the teaching game AND who have been exploring AND have been doing both far longer - Exley, Skiles, Heinreth, Wyatt, Hires

I don't see how this is so difficult to comprehend... Unless of course one doesn't want to...

 

[nimoh]

I GUESS YOU MISSED this was a response to PfcAJ's GUE is "where it's at" in Cave Diver training. My points were:

1) teaching and exploring are not necessarily one to one correlates.

2) there are far more NACD NSSCDS instructors then GUE who are at the top of the teaching game AND who have been exploring AND have been doing both far longer - Exley, Skiles, Heinreth, Wyatt, Hires

At the top of the teaching game? Where do I sign up for a class with Exley or Skiles?

 

[PfcAJ]

2) there are far more NACD NSSCDS instructors then GUE who are at the top of the teaching game AND who have been exploring AND have been doing both far longer - Exley, Skiles, Heinreth, Wyatt, Hires

Uhh, 2 out of those 5 guys aren't teaching currently...

 

[Superlyte27]

When is the last time Exley, Wyatt, Skiles or Hires saw new cave? Even cave new to them. That's a legitimate question.

 

[LiteHedded]

I GUESS YOU MISSED this was a response to PfcAJ's GUE is "where it's at" in Cave Diver training. My points were:

1) teaching and exploring are not necessarily one to one correlates.

2) there are far more NACD NSSCDS instructors then GUE who are at the top of the teaching game AND who have been exploring AND have been doing both far longer - Exley, Skiles, Heinreth, Wyatt, Hires

I don't see how this is so difficult to comprehend... Unless of course one doesn't want to...

OOOOHHHH yes his post was accurate. gue is the best hands down. i've taken classes from gue and cave and tech training elsewhere so I can attest to this (have you?)

and as others have pointed out already, two of your guys there are, at present, deceased.

 

[kensuf]

and cathedral has been sitting there waiting for someone to come along and extend that line. todd left it at 17000' and that cave has had open access the whole time

But the deck broke free, so it needs to be closed for the safety of the public.

---------- Post added January 15th, 2015 at 02:23 PM ----------

And by the way Jim is one of the longest standing cave instructors still ACTIVELY certifying students. He was certified as a cave instructor in 1975 was JJ even born then? As for Wyatts exploration history:
as chairman of the diving committee that explored the "Lost Sea" for a period of 2 years. The "Lost Sea" is in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the largest underground lake in the world. He explored the underwater caves that extended off from the lake, He worked in conjunction with cave divers from the US Geological Survey in 1976. The Lost Sea had never before been explored by divers in the underwater caves. Exploring, mapping and installing hundreds of feet of exploratory line in a virgin cave system is the pinnacle of any cave explorers' career.

I'd say thats pretty solid exploration experience...

maybe you forgot about Jim's experience.....

I like Jim. I think he and I get along great. But you do know that he moved away from Cave Country to the islands in the late 70s and pretty much didn't poke his head into a cave again for over 20 years, right? By your standard can I count my break from cave diving as time served, so I can tell people I've been actively cave diving since 1994, or should I be honest and tell them that I took a ten year break from the caves after Stevie died in 2001?

 

[LiteHedded]

But the deck broke free, so it needs to be closed for the safety of the public.

---------- Post added January 15th, 2015 at 02:23 PM ----------



I like Jim. I think he and I get along great. But you do know that he moved away from Cave Country to the islands in the late 70s and pretty much didn't poke his head into a cave again for over 20 years, right? By your standard can I count my break from cave diving as time served, so I can tell people I've been actively cave diving since 1994, or should I be honest and tell them that I took a ten year break from the caves after Stevie died in 2001?

thank goodness. the hoards of divers flocking to dive there will be safe now

 

[Superlyte27]

Ken, it's not even that. Yes, Jim took a long break. But even after the break, he's never been an explorer by anyone's standards except maybe Dan-O's. I'm not picking on Jim. He is a great instructor. He can convey the concepts of cave and technical diving to most anyone in a way that even the dumbest person can understand. He's patient and thorough. But seriously.... When's the last time he was 4000' back in ANY cave? Not in the last 10 years. And that's not a blight on Jim. His job is to show new cave divers how to cave dive and he's good at it.

Exploration isn't for everyone. And that's not a slam on anyone. It's just the way it is. But don't make people out to be what they aren't. Because if you called Jim and asked him if he's an explorer, he'd tell you no. Is he an educator? Hell yes, and a good one.