River certification & river diving

[Spratman]

Hey LC,

I believe I'll make a good anchor for the bottom of the Cooper River.

I'm really excited about looking for fossils and relics. However, my wife thinks I'm crazy. Why in the world would you want to look for sharks teeth?! Because they are there! The guys at work thinks it would be cool too.

Jack

I'm not familiar with the rivers in Pa. but I do know if you go into the Cooper you DO want to be a 3 bottom plow. That way you'lll be able to crawl around and look for the teeth.

 

[ealbert]

I have done the cooper river twice and it is a blast.

Current can be a pain so dont make the mistake i made on my 2nd cooper dive. I failed to hold onto the anchor line on the way down. By the time I reached the bottom, I was probably 50-60 feet behind the boat and had to crawl along the bottom for a LONG time trying to catch back up to the boat. The site was right in front of the anchor.

I was exausted and had to just sit and rest to bring my breathing rate down. I kept checking my air because I was using it up fast.

I managed to relax and get my breathing under control and then started looking for teeth.

Watch out for trees & logs. It is easy to get so involved in looking straight down looking for teeth that you can run your head straight into a log.

On my trips I have found:
2 megaladon teeth over 4 inches, a pipe from the 1800's, an arrow head, 2 whale vertibrae - 1 was still imbedded in the clay bottom and I had to dig it out, a piece of colonial era pottery, indian pottery, a bunch of other teeth from .25" to 3", a gator tooth.

There are gators in the cooper river but they are pretty easy to avoid.

On my last trip, there was a large gator near where we were planning to get in, the dive operator decided to move us to a different spot. Good choice!

Give it a try- I think it is like treasure hunting. I really enjoy the excitement of wondering what I will find next.

Catfish can scare you by running up to the light. That happened to me once.

I will probably go again this summer. All my friends think im nuts. (I enjoy making them uncomfortable telling the about the black water, the current and - of course, the gators)

Ed

 

[ealbert]

BTW: http://www.deepsouthrivers.com/ is the charter service I have used. Alec Blalock does a great job and he knows a ton about the stuff in that river!

Ed

 

[Spratman]

Thanks for your experience. My LDS has two scheduled. One last week and one in Sept. Not sure, Olympus Charter sound right? Anyway, I won't make either of them this year, since my daughter is getting married in Sept., are 30th wedding anniversary is in Sept. and we're going to Cancun in Nov.

I told my wife about wanting to go down there, and she thought I was crazy as well. She did see them siening sharks teeth at Venice Beach, FL. last night on Shark Week. So, there is some understanding, but she still thinks I'm nutzed.

I'll check out the URL. I think I've heard of those guys recommended before. It's definitely on my list of things to do....

Jack

 

[Sloth]

Thanks for your experience. My LDS has two scheduled. One last week and one in Sept. Not sure, Olympus Charter sound right? Anyway, I won't make either of them this year, since my daughter is getting married in Sept., are 30th wedding anniversary is in Sept. and we're going to Cancun in Nov.

I told my wife about wanting to go down there, and she thought I was crazy as well. She did see them siening sharks teeth at Venice Beach, FL. last night on Shark Week. So, there is some understanding, but she still thinks I'm nutzed.

I'll check out the URL. I think I've heard of those guys recommended before. It's definitely on my list of things to do....

Jack

I would say that the SSI river course would be a waste. Their really is no set way of doing a river dive.

Some Capts like to anchor and have the divers move forward on the fossil beds and then drift back to the boat and others like to have divers drift back in the current while they hunt for fossils and let the boat drift back with them.

Some divers like to strap on tons of weight and become an immovable object, others like to dive normal amounts of weight and use a spike attached to their gear via a lanyard and pendulm back in forth in the current.

Regardless, the only thing to really take into acount verses any other dive is the current, poor viz, entaglement hazards, and the occasional overhead enviroment when the river cuts overhangs in the river. Really the biggest concern though is boats, lots of crazy, drunk boaters on the river going hog wild every weekend. Very few of them even have a concept of what a diver flag is or what to do when they see one.

Ricks advice is probably the best, find an experinced river diver or Capt and follow their led.

Mark