'Shadow Divers' Team to Tackle Belize's Blue Hole; 'Because it is there'

[archman]

I take it from your response that you have never had a piece of equipment that "should" have done the job fail dramatically. An amazing record indeed.

Good lord no, we've had failures all the time. Most deep-sea equipment is custom-made for single-expedition use, you know. But implosion-related incidents are fairly uncommon. So are dramatic ones.

An ROV could well have been part of their equipment. I don't know. I was invited to be a safety diver on this deal, but could not get the time off from my company. I will check to see, however, if they did.

It has been my (extensive) experience that when somebody has an ROV, they bend over backwards to advertise the fact. ROV's are cool-looking and the TV tech-junkie revels in them.

The whole point, just as it is for people who climb Mt. Everest, is to go there. For Chatterton and Kohler, it makes better viewer interest if they go down there themselves. It is, after all, the show paying for their trip!

Which is not one of the primary reasons listed for this trip. Perhaps they are not being specific enough in their articles for my (arguably nitpicky) taste. I read little/no mention of the rationale for this being a SCUBA-contingent expedition. Maybe it's supposed to be implied by the public, I don't know.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Lo, Archster, thou pickest nits surely!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours!

Rob

 

[plankspanker]

This part needs more attention:

the underwater housing that contained the high definition video camera

anything dive related in HD is a good thing

 

[Daylonious]

I think there are at least 2 divers down at the bottom of the hole that have been "lost" over the last 10 years or so...

D>

 

[StSomewhere]

Has everyone already seen this except me? I googled it but it looks like its just a press release on an upcoming show or special or something?

 

[Daylonious]

I probably won't air for 3-4 months.. that's usually the lag between primary shooting and broadcast...

D.

 

[StSomewhere]

Then how the h3ll does everyone know what happened, from a press release? I'll bet the PR person who wrote that doesn't even dive...

 

[rigdiver]

Didn't Terrance Tysall with the Cambrian Foundation bottom out the Blue Hole several years ago? I'm pretty sure Terrance did the "Edmund Fitzgerald" also on open-circuit. I do stand to be corrected, but I think these articles were printed in one of the tech magazines from a few years ago.
I did talk with Jim Bowden about the blue hole. He wanted to teach trimix classes down there and go to the bottom(about 1/2 of what he had already done) but ran into issues with the government of Belize concerning "permits."
Happy Holidays;
Bill

 

[D1V3R]

I've had a light "implode" and it did kind of explode at the same time the middle imploded and the front blew out forward a couple feet, it was pretty loud too lol

Even if it is a poor article, etc. I really love these kinds of expeditions
Theres a huge sink offshore st. augustine FL that is over 500 feet deep I would love to dive it (not to the bottom, lol) and I would really love to see it extensivly explored
just "because its there"

 

[fire_diver]

i personally cant wait for the show to air. Should be much better than their Deep Sea Detectives shows (which I like alot).

I thought there was more general knowledge among divers about implosions.

The 'implosion' phase when the hull is breached and chushed by the depth only lasts a fraction of a second. The water moves into the void so fast that any broken pieces get shot outward from thier original position. That is why implosions look like explosions.