Here's a cool way to explore a mine!

[headhunter]

Now for something a little different...

Since so many of us here like to explore mines, I thought I'd share this video of exploring the Miltitz Chalk Mine in Germany between Dresden and Chemnitz.

http://www.vimeo.com/7116203

Enjoy!

Christian

[OU812]

Christian if you ever want to lead one of these runs in JV or Calico I am game.

[headhunter]

Christian if you ever want to lead one of these runs in JV or Calico I am game.

Sounds great! It would probably be more searching than finding, since I don't really know where things are yet! :wink:

Actually, I'm pretty good with research on the net, so we should be able to find a bunch of cool stuff.

I've got a GPS now (Garmin 60Csx), but now I need to figure out how to use it in a meaningful way.

I've got the Jeep in the shop right now, but I'll be game when I get it back.

Christian

[OU812]

Even if you could find an underwater mine in calico I would be too much of a girl to go in. Besides I bet you could build a nice jeep with the money that guy spend on his rebreather and the swim motor. Some hobbies are more expensive than others. Rock climbing and scuba make jeeps look cheep.

[headhunter]

Here is some extra info for those who are curious...

Scott is right about walking away from this type of diving. Too many people who have a basic dive certification have gotten themselves into trouble by not realizing that this is more than what they are trained for.

Nobody should ever dive in an overhead environment without proper training. It's super dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and not very dangerous at all if you know what you are doing.

You are right about the cost of the equipment, Scott. This level of diving costs a lot more than your typical recreational diving.

I think you can get your initial dive certification these days for about $350. That's enough to do most of the diving in SoCal, because most of what we do around here is at depths of less than 100 feet.

The type of training needed to do something like you see in that video takes years to accomplish and winds up costing about $15,000.

In addition to training in an overhead environment, the mine in the video has you diving at depths of up to 180 feet. So, you need training in mixed gasses and decompression procedures. They are diving with trimix, which is a blend of oxygen, nitrogen and helium. Compared to the air we breathe at surface, you need to lower the amount of both oxygen and nitrogen and that's where the helium comes in to make up the difference. The amount of oxygen we breathe at surface actually becomes toxic if you dive deep enough.

To top it off, he's diving a rebreather. So, you need to have training on a rebreather. I'm not sure what their runtime was on their dive in that mine, but I'm guessing that you don't need a rebreather to do this dive. It can probably be done on open circuit scuba, which is a lot less expensive.

The rebreather the guy in the video is using is a Halcyon RB-80, which starts out at about $9,000. It's a semi-closed system, which is why you see bubbles from time to time.

I believe that the Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV) he's using is the Dive Xtras Sierra X Scooter, which starts at about $4,000.

By the way, unless you are doing extreme diving in caves, mines or deep water, diving is actually a pretty cheap hobby.

Excluding any carnage, it's generally a lot cheaper for me to go diving for a day than wheeling.

You can get trained and buy all of your own equipment for about $2,000. Then to do a dive it only costs $5 to fill your tank and the gas money to get you to the beach and back. For me, it comes out to about $25 to go to any beach from Laguna Beach to Ventura and do 2 dives from the shore. It costs a little more in gas to dive in La Jolla or Santa Barbara, but it's still less than $50.

Boats cost about $125 to take you to the closer Channel Islands (Catalina and Anacapa) for the day.

I'm still trying to find places where I can combine wheeling with diving. I understand that there are some cities that have been flooded behind dams that are pretty cool, but diving them is not always allowed.

Lake Mead has a B-29 Bomber in it that I think may be accessible by wheeling to a place where the shore is close to the bomber and diving from there, but I could be wrong about that. I'm not sure exactly where the bomber is located.

While I don't work in scuba as a dive instructor or work for a dive shop, I have been diving for 30 years and would be happy to spend time with any of you talking about diving if you just want to know more about it or might even want to get certified.

Christian

[OU812]

That B-29 is a cool story. A 300 foot lake dive would be somthing. I think I am going to stick to snorkeling. La Jolla Cove is fun when the lepard sharks come in to spawn.

[headhunter]

That B-29 is a cool story. A 300 foot lake dive would be somthing. I think I am going to stick to snorkeling. La Jolla Cove is fun when the lepard sharks come in to spawn.

What's interesting is that the B-29 is now in only a little more than 100 feet. This is because the level of Lake Mead has gone down more than 200 feet. So, this bomber is now at the edge of recreational limits.

La Jolla Cove is great when things are calm. The leopard sharks are always a treat! I've seen a lot of them in the shallows at La Jolla Shores too. It's funny to see people run out of the water when they see them only to wonder why the divers are all heading in.

Christian