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This seems very likely, given that they did not make it to where we put
our deco bottles. The cave slopes down in daylight to about 150, ducks
under to 180, and goes about 200 feet like that and comes up again
before opening into a room-like area where the floor then starts to
slope down until it hits C Tunnel at about 275 on the left and the right
wall comes back before it then gets to about 285 at the line and about
245 on the roof.

Those guys buzzed under the "restriction" played around there with
single tanks wearing bathing suits and carrying flashlights.

They never saw C Tunnel, which is 200 feet past the restriction, if that
tells you anything.

By way of comparison, it takes about half of an 80 to swim from the
surface to B Tunnel (just inside of C Tunnel) and back. I have indeed
done this in a bathing suit putting in deco bottles ( but not with air),
and that is about when you get cold, like they did.

Ed Ball , who owned the spring at the time, let these guys dive there to
try to figure out what it is about, like we do now. Funny that all we
know now that they did not know is about the same only further znd more
of it.

Wakulla Springs actually has a decent safety record relative to Leon
Sinks or other caves. I only know of one guy dying there by tox on a
sneak dive about 15 years ago, and the poor guy that Stone wacked due to
his running a free for all there this winter, the one that he said died
of "natural causes". 

I guess you could say that diving in a bathing suit with a flashlight on
air at Wakulla is safer than diving with a Bill Stone operation, and I
personally believe that is obviously true, even though you all know how
I feel about air diving.


James R Cedor wrote:
> 
> Can anyone on the list verify or dispute that as early as 1957 a team of
> divers lead by Garry Salsman had conducted more than 200 accident free
> air dives at Wakulla Springs without incident.  Seems like a lot of
> dives. Thanks-jc

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