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Kevin Denlay is not on the list. But he did not and does not claim to have made ANY deep dives in the ponds. Yes, Tom Mount and Jim lockwood did in the early 70'''''s make a 330 dive there(if you wish I can refer to my logbook and give you the exact date, all the circumstances etc). It cave in on us and I (Tom) almost bought it there. That is a fact the depth gauge was an analog gauge it was the old SCUBAPRO or SOS that read to 500 feet. I know it had some inaciracties as where we today read 290 at Eagles nest it read between 295 and 300. I guess for the flamers they can deny all they wish but it did happen and we did have two Oz support divers whoalthough they were not in the deep section certainly knew about the events. As we were not looking for records or doing anything other than enjoying cave diving in OZ we have not gone around making loud statements are even talking about this but we did do the dive. It almost got us. and we would not attempt it again even if it had not collasped. On top of everything else we had oil in our air on that dive and spent most of the dive sick. On that same trip we had a great dive in the shaft but were dissapointed as we had been told it went to 300 plus and the deepest we read was 270 feet. But it has got to be one of the most impressive places I've seen we felt like tiny ants in the middle of the universe. I do not know how often you guys dive there but for sheer beauty it has got to be one of the most impressive sights anywhere. Tom You wrote: > >> I hear through the grapevine that Kevin Denlay, and two Americans >>have set an Australian record for depth in a cave by going to some >>325 feet in Picaninny Pond. Not the least of this accomplishement is the >>fact that this cave does not go that deep. >> >> Anyone know the real story here? Who the players are and how deep >>this cave is, and what gas was dived by these pillars of the cave diving >>community? Also , what depth guages? _RT > >I am afraid I am as suprised by this revelation as anybody. I am not sure >if Kevin reads this list, perhaps he can shed some light, but for the >reasons that will become clear below, I doubt that he would be willing to do >so publicly. > >For those of you overseas, Picanninie ponds is one of Australias most >popular dive sites and is quite uncharacteristic of Australian caves. There >are a series of ponds set in a small wetland area, one of the ponds contains >a deep lime stone fissure which I presume (the water flow if any in the cave >is not noticable) is the spring that feeds the ponds and the creek which >runs down to the nearby sea. The main fissure, "the Chasm", is about (I am >terrrible at estimating distances) 8 metres wide and 25 metres long and >about 35 MFW deep. There is a cylindrical chamber, "the Cathedral" at one >end with multiple entrances from the Chasm that is about 6-8 metres in >diametre and 35 MFW deep. Beneath both the Chasm and Cathedral there are >solution tubes and horizontal tunnels or rooms that apparently run >reasonably deep. >Diving deeper than 35 MFW is expressly forbidden by the landowners, this >restriction being explicit in the permit required to dive the site. The >landowners are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) >and breach of their entry conditions supposedly means that they can impound >your diving equipment, and for members of the Cave Diving Association of >Australia (CDAA), a breach of landowner conditions would mean suspension. >Although there have been relatively few cave diving fatalities in Australia, >Picanninie Ponds has been the site of many of them, and the only two >fatalities (a buddy pair of a catagory 2 cave diver and an openwater diver) >to occur since the CDAA was formed in the early 70's. For this reason DENR >has not yet, and is not likely in the near future, to issue any special >permits for deep diving in Pics (we have tried). Thus any dives in the site >have to be sneak dives, with the attendant risks. I know that our group do >not believe ourselves experienced enough at deep cave diving to approach >this, or any site, in any manner other than carefully and methodically, so I >cannot give you any first hand reports. > >The most reliable reports of Pics are that it is practically impassable and >pretty scary at a depth of about 84 MFW. My guess is that earlier reports >of 330 FSW are the result of less accurate analogue depth gauges. But >possibly it does go, there is another claim of a recent 100 MFW air dive >circulating at the moment. I am not one for records, it would be much >nicer to find out what the divers saw apart from their depth gauge. > >regards, > >David Doolette >ddoolett@me*.ad*.ed*.au* > >
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