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George ....   this is one of the best, clearest, and most informative
posts you've made in a long time.  It will go a long ways in helping
people understand what WKPP is doing.  tks

harve


On Sat, 8 Jun 1996, George Irvine wrote:

> Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 14:35:32 -0700
> From: George Irvine <gmiiii@in*.co*>
> To: john thornton <johnpt@jo*.de*.co*.uk*>
> Cc: techdiver <techdiver@terra.net>
> Subject: Re: o2 paradox
> 
> 
>   What area are you looking for info on? We are always glad to discuss this
in 
> detail. Is it the cave part or the diving part, or both? I can tell you in 
> general that we seem to have hit upon some pretty good ways to get it done 
> without incident, lately. Hopefullly this is our fault and not just our good 
> luck. 
> 
>   Give me a place to start.
> 
>   In general, we have a very long cave sytem, the longest underwater in this 
> country, and it has finally cleared to where we can dive other than the
spring 
> portions, where we have been practicing for the last two years, although this
is 
> some really great diving, and we have found some very long deep stuff. The
group 
> has been at it for several more, back when the whole thing was clear.
> 
>   As it first cleared, we were able to connect to another system that had
eluded 
> us due to extreme distances between the two, and bad vis. We got that, and
then 
> we extended the bottom of the system back up to the north by a few thousand
feet 
> from Wakulla's main conduit tunnel. Now we will go from the last sinkhole
above 
> that downstream , while working upstream Wakulla. Anytime the rains black it 
> out, we go back to the spring stuff (we know the caves well enough to get 
> through the bad stuff to the spring tunnels
> 
>   The problem in the downstream is the howling current and the bad vis, both
of 
> which will improve (they are deep , also, 285 on the ceiling). The upstream 
> Wakulla presents a problem due to bad vis as well the further upstream we
get, 
> so it is hard to find the right way, so we are just trying every tunnel 
> systematicly.
> 
>   At the same time, we will be working north from the new connection and
between 
> the two from new sinks we have found. We aso have several other new permitted 
> sites coming on stram now that we will be woking in the same karst valley
> 
>   Our real claim to fame is aggressive teamwork and simplistic gear. All of
our 
> stuff is really quite simple, like the scooters, lights, rig, and techniques, 
> and realies heavily on diver skill and training. We use multiple scooters,
and 
> carry many bottles quite efficiently. Nearly all of our divers can perform
all 
> of the dives, so we can send several layers of teams extreme distances
without 
> problem. This is a many as 18 diffeent people, quite an accomplishment at
this 
> level of diving (to have so many good ones). We are alsways trying to train 
> more, and have a constant supply of great divers coming along, as well as 
> scientists in grad school, who are anxious to work with us. This combintion 
> gives us the longevity and continuity that the permit givers like to see, so
we 
> have obtained the most long term access ever achieved here in Florida - 5
year 
> permits inthe National Forest, and open ended at the various parks .
> 
>   We have done thousands of man hours of extreme exposures without
decompression 
> incident, as well as repetitive exptreme exposures without problem. We have
gone 
> five years without a scooter failure in the caves (they have broken out of
the 
> water, however, or seals have leaked, but never failed). We haven't killed 
> anybody in years, and realy our only screwup in that regard was letting
people 
> dive who wanted to but shouldn't have.
> 
>   Anything specific, let me know
>  
> On Sat, 8 Jun 1996, john thornton <johnpt@jo*.de*.co*.uk*> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >George
> >Nice to cross swords with you, its good to see a real fish that takes
> >bait.
> >On a slightly more serious note how about sending me some more detail of
> >what you are doing, some of us over here are curious for more info.
> >
> >Have you been georged today?
> >-- 
> >john thornton
> >
> >
> --
> Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'.
> Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'.
> 

Harve Thorn
TThorn@co*.ua*.ed*

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