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Apparently there are enough new people on these lists that the question has
again come up, "What is the WKPP?".
It is a project , founded ten years ago , that explores and does research in
an area known as the Woodville Karst Plain, which is about 450 square miles of
sinkhole plain south of Tallahassee, Florida.
Original members, such as Bill Gavin ( A Navy rebreather engineer), Bill
Main (namesake of the Hogarthian method of gear rigging), Steve Irving and
others were the first guys to really attempt deep cave diving in a productive
manner, taking up exploration in the Leon Sinks Cave System (the longest
underwater cave in the U.S.) where others left off (where it went deep, right
near the sinkholes).
Using Gavin's expertise in mixed gas (from working on the MK16 and EX19
rebreather projects), and the concept of top physical fitness and streamlined
gear configuration, these guys began experimenting with trimix for cave diving,
using tables generated by Hamilton Research and equipment modifications
developed by Gavin.
Ten years ago , Gavin and Irving were doing gas dives that people outside
of
this group have yet to even approximate. The current project has magnified the
original concepts, and added some 80 people to the roster, many of them
scientists and other specialists, while the divers have been honed out to the
best in the business.
You will not hear about us from your cave instructors, the technical
community, or anyone else: we are the best kept-secret in diving, and we have
no
shitty gear to sell you, no useless courses to teach you, and we do what we say
we do, rather than lie and pontificate about it. We believe that you , too, can
learn to enjoy this sport as much as we do in the productive fashion that we do
it, rather than blunder along like you will be taught by the "community". They
will not mention us , except to complain, as, in a nutchell, we make them look
silly.
We are the only official cave diving project of the NSS, we are an
official project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, we have permits
from two Federal Agencies and two Stgate Agencies, we work with several other
Agencies and research outfits, including two universities, and we continue to
dive the Plain , mapping all of the underground resources in the hope of
protecting this area for future diving and ecological reasons.
We are where the action is in US cave diving, and we are where the good
information, good ideas, good equipment, techniques and everything else comes
from in this sport, including all of the very best divers. If anyone tells you
otherwise, they are lying.
If you don't believe it, name a cave and ask who has the end of the line,
and ask who has all of the distance records at all depths, and who shares all
of
their information with everyone, and who are the only guys whose actions speak
for themsleves. For example, can any of you name the only guys who actually do
long range deep cave diving on rebreathers (not the bullshitters who yap obout
it)? Can any of you tell me where the lights you see everywhere (the ones that
work) came from? The scooters?
I continue to absolutely amazed !
George M. Irvine III
DIR WKPP
Woodville Karst Plain Project
1400 SE 11 ST Ft Lauderdale, FL 33316
954-493-6655 FAX 6698
Email gmiiii@in*.co*
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