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WOW!  So you were on the infamous "Tepley Dive", huh?  We had read up as
much as was known before we did the dives (we all studied "Fire Under The
Sea", and read all of the articles Tepley & others wrote). And, of course,
all of us carried with us the knowledge of the dive you just described
(though we didn't know quite as many details). I remember the newspaper
articles when it happened.  I thought to myself "Now what fool would ever
want to dive on an active lava flow?" and two years later, there I was.

The thing about the lava flow dives is that NO amount of technology can
save you from the largest single risk -- being dragged to the abyss by a
massive slump. That Tepley survived is nothing short of miraculous, and
there really isn't much he could have done to avoid what happened, short
of staying well-off the bottom.  We saw a few big slumps (one huge one),
and they come with absolutely no warning at all.  Even if Lee was not
engrossed in filming, I suspect he would have been in trouble anyway. On
one dive I was burried to my knees in hot rubble before I even knew what
was going on.  I was barely able to get free, and lost one of my fins in
the process. I was also filming at the time, and the raw footage is pretty
funny to watch -- camera goes nuts... a flailing arm grabbing the power
inflator... a shot of one fin and one foot as the camera dangled from the
lanyard while I hobbled away from the slope....
 
Did you guys also observe the underwater lava rivers? These would have
areas of really nasty explosions.  Dr. Gordon Tribble, the geologist
instigator of our dives, had an explosion go off next to him that blew off
his mask and regulator and shattered his Nikonos viewfinder.

Thanks for the detailed post!  I'd love to see that footage some day! 
We're talking about doing it again when the conditions are right...would
you be interested?

Aloha,
Rich

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