tech talk

Edited by Michael Menduno Exley On Mix Text by Michael Menduno “I’m interested in your deep div- on a collision course. Billy repeat- Journal, #3, MIX, published Photos by courtesy of Michael ing program and diving the USS edly tried to raise the ship on the in January 1992. Two years Menduno and Ann Krislovich Wilkes-Barre,” said the caller with radio warning them that we had later on 6 April 1994, Sheck a distinct southern drawl. divers in the water. To no avail— drowned during a failed Prologue: I first spoke “Do you have any the freighter never responded. attempt to bottom out the with Sheck Exley in the experience?” I asked. As it drew closer with no signs of Zacatón cave system in “Some,” said the caller. changing course, Billy decided Mexico, which was more than summer of 1991. I had “What’s your name,” I queried. that we had to move the boat 300 meters deep. begun publishing aqua- “Exley.” though we still had divers on CORPS: The Journal for “Sheck???” the line. We sent a support diver Exley on mix , a year Later that fall, Sheck and his down to Sheck who was decom- I glanced over at Sheck. He partner Mary Ellen Eckhoff visited pressing at something like 60-feet, was again lost in thought, star- earlier and I was working Key West to dive the Wilkes-Barre, to tell him to hang on, we were ing blankly into the night. It out of the office at Capt. a 610-foot U.S. Navy Cleveland- moving the boat to avoid a col- had been fascinating listening Billy Dean’s dive shop in class light cruiser sunk in 1971 in lision. It took Billy about five min- to him discuss the facts and Key West, Florida, the first 250-foot of water, which served utes to maneuver out of the way figures of the dive, but what I as one of our training sites. We of the freighter which blew its really wanted to hear about technical diving train- stowed our gear on board the whistle at us as it went past. were the things that go on ing center in the United Key West Diver One and motored Forty minutes or so later, Sheck inside his head when he’s bur- States. “Technical diving”, 45 minutes out to the wreck. sheepishly climbed back on ied under hundreds of feet of Billy stayed on board and I board. The freighter, which had water, inside a rock crevice, a term we had just coined dove the wreck with Mary Ellen. passed us, was still visible in the on the very edge of life, and to describe this new style Sheck decided to make the dive distance. Sheck asked if this sort still going on. ann krislovich of diving, was just in its by himself shadowed by one of of thing happened often. Billy “How are you going to infancy. our support divers. We planned a replied it was not uncommon. decide when you have gone To say that Sheck Exley is not Certified in scuba at the age 20-min exposure to 250 followed Sheck, who acknowledged he deep enough?” I asked. your average 42-year-old high of 16, Exley became the first Billy was out running errands and by approximately and hour of was not too comfortable on “Fear,” Sheck answered imme- school algebra teacher is a bit person to log a thousand cave Chris, the store manager, called . Mary Ellen and boats, said that he was going to diately as if he had been patient- more than understatement. By dives accomplishing this feat in out for me pick-up the phone in I surfaced, while Sheck was still stick to after that. ly waiting for such a question.” vocation, he is in fact a teacher less than seven years. Over the the office: someone was inter- on the decompression line with a Later that fall, I interviewed at Suwannee High School in Live nearly two and a half decades ested in our deep diving program. support diver. In the distance, we Sheck for the magazine. Here is —from The Deepest Dive Oak, Florida. By avocation he is that followed, Exley explored “Hello, my name is Michael. noticed that there was a large a reprint of the original interview, by Ned Deloach an explorer, pioneer, educator and surveyed most of the world’s May I help you?” I said. cargo ship bearing down on us which appeared in aquaCORPS and diving legend. known deep water cave systems,

81 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley 1973, has published over 100 articles eyes adjusted and I swam a little bit and six books on the subject of his further, peering off into the darkness. passion, lectures extensively, and cur- I guess I’ve been peering off into that rently offers a mixed gas training pro- darkness ever since. gram for experienced divers. join the Perhaps pioneers like Exley will MM: You’ve made some incredible pioneered many of the methods always remain an enigma. An explor- dives in your career; your “Salute the and techniques of deep air and spe- er and athlete of the highest magni- Flag” dive at Diepolder II to 360 feet revolution cial mix scuba, and in doing so, has tude, combining physical ability with on air, Wakulla, El Nacimiento de Rio repeatedly redefined the limits of self- the psychological stamina necessary Mante to 870 feet, your 10,939 foot contained diving. to venture where few will ever go, to penetration at Cathedral, why do His exploits and verve have earned others, perhaps, he is seen as a dare- you do what you do? him the reputation of being one of devil and risk taker seeking a thrill. the finest divers in the world, and Recently aquaCORPS caught up SE: I’m not sure. My motivation has have shaped the development mod- with Exley hoping to try and explain changed a lot over the years. I ern cave diving, which is regarded by and reconcile the many stories that grew up diving, and as a teenager many as a model for specialized dive have grown up around the man, to I wanted to be important and to training. A teacher and soft-spoken understand his motivation, to get be thought of as important. I went educator, Exley helped to establish inside his head. The results were more through a stage where I wanted the National Speleological Society’s than we had anticipated. to see how deep I could go. Then I Cave Diving Division (NSS-CDS) in went through a stage to see how far I MM: When did you could go. I still enjoy that. start diving Sheck? There are places that no one else has been to since the dawn of time. SE: I got started in We can’t see what’s there. We can 1965 but I didn’t see what’s on the dark side of the really start keeping moon or what’s on Mars, but you a log until February can’t see what’s in the back of a 1966 when I went cave unless you go there. There’s a on my checkout special feeling when you know no dive with Ken Brock. one else has been there before. And He taught me how it’s an extra special feeling when you Poseidon MkVI to dive. That first know no one has ever been that far. I The world’s first fully automatic, dive we went down enjoy that feeling. recreational rebreather and I stuck my head under a coral MM: Your Nacimiento Mante dive Now available at ledge, what you must have been like that? Poseidon Rebreather Centers worldwide. Visit poseidon.com might call a coral for your nearest center and cave, maybe 16 SE: It was frightening. I’d use the term for further information on feet deep [chuck- “physiological roulette” to describe the Rebreather Revolution. les]. Wasn’t much of my four Mante dives. The first to 520 anything, and I real- feet in 1987 was probably the most ly didn’t enjoy it. But frightening. It was really stepping then Ken took me out into no-man’s land as far as the to Crystal River and western hemisphere was concerned. I really got turned Jochen Hassenmayer of course on. I didn’t have had been deeper at Fontaine-de- a light or anything Vaucluse. www.poseidon.com so I kind of wan- dered off into the MM: Was Mante your first big mix cavern there, my dive?

82 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley

SE: I had done practice dives of course: 130 feet at Cathedral and 260 feet at Holton Springs. Dale Sweet’s 360 feet dive at Diepolder back in 1981 was the only dive in the western hemi- sphere that was close to it. In the eastern hemisphere, there were Jochen’s dives. He had been to 660 feet, which gave me a lot of confidence.

MM: You knew it was doable?

SE: I knew it was doable. I had dived with Jochen. He’s an extremely impressive diver, as good as any I have dived with. decompression tables; isn’t that have the information to make Organised by The fact that I had actually met just foolhardy and crazy? that statement. But it was all I had uw3some.com/ADEX the man and dived with him SE: Isn’t that basically what every- to work with at the time. made me feel a bit more confi- one does? dent. Decompression tables were MM: There’s a myth out there—a a problem of course. There was MM: Ha! Good point. subtle one, but it’s still there—that nothing available. I had never decompression tables represent heard of Bill Hamilton at the time. SE: I may not be the world’s some kind of truth, as opposed to Fortunately I was able to get a greatest mathematician, but what they are: people’s guesses Dedicated to whale sharks hold of some commercial tables mathematics is my profession as to what will work based on that Jim Melton got for me as a and I have a degree in comput- experience. model. ers; both of them lend them- ADEXLIVE ABOARD selves quite well to figuring out a SE: That’s exactly right. I tell peo- EXPO 2013 MM: You used commercial decompression schedule. I’m sure ple early on in my mixed gas tables? Bill Hamilton wouldn’t do it quite course that it’s important to real- the way I did. But then I did have ize that any decompression table 19–21 APRIL

SE: No, I had to extrapolate them; a vested interest in doing a good is just a mathematical model SANDS EXPO AND the tables stopped at 400 feet. job. based on poorly understood FREE ENTRY CONVENTION CENTER ADEX AMBASSADOR 2013–14 Wear the latest ADEX 2013 T-shirt* I had to take the model and physiological phenomena. The (Hanes USA, 100% ring-spun cotton CELEBRITY SPEAKERS extrapolate beyond that. I did the MM: You were the one on the degree that the model is valid for Beefy T) and visit ADEX 2013 for FREE OCEAN ARTISTS on all 3 days (worth up to S$30) UNDERWATER PHOTO+VIDEO SEMINARS same thing on the 660 feet dive line. a given exposure is the degree ADEX 2013 T-shirt is available for purchase two months later. to which you do or you don’t get online in underwater3some.com for S$25 VOICE OF THE OCEAN COMPETITION *while stocks last BIG BLUE BOOK: WHALE SHARKS (LIMITED EDITION) SE: I wouldn’t begin to say that I bent. A lot of the early models MM: You know a lot of people could construct better decom- were very simple, like a kid with Official publication Held in Endorsed by In association with would say, “Sheck is nuts.” Why pression tables than Bill Hamilton, building blocks—not much to would he construct his own Angel Soto or Randy Bohrer, all of them. Of course, they’ve become Network who later worked with me. I don’t more sophisticated now, but their

83 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley anything other than skin bends. because my profile called for MM: Are you scared or anxious It’s a combination of a lot of luck, me to stage three bottles of before your big dives? probably some unique physiology decompression gas at 330 feet. SE: Up until the time I get in the when I was younger, and a lot of We didn’t want to do any mix water, I’m scared. I’m sure I get conservatism as I get older. Fear. dives before the big one because as scared as any diver there of the possibility of getting bent was. In fact, I got so scared the MM: The decompression times which would mess up the whole night before my Mante dive—I’m success still depends on whether you pulled on your Mante dives expedition, so I did the dive on air not sure what caused it—I actu- or not they work. are so amazing, ten hours plus for and got my tissues ready. ally became physically ill. I don’t your 780 foot jump and more on As far as being psychologi- know whether it was a short little MM: Have you ever been bent? your last one to 870 feet. cally ready for the tedium of bug or what. The way I control it the thing, I was just coming off a is through meditation. I meditate SE: Never. Well, sometimes when SE: [Exley pulls out his log] My 520- record penetration at Chip’s Hole for ten minutes back in the cave I’m wearing a and woo- foot dive required seven hours near Tallahasee, Florida, for 10, before I start down; that clears len underwear, I’ve surfaced with and 30 minutes of decompression 444 feet, which was the longest my head of all that stuff. what may have been skin bends, for a 15-minute bottom time. Two dive I ever made—14 hours in 69 but I don’t know. I’ve never had months later, the 660-foot dive degree water with a . MM: When you were in the water for 24 minutes took 11 did you think about all the things hours and 13 minutes. MM: You survived! that could go wrong or do you The following year I just deal with things as they hap- made my dive to 780 SE: What made it worse was that pen? feet using Bill’s tables, I was in a the whole time. which were only 10 I got cold. Fortunately the chemi- SE: I spent roughly nine months hours and 43 minutes cal heaters I was using kept me in preparation for my last dive at for a 24-minute bottom alive. After that, decompression Mante, in addition to my previous time. Besides the fact I at Mante, in 78-degree water dives there. You play “what if “ was more confident in seemed pretty easy as far as time and try to think of every possible the safety factor in his went. As you know, with helium thing that could go wrong, and tables, he got me out mixes I was making about 50 odd figure out all the little variations. of the water quicker. stops all of them relatively short. You make plans and redundant My most recent dive to The time passed very quickly and plans to handle those things, and 870 feet for 23 minutes I had plenty to keep me busy rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. And had a decompression including wondering if all the little then when you make the dive, of 13 hours and 30 min- twitches were going to be bends, it’s all business. Your mind is totally utes. CNS toxicity, or just my old bones occupied with everything that getting tired. has to happen. A lot of it has to MM: How do you pre- happen very quickly. It’s mental pare for decompres- MM: You did it in a wetsuit? conditioning. I wouldn’t be alive sand...” is ingrained in my memo- SE: It was dumb on my part. After sion like that? It must today if it wasn’t for that. ry; but when your talking about a that, I carried three watches on have physically and SE: No, in a drysuit. 30-minute stop, you’re counting each dive, and I had another one mentally grueling? MM: I heard that your watch went on your fingers. Eventually my waiting for me at 520 feet with an MM: Diapers or a catheter? dead during one of your deep safety diver, Mary Ellen Eckoff, additional . Back up, SE: From the standpoint decompression stops? who’s probably one of the best back up, back up! of getting my tissues SE: No, I just cut it loose. Those are cave divers in the world, and prepared, Bill Hamilton the only dives I use that drysuit for. SE: It was the 520-foot dive and by far the best female, came to MM: What about the cave itself? suggested that I make And I enjoy having the back-up it didn’t stop; I lost my watch on check on me at my 80-foot stop a deep dive, but not compensation the dry the dive and I wound up count- and brought me a watch. SE: It’s real involved. What helps is too extensive, the day suit provides. I sure wouldn’t want ing all my deeper stops from 260 having gone there before. I don’t before just to get my to be down at 900 feet without feet in my head. Fortunately, I’ve MM: Let me ask you the obvious think anyone’s going to down tissues limbered up. buoyancy. known CPR since I was 16, so that question; why weren’t you wear- and add to my line anytime soon, That worked out real second, “one-one-thousand, two- ing a back up? although it’s only a matter of time well with my plans one-thousand, three-one-thou- before someone goes out there

84 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley go quietly, amid the noise and haste... you’d like. MM: How about your support [ 3 hours @ 20m - no deco ] That’s where team? you have to hang your SE: I had lots of help. Jochen decompres- shared some information. Dale sion tanks. The Sweet shared everything he knew passages are and supported me with equip- very narrow; ment. Paul De Loach, my regular some of them diving partner, maybe the best too narrow to cave diver we have, helped me; go through. If Mary Ellen Eckoff, Tom Morris, Paul you drop any- Smith, Paul Heinerth, Mexico’s top thing it’s gone two divers, Sergio Zambrano, and and you have Angel Soto, who headed up my to plan your support teams, Randy Bohrer, and gas carefully. of course Bill Hamilton, the list just the of choice from 6m to 160m I try to goes on and on. design every- thing around MM: You know there’s an old joke the thirds rule. running around. People ask me all I overestimate the time, “What kind of regulators my breath- did Sheck use on his Mante dives?” ing rate at Answer: Every one he could get all levels and his hands on. Obviously rigging 30 provided a some cylinders took a fair bit of

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mixtures to sponsorships, calling in the news a m stay within the media, getting official Bahamian I toxic- folks to come and witness the ity envelope, thing, all that kind of stuff. It put a third party test-house approved patented dual oxygen controllers with independent displays and power sources both CNS and lot of on the divers. As a optional open circuit bailout mouthpiece high performance scrubber proven to 160m trimix or decompression with “whole body”, result of the pressure, two divers user variable gradient factors and multiple gasses polyethylene fibre-optic dual head up displays future proofed software and does it. It would be very dif- raising the oxygen and nitrogen never came up. That’s when I upgradeable by user uploads & hardware upgradeable with plug and play versatility pc log download 9 language options ficult however for someone who’s levels as I go up. Generally I try to made my famous air dive to 465 crystal clear primary display hard memory storage - gas, options and history retained even when the batteries are removed never been there before to jump in run my nitrogen levels as high as feet, which almost cost me my life. patented scrubber monitor with effective warnings full customer support and aftersales - spares & service the equipment of the water at Mante and go to the tolerable, and switch over at 280 I couldn’t reach them and nobody choice for underwater photographers, film-makers, marine biologists, cavers, under-ice explorers, deep dive specialists, deep support bottom. You really have to build feet from air to deep mix on the else could either. They knew going teams, expedition divers and sport & technical diving enthusiasts worldwide - all achieving time and depth profiles previously unthinkable up to it. And then there are a lot of way down, and from deep mix to into the dive that their profile was intricacies. For example, the cave air on the way up. I used two deep not ideal. There were safety fac- A M B I E N T P R E S S U R E D I V I N G is not really designed for decom- mixes this last time, 13 mixes in all. tors that they had counted on pression. You have a strong current And I do a lot of other things as that were compromised at the last t e l : 0 0 4 4 1 3 2 6 5 6 3 8 3 4 e m a i l : i n f o @ a p d i v i n g . c o m w e b : w w w . a p d i v i n g . c o m blasting upwards and very jagged well. I worry about diet before the minute under the pressure from the s p a r e s & a c c e s s o r i e s o n l i n e a t w w w . a p d i v i n g d i r e c t . c o m s e e a p d i v i n g . c o m f o r y o u r n e a r e s t i n s t r u c t o r sharp ledges, but not as many as dive and during the dive. sponsorship, the media and this

85 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley SE: My best friend back in the on trimix and got severely hypo- foot dives on air, because most early 70’s was probably Lewis thermic. We were all looking and people can’t possibly handle it to Holtzendorf. Gosh, he was one thinking, my God, what’s going that extent; it’s just one of those of the best we had back in the on. You have to understand, the individual things. Trying to build early and mid-70’s. Lewis made world depth record for cave div- up beyond 200 feet, you’re taking a mixed gas dive at Wakulla with ing was only 340 feet back in 1977 chances. Maybe you can handle whole expedition scenario. They Court Smith. They were diving heli- and it stayed that way until Sweet it, maybe you can’t. compromised their safety proce- ox, and using the U.S. Navy heli- made his successful trimix dive at dures and died as a result. um/oxygen tables, which called Diepolder in 1980. It was Jochen’s MM: Physiological roulette?

I never want to be in that situa- for the use of pure O2 at 50 feet. dives that got me thinking that tion. That’s why I keep my involve- We know now, that was asinine, mixed gas might be done safely. SE: Exactly. I was one of the lucky ment small. I don’t want a lot of but back then they thought the ones, or perhaps, unlucky ones. big sponsors. I don’t want a lot profile was safe, and discussed it MM: Sheck, you’ve done a lot of of divers around. Those that are with one of the Navy people at deep air diving over the course MM: Is air technology dead? involved are close friends and I the Experimental Dive Unit (EDU). of your career; you’ve mentioned tell them up front, “We might just As it turned out, Lewis convulsed quite a few deep air dives over SE: I don’t think so. I think there be going to Mexico for a long and died. His partner almost did, the last half hour. What are the will always be a use for air. Hal drive, turn around and come too. That was 1975. practical limits of air? Watts really got the deeper air back. If I’m sick, or just don’t feel There were other incidents. stuff started from the viewpoint right, or if a light goes out at the Hal Watts had tried to do a SE: You have to understand, I’ve of trying to acclimate to higher wrong time, whatever, the dive’s body recovery in an open sink built up a lot of experience and partial of nitrogen, but over.” in Orlando on and got tolerance to nitrogen over the last as we continue to learn more, severely bent in the process. After 25 years, and what works for me like some of the amazing stuff MM: I understand you were nerv- that, Frank Fogarty, Terry Moore might not work for everyone. In ’s doing, it will make it ous about getting involved with and Rodger Miller made a 325- the early days air was all we had easier for the rest of us to dive to mix in the beginning. foot run in a Missouri sink, in 1978, and we didn’t have the knowl- 200 feet, maybe more. Let’s face edge we had today. If I it: we have a lot of experience were starting again, I’d prob- with air and we’re more comfort- ably do things a lot different. able with the decompression. I’m Today, I think you have to not aware of any helium tables look at each individual envi- that are as reliable as some of the ronment and application air tables that are available. The and judge it on that basis. decompression is more reason- There are quite a few peo- able and you can decompress ple who are teaching deep closer to the surface. If you can air technique these days. I do a dive on air, or an appropri- know Hal Watts, ate enriched air mix, and do it

and I do and there are oth- safely, you ought to do it. ann krislovich ers. With those techniques, basically anyone can be MM: What about people going ested in seeing. We’ve all known ple who want to venture deeper, taught to dive to 200 feet. deeper? from the beginning of cave diving rather than say “Don’t” and be Beyond that it becomes an in Florida, that the most beauti- seen as hypocrites. Otherwise individual thing. SE: It’s obvious that there’s an ful and interesting caves are all people will begin to think, “Well, if Nowadays, the only enormous amount of interest that deeper than 130 feet. It’s sad. that rule isn’t worth paying atten- rational recommendation has been generated, particularly You know we tell people, “Don’t tion to, maybe they all aren’t.” is to build yourself up to now with the advent of mix gas go below 130,” and then we turn where you can do your air diving. Back in the 60’s and 70’s right around and do it ourselves. MM: Deep diving is getting more dives to 200 feet; than after we used to try as instructors to All cave diving instructors dive expensive. Do you think that will 200 do your helium diving. tell everyone there’s not much to deeper than 130 feet. limit people? There’s no longer any point see beyond 130 feet. Of course I think it’s more realistic to try to to build ourselves up to 300- it depends on what you’re inter- establish some guidelines for peo-

86 X-RAY MAG : 50 : 2012 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO tech talk Exley MM: Love. Perhaps that really threw at the problem. Amundsen been learned there seems to be is the key to it all. What’s your was poor and didn’t have much, some real potential for hydreliox advice for people who want to but he carefully thought out eve- [an oxygen, helium, hydrogen expand their diving capabilities? rything, every little step of the mix] though no one has looked way with infinite preparation. He at its use for deep bounce dives. SE: Don’t forget the basics. Make listened to everyone for advise, With the kind of compression rates SE: Diving is a much more expen- sure you have plenty of gas, even the Eskimos who Scott I was dealing with at Mante, you sive pursuit now then it’s ever make sure you know the way thought were ignorant savages need the heavy nitrogen to avoid been. And when the rebreath- back, and make damn sure if who couldn’t possibly have any HPNS, but I’d rather have the ers start coming out—Bill Stone’s you’re going into nitrogen land ideas. The end result was that hydrogen. probably real close to having a or helium land, you know what Amundsen got to the South Pole fully redundant closed circuit sys- you’re doing. first and Scott wound up killing MM: What about Mante? Are you tem now—it’s going to be even himself and a lot of other people. planning to dive any deeper? more expensive. Quite frankly, MM: How about you? Who do I think Amundsen provides a tre- the people who want to do these you look to for inspiration? mendous role model for explorers SE: I’ve had opportunities to go dives are going to find the money and divers. deeper, but it looks real unlikely to do them. I remember when SE: There’s a book by Roland with my advancing age that I’ll scooters first came out. Shoot, Huntford called, The Last Place MM: What are your diving plans go back down there. I’d like to I didn’t have any money. But I On Earth, which contrasts the Sheck? see more people go as deep as realized if I wanted to continue exploration styles of Robert Falcon I’ve been in Mante before I go to do the type of diving I wanted Scott and Roland Amundsen in SE: I have a cave real close to me too much further. Since Jochen to do, I had to step up, borrow their drive to reach the South here on my property. In fact, it’s got the bends so bad he had to the money and buy one. I did. Bill Pole. Scott was the guy with all under my feet as we talk. The last quit diving, there is no one else Stone once made the observa- the money, recognition, power time I went diving there I was over who’s been beyond 500 feet. tion that he wasn’t aware of any and supplies, which he arrogantly two miles underground and the You know it’s funny, on my last explorers that died rich. thing was still 50 feet wide two Mante dives, my first decom- and 20 feet high and pression stops were at 520 feet. MM: What does it take to going strong. No telling Only one other person had ever be a cave explorer? how far it goes. I haven’t been that deep and here I was seen that anywhere else. making a decompression stop. SE: You have to love it. All these other Florida How crazy can I be? I’d like to You have to love the div- caves start branching see Jim King and some of the oth- ing. Loving recognition is out, getting smaller; this ers start diving to 500 feet, then not enough. That wears one just keeps on going I’d feel better about going a little off. That’s why you see and going and going. I’d deeper. such a high instructor like to see what’s back dropout rate. The ones there, but I’m not sure I’ll MM: Five hundred feet, a thou- that got in it because it’s be able to do it with the sand feet? That’s pretty heady another merit badge and technology we have right stuff. What do you think the ulti- everyone around thought now. A lot of our tech- mate limit will be? it was a big deal—it wears nology may be obsolete off. You see it over and here in a short while. SE: There is no limit. We’ll always over again in diving. When find a way to go deeper and Writer, diver and technologist (1990-1996), which helped usher I got started in diving back MM: I guess you’re going deeper. That’s been the pattern Michael Menduno has written tech diving into the mainstream in the 60’s, I wanted to be to have to borrow some all along. Ten years from now, about science, technology and of sports diving, and coined the special. I grew out of that more money and plunk it 20 years from now, people will diving for Alert Diver, DIVER, term “technical diving.” Menduno and got to where I just down on one of Stone’s be doing things we’ve never Newsweek, Scientific American, recently completed his GUE loved diving, and that’s rebreathers. dreamed of. And I see no reason Outside and WIRED magazines. Fundamentals and is based in what kept me going. If I for it to change. He was also the founder, and Berkeley, California, USA. He can hadn’t I would have quit a SE: And then there’s editor-in-chief of aquaCORPS: be reached at: michael@mendu- long time ago. hydrogen. From what I’ve The Journal for Technical Diving no.com. ■

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