I thought weeki wachee only opened up like once a decade or something?
Twin Dees / Weeki Wachee Beleriand Tunnel
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kafkaland
Contributor
Some day... I guess I can dream, and get more experience and training in the meantime.
PfcAJ
Contributor
soccerrefjason
Contributor
Positively stunning...
At the risk of derailing a thread, who are the folks that first pioneer these systems. I guess my question to those persons is how do you get in the right frame of mind to first plunge into a tube that you honestly have no idea the what the final outcome will be all the while continuing to calculate the distance travelled.. "100' 200' 300' still no room to turn around but this is gonna be awesome." I'm not looking for a "Some people get it and some people don't" type of response. In that respect I'll just let you know for me being in a "hostile environment", and having the wall of a tube touch me on both shoulders is truly not for me. What I am curious about is how you mentally put yourself in the right frame of mind to push through and enter that next room.
At the risk of derailing a thread, who are the folks that first pioneer these systems. I guess my question to those persons is how do you get in the right frame of mind to first plunge into a tube that you honestly have no idea the what the final outcome will be all the while continuing to calculate the distance travelled.. "100' 200' 300' still no room to turn around but this is gonna be awesome." I'm not looking for a "Some people get it and some people don't" type of response. In that respect I'll just let you know for me being in a "hostile environment", and having the wall of a tube touch me on both shoulders is truly not for me. What I am curious about is how you mentally put yourself in the right frame of mind to push through and enter that next room.
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LiteHedded
Contributor
with the amount of water pumping out of there it's a pretty good bet it's going to open up into big cave.
but towards the bottom of the chute you can tell it's going to pop out into a room. the rest of the cave, while small, is easily scooterable (before the big stuff)
Six Feet Under
Contributor
Truly amazing how huge those tunnels can get.
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apitkin
Registered
Thanks for all the kind comments everyone.
Twin Dees is truly a wonderful cave and is definitely in my top 5. Brett Hemphill and I connected it to Weeki Wachee last year so the two caves are now one system. Weeki was also in my top 5 so that has made an extra slot
We last were able to get into Weeki Wachee in 2012, and we will not be able to get in there in 2015, so as AJ says Twin Dees has become the 'back door'. Unfortunately it's a long way away - about 7000 feet from the Twin Dees entrance and about a mile of that is at 300 feet.Like most things, this is something you work up to. Anywhere that water comes out of the ground you have the possibility of an associated cave. So the first time you dive it (if you are lucky enough to be the first) you may be just breath holding with a light to see if there is anything there, or "power-snorkling" with a 30 or 40 cu ft bottle. Once you find something, you progressively explore it over a number of dives, using the gear and configuration most appropriate for the dive and the logistics.
As far as the mindset goes, that is also a progressive thing. When you first start cave diving, just having rock over your head may cause you some anxiety. As you get used to that you may increase the depth and penetration distance. This will happen over a number of dives so that you have a chance to learn how to deal with problems and thereby have the confidence that you can deal with them. The same is true for the small stuff - you incrementally dive in smaller and tighter cave. Nobody (unless they are crazy) squeezes through a tight body-tube pushing their tanks ahead of them as soon as they are cave-certified, and most cave divers never do. Over time you go through smaller and smaller restrictions, getting stuck a few times, getting used to handling the line in zero visibility etc etc.
I guess the short version is: there is no substitute for experience, and I mean specific experience in the kind of environment you are diving. Not exactly headline news to anyone.
Andy
Great video even better exploration efforts!
Andy
Excellent comments that I hope is taken in while people are watching a mesmerizing video. We have many cases where someone fairly newly certified can easily get over their head because things can seem deceptively easy. Just as we give recognition that an Olympic athlete has taken years to reach the pinnacle they are competing at, cave diving has the same quailities, and needs greater respect because mistakes can be unforgiving.
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