NOVA on Cave Diving

[Kingpatzer]

Did any of our cave diving members see the NOVA on PBS that followed cave divers in the Bahamas while doing fossil prospecting?

What did you think of the coverage? Was there anything that stood out as really well done? Or something that struck you as ludicrously off?

What was your overall impression?

 

[BabyDuck]

i haven't seen it yet, but there are plenty of threads discussing it (on other boards if not here), and the thing that stands out for most is lots of added drama & scariness that just isn't true, and that it needed more diving! 8)

 

[Docc]

Did any of our cave diving members see the NOVA on PBS that followed cave divers in the Bahamas while doing fossil prospecting?

What did you think of the coverage? Was there anything that stood out as really well done? Or something that struck you as ludicrously off?

What was your overall impression?

Wes and Jill were their usual fantastic selves and the videography was excellent. Narration sucked. I would have liked more underwater footage and less scientists above water footage.

It's worth a look-see.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Idk both Wes and Jill did their parts to hype up the drama and sensationalism I think.

 

[TSandM]

There was definitely too much drama; on the other hand, they did have a near zero-viz situation from percolation, and they chose to show it.

Skiles' video was, as always, stunning, and I think for the non cave-diving obsessed nutcase, there was probably a good balance of underwater footage with the research stuff from on land. I found the story of the disappearing species in the Bahamas interesting, myself, even if it did get in the way of the cave footage

I object to the one piece of gross misinformation, which is that we lose 20 cave divers a year. As far as I can ascertain, it's been sometime since that was true, and we don't lose trained and experienced cave divers WHO ARE FOLLOWING THE RULES.

Overall, I think this was a show that was pretty well-crafted to appeal to people who either don't dive at all, or have dived a few times but never even knew that people dove in caves.

 

[Dhboner]

Did I hear correctly...when the young lady was explaining rebreathers, did she say that1 out of every 10 sold malfunction? I hope I heard wrong or my son is NOT getting into rebreather diving!

Bob

 

[CamG]

Greetings fellow divers I watched the NOVA program and found it to be well done.
It has to be impossible task to edit 15 days of expedition into about 45 min. of finished run time. I agree with some of the comments that it was presented in a broad way to appeal to everyone divers or just your average person.
To respond to the dangerous hype drama, that is how untrained people respond to most extreme "risky" activity. I think it was meant to be part of the allure to catch viewers.
Those trained divers understand the risks and how to manage them. To the untrained it is like watching a space walk.
I would love to see the raw diving footage because I love what Wes and Jill do with a camera. It would be awesome.
The content of the expedition was very interesting and I really wish it had been a two hour special to get into the search and recovery of the fossils as well as follow the scientific process. Dating and identifying is awesome science to observe.
Over all I stick with it being well done. It is tough to cover so much information in such a short time. The hour was a teaser for me, I now am seeking out the rest of the footage!
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

 

[Docc]

I think for the non cave-diving obsessed nutcase, there was probably a good balance of underwater footage with the research stuff from on land.

I think I just got called a nut case.

 

[pdelannoy]

I watched it and thought it was great. I could have done with less surface time though.

PD

 

[H2O 70]

I really liked the piece on how they can use the stalagmite to look at the history of climate. The bit about the Sahara dust was pretty revealing.