Why i dive for fossils........

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iamsharky

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As I was laying on the bottom of a river this past trip, I was thinking about my journey as a fossil hunter. When your on the bottom of the river with nothing to really see you find yourself thinking about alot of different things.

In 02, I received my open water certification and went immediately into cave diving, going through the courses and training until I received my full cave certification. At the intro level of cave diving in 2003, my family and I traveled to Charleston, SC for my sister in law's wedding. Ok, I will be traveling to SC for several days, it sure would be nice to dive........I recalled reading in Advanced Diver Magazine about blackwater fossil hunting in the Cooper river. Lugged my gear and family to SC.

Went out on the charter boat, dropped into what seemed like nothingness and hit a clay bottom. I crawled around on the bottom searching through gravel piles. Upon the sight of the first gravel pile, I was hooked. Not on a rusty lure but on fossils. I am sure it probaly is the same feeling as a drug addict to his drug, but this was legal and probaly alot more fun. I had found frags and a few 2-3 inch megs mostly beat up stuff, but man was I proud and amazed, showing my whole family my loot.

The Cooper was about a 5 hour ride one way and on the way home I told my wife that I did not know what I was going to do because I was hooked on fossil diving after just one trip. Upon arrival at home I started searching maps for rivers that were closer that I could dive. After finding a suitable blackwater site, I recruited my next door neighbor, a cowboy sort of gentleman in his 80's who had a small john boat. We left early one morning and upon arrival at the river, I told him to drop me off on a curb that looked good. I dropped down to the bottom and within minutes found a 5 inch meg, that was covered in rust, crust or something. It had significant enamel peel but it was so cool and I still have that tooth. I found several smaller great white teeth which were also encrusted with something and left due to a terrible lightning storm. I would have stayed but understandibly, my neighbor was nervous being on the surface in that metal boat...

That fall, I bought a boat and dove that river every week from 2003 through 2011. I may have missed a few weeks but the majority of time I dove every week, year round, doing 3tank dives. This was blackwater diving and there are alot of stories about victories and close calls. With me doing all the cave diving and blackwater, I pretty well felt I could dive anywhere, anytime. I had heard alot of people speak of zero viz diving. yea, sure zero viz, I dive blackwater all of the time, it has to be the same. In the black water, the water is still clear but it's just black and depending on sediment and temperature of the water viz may be anywhere from 6 feet to a foot or so, although I had experienced zero viz at times.

Then a friend let me go dive with him and I discovered what zero viz was all about. These are dive sites very near the ocean. Fishermen were catching black tip sharks in the same spot that we were at. Within minutes of descending into pure whiteness where I could not read my air gauge, I was tempted to call the dive and just give it up to crazy. I ended up standing up in the river with my light right on the spg trying to read it. I later learned to stick the light on the spg and stick the spg right to your mask and then the spg would glow and you could see how much air you had. I did luck up and find a tooth and another chapter in my dive career had begun.

Now I have discovered there are different degrees of no viz diving. A white out and a brown out. Both are no viz but the brown out is actually more no viz than a white out. Hard to explain but true. Now I am hooked on no viz diving which take my word, is not like blackwater diving. Be careful out there diving and lets hear some of your stories.
 
Well, for me, I was your typical land hunter for fossils. I would crawl in the canals and creeks just digging and sifting. One day, a fellow fossil collector invited me over and showed me his collection and I was amazed at how big it was and how nice a lot of it looked. He said he only dives now for fossils.

Another year would go by before another friend invited me out with him to the river and he was going to dive and I was going to snorkel. After a little bit, he said "Mike, why don't you come with me on this next tank, you can use my octo to breathe and this way you can see what it is like". So I did and we were only in maybe 8 feet of water and had about two feet visibility but man was I pumped! I was so excited that I didn't realize how fast I was breathing.

So, off I went in search of getting certified and once I had my certification I secured my hobby divers license (this is required in SC). Since I started in the Edisto river, I guess that is where I have stayed for the most part but on occasion I get wet in other places. Tomorrow I am diving in the Cooper for the first time. I know, I live right here in Charleston and have been diving for a few years but honestly I have never dived in the Cooper.

I have found so many cool things and like Sharky said, it is like a drug because it experience stuff that I would never had experienced if I never would have become a fossil diver. This has pushed me to get into better shape physically and my wife even says I am in a way better mood and relaxed after I dive. I enjoy the finds but I also enjoy meeting others that share this crazy hobby as well.

I like to golf, and relic hunt on land, and I really enjoy riding my Harley around, as this is a great stress reliever but diving is very relaxing for me and I think back to the first tank I dived by my self, I bet it didn't last me 40 minutes, lol and now I go for at least 75 minutes a tank.

One thing I would like to add to my hobby is combining fossil diving with underwater relic hunting. That is exactly what I will do tomorrow. I already have a great under water metal detector (Minelab Excalibur) so I thought, why not? lol

I know some people love the big megs and angy's, they sure are some pretty teeth but for me, I like the Mako, to me that is a nice looking tooth.

Some things on my list to find would be complete mammoth tooth, complete mastodon tooth, a large whale tooth, a mako over 3.5", a 6" meg, I would take a partial tusk (hey, I'm not greedy as long as the piece is about a foot long, :wink:), and a 3" benedini tooth.

Since fossil diving I find myself looking for teeth when I get near water, I even started spotting them at the aquariums we go to. I know, it is a sickness for sure but hey, I am not looking for a cure~!


Be safe and ALWAYS listen to your sixth sense, if it doesn't feel right, back away. You can always come back and dive another day then to push yourself into a potentially bad situation.


One more thing, when I tell people what I do they ask if I was scared to dive with sharks and alligators. I say no, gators don't tend to bother you and honestly, the dang water moccasins bother me more! LOL
 
Well those are some interesting auto biographys.

Why does one dive for fossils? Hmm.... good question.

In my case it started along about 1996. I had a pal that told me his hobby was fossil hunting. My mouth hung open because I had never heard of such. In time, he showed me his collection and I was amazed. He was also a diver, so we did some North Carolina dives together. He talked about a place, somewhat like heaven, that all serious fossil hunters aspired to. It was called Aurora. One afternoon after a dive, we wandered around the country-side, north of Morehead City NC, hoping to stumble upon this place called Aurora and some fossil beds. Kinda silly when I look back at it, but it was fun riding the ferrys, goofing off, and learning about fossiling as a hobby.

Years later I had a cave diver pal that wanted to find a "BIG SHARKS TOOTH". We met this guy named Phill that had a boat and invited us to dive the Cooper with him. That was around 12 years ago and I am still fossiling with Phill today. I have dove off of many Cooper river dive charters, many of which are long time gone out of business.

I have fossiled the Wando river with SCUBA and the Edisto river. These days my favorite is the Edisto. I suppose because it is such a friendly river and I dont think it has been worked near as hard as the Cooper.

Somewhere in those many, many fossil hunts, I got hooked by the shark tooth addiction. I did not choose fossil hunting as a hobby BUT it chose me. I did not have any say so in the matter.

I like Mikes list of things he would like to have in his collection. Something I did not see in his list is a Saber tooth tiger skull with fangs. This is one of the fossils that looms in the back of my mind.
 
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