[Texascavers] Mexico in June

[michael david]

Just returned from a week of diving in Cozumel and Tulum. Spent a few days
in Cozumel enjoying palancar reefs with my daughter and then we all went to
Tulum to finish the trip off with some cenotes.

On Coz we did a couple dives in Aerolito (underwater cave system), checked
out the sulfer falls and dead zone areas. Enjoyed a dive with German
and then left for the mainland.

Stayed at Robbies (Xibalba dive center )
in Tulum. Xibalba is a great place to say, the rooms are very nice and
relaxing at the end of the day in the pool was welcome after fighting off
the mosquitoes at some of the cenotes.


We revisited some of our favorite places, Grand Cenote, Car Wash, Dos Ojos
and dove Mayan Blue and Temple of Doom for the first time. The mosquitoes at
Mayan Blue are not to be underestimated...we ended up driving to the main
road after the dive still in our wetsuits, masks and hoods while Cora
continued to kill them off in the car...no amount of bug killer would
suffice...you must be covered up...however the cave was beautiful and worth
the bumps.

Mayan Blue (Cenote Escondido)


Car Wash (Aktun ha)


Temple of Doom (posted at Cenote Cala Vera on road)


My daughter really enjoyed the cenote tours with Richie from Xibalba; we all
dove Angelita and it was basically just like the pictures...now she's
talking about wanting to take a cavern course.

We only took a couple videos as we were mostly diving new systems and
passages and have a policy that we only video tape after diving the exact
route at least three times.
Here's a short video of the River Run line in Dos Ojos...i know i know, the
camera is 11 years old and we don't have the correct lights...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WFsXmkLrk

Also proposed to Cora in the Grand Cenote right about where we took this
picture. Now planning a wedding for next year, seriously considering doing
it underwater and in a cave as that will be reduce the guest list and our
expenses considerably.
Grand Cenote (Sac Aktun)


Tulum Tips
On the way down to Tulum from Playa stop at the ty-coz vendor at the first
gas station on the right. The economic sandwich is 15 pesos...and worth
every bit.


Be sure to check the gas pump BEFORE you get a fill, no matter how you argue
with the attendant that 30 liters is NOT a half a tank, ask him to call the
police or demand to see his manager you will end up still giving $10 extra
unless you ensure the pump is zeroed out BEFORE filling anything.
Coba ruins

[Texascavers] Mexico in June

[michael david]

Just returned from a week of diving in Cozumel and Tulum. Spent a few days
in Cozumel enjoying palancar reefs with my daughter and then we all went to
Tulum to finish the trip off with some cenotes.

On Coz we did a couple dives in Aerolito (underwater cave system), checked
out the sulfer falls and dead zone areas. Enjoyed a dive with German
and then left for the mainland.

Stayed at Robbies (Xibalba dive center )
in Tulum. Xibalba is a great place to say, the rooms are very nice and
relaxing at the end of the day in the pool was welcome after fighting off
the mosquitoes at some of the cenotes.


We revisited some of our favorite places, Grand Cenote, Car Wash, Dos Ojos
and dove Mayan Blue and Temple of Doom for the first time. The mosquitoes at
Mayan Blue are not to be underestimated...we ended up driving to the main
road after the dive still in our wetsuits, masks and hoods while Cora
continued to kill them off in the car...no amount of bug killer would
suffice...you must be covered up...however the cave was beautiful and worth
the bumps.

Mayan Blue (Cenote Escondido)


Car Wash (Aktun ha)


Temple of Doom (posted at Cenote Cala Vera on road)


My daughter really enjoyed the cenote tours with Richie from Xibalba; we all
dove Angelita and it was basically just like the pictures...now she's
talking about wanting to take a cavern course.

We only took a couple videos as we were mostly diving new systems and
passages and have a policy that we only video tape after diving the exact
route at least three times.
Here's a short video of the River Run line in Dos Ojos...i know i know, the
camera is 11 years old and we don't have the correct lights...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WFsXmkLrk

Also proposed to Cora in the Grand Cenote right about where we took this
picture. Now planning a wedding for next year, seriously considering doing
it underwater and in a cave as that will be reduce the guest list and our
expenses considerably.
Grand Cenote (Sac Aktun)


Tulum Tips
On the way down to Tulum from Playa stop at the ty-coz vendor at the first
gas station on the right. The economic sandwich is 15 pesos...and worth
every bit.


Be sure to check the gas pump BEFORE you get a fill, no matter how you argue
with the attendant that 30 liters is NOT a half a tank, ask him to call the
police or demand to see his manager you will end up still giving $10 extra
unless you ensure the pump is zeroed out BEFORE filling anything.
Coba ruins

[Texascavers] Mexico in June

[michael david]

Just returned from a week of diving in Cozumel and Tulum. Spent a few days
in Cozumel enjoying palancar reefs with my daughter and then we all went to
Tulum to finish the trip off with some cenotes.

On Coz we did a couple dives in Aerolito (underwater cave system), checked
out the sulfer falls and dead zone areas. Enjoyed a dive with German
and then left for the mainland.

Stayed at Robbies (Xibalba dive center )
in Tulum. Xibalba is a great place to say, the rooms are very nice and
relaxing at the end of the day in the pool was welcome after fighting off
the mosquitoes at some of the cenotes.


We revisited some of our favorite places, Grand Cenote, Car Wash, Dos Ojos
and dove Mayan Blue and Temple of Doom for the first time. The mosquitoes at
Mayan Blue are not to be underestimated...we ended up driving to the main
road after the dive still in our wetsuits, masks and hoods while Cora
continued to kill them off in the car...no amount of bug killer would
suffice...you must be covered up...however the cave was beautiful and worth
the bumps.

Mayan Blue (Cenote Escondido)


Car Wash (Aktun ha)


Temple of Doom (posted at Cenote Cala Vera on road)


My daughter really enjoyed the cenote tours with Richie from Xibalba; we all
dove Angelita and it was basically just like the pictures...now she's
talking about wanting to take a cavern course.

We only took a couple videos as we were mostly diving new systems and
passages and have a policy that we only video tape after diving the exact
route at least three times.
Here's a short video of the River Run line in Dos Ojos...i know i know, the
camera is 11 years old and we don't have the correct lights...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WFsXmkLrk

Also proposed to Cora in the Grand Cenote right about where we took this
picture. Now planning a wedding for next year, seriously considering doing
it underwater and in a cave as that will be reduce the guest list and our
expenses considerably.
Grand Cenote (Sac Aktun)


Tulum Tips
On the way down to Tulum from Playa stop at the ty-coz vendor at the first
gas station on the right. The economic sandwich is 15 pesos...and worth
every bit.


Be sure to check the gas pump BEFORE you get a fill, no matter how you argue
with the attendant that 30 liters is NOT a half a tank, ask him to call the
police or demand to see his manager you will end up still giving $10 extra
unless you ensure the pump is zeroed out BEFORE filling anything.
Coba ruins

[Texascavers] North Florida Trip Report/Haiku

[michael david]

Cora and I had a friend die this year in Tank Cave.
We had to go to Rock Bluff where she spent lots of time exploring to make
peace.
We miss Agnes and love her cave, we'll be spending lots of time in there.

I wrote a trip report haiku for a cave forumhere it is with the video we
took this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hrj_hKz9s&feature=channel_video_title

Another cave trip
Such fun diving in Rock Bluff
Taking video

It's humbling diving
training with Dan Patterson
His trim is unreal

The bar is now set
Higher than before, we stretch
to expand our skills

Madison Blue rocks
Godzilla room is still there
Beckoning us in

Amigos is great
Wayne is a stellar person
Cannot wait to move

[Texascavers] North Florida Trip Report/Haiku

[michael david]

Cora and I had a friend die this year in Tank Cave.
We had to go to Rock Bluff where she spent lots of time exploring to make
peace.
We miss Agnes and love her cave, we'll be spending lots of time in there.

I wrote a trip report haiku for a cave forumhere it is with the video we
took this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hrj_hKz9s&feature=channel_video_title

Another cave trip
Such fun diving in Rock Bluff
Taking video

It's humbling diving
training with Dan Patterson
His trim is unreal

The bar is now set
Higher than before, we stretch
to expand our skills

Madison Blue rocks
Godzilla room is still there
Beckoning us in

Amigos is great
Wayne is a stellar person
Cannot wait to move

[Texascavers] North Florida Trip Report/Haiku

[michael david]

Cora and I had a friend die this year in Tank Cave.
We had to go to Rock Bluff where she spent lots of time exploring to make
peace.
We miss Agnes and love her cave, we'll be spending lots of time in there.

I wrote a trip report haiku for a cave forumhere it is with the video we
took this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hrj_hKz9s&feature=channel_video_title

Another cave trip
Such fun diving in Rock Bluff
Taking video

It's humbling diving
training with Dan Patterson
His trim is unreal

The bar is now set
Higher than before, we stretch
to expand our skills

Madison Blue rocks
Godzilla room is still there
Beckoning us in

Amigos is great
Wayne is a stellar person
Cannot wait to move

[Texascavers] australian cave diving accident

[michael david]

We're very sad.  Can't believe she's gone

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/27/3150118.htm?section=justin

[Texascavers] stygobites.com

[michael david]

On our last trip to Florida caves we had difficulties in identifying cave
critters because the information is spread around the internet..articles
here, pictures there, some videos and a lot of time needed to search and
retrieve it all.

So it got me thinking, wouldn't it be cool to have a site that collected
info from underwater troglobites specifically...They are so cool they
deserve their own place on the web.

I set up a web site to aggregate all the publicly available web data sources
for easy searching and entering sightingsit's got some cool pictures and
videos already but it'd need contributions from many cavers to give enough
data to draw conclusions from the sightings.

www.stygobites.com

<http://www.stygobites.com/>

Users can register and link in images, video and make sightings of cave
creatures.  I'll keep the site up and hope it can be a good resource for
cavers...the audience of folks that may be interested in it is kind of
small.

I've received feedback from scientist folks doing biological surveys in
caves so I've already got some improvements in queue. The sightings
functions will be updated to allow retrieval and sorting by user entry
qualifications as well as allowing sightings of dead creatures and an
automated email when those come in to water quality people so they can go do
a sample quickly after the die off.
I don't use php at work so the code is a little rusty as i just picked it up
for this project.

Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks

Michael David

[Texascavers] North Florida Trip Report

[michael david]

Cora and i had a great time in High Springs last week.
We've found that our love for smaller caves while diving is hard to
resist...so we just jumped full force.

Last week we dove Devils Cave (Ginnie) quite a bit and got back to the worm
tunnel and spent some time in the catacombs perfecting our side mounting
procedures and gear rigging.

We've moved to using helmets for our backup /primary lights and keep taking
knives to the Nomads and customizing them.

We ended the trip by taking a class from Jill Heinerth on side mounted caves
and techniques for their safe(r) exploration.
The class culminated with a canoe trip and dive at Rock Bluff.  It's
considered a moderately hard cave to dive due to the initial restriction but
Cora and I were able to work on it and pretty quickly push right through.
The cave beyond was beautiful, however we had zero vis on the exit due to
percolation...not many dive this system.

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures or video this trip, the caves were
full value and there was no way i wanted to have more task loading.
Planning on possibly getting some video for Rock Bluff next trip.

Here's a video of Agnus doing the Rock Bluff entry in high flow.  It was a
total blast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIlreHwSm1g

We took our first load to store in Alachua, can't wait to move in the
spring!

[Texascavers] Thanksgiving in Florida

[michael david]

Here are some video's of last week's Florida trip.  We had a great time,
can't wait to move to Gainsville!


This is our new favorite cave dive around.  These are just the tight parts
for our friends/relatives.  The dive before this while exiting in zero vis
through a restriction my snap link on a backup light became entangled in the
line...which made the experience a bit more sporty but still great fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPrM8f4RP64


Madison Blue is really a pretty cave, we swam back on the first jump to the
godzilla room...and of course my camera wasn't recording that part
correctly...but the rest of the dive came out wonderfully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI8O56ZUYpk



Michael and Cora

Re: [Texascavers] Video Trip Report

[michael david]

It's in Merritt's Mill Pond just outside Marianna, FL.

http://www.floridacaves.com/jackson.htm

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 12:54 PM, Fritz Holt wrote:

>  Where is Jackson Blue Cave?
>
>
>
> Fritz
>
>
>  --
>
> *From:* germa...@aol.com [mailto:germa...@aol.com]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 14, 2010 12:32 PM
> *To:* mdavi...@gmail.com; texascavers@texascavers.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Texascavers] Video Trip Report
>
>
>
>
>
> Video trip reports ROCK!
>
> Enjoyed the tune as well.
>
> Thanks for sharing!
>
> julia
>
>
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: michael david 
> To: texascavers@texascavers.com
> Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 12:27 pm
> Subject: [Texascavers] Video Trip Report
>
> Cora and I dove a few caves in Merritt's Mill Pond last weekend.
> Here's a video from diving Jackson Blue Cave, Cora's leading and
> negotiating the jump while I'm running the camera.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e58G7Y-4Ufw
>

[Texascavers] Video Trip Report

[michael david]

Cora and I dove a few caves in Merritt's Mill Pond last weekend.
Here's a video from diving Jackson Blue Cave, Cora's leading and negotiating
the jump while I'm running the camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e58G7Y-4Ufw

Re: [Texascavers] Mexico Travel

[michael david]

i don't see cozumel or tulum on this alertso mexico in march is a go
from what i can tell!





On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:23 PM, Geary Schindel <
gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org> wrote:

>  Here is a post on CNN regarding a new state department advisory on travel
> in Mexico.
>
>
>
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/02/23/mexico.travel.warning/index.html?hpt=T2
>
>
>
> G
>