Dive the worlds highest navigable lake?
I read this story about 2 years ago when i was just about to go out to Bolivia with my ex-miss' to work, at the time and just remembered about reading this story. So i know you YD guys like interesting stories and a challenge, what do you think of this?
I know its from a www publicising their products, but its the best version of the story i could find from my slow ass work pc.
The World’s Highest Altitude Kayak Dive.
by Michael Coyne.
"The concept of SCUBA diving Lake Titicaca borders on ludicrous. There are no dive shops in all of Bolivia and the nearest re-compression chamber, should something go wrong, was thousands of miles away.
The altitude changes all the dive tables around and we know little of the effects of high attitude diving on the human body. This is what made diving the lake such a prize. We had hoped to dive on and document submerged pre-Incan ruins off Isla Del Sol but after all our difficulties, political and otherwise, we were happy just to get the chance to be at the lake.
We had to bring along an air compressor to fill our tanks. We knew there would be problems using this generator at 12,500 feet of altitude, but we had no idea just how many.
After hours of non-stop tinkering with air to fuel adjustments we decided that we needed some local mechanical experience to get it running. At the expense of our own chance to dive the lake, Christine and I returned the machine to La Paz and got the necessary adjustments made.
The next day we were able to return it to the lake and under the leadership of David Swain we realized our first success. After a couple of hours, the air tanks were full. Raphael and David reviewed their dive profile before rolling their Ocean Kayak dive kayaks down to the put in and prepared to paddle out into the middle of the lake. It took a half hour just to anchor and assemble their SCUBA gear in the thin air.
Descending into the cold fifty-degree green water, they immediately felt the extra oxygen from breathing air at increased pressure and delighted in the boost of energy and relief from altitude. They descended thirty feet, adjusted buoyancy then verified that the boat’s anchors were holding.
With the visibility being about ten feet, they stayed close while exploring the wonders of the Lake. Although there wasn’t a lot in the way of free-swimming life, much vegetation was noted. A gentle wave of their hands over the bottom revealed silt covered with small white shells.
Along the way they encountered a resident water-breathing frog, about the size of an adult hand. They watched as it free swam, crawled and settled into the bottom, hiding from its strange new predators. After a half hour they returned to the kayaks and paddled to shore.
They had accomplished the first kayak dive in Bolivia and the highest altitude kayak dive in history to be presented to the Guinness Book of World Records. While everything didn't go exactly as planned and no lost gold treasures revealed themselves to us, the expedition was a definite success. David feels that the marriage of kayaks to SCUBA will make more of these kinds of excursions possible".
by Michael Coyne
Link to the story!