WKPP update

[andy b]

Hi all

Just noticed there's a WKPP update on gue.com. Interesting reading.

andy

[gunsentry]

Nice find. Looking forward to the video clips being published.

[Dinger]

Is Irvine not diving with the WKPP any more?

Thought he would have been there for this one - first big push in years

Dinger

[Dinger]

OOOps double post - sorry

[true]

We ran the video of Chip's Hole at the conference last week. It's about 15 minutes long. Unfortunately, the water was very milky-- vis on the video is between 1-3 m. You don't get much sense of the cave, but it has commentary from Rick Sankey about their 1996 exploration as well as JJ and Casey giving the surface crew the post-dive debriefing.

I'll probably get an edit of the video up online in a week or two. As for George, I've heard through the grapevine that he has little interest in Chip's. The dives there require a single small team and the desire to throw oneself into really crappy conditions. It didn't help that George was dealing with the impact of the hurricanes at home while most of the exploration was taking place. I'm sure you'll see his name crop up in future reports about other projects.

[divingniknaks]

True, just a question.

I notice these push dives are in 2's and not the normal? 3's.

Any reason for this or is it just the tight nature of Chips beginning ?

Cheers

[true]

Chip's Hole is a very difficult location. It is a very strong syphon-- ask the guys who just dove Ginnie what they would think about coming out 15000 feet against the flow like you experience in the first 500' going into Devil's Ear. Even with the big Gavins, there were passages that took 20 minutes going in and 80 minutes coming out. Add single-file cave and the reality that any silt you stir up going in will follow you through the entire dive. At the end of Rick Sankey's 1996 push, his comment was "that was the single craziest thing I've ever done in my life-- and I've done some pretty stupid things before." Going to a three person team doesn't buy you anything at Chips but the potential for more problems and worse visibility.