Think your tough enough to....

[eddy]

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!

[Helen F H]

If anyone wants a freelance kayaking instructor you know where i am

[Finless]

Originally Posted by Porg

If anyone wants a freelance kayaking instructor you know where i am

What's a "lance kayaking instructor". Not that it is important, "I like FREE".

Does that mean you'd show us to hold our pole thingies properly - you know the things that dipped into the wet stuff?

Does that mean you'd take us out for a roll?

Do you do it kneeling?

Do I have to cover up (or is that only for a rough ride).

[Foggy]

Feast your mince pies on this, then look for a long piece of bungee...Pappa Smurf?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4091813.stm


Cheers, Paul

[eddy]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Feast your mince pies on this, then look for a long piece of bungee...Pappa Smurf?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4091813.stm


Cheers, Paul

Great for base jumping!

[jimbo]

The Nevis gives about 8 seconds of free-fall at 134m - 300 m would be an awesome bungy, as long as your eyeballs stay in their sockets on the bounce back....

[ahar]

I read about that dive before I went there - despite all the searching I could do, I couldn't find any way of doing a dive in Titicaca without bringing along my own kit and compressor like that guy did. You don't need a kayak as there are loads of boats around the place - they take gringos and locals to and from Isla del Sol and Isla del Luna- you can probably hire a fisherman and his boat for a few quid for the day.

There are so many travellers around there you might be able to set up a business doing it. I suspect that if he went from the Bolivian side it would be from Copacobana near the Peruvian border - a nice little town with a good flow of travellers coming through as it's a great stop off point if you're going from La Paz to Puno (the main Peruvian town on Titicaca)

Incidentally, Copacobana was the town I was in when this happened:
http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...182#post139182