Projects > Source de Vis 2006 (August)
Overview
Latest update: September 8, 2007
As every summer the EKPP team was preparing for further exploration of Europe's longest underwater cave, the Doux de Coly. A total of 23 people from all over Europe showed up in Southern France for a week of support diving. Doux de Coly turned out to be diveable, but conditions were not good enough for an exploration dive... Some training dives were made in both the shallow and deep part of the cave. Danny Riordan also showed up between teaching GUE Cave classes to dive Coly and shoot some pictures.
The group during one of Reinhards briefings.
Luckily the team was fully prepared for a plan B scenario. Three guys went on a scout trip to check conditions at the Source de Vis. They came back with good news: that cave had perfect conditions for a push dive!
The next day the complete team left with the neccessary gear for that cave. All other gear like scooters was left at Coly. The support jobs at the Vis cave are very different from doing support dives at the Doux de Coly. At the Vis there is more need for carrying equipment than diving. For this purpose all team members had brought large backpacks and handtrucks.
Day 1 (August 1st) - Arrival
The team arrived in the early afternoon. The parking area was limited, so a minimal number of cars was used. Part of the gear was brought to the entrance of the cave. Support divers started bringing gear past the restriction and dropping scooters and stages at various spots in the cave. Some of the support divers would sleep at the cave to guard the equipment. That evening the team had a good BBQ dinner at the improvised camp site by the cars.
Day 2 (August 2nd) - Setup
Early in the morning the team started bringing the remaining gear to the cave. More gear was lowered into the water and brought to depth by support divers. The first video images were shot by JP and Viktor.
Hoffi and Fenu carrying bags to the cave.
Day 3 (August 3rd) - Push Dive
Reinhard and Micha set out on their push dive early in the morning. They were filmed by the video team consisting of one camera diver and three divers for extra lighting. With six divers in the water it was quite a job not to be in each others way while gearing up. All empty stages were carried back to the camp site. Tom and Hervé started their survey dive to a max. depth of 45 meters.
When Reinhard and Micha returned from their dive and started the three hour deco the good news spread quickly: they had added 500 meters of line! The Italians Mara and Fenu did a great job in carrying emptied stages and scooters through the restriction and going back down with tea. All scooters were disassembled and carried back to the camp site. By the time Reinhard and Micha came out of the water most of the gear was already out of the cave. After dinner everyone packed their cars and left for Coly. It was past midnight by the time everyone got back to their comfortable shower and bed in Coly.
Reinhard just past the restriction.
The rest of the week - Training Dives
Back in Coly the team did some dives in Coly and other caves in the area like the Ressel and Cabouy.
Pictures
Check out the picture gallery.
Participants
In alphabetic order: Alessandro Fenu (I) Andrea Marassich (I) Christian Fröning (D) Gertjan Verhoef (NL) Hervé Deschamps (F) Jan „Hoffi“ Hoffmann (D) Jiles Verhoef (NL) Jörg Schwerdtfeger (D) JP Bresser (NL) Jutta Arens (D) Marcel Meyer (D) Markus Schieritz (D) Brus (D) Michael Waldbrenner (D) Peter Fjelsten (DK) Reinhard Buchaly (D) Robert Leenen (NL) Stefan Gaar (D) Torsten Sommerlatt (D) Tom Karch (D) Viktor Horvath (A) Wido Langenheen (NL).