Projects > Source de Vis 2007 (October)

Surface Manager push day

Latest update: October 31, 2007

By Wido Langemheen

Early morning of the push dive the whole team wakes up early to get Reinhard and Markus ready for their dive. While Reinhard and Markus get into their dry suites, the other team members transport the RB80's to the pool area in the cave where the divers will get into their sets a little later. At the same time A-M and JP get ready for their dive to do a photo shoot.

Jörg and Torsten assist Reinhard and Markus to gear up and get ready for to dive. At 9.00 the two start their dive towards the end of the line and from there on to start their mission to explore new cave.

At the surface the team has time to relax a bit and prepare for the first check dives. After approximately three hours Jörg and Torsten are the first team to get into the water for a first check dive. No signs from Reinhard and Markus yet.

The second team (Stefan and myself) will do the next check dive. On our second check dive, about 4 hours after leaving, we see light at 45 meters. Quickly we decent and welcome Reinhard and Markus back. We check if everything is OK and ask if they need anything. As usual everything is OK and no additional support is needed. We release them from the scooters and stages that are no longer needed and transport those to the cave pool. At the surface the rest of the team is eagerly waiting to transport the gear out of the water and out of the cave. Stefan and I do a couple of more dives to check how Reinhard and Markus are doing during their deco, bring them drinks and release them from excessive equipment. We stay in the water until both divers surface and help them out of their gear. It is always a special moment to see these guys surface from a long dive!

Reinhard and Markus get out of the water while we disassemble the rebreathers, collect all other gear and hand it over the guys on the surface.

When we get out of the water after about an hour, there is almost no gear left anymore in the dry part of the cave. This team keeps amazing me. We quickly get changed and help the others bringing the gear to the parking lot. At 17.00 the last gear arrives there and gets packed into the cars. Another challenging project has been completed successfully in the last two days.

We meet for a team dinner in a nearby restaurant for a well deserved meal and drinks. At 22.00 we all say goodbye. Some people will stay in the hotel tonight and leave the next day, while others drive home trough the night.

All the best, Wido