2011– the year that was…

I found the succeeding notes in my files– should have published the post last January but for some reason I forgot about it. Seems like a waste to keep it hidden, so here it goes:

2011 was an exciting one for the MAD Cavers in terms of accomplishments and discoveries!

Here is a list and a timeline of the things that happened for that eventful year:

January– Doc made a trip to Puerto Galera to train and obtain a certificate for the Evolution Closed Circuit Rebreather- Trimix. The training gave him the necessary skills and experience to plan and conduct dives to 100 meters and beyond.

Doc doing CCR skills practice.

June– We returned to the Hinatuan Enchanted River to further explore the tunnel with the plan to reach a maximum depth of 90meters. The unfortunate discovery was that the head spring’s entrance was blocked by copius amount of sand from God-knows-where. One of the theories we had was that the sand was brought in by the strong tsunami that wrecked eastern Japan last May and the other theory was that a previous development close to the area led to sand filtering into the mouth of the cave. We believe the entrance will sooner or later clear up and when it does, we will be back, and to quote Morphius from the movie Matrix, “to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

 

Hinatuan Enchanted River, Surigao del Sur

 

July– A contract to recover “things” under the sea gave us the chance to conduct deep open water dives on trimix. Minimum depths being 60 meters, Doc had the good chance to practice his acquired CCR Trimix techniques and I enjoyed the opportunity to dive using the uber-expensive helium gas, minus the cost of paying for it. We can’t divulge anymore information on the experience because we don’t want to have to kill you after–you know what I mean 😉

August– Systematic internet research paid off and it led us to the location and discovery of Casili Spring— currently the deepest freshwater cave system ever discovered and dived in Cebu! We’ve made 3 trips to the area so far and what we know is that the tunnel goes deeper than 30 meters. We will soon be back to conduct more expeditions using the Hollis sidemount system.

Casili Spring– the deepest freshwater cave system in Cebu.

 

September– I passed my Advanced Cave- Sidemount course. Doc passed his Evolution CCR Recreational Instructor certification.