Workshop Sessions

We are working with the presenters on the sessions topics. We'll post information here as it becomes available.

Registration

Exhibits

Narcosis Management

Friday, 7:45 PM. Hal Watts covers procedures and lessons learned over more than 40 years of deep diving, including:

• Definition of Nitrogen Narcosis
• Signs and symptoms of Nitrogen Narcosis
• How to minimize the effects
• PSAI case histories since 1962
• A special designed slate that PSAI uses to show just how much a diver is affected by depth
• A gas management sheet to eliminate running low or out of gas

Opening Ceremony

Saturday, 8:00 AM. Color guard & governmental speakers, recognition of Park Managers and Land Owners throughout the state.

Preventing and Treating Decompression Sickness in Cave Diving: What Does the Future Hold?

Saturday, 8:00 AM. Whilst decompression sickness (DCS) is "old news" to divers, the new boundaries of time and depth being pushed by cave and wreck divers almost certainly imply higher levels of risk. Not surprisingly, there is much interest in strategies for both prevention and more effective treatment of this potentially crippling disorder. In this presentation Dr. Simon Mitchell will review some of these, with an emphasis on novel approaches that hold promise for future development. We will discuss why the refinement of decompression algorithms is only part of the answer to prevention, and review other strategies based on what (little) is known about the pathophysiology of DCS. We will discuss modern treatment of DCS with an emphasis on strategies that are considered "adjunctive" to recompression, such as fluid and drug administration, some of which may be useful in the field. The NSS-CDS takes no responsibility for Dr. Mitchell's Kiwi / Australian sense of humor.

Searching for the World's Longest Traverse

Saturday, 9:00 AM. Join GUE President Jarrod Jablonski as he chronicles the WKPP's twenty year quest to connect Leon Sinks and Wakulla Cave Systems. The WKPP record dives and recent traverse are the first in a series of attempts to continue the exploration to the South. The team eventually hopes to connect the world's fourth largest cave all the way to the coast of Florida. As part of this chronology Jarrod reviews the possible enhancements to WKPP diving equipment and procedures while considering the feasibility of this new challenge - a possible trip to coast that might traverse as much as 15 miles.

The Future of Cave Diving Science and Conservation

Saturday, 10:30 AM, Dr. Tom Iliffe. The future of scientific cave diving involves use of advanced technology including rebreathers, mixed gases, electronic water monitoring instrumentation, remote sensing, and autonomous remotely operated vehicles. This technology will allow cave diving scientists to locate and document previously unknown caves both on land and on the seafloor, to go farther and deeper into caves, to extend cave exploration to depths and conditions beyond that permitted by human physiology, and to continuously collect water quality and current velocity data over extended periods of time. Discoveries of new species of cave adapted animals, a better understanding of the cave ecosystem, and potential applications to human health are some of the likely outcomes of this research.

As adverse human impacts on groundwater and the environment as a whole intensify, we as end users of caves must step up our efforts to protect this habitat and the unique animals that inhabit them. Global problems including sea level rise, acidification of the world's oceans, deforestation, over development, depletion of fresh groundwaters, and inadequate disposal of solid and liquid wastes profoundly threaten subterranean ecosystems. Cave divers can negatively effect the cave environment in a number of ways. The oxygen in an open circuit diver's exhaust gas can contaminate low dissolved oxygen cave waters. Poor technique can damage fragile speleothems (i.e., stalactites and stalagmites) as well as mar bottom sediments. Surface fish following divers into caves can locally exterminate all higher forms of cave life. In order to protect and preserve caves for future generations, we all must be must be better stewards of this fragile environment. For example, caves of special biological, archaeological, or paleontological significance should be set aside as scientific reserves.

Decompression: Past and Future

Saturday, 1:00 pm. It has been 100 years since Haldane and colleagues published the first decompression tables. In the intervening years the Haldane method of calculating decompression schedules has been refined with significant contributions from des Granges, Workman, Braithwaite, and Thalmann that underlie modern decompression tables, meters and software. Importantly these methods are supported by thousands of experimental man-dives that probe the limits of safe decompression. In the last 40 years considerable progress has been made on bubble decompression models. Such models have theoretical advantages over the Haldane approach and some have been used to generate decompression schedules, notable by technical divers. However since these dives are generally poorly, or not, documented, there is no evidence of the efficiency of these schedules. In this context, efficiency means a low risk of decompression sickness for the least decompression time. Dr. David Doolette covers some of the history of decompression theory and prectice, then he reviews a recent, large, laboratory man-dive trial which indicates decompression schedules derived from bubble decompression models offer no efficiency over the traditional approach. The future of decompression may lay elsewhere. Recent theoretical work and human trials indicate that manipulation of temperature and exercise level can substantially influence the efficiency of decompression. A proper understanding of these effects is one way forward.

CSI: Cave Slime Investigation

Saturday, 3:30 PM. The Cambrian Foundation consists of interested divers, scientists and educators who work together to acquire and disseminate knowledge of the underwater environment. Andy Pitkin will talk about an ongoing Cambrian Foundation longitudinal study of patterns of microbiological growth in some central Florida springs and its correlation with some groundwater solutes, particularly pH and dissolved iron and sulfur concentrations. In other words, Andy will talk about cave slime. These caves contain unique biological food chains that are underpinned by sulfur-fixing bacteria which are able to grow in the lightless anerobic environment. Like many similar organizations, we are trying to understand and thereby influence the pressures faced by these fragile ecosystems from consumptive use and groundwater contamination.

Cozumel Caves: Past, Present, and Future

Saturday, 3:30 PM. German Yañez will talk about the history, exploration, safety, artifact discoveries, and new species discoveries in the Caves of Cozumel in the context of the past, present and future.

Raising the Dead - The Boesmansgat (Bushmans hole) Expedition

Saturday, 4:30 PM. Don Shirley will talk about a recovery expedition at Bushman's Hole.

Bushman's Hole, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, is one of the strangest places on Earth. It's a prehistoric crater on an otherwise endless track of desert, and for an elite but extreme fraternity of explorers, what happened there is the stuff of myth and legend.

The terrible beauty of the place can't be seen from the air, or even the ground. But if you trace the walls down, you reach a tiny pool covered in algae. Keep going, through a narrow shaft running for another 150 feet, and finally it all opens into a vast freshwater cavern tall enough to hold the Eiffel Tower, and deep enough -- nearly 1,000 feet -- to mesmerize the most experienced, technical cave divers in the world.

Don will have a limited supply of the book Raising The Dead for sale at the Workshop - this will be the US Special Premier of the book. You can read a short article in the UK Telegraph about the book.

Fire and Water

Saturday, 8:00 PM. Jill Heinerth brings us fresh footage from a spring 2008 expedition to explore the longest volcanic lava tube in the world. State of the art rebreathers and digital imaging technology allow Jill, a virtual one-person film crew, to document Dr. Tom Iliffe and Terrence Tysall, Founder and Chairman of the Board of The Cambrian Foundation, as they collect rare and endemic species from this cave in Lanzarote.

The Mill Pond Experience

Saturday, 9:00 PM. In December, Liquid Productions, LLC

released 'The Mill Pond Experience' DVD, mastered in High Definition, producing beautiful images from the Mill Pond's most popular cave systems: Jackson Blue, Twin Cave, and Hole in the Wall. Come join Becky Kagan to view and discuss footage from some of her favorite caves, travel deeper into them, or if you've never seen them, sit back and enjoy the experience.

You can get a taste of diving in the Mill Pond by watching this teaser provided by Becky, after which you'll surely want to come for the whole presentation.