On Beyond the Blue, Jaime Burns posted an interesting trip report about cave diving in Nha Trang, a city lying on the southeast coast of Vietnam, abutting a huge bay sprinkled with small islands. Claiming the caves were "not hard to dive and anyone with a reasonable standard of diving should not have any problem investigating them," Burns points out that no special equipment is required to explore these caves, although "a large torch is essential." Think of it as Cave Diving Lite.

After motoring into the sheer-cliff'ed bay, Burns swam through 75-foot-viz waters, marveling at giant pufferfish, huge schools of Yellow sweepers, unfamiliar, colorful nudibranchs, cave shrimp, and much more. Burns suggests that hard-core scuba divers may be unimpressed with the overall dive conditions in Nha Trang, although if you're a diver who appreciates a little culture with your dive trips, then Nha Trang might be for you. Personally, I enjoyed the report, though I would've loved some more photos.

Interest piqued? Here are some other (non-cave diving) trip reports to Nha Trang:

• BSAC Travel Club
• This Is The Life

Beyond the Blue is a British dive magazine with a decidedly technical focus. Shipped throughout Europe and even to the US (for about $58), the current issue of the magazine discusses rebreathers, rebreathers, and, um, rebreathers.

Even if you're not all that geeked up about rebreathers, you might still be interested in visiting Beyond the Blue's website. Divided into either wreck or cave, the site features lots of exciting trip reports (read about Guy Wallis' 8-days exploring the Karst Regin of the Czech Republic and Hungary), technique tips (where else are you gonna learn about Differential GPS and Proton Magnetometer?), and gear reviews (e.g., the C-Bear Tri-Glove). Quite simply, Beyond the Blue goes way beyond the ordinary dive magazine and explores the limits of our sport.

Next week marks the release of an independent documentary about cave diving in Northern Florida. "Facing Darkness," is filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin's 45-minute documentary featuring cave explorers Lamar Hires (of Dive-Rite), Jim Bowden, John Orlowski, and others.

I've never gone cave diving, having thought the better of it when I learned of its dangers, but that only adds to my interest of seeing this film. The trailer looks enticing with its crisp, vibrant imagery shot in first- and third-person perspective. The film's web site includes production notes (and photos) but beware the blog unless you're good with French.

The DVD will be released on November 6th for US$25.99 (excluding shipping). No worries, the documentary is in English.

About 120 miles east of Albuquerque, there's a tiny oasis known as the Blue Hole. This spring-fed sinkhole, about 80 feet wide and just as deep, is frequented by divers eager to cool themselves from New Mexico's dry heat. According to rumor, a group of divers visited the Blue Hole "some time ago" and, upon surfacing, discovered that one of their group was missing. Six months later, the body of the missing diver appeared -- but not in New Mexico. It was discovered, the story goes, in Lake Michigan, which is more than a thousand miles away.

If the story is true, then this tunnel would be one of the world's longest underground waterways. According to the Washington Post's Andrea Sachs, the Blue Hole receives 3,000 gallons of fresh water per minute through its limestone floor, and the cave system below the Blue Hole stretches for 200 miles to the south, all the way to Texas. Moreover, Mike Poucher, cartographer for the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section waxes mysterious when he says, "How far does it go? No one knows." So potentially, the lengthy tunnel story could be true...

...until you talk to Mike Spilde, UNM's cave geologist, who emphatically kills the idea of a trans-continental tunnel. He claims it "would require a continuous rock stratum capable of supporting caves to be present all the way from New Mexico to the Great Lakes, which there isn't." Maybe you just don't know everything, Spilde. Furstratingly, he goes on to say that "The body would have to swim upstream to get to the Great Lakes." Okay, well, Spilde's killjoy statements notwithstanding, I can't find any news about the alleged diver that traveled all the way to Lake Michigan, which substantiates the tale's urban legend status. But it sure makes for a fascinating story. Can't wait 'till the "I dove beneath the entire US" video shows up on YouTube!

I don't know if it's the music, the manatees, or the mystery surrounding cave diving in Florida's Springs, but this video really gets my heart pumping. The colors are rich, and the caves look so enticing! And who wouldn't want to kiss a manatee on the nose!? Check out this 1:28 second video and see for yourself what central Florida has to offer.

R.J. Archer's latest novel, Tsubute, continues the adventure of a Seattle aerospace engineer and his team as they investigate archeology's unsolved mysteries to reveal the the origin of Earth's earliest civilizations. This time, it's the fabled underwater pyramids at Yonaguni Island where they'll chase down murderers and international kidnappers in the pursuit of uncovering Yonaguni's secrets.

I can't tell you how it ends but if you're interested in finding out, stop by the Under Water Works on October 7th between 12:30 PM and 3:00 PM in Tigard, Oregon for a book signing.

Japan has many things to offer the bored serviceman serving abroad, but what about getting some bottom time? I've never been myself, but the U.S. Marines in Japan web site gives a quick glimpse at the sights awaiting divers. Many of the popular dive sites are accessible by shore such as Maeda Point where Chromis, Clownfish, anemone, eel, squid, and Lionfish abound. According to Lance Cpl. Robert Manuel, combat videographer on Camp Foster, "Maeda is a great spot because the reef edge is about 20 feet down, [and] as soon as you get in you're already seeing great [things]."

If underwater archeology is your thing, check out the island of Yonaguni. The ruins are purported to be a series of pyramids with the largest measuring over 20 meters in height and 8,000 years old. Scientists don't agree, however, that these are man-made structures and instead the product of normal geological processes. Other researchers suggest these are the lost ruins of Mu which shared the same fate as Atlantis. Check out these photos of the ruins and see more at the Morien Institute.

After completing a 500-foot cave dive by himself, in low vis, Dr. Mike -- a fairly accomplished cave diver -- was doing his deco stop in 9 feet of water when he suddenly found himself in a dangerous predicament. According to Mike, the conditions were:

• No wing inflation.
• Almost no dilutant.
• No O2 (it was maybe 10 bar left in a 2L)!
• No bailout (I had staged it as I was decoing on O2).
• Only one fin.
• Lost inside a cave with no line and no idea which direction to take.
• 8 hours on scrubber so no idea if its going to run out any moment.
• Zero visibility
• This was not good.

What an understatement. Oddly, Dr. Mike has several stories posted under the umbrella heading "Screw-up Stories." Maybe it's time for a new hobby.

[Via Scuba Geek]

Orange City, Florida, is home to a number of caves that attract scuba divers. But one, um, adventurous teenager named Taylor Smith likes to freedive in the area's cave systems. According to Smith, "I like feeling like I went down there with nothing. It's a lot more hard-core (than scuba-diving)." Dude, that's so gnarly. But I have one thing to say about that: being alive is a lot more hard-core than than being dead.

While some freedivers look for underwater pockets of air so they can prolong their dives, park rangers discourage this practice. In fact, in June, you might recall, Smith tried to breathe from a pocket of air that was composed largely of carbon dioxide and suffered a seizure on his way to the surface. With the help of other divers, Smith's brother Wesley dragged his unconscious brother from the water and immediately began CPR -- which saved Taylor's life -- but the stunt will keep him out of the water for six months.

Taylor's mom, Diana, is a registered nurse and an avid scuba diver. I can't imagine why she would condone Taylor's behavior. Put simply, to echo Scuba Geek, "I can't imagine anything more stupid than freediving in an overhead." Considering the danger-level of this hobby, it's likely that his freediving days are numbered.

Yesterday, we told you about Jason Boyette, the 22-year-old snorkeler who got trapped in an underwater cave in Florida's Chassahowitzka River and drowned. Police have revealed that Boyette was found lodged in a narrow tunnel about 9 feet below the water's surface. According to (the familiarly-named) Paul Heinerth, the owner of Scuba West, "The caves are really too small to go scuba diving in." In fact, the tunnel in which investigators discovered Boyette was 10 to 12 feet long and only 2 feet wide.

According to police, right after Boyette wriggled into the tight space, tragedy struck: the light on his single flashlight went out. There, in the dark, without the proper equipment or the proper training, Boyette drowned.

Of course, we extend our condolences to his family and friends. However, Boyette's tragedy underscores a fundamental rule: don't dive in conditions in which you are not properly trained. If you violate this rule, bad things are likely to happen.

This weekend, four friends shared a single set of snorkeling gear while exploring underwater caves with a flashlight in Florida's Chassahowitzka River. 22-year-old Jason Boyette was the last among the group to enter the water; sadly, he never surfaced.

After searching for 20 minutes, the other three men called 911 at about 3:30 in the morning. Police divers found Boyette's body stuck in an cave at about 9 that morning. Locals explore the caves frequently in the daylight, but resident Looty Milliman claims, "In the daylight you can see the opening to a cave because the sun's hitting it. I've never heard of anyone going down there so late at night, though." The surviving snorkelers deny using alcohol; rather, they were just "trying to have a good time."

Does your LDS require you to have those obnoxious Nitrox or CUSTOM MIX stickers on your tanks? Do they tell you that it's a "requirement" or "law" to label your tanks with a huge sticker in order to dedicated that tank as a Nitrox tank? Do they tell you that it's so that someone else doesn't grab your tank by accident and breath something they aren't trained for? Do they refuse to fill you tank if you don't have it?

You wanna have some fun with them? Well, then get some of these new stickers from Airspeed Press.

An oxygen clean vip sticker and contents label is usually enough for shops around here but if you have to get the one of those stickers, get one with style.

In the next year, a team of expert cave divers led by Jill Heinerth will begin mapping and filming the underwater cave systems in Bermuda. According to Heinerth, diving Bermuda's beautiful, protected, limestone caves "is like going through a church." Using tracking devices that allows divers to send a signal up through the rock to a person above to indicate where they are, the team plans to use schoolkids to help track the divers' progress: "We'll have kids walking above and able to speak to the divers and ask them what they are seeing. It will be an interactive experience." How cool is that!? The footage the team collects will be edited into a TV show -- tentatively called Bermuda High -- and shown worldwide. I have no doubt it will be awesome.

In addition to visiting previously unknown caves, the mappers will check the status of some of the "cave-adapted animal species" in the systems. Of the 80 species known to live in the cave systems, 22 are critically endangered, and some are so rare they exist only in a single cave "room."

Heinerth was one of the advisors on The Cave. I hope she doesn't run into anything as creepy as the creatures in that movie!

[Via Scuba Geek, who had nothing whatsoever to do with the lame Cave reference]

Keeping the streak alive of excellent underwater footage in cave, I give you more of Mexico and one of the best cave dives in the area, Nohoch Nah Chich (Giant Bird's Nest) in Mayan. I did a couple of dives in this cave a couple of years ago, it's like a science fiction movie set, the decorations (speleothems) are unreal.

Anyway, the team has a camera mounted on a scooter and are doing a push dive to connect the cave to another system.  The caves in Mexico are not deep but they are the longest known system in the world, and they are always discovering new centoes and systems. They are some clips from the DVD they are trying to sell which are pretty cool, plus the site includes some still shots as well.

Ever since watching Bill's cave diving video, I've been keen to see some more. Consequently, when I learned about this really beautiful video of cave divers exploring Mexico's Chac Mool, I was thrilled. Shot by Divegeeks, the video shows two cave divers slowly making their way through this cenote, located about 13 miles south of Playa del Carmen. Featuring luminous orangey-yellow walls, this system boasts among the the largest underwater stalactites -- Xich Ha Tunich ("Giant Drip Stone" in Mayan) -- in the world. According to cavediving.com, it sounds like a beautiful dive.

[Via Calvin Tang]