Dive #74: AOW: Deep Dive
Time In: 12:48
Viz: 0-10'
Bottom Temp: 61F
Bottom Time: 00:39
Max Depth: 67'
Buddie(s): Rob

Dive #75: AOW: PPB Dive
Time In: 15:44
Viz: 5-10'
Bottom Temp: 84F
Bottom Time: 00:47
Max Depth: 33'
Buddie(s): Rob, Weldon, ?

Dive #76: AOW: Navigation Dive
Time In: 17:58
Viz: 0-10'
Bottom Temp: 80F
Bottom Time: 00:28
Max Depth: 43'
Buddie(s): Rob

Dive #71: AOW: Altitude Dive
Time In: 15:08
Viz: 5-10'
Bottom Temp: 84F
Bottom Time: 01:05
Max Depth: 50'
Buddie(s): Rob

Dive #72: AOW: PPB Dive
Time In: 18:05
Viz: 5-15'
Bottom Temp: 84F
Bottom Time: 00:32
Max Depth: 29'
Buddie(s): Jennifer

Dive #73: AOW: Night Dive
Time In: 20:12
Viz: 5-10'
Bottom Temp: 82F
Bottom Time: 00:51
Max Depth: 36'
Buddie(s): Rob

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mark G. Logico, Fleet Public Affairs Center, Pacific
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Chelsea Kennedy (RELEASED)

MV KELLIE CHOUEST, At Sea (NNS) -- A Navy diver submerged 2,000 feet, setting a record using the new Atmospheric Diving System (ADS) suit, off the coast of La Jolla, Calif., Aug. 1.

Chief Navy Diver (DSW/SS) Daniel P. Jackson of Navy Reserve Deep Submergence Unit (DSU) was randomly selected to certify the ADS suit for use by the Navy.

“I feel like the luckiest guy in the world,” said Jackson. “I am honored and privileged to be the first diver to go down to that depth.”

The certification was the culmination of 11 years of planning, designing and testing by multiple agencies to develop the ADS suit, also known as the Hardsuit 2000.

“This is the biggest piece of teamwork that I have ever seen in the Navy,” said Cmdr. Keith W. Lehnhardt, the officer in charge of the project.

Lehnhardt said the project was a collaboration of so many different organizations, such as DSU, Submarine Squadron 5 and Diving Systems Support Detachment.

Jackson said, “I was just a guy tied to a rope. It was the ADS team that made it all possible. They were incredible.”

Developed by OceanWorks International from Vancouver, British Columbia, the Hardsuit 2000 was designed to withstand underwater pressure at 2,000 feet. Current models have only been able to go down as far as 1,200 feet.

“The suit worked incredibly,” said Jackson. “It did everything it was intended to do. I always heard that around 1,300 feet, the joints of the Hardsuit 2000 would work even better, and it worked exactly the way they said it would.”

Meeting the Navy’s high safety requirements, the ADS suit was designed and acquired by the Navy to support submarine rescue.

“Its specific purpose is to be part of the advance assessment system during a submarine rescue operation,” said Lehnhardt. “The diver in the suit will see what the damage to the sub is and find out where the survivors might be.”

“At 2,000 feet, I had topside turn off all the lights, and it was like a star show. The phosphorescence that was naturally in the water and in most of the sea life down there started to glow," Jackson said. "When I started to travel back up, all the lights looked like a shower of stars going down as I was coming up. It was the best ride in the world.”

Time In: 10:46
Viz: 10'
Bottom Temp: 82F
Bottom Time: 00:42
Max Depth: 38'
Buddie(s): Jay, Mike

One word for these jokers, STUPID...

By Kari Cobham
Staff Writer, Daytona Beach news-journal

For Taylor Smith, there's a brazen thrill in holding his breath and diving deep into the cave from which Blue Spring flows.

"I like feeling like I went down there with nothing," said Smith, 17. "It's a lot more hard-core (than scuba-diving)."

The Orange City spring's cave attracts its share of scuba divers, despite inherent dangers. But intrepid DeBary teen Smith is an aficionado of the lesser-known sport of free diving, also known as breath-hold or skin diving, in which swimmers dive without an air tank, regulator or wet suit. They breathe deeply on the surface to slow their heart rate and jackknife downward with slow kicks to exert less energy.

Free divers who choose to venture into spring caves sometimes seek out underwater air pockets -- trapped bubble trails from scuba divers who've gone deeper -- so they can catch a breath and stay longer.

Blue Spring Park Ranger Wayne Hartley said recently that depending on pockets for air under water is a bad idea. And it proved almost deadly for Smith in mid-June when he plunged into the cavernous Blue Spring and spied one.

"He told me he was going down for a bit longer," said younger brother Wesley.

Taylor Smith gulped the carbon dioxide-filled pocket and suffered a seizure on his way to the surface. With the help of other divers, Wesley dragged his unconscious brother from the water and immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hoping to kick-start a pulse. The CPR, learned from mother Diana, a registered nurse, saved Taylor's life, but the stunt will keep him out of the water for six months.

"No air under water is safe," said Diana Smith, an avid scuba diver.

Taylor's accident wasn't the first close call for divers attracted to the Blue Spring cave. In 2002, there were at least two incidents in which free divers nearly drowned there....