Greetings,
I started diving in 1979. In 1984 I traveled to Florida to get certified for cave diving. Returning to Minnesota I joined the Minnesota Speleological Survey and met a MSS member and scuba diver Larry Laine. We pioneered equipment modifications and techniques for cave diving in Minnesota and became the first divers to penetrate multiple sumps in Minnesota caves, discovering miles of cave passage never before seen.
By the late 80s, early 90s I logged many deep air dives on challenging shipwrecks in Lake Superior. In 1992, to reduce the risk of deep air diving, I got certified in Technical Nitrox and Trimix.
In 1993 and 1994 I was involved in expeditions to Mexico. Using the Cis-Lunar rebreather I and other team members extended the exploration of both the longest and deepest caves in Mexico. Also in 1994 I was awarded the Abe Davis Safe Cave Diving Award by the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section.
For 7 ½ years (1996 – 2003) I served metro area residents as a volunteer scuba diver with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Water Recovery Unit. Aside from the actual diving, I had a part in team training, modernizing and standardizing the unit’s scuba gear, and reviewed and updated the dive unit’s Standard Operating Guidelines Manual.
I’m not as active a diver as in the past but am interested in a couple dive trips a year to exotic places or unusual dives.
In the past three years I have made some cave dives in Florida using both side mount and back mount doubles and an Oceanic Mako scooter on a couple dives, 18-20 dives in Truk Lagoon, 10 dives in Belize and, last year 20 dives from a live aboard trip in Thailand. I’d be interested in more cave diving, a trip to Socorro or Galapagos for diving with pelagics, Indonesia, Philippines to name a few.
I look forward to meeting other divers that enjoy diving, traveling and avoiding single supplement costs when possible.
spdives