It might sound contradicting but I think this is how we can recognize a good diver from a bad diver. A good diver knows his boundaries and isn't shy to make them clear. A bad diver on the other hand will push his personal limits because of his ego or peer pressure and will simply end up risking his life. Remember, the good dives are the ones you are able to talk about.
@@Exploremore658 yep. I completely agree, scuba diving is 80% mental sport. A good diver knows their limits, only push through those limits when their skills match the challenge
Thanks for including the first attempt. It would have been easy to only show the more complete dive, but calling a dive is part of the journey. Good work Todd and Jonathan.
me, someone with thalassophobia and claustrophobia, hearing Jonathan said getting through tight constrictions under water is "super fun": 😭😭😭 thank you for 'bringing' me along with you guys though!
I didn't realise I was so claustrophobic until I started watching cave diving vids. Quite happy to live vicariously through you folks! Thank you very much.
i was surprised to see so many comments about your buddy calling the first dive. i thought that was refreshing and sobering when he called the dive, really shows you how dangerous these places are!
Hello Jonathan, I am Brody and you inspired me to become a diver and I just wanted to thank you. I am at Sunset House right now having the time of my life and I heard that the staff members Mel and Tyler said they remember being your boat captain and diving with you and your family. It would be amazing to hopefully bump into you one day on a trip and finally get to meet you. I just wanted to say thanks for all you have done. :)
Congratulations!! That's wonderful to hear! Tell everyone I said hi and I hope to be back soon! I love Grand Cayman. Remember to say it right....drives the tourists crazy. Cay-MAN.
Love diving the pond! Have only done Jackson Blue and Hole in the wall though - had no clue there were so many. Lots of cave to explore there! Great job as always.
Thank you for sharing adventures the rest of us would **never** have. Sheer terror. Be careful down there! The world forever needs more BlueWorldTV. As always - great stuff!
Not good for claustrophobic views like me "get out, quick" (me yelling at my screen) glad you had "fun". I'd feel like Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in one of those tight squeeze 😵
i'm fairly early and that rarely happens, the cave's structure with how the rocks were formed is certainly a wonder of nature. these videos really encouraged me to push my limits when swimming in the ocean. I'm looking forward to taking diving classes this summer.
Hello Jonathan, your videos are my and my 6 yr old daughter’s favourite. This is almost our version of bedtime story :), we eagerly wait for your new uploads,plz keep thm coming. Thnx :)
you are really pushing cave diving boundaries to next level good job Jonathan even though your work is perfect somehow you manage to amaze us every time even more keep up the good work man i love your content !
You hear that at the end? He wanted to progressively learn the cave, wasn't sure what return visibility would be like...that is SMART cave-diving. But I also saw him pushing himself along the cave ceiling with his heel. I have seen tragic stories where portions of a cave have crumbled and blocked off exits. You really have to stay on your toes in a cave. You go too high and you can scrape your BC or knock something loose...go too low and you stir up silt. Never get too comfortable on a cave dive!
I know of a cave system in Virginia that would be cool to dive. To my knowledge it's not been explored and there's no documented history on it. I found it while I was hiking the Appalachian mountains when I was a kid. I liked free diving so I went home got my dive gear and explored it. I'd never dove a lake or river I couldn't get to the bottom of but as hard as I tried I couldn't find the bottom of this lake. The odd thing was there was a road that spiraled around it and I tried following the road to the bottom but all I found were old cars. I swam back to the surface and told my friend about the cars and then decided to try to swim to the bottom from the middle of the lake instead of following the road. As I dove down the water just kept getting colder and darker until I saw the top of a crane. By then by diaphragm had started spasming so I headed for the surface but I couldn't see the sun. Just a slight green glow. By the time I reached the surface I almost blacked out and Nick's parents were on 4 wheelers yelling at us to get out of the water. I went home and my grandfather was madder than hell. He told me of all the people that died in that lake because it was connected to a cave system and the current pulled people down. He told me it used to be a mine for some mineral but the mine broke through to a cave system and flooded the bottom and they were unable to pump it so it was abandoned. The next part I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen the cars with my own eyes but he said during prohibition the mafia would drive cars with bodies in the trunk off of the cliff into the lake. That was enough for me to never go back. Later in life I found out that the geysers that used to pop up in the yard were often from flooded cave systems. We lived miles away from this cave so it must be big. I also learned Virginia has the largest cave system on the east coast. I've always wanted to know what was really down there.
It's been such a great journey to see Jonathan go from cave diving certification to having a blast squeezing through cave restrictions! I really loved this videos emphasis on safety. Currently planning our trip to boston to see ancient caves so excited!!
Love the video! So cool to something I’ll never see in person due to severe claustrophobia. Your videos are such a beautiful and informative way to explore our blue world 🌎❤️
Im new to all of this. I just a few days ago discovered the Caveman Hikes channel which focuses on dry caved. I've been freaking out over the tight spaces they go through. I thought that was the worst thing I could imagine doing.....till I saw this!!!! At least if you get stuck or have some other problem in a dry cave, you have hours or even days to resolve it. You have a problem in an underwater cave and you KNOW that you only have minutes to resolve it until you run out of air. OMG I cannot believe people do things like this for FUN!!!!!
Enjoy seeing fellow cavers making smart calls. Definitely wise to call the dive in the bad vis and come up while a new plan glad u guys went back in. We dove Gator in April this vis was maybe a 1/3 of what it was here did T left for a bit then had a light failure so we turned
It's really amazing to see the difference in the video quality between your camera set up and the gopro set up. I have an off brand gopro, it suits my needs for now. Hopefully, I can up grade to set up like yours.
Those were GoPro Hero9. We now have the 10 which is a little better. But they have two things working against them. 1. Not very good in low light. 2. Too much compression. If they could double the bitrate, the camera would be considerably better.
Enjoyed the video but just confirms to me that a tight cave with crawl through restrictions - never ever ever! Cave diving is definitely not for me! Well done though - very impressed! 👏👏👏
i feel exhausted after watching this cuz i was holding my breath in many parts of the video lol. anyhow, thank you so much for braving the tightest gaps to bring us this amazing footage.
Amazing footage! Loved this one. I was wondering about what kind of thickness wetsuit do you typically use in Florida? And have you ever done cave diving where drysuit was absolutely required? How about drysuit and dry gloves? If not, would you ever plan to do a dive like that in extreme cold water?
I always wear a 7mm wetsuit, because the caves are cool. Also, the 7mm provides more buoyancy for the heavy twin steel tanks we are using. We generally don't do long enough dives on open circuit to really require a drysuit.
I personally think side mount is better because it is easier to move through caves, ESPECIALLY in tight squeeze’s. So great choice for the side mount👍. Great video nonetheless.
There is no question that for cave diving, sidemount is much better. I have even started doing sidemount in the ocean when I need two tanks to stay longer.
Wow that was spooky and felt suffocating! I got an idea Jonathan. You have to get a skull face painted helmet so when you emerge from the cave it looks scary, lol. Great episode guys! 😄
Honestly I like this perspective especially at 11:30 as it puts into perspective how bad stirring up silt is. Oh man on the way back, as you mentioned I would feel so safe keeping track of the line! Talk about tight and low flow!
Hi, quick question What is the pipe at the begining of the cave? Also,nice dive Looking at this dive motivated me to service my BCD. Not that I am going cave diving; just Todd and you make any dive look soo inviting.
There's a lot of snails that look like they're not doing great. The only ones that stood out as looking particularly alive to me were the ones at 18:27, which also look like they might be invasive apple snails (though maybe they're the native ones, hard to tell.) I hope this isn't a case of invasives outcompeting natives.
Great video as always! I just realized I saw some pretty full bladder on one or both of you, and didn’t see any extra equipment needing heavy lift, are you overweighted? Intentionally? I think you can drop a bit of weights.
The plastic tubing is for water quality sampling. I don't know who is sampling the water or why, but that's what it's for. It runs from the entrance all the way to the first restriction.
Great situational awareness and decision making. I would’ve called it too! That’s not diving any longer when you’re crawling, scooting, digging, and or pushing and pulling.
What camera tray and lights are you using with the GoPro rig? I’m heading to the Yucatán in September and would love something like that for cavern dives. no caves 😢…. Yet!
We didn't plan to do that, so we didn't really have a tray. I just hooked my GoPro straight to a single BigBlue 9000 light with a section of loc-line tubing that we use for light arms. Normally when I use a GoPro as a dedicated camera, I use the one from Backscatter. Really like it. www.backscatter.com/Backscatter-Wide-Double-Handle-and-Tray
All our lights from are BigBlue. They are the best! Our current favorite is the CB10000 bigbluedivelights.com/products/10000-lumen-video-lightsku-cb10000p/
Is there enough room to turn around in these tight places in the cave to head back out? Also, how do you tell your buddy that you want to get the f out, hand or light signals?
Sometimes you have to keep moving until you find a suitable place to turn around. The turn signal can be done with hands or lights. You make a circle pointed downward. It means "turn around"
applause to Todd, he knows so well of his own comfort level and acted very professionally. Great job as always !
agreed, like he said, the dive isn't for everyone
It might sound contradicting but I think this is how we can recognize a good diver from a bad diver. A good diver knows his boundaries and isn't shy to make them clear. A bad diver on the other hand will push his personal limits because of his ego or peer pressure and will simply end up risking his life. Remember, the good dives are the ones you are able to talk about.
@@Exploremore658 yep. I completely agree, scuba diving is 80% mental sport. A good diver knows their limits, only push through those limits when their skills match the challenge
good job Todd
Thanks for including the first attempt. It would have been easy to only show the more complete dive, but calling a dive is part of the journey. Good work Todd and Jonathan.
And part of the adventure!
Agreed!
Ha, ZERO chance I'd be diving anything called "Gator Hole"! Thanks for taking us there.
Salt water crocs are so much worse
I would love to be able to do that
This cave is scary and will kill someone who panics. No way I'd go in that cave, was getting anxious watching this.
Better than bum hole! 😂
Let’s do Twin Caves next! Skiles Passage has both your names all over it! My favorite cave at Merritt Mills Pond!
Can't wait. How about in December after we do our rebreather class?
@@BlueWorldTV deal!
@@BlueWorldTV I’ve been wondering when y’all were going step into the world of rebreathers! Super exciting, I hope it’s documented.
@@DIVETALK Oh i can't wait to watch those videos !
Love that you showed Todd calling it off! Showing the importance of proper precautions is just as important as the beautiful shots
Absolutely!
Big respect for the cameraman,for going through the very small hole and Recording stuff that not much people see.
me, someone with thalassophobia and claustrophobia, hearing Jonathan said getting through tight constrictions under water is "super fun": 😭😭😭 thank you for 'bringing' me along with you guys though!
I didn't realise I was so claustrophobic until I started watching cave diving vids.
Quite happy to live vicariously through you folks! Thank you very much.
We are glad to have you as a viewer!
Best quality content on youtube. Nat Gio level video work with the personal touch of a youtube channel. Thank you for the content Jonathan!
Thanks for watching!
i was surprised to see so many comments about your buddy calling the first dive. i thought that was refreshing and sobering when he called the dive, really shows you how dangerous these places are!
Wow, really get a feel for how disorientating things can get in caves - and probably quite dangerous too, especially for the inexperienced.
Where is the join button I wanna join this thing.
"probably".. this is some of THE most dangerous things you can possibly do! One SMALL mistake and it turns real ugly in there.
Not gonna lie, I was close to hyperventilating imagining what ifs in some of those tight spaces!
The best and most well done cave diving content on TH-cam. Please keep it up!
Hello Jonathan, I am Brody and you inspired me to become a diver and I just wanted to thank you. I am at Sunset House right now having the time of my life and I heard that the staff members Mel and Tyler said they remember being your boat captain and diving with you and your family. It would be amazing to hopefully bump into you one day on a trip and finally get to meet you. I just wanted to say thanks for all you have done. :)
Congratulations!! That's wonderful to hear! Tell everyone I said hi and I hope to be back soon! I love Grand Cayman. Remember to say it right....drives the tourists crazy. Cay-MAN.
Love diving the pond! Have only done Jackson Blue and Hole in the wall though - had no clue there were so many. Lots of cave to explore there! Great job as always.
Such an awesome spot!! I wish I was there right now!
Thank you for sharing adventures the rest of us would **never** have. Sheer terror. Be careful down there! The world forever needs more BlueWorldTV. As always - great stuff!
Thanks!!!
Not good for claustrophobic views like me "get out, quick" (me yelling at my screen) glad you had "fun". I'd feel like Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in one of those tight squeeze 😵
i'm fairly early and that rarely happens, the cave's structure with how the rocks were formed is certainly a wonder of nature. these videos really encouraged me to push my limits when swimming in the ocean. I'm looking forward to taking diving classes this summer.
Hello Jonathan, your videos are my and my 6 yr old daughter’s favourite. This is almost our version of bedtime story :), we eagerly wait for your new uploads,plz keep thm coming.
Thnx :)
So glad to hear it. Tell her I said hi!!
you are really pushing cave diving boundaries to next level good job Jonathan even though your work is perfect somehow you manage to amaze us every time even more keep up the good work man i love your content !
I appreciate that! Thanks!
this one was anxiety inducing
You hear that at the end? He wanted to progressively learn the cave, wasn't sure what return visibility would be like...that is SMART cave-diving. But I also saw him pushing himself along the cave ceiling with his heel. I have seen tragic stories where portions of a cave have crumbled and blocked off exits. You really have to stay on your toes in a cave. You go too high and you can scrape your BC or knock something loose...go too low and you stir up silt. Never get too comfortable on a cave dive!
I know of a cave system in Virginia that would be cool to dive. To my knowledge it's not been explored and there's no documented history on it. I found it while I was hiking the Appalachian mountains when I was a kid. I liked free diving so I went home got my dive gear and explored it. I'd never dove a lake or river I couldn't get to the bottom of but as hard as I tried I couldn't find the bottom of this lake. The odd thing was there was a road that spiraled around it and I tried following the road to the bottom but all I found were old cars. I swam back to the surface and told my friend about the cars and then decided to try to swim to the bottom from the middle of the lake instead of following the road. As I dove down the water just kept getting colder and darker until I saw the top of a crane. By then by diaphragm had started spasming so I headed for the surface but I couldn't see the sun. Just a slight green glow. By the time I reached the surface I almost blacked out and Nick's parents were on 4 wheelers yelling at us to get out of the water. I went home and my grandfather was madder than hell. He told me of all the people that died in that lake because it was connected to a cave system and the current pulled people down. He told me it used to be a mine for some mineral but the mine broke through to a cave system and flooded the bottom and they were unable to pump it so it was abandoned. The next part I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't seen the cars with my own eyes but he said during prohibition the mafia would drive cars with bodies in the trunk off of the cliff into the lake. That was enough for me to never go back. Later in life I found out that the geysers that used to pop up in the yard were often from flooded cave systems. We lived miles away from this cave so it must be big. I also learned Virginia has the largest cave system on the east coast. I've always wanted to know what was really down there.
It's been such a great journey to see Jonathan go from cave diving certification to having a blast squeezing through cave restrictions! I really loved this videos emphasis on safety.
Currently planning our trip to boston to see ancient caves so excited!!
Woo hoo!!
Very dangerous dive, only for experienced divers as seen when the silt gets kicked up. Good information for training.
Thankx for the video. Ive been rewatching some old videos.
I love diving, but i dont go near caverns... much less caves. Ty for sharing the experience :)
Welcome to the best cave filmer I've seen! Lol.
Love from India ❤️
This Channel was recommend by TH-cam and I get addicted toward it.... Very nice creations
Wow that's scary! Glad you done this for us to see, but dam, that's scary. Love your videos. 😁👍
Todd and you are legends among men. Thank you for allowing us to see the beautiful underwater world where most men won't go.
What a cool dive! It's videos like this that inspire me to one day get cave certified
Very cool cave. Would love to see a Blue World cave diving collab with the Dive Talk guys.
There was one.
We are going to do some diving with them soon.
@@BlueWorldTV can’t wait to see it! Great ambassadors for the sport!
Wow. You sure got some bravery!
Love the video! So cool to something I’ll never see in person due to severe claustrophobia. Your videos are such a beautiful and informative way to explore our blue world 🌎❤️
Hey Jonathan do you ever go freediving because it's so there's a a spring that I go to called Wekiva here in Florida
Hahaha, love the voice on the intro guy, have an immediate like & subscription! 🙂
Welcome aboard!
Amazing video, i like how beautiful the place there!! The person who installed the rope first time, we need to watch his video
Dangerous place, great job, I salute you
Im new to all of this. I just a few days ago discovered the Caveman Hikes channel which focuses on dry caved. I've been freaking out over the tight spaces they go through. I thought that was the worst thing I could imagine doing.....till I saw this!!!! At least if you get stuck or have some other problem in a dry cave, you have hours or even days to resolve it. You have a problem in an underwater cave and you KNOW that you only have minutes to resolve it until you run out of air. OMG I cannot believe people do things like this for FUN!!!!!
LOL....it's fun!
Never get complacent. Safety first always... no matter what
I would dive friedmams sink to the catfish hotel but gator hole is way to scary..... Great video
Jonathan bird made my journey to be an oceanographer
Sir is so daring..sir carry on your functions regularly..Love from Bangladesh..
Enjoy seeing fellow cavers making smart calls. Definitely wise to call the dive in the bad vis and come up while a new plan glad u guys went back in. We dove Gator in April this vis was maybe a 1/3 of what it was here did T left for a bit then had a light failure so we turned
It's really amazing to see the difference in the video quality between your camera set up and the gopro set up. I have an off brand gopro, it suits my needs for now. Hopefully, I can up grade to set up like yours.
Those were GoPro Hero9. We now have the 10 which is a little better. But they have two things working against them. 1. Not very good in low light. 2. Too much compression. If they could double the bitrate, the camera would be considerably better.
Nice hat, nice narrating, I’m surprised you don’t have more views, and I’m surprised it’s not an actual TV show.
Better than a thriller movie :)
After you mentioned aligators, I thought you would meet one every sec in the cave throughout the whole video, but luckily you didn’t😂
Love your videos. Greetings fron Ontario Canada. Keep doing your thing and stay safe.
Thank you! Will do!
Enjoyed the video but just confirms to me that a tight cave with crawl through restrictions - never ever ever! Cave diving is definitely not for me! Well done though - very impressed! 👏👏👏
Thanks JB. 👍
Fair play to Todd for calling the dive. Would have loved to see Ed’s dive of this cave though, i swear he’s part fish
He probably wouldn't make any silt!
Congratulazioni! Siete paZzi!!! :)
Amazing video
Thanks!
Thanks for uploading this!✅
another great video, thanks for all you do bringing awareness to the underwater world.
Thanks for watching!
i feel exhausted after watching this cuz i was holding my breath in many parts of the video lol. anyhow, thank you so much for braving the tightest gaps to bring us this amazing footage.
You're welcome 😊 Thanks for watching!
Wow. Applaud your curiosity for caves but I’ll stick to open water. You guys are amazing.
I love your cave diving videos! By the way, I like the hat you're wearing at the beginning 😉
LOL...my big "too floppy" hat!
Amazing footage! Loved this one. I was wondering about what kind of thickness wetsuit do you typically use in Florida? And have you ever done cave diving where drysuit was absolutely required? How about drysuit and dry gloves? If not, would you ever plan to do a dive like that in extreme cold water?
I always wear a 7mm wetsuit, because the caves are cool. Also, the 7mm provides more buoyancy for the heavy twin steel tanks we are using. We generally don't do long enough dives on open circuit to really require a drysuit.
I wonder what the next video will be 🤔
Not cave diving!
Shangri-La definitely looked better at the surface. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah, no kidding. Nice clear water. At the surface, Gator Hole looks like a sewer! LOL
Good job 👍👍👍
Those restrictions sure are tight. To tight for even me to squeeze through. Submerged or not.
I personally think side mount is better because it is easier to move through caves, ESPECIALLY in tight squeeze’s. So great choice for the side mount👍. Great video nonetheless.
There is no question that for cave diving, sidemount is much better. I have even started doing sidemount in the ocean when I need two tanks to stay longer.
@@BlueWorldTV Good idea! I should try that too.
Wow that was spooky and felt suffocating! I got an idea Jonathan. You have to get a skull face painted helmet so when you emerge from the cave it looks scary, lol. Great episode guys! 😄
Thanks!
Ouchie!!! Tight AND hard to see??? No wonder Todd went nope at first xxx
Honestly I like this perspective especially at 11:30 as it puts into perspective how bad stirring up silt is. Oh man on the way back, as you mentioned I would feel so safe keeping track of the line! Talk about tight and low flow!
Believe me....I wasn't letting that line out of my sight/touch.
Hi, quick question
What is the pipe at the begining of the cave?
Also,nice dive
Looking at this dive motivated me to service my BCD. Not that I am going cave diving; just Todd and you make any dive look soo inviting.
Water sampling of some sort.
i can see why people get claustrophobic and panic!! gosh i would so fast!
if NASA had you guys as a film crew. They would benifit insanely.
Fantastic video at a beautiful location!😍
I love Merritts Mill Pond!! LOVE!!!
Thanks for sharing this adventure
Glad you enjoyed it
Todd, what kind of dome port did you have on your GoPro? Advantage over the flat port?
www.backscatter.com/Inon-UFL-G140-SD-Underwater-Semi-Fisheye-Conversio
Well beware of crocodile lake. Take care always guys
99.999% of divers watching this: Nope nope nope nope nopenopenopenopenope.
LOL!!
Wow this looks super dangerous even for a certified cave diver.
It looks worse than it really is. We go slowly and relax.
very cool cave, would you recommend this for amateur divers ?
Absolutely not!
Good job guys!! Let's go to Twin next time you come in town!!
You know it buddy! DECEMBER! Maybe it will be clearer than it was last time.
Awsome vid
There's a lot of snails that look like they're not doing great. The only ones that stood out as looking particularly alive to me were the ones at 18:27, which also look like they might be invasive apple snails (though maybe they're the native ones, hard to tell.) I hope this isn't a case of invasives outcompeting natives.
Great video as always! I just realized I saw some pretty full bladder on one or both of you, and didn’t see any extra equipment needing heavy lift, are you overweighted? Intentionally? I think you can drop a bit of weights.
We have no weights at all. We have two steel LP85 cylinders and two regulators and only 7mm wetsuits.
@@BlueWorldTV ah ok, then not much except going ALU to do anything about that then. Just wanted to give my constructive feedback :)
Interesting dive ! I do wonder why there is the guideline and a secondary plastic tubing going in, is that for a specific reason ?
The plastic tubing is for water quality sampling. I don't know who is sampling the water or why, but that's what it's for. It runs from the entrance all the way to the first restriction.
i love ur channel..thank u for posting this...
Glad you enjoy it!
Great situational awareness and decision making. I would’ve called it too! That’s not diving any longer when you’re crawling, scooting, digging, and or pushing and pulling.
Oh man, it was fun!!!
Hey Jonathan how tight is gator hole anyways, I wouldn’t dare to go in there!
I love these videos their awsome
God i love this channel
When squeezing through a tight opening does your regulator hose drag on the bottom? Does your 2nd stage feel like it's falling out of your mouth?
Usually not.
I’m feeling my anxiety rising as you guys are coming back😳
awesome! i love this channel
Glad you enjoy it!
What camera tray and lights are you using with the GoPro rig? I’m heading to the Yucatán in September and would love something like that for cavern dives. no caves 😢…. Yet!
We didn't plan to do that, so we didn't really have a tray. I just hooked my GoPro straight to a single BigBlue 9000 light with a section of loc-line tubing that we use for light arms. Normally when I use a GoPro as a dedicated camera, I use the one from Backscatter. Really like it.
www.backscatter.com/Backscatter-Wide-Double-Handle-and-Tray
All our lights from are BigBlue. They are the best! Our current favorite is the CB10000
bigbluedivelights.com/products/10000-lumen-video-lightsku-cb10000p/
I love your videos I want to become a diver like you
Glad to hear it!!
Great video as always. Are y'all planning on getting rebreather certified any time?
We did a lot with rebreathers in the first season....probably going to get back into them a little.
Amazing upload thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Is there enough room to turn around in these tight places in the cave to head back out?
Also, how do you tell your buddy that you want to get the f out, hand or light signals?
Sometimes you have to keep moving until you find a suitable place to turn around. The turn signal can be done with hands or lights. You make a circle pointed downward. It means "turn around"
Curious as to why you didn't run your own line in case the permanent one was damaged or broken?
Adds a lot of time.
Can you do a dive in Brazil next?
Worried about the poor catfish😣. Hope it will still be alive rather than get lost to die.🙏🏻