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Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 19, 2011 2:18 pm

Howdy from Galvy!
TCR was incredible and definitely the point where I said: THIS COMMUNITY ROCKS! (hehe, caves, rocks, ehheh) I'd love to be a part of it. After some internet searching I found this forum, and even though I don't have internet at home and am not really a usual forum-going active member type person, I'm trying it out anyway. I'm currently learning everything I can from Dr. Iliffe's seemingly endless pit of knowledge in the class Biospeleology at TAMUG (gig'em aggies). I am not sure how bad I want to join a grotto, simply because I don't know how active a member I can actually be, but being able to make friends is definitely a priority if I am to continue caving after this semester. I mentioned that this was my first semester caving, right? I never want to stop! I love a sport that will beat me right back X3

Umm, so yeah, ASK ME QUESTIONS!
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Squirrel Girl » Oct 19, 2011 3:40 pm

Welcome, Tito Turtle. Did you go to the CDS workshop, too?
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 19, 2011 7:41 pm

TCR was a school field trip for me, what/where was this CDS?

I got stuck in the obstacle course, they had to lift the squeeze box so I could fit :oops: can't do that in real caves, huh?
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Squirrel Girl » Oct 19, 2011 9:07 pm

Tito the Turtle wrote:TCR was a school field trip for me, what/where was this CDS?

I got stuck in the obstacle course, they had to lift the squeeze box so I could fit :oops: can't do that in real caves, huh?


The Cave Diving Section. Tom Iliff brings a group of students to the Workshop every Memorial Day.

Hey, one year at an NSS convention in SD, I got stuck in a squeeze box, and they had to life the lid so I could get out. But they said, "it's OK, you'll still fit in the cave." Sure enough, there was nothing anywhere near that tight in the real cave.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 19, 2011 9:16 pm

Ah, got it. Maybe that's what the ppl go to during the spring semester instead of TCR, I'd absolutely love to go though! I love diving and I love caves, seems natural to like cave diving, huh? I do plan on taking his tropical marine ecology class though, and that class goes to the cenotes.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Herman Miller » Oct 20, 2011 4:24 pm

Welcome to our little world Turtle, you have found our official forums where everyone is welcome ;). Additionally do not forget the Texas Mailing List at http://texascavers.com/ and also the Cavers equivilancy (sp?) of Facebook at http://nsscavers.ning.com/

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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 21, 2011 4:38 pm

Thanks for the welcome!I've passed all that information on to my classmates today, hopefully they will sign up as well. I didn't expect to see you here, but now that I think about it, it's kind of a duh, now isn't it? This is a small and tight community that I'm glad to be a part of, even if it's only a minor part.
:banana_yay:

Today in lab we watched that cave diving movie... uh, Sanctum! and we were supposed to make a list of good and bad caving techniques. That was a scary movie and a bold reminder to never bite off more than you can chew. Does anyone know the true story that the movie was based off of? I'd surely like to do more research on the cave and the path that these tough cavers took.
Also, in class, we learned about quarried caves that my Professor had been in that had priceless speleothems and bird fossils that are now just completely destroyed. Once again I was thrust into the stream of consciousness of non-cavers. The owner's reasoning for going into a live cave and SMASHING AS MANY FORMATIONS THEY COULD was to decrease the value of the cave so that it would be 'okay' to explode. The owner already owned two caves and said it was not profitable. Broke my heart. All of that science, fossils, helectites, and butterfly formations GONE FOREVER. Not to mention any possible cave adapted creatures that may have inhabited these sanctuaries... (I'm still upset about it and it happened years ago without my knowledge.) What selfish people.

On that note, off to Ren Fest! (it's pirate weekend)
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Squirrel Girl » Oct 21, 2011 5:26 pm

Tito the Turtle wrote:Today in lab we watched that cave diving movie... uh, Sanctum! and we were supposed to make a list of good and bad caving techniques. That was a scary movie and a bold reminder to never bite off more than you can chew. Does anyone know the true story that the movie was based off of?


http://www.movieweb.com/news/james-came ... lk-sanctum

The movie was "inspired by," not based off of. It was *very* loosely inspired by. They seem to have stolen some dialog from Beyond the Deep as well.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Herman Miller » Oct 21, 2011 5:32 pm

Arrgh!!!

The movie Sanctum was loosely based on the events of a 1988 expedition to the Nullarbor (see null & arbor = no trees) plains in Australia http://www.cavediving.com.au/cave-divin ... from-cave/. Also referencing the deep entrance pit many people have likened this to Sotano De Las Golandrinas http://photography.nationalgeographic.c ... 970-sw.jpg

SPOILER BELOW STOP READING!!!

I think the one mishap in the movie that is most likely to occur in real life is getting long hair caught in a rack ( rappelling device ) always tie up your hair and if you think its getting into your rack stop immediately... Well in any case welcome to our little community and enjoy yourself at RenFest... And do not forget your Grotto has a trip planned out to the Deep & Punkin Cave Preserve in November. Punkin is vertical while Deep is not though I believe Punkin will still be closed due to bats. Its an awesome piece of land that the Texas Cave Management Association owns. The field house is fully equipped and Deep Cave is awesome!!!
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 24, 2011 1:35 pm

Thank you both for the information, I took great pleasure in reading more about it! Usually when movies are made about real life events and involve death I find it extremely difficult to believe that a character would die in such a manner. In contrast, when I was watching Sanctum, every death depicted I believed. I guess it's not difficult making a scary movie when all of the scary things are real and tangible and ever present in the minds of cavers. Not once in the movie did I see a death and just go "oh come on that was ridiculous if they had just done blahblahblah they would of been fine..." or "why on earth did that person watch that animal eat their friend and just stand there to be eaten themselves..." or "come on that person totally could have saved themselves if they had only just stood up." Even the more outlandish deaths depicted on screen were not unbelievable because I know panic can make a person do crazy things. I was pleased to see the main character (in the beginning when the re-breather malfunctioned on the female) actually shove her away. He even did it less than a minute after I muttered to myself "she's gone, save yourself or you'll both die" though I probably would have been more forceful with getting the panicking diver away from me. I fully expected Hollywood to swoop in and be all unbelievable like -ooh, emergency ascent from a depth that would require a two hour deco stop and neither gets bent 8D that's exciting!-
...Eh, I've lost track of my thoughts and seem to be rambling now.

Anyway, as much as I would adore going to Deep cave (I'm still working on my ascension so wouldn't be comfortable caving Punkin) I won't be able to make it to Punkin or Deep, but I will be going to Cave Without a Name, my first wet cave, and on a later trip Blue Springs Cave. I'm super excited about those and very glad I have a titanium stretch wet suit. Any tips on how to keep that expensive thing from being ruined? (not that I mind, that thing was purchased for field expeditions anyway, but if I can keep it nice it'll last longer, right?) I plan to wear my caving coveralls over it.

Today in class I learned more about cave adapted creatures and how the scientific communities' opinion of the diversity and complexity of cave niches has changes. We also discussed what makes an animal a living fossil and a living relic. I think in lab we will be going over different collection techniques. It's gonna be great. I love science.

oh, and as a side ponderance, I wonder if speleothems could be reproduced on a faster scale in laboratories in anoxic conditions so people could own speleothems without plundering caves. That would be neat.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Squirrel Girl » Oct 24, 2011 2:29 pm

Tito the Turtle wrote:I'm super excited about those and very glad I have a titanium stretch wet suit. Any tips on how to keep that expensive thing from being ruined? (not that I mind, that thing was purchased for field expeditions anyway, but if I can keep it nice it'll last longer, right?) I plan to wear my caving coveralls over it.


Yeah--buy a cheaper wetsuit!!! Well, wearing coveralls and kneepads (maybe elbow pads) might solve the problem. But I don't think I'd buy such an expensive suit for caving--or at least know that it will have a short-ish lifespan. FYI, there's always Aquaseal.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Herman Miller » Oct 24, 2011 2:36 pm

Regarding saving your wetsuit all I can recommend is indeed wearing something over it. When I was in the middle east I often times found myself in aircraft bunkers that had been shattered by large bombs/missile, even in the dry environment having all that powdered concrete allowed for significant froth of speleothms from the ceilings. In the Span of ~15 years there were formations in excess of one foot long.

One of my favorite wet Texas caves is honey creek cave Which were always looking for more people to haul gear, there's swimming, crawling, slithering.... Etc and best of all you get hauled in and out of the cave via tractor :)
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 24, 2011 9:35 pm

Squirrel Girl wrote:Yeah--buy a cheaper wetsuit!!! Well, wearing coveralls and kneepads (maybe elbow pads) might solve the problem. But I don't think I'd buy such an expensive suit for caving--or at least know that it will have a short-ish lifespan. FYI, there's always Aquaseal.


Heh, funny story. The reason I have such a suit in the first place is my dimensions... Normal wet suits won't fit me correctly; either everything but my chest fits or my chest fits and I have dead space in my suit. :shrug:
Your advice is greatly appreciated! I hope the knee pads and forearm pads fit over the wet suit (lol) they're pretty snug. Also, what would I use the aquaseal for? Rips in the wetsuit? Hadn't even thought of that yet :doh: Thanks for the heads up!! <3

Herman Miller wrote:Regarding saving your wetsuit all I can recommend is indeed wearing something over it.


Okay

Herman Miller wrote:When I was in the middle east I often times found myself in aircraft bunkers that had been shattered by large bombs/missile, even in the dry environment having all that powdered concrete allowed for significant froth of speleothems from the ceilings. In the Span of ~15 years there were formations in excess of one foot long.


Aha! So there are anthropogenic speleothems! I'm suddenly reminded of the fat stalactites in the sewers of new york, gross! Think that would count?

Herman Miller wrote:One of my favorite wet Texas caves is honey creek cave Which we're always looking for more people to haul gear, there's swimming, crawling, slithering.... Etc and best of all you get hauled in and out of the cave via tractor :)


Ha! That cave seems to be the essence of caving in one! It looks beyond my skill level though :caver: I can certainly see why it's your favorite! I'd love to cave it one day :grin:
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Tito the Turtle » Oct 26, 2011 1:13 pm

Ugh, I think I blew that test. Makes me sad! I don't lack passion for the subject material, so why can't I get it right? There has just been too much stress for me this semester. I still can't find my textbook. I think the Bookstore gave me a textbook for a different class my Prof teaches. FML, I should have noticed months ago, funny thing is I could have sworn I had it and just thought I had put it under my car seat. Wish I had a cave to curl up in. Nothing like being (voluntarily) swallowed up by the earth to calm one's negative inner monologue. Maybe I need to meet with my doctor. Sigh. One more week until I'm in the Cave Without a Name and I still haven't collected my sleeping bag, wetsuit, or coat. Need to do laundry too, wouldn't want the Powder Room to get into Cave Without a Name (cross contamination and whatnot) Maybe I'll just curl up with my coveralls and pretend I'm in a cave.

I'm just so disappointed with myself.
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Re: Cave Turtle

Postby Herman Miller » Oct 26, 2011 3:05 pm

You should have fun in Cave Without a Name (CWAN) its a Texas classic.

Funny how life sends us disasters heaped altogether. Take it as it comes and all will soon pass. If you keep :boxing: through it before you know it you will be :banana: :banana_yay: :banana: for joy :roll: Remember that a cold front is coming into Texas this week, make sure you have a good set of warmth around you.



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