Florida Scuba Diver Sets World Record, Spends Over Five Days Underwater

Wow. And for a good cause.

A Lake County diver set a new world record Friday for spending more than five days underwater.

People gathered around Groveland's Lake David to rally around diver Allen Sherrod, 47, as he stepped foot back on land.

Around 9 a.m. Sherrod broke the world record for the longest freshwater dive by just about 15 minutes.

"This was like amazing. He's tried this two times before. This whole week we knew he could pull it off," said Nicole Plussa, 17, who attempted the women's world record but had to resurface after about 13 hours. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Sherrod walked out of Lake David with a bottle of champagne and his sense of humor still intact.

Sherrod started his dive Sunday at 8:46 a.m., 10 years to the minute since the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

He emerged five days, 14 minutes and 32 seconds later.

Sherrod dedicated this third attempt to helping veterans pursue diving by raising money for Wounded Warriors.

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Scuba Diving Everything from Icy Lakes to Warm Wrecks, from Open Circuit to Closed

Yet another great episode from the folks over at Talk Scuba, this one including everything from an icy lake dive that didn't last long for Bob, Florida wreck diving stories, adaptive scuba, re-breathers and side-mounts.


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Interview with Shipwreck Explorer Valerie van Heest

Talking Scuba host Bob Shoemaker conducts a terrific interview with explorer and author Valerie van Heest, who shares stories and video footage of the shipwrecks discussed.

Don't miss this one.


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Also be sure to check out Valerie van Heest and Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates.

Wreck diving, adaptive diving, river diving, oh my!

A terrific episode from the folks over at Talking Scuba this week.


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Ice Fishermen Hook Themselves a... Scuba Diver?

Ha! From the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

A pair of ice fishermen thought they had caught a monster fish -- but they got an even bigger surprise than they bargained for at the end of the line.

Jason Mechtel and Jeff Klein went out on Lake Waconia in Minnesota to try and lure a monster muskie, but they quickly got a shock, MyFoxTwinCities reported.

“I mean, it didn’t take two seconds and this rattle reel went off,” said Klein.

Soon, every line was going crazy. The pair thought they had a monster fish pulling their lines out until they looked down.

“I literally almost had a heart attack,” said Klein.

A hand broke the surface of the water.

“I didn’t know what to do -- if I should shake it, or what,” said Mechtel.

A scuba diver whose safety line got snagged began sending rope up to them, and soon, they found their hook.

They removed the hook and sent the line back down, and were given a thumbs up by their aquatic acquaintance.

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Talking Scuba Interviews Grand Rapids Scuba Club President

In the latest episode, Talking Scuba host Bob Shoemaker interviews Grand Rapids Scuba Club President Mark Christy and discusses the local dive scene, some viewer mail, and the question of renting versus buying gear.


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Midwest Freshwater Scuba Diving

In this episode, the guys over at Talking Scuba choose some of their favorite shots from fall dive trips to Baptist Lake, Boardman River, Gilboa Quarry, and Portage Quarry.


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Mackinaw and Great Lakes Scuba Diving (Part Deux)

Taking Scuba hosts Bob and Jim continue their diving discussions with Mike and Greg about Mackinaw and Great Lakes diving.


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If you missed part one, be sure to view it here.

Scuba Diving Shipwrecks in the Straits of Mackinaw

Talking Scuba hosts Jim and Bob dive and discuss shipwrecks in the Straits of Mackinaw with the guys from Mobile Divers LLC and Shipwreck Adventures.


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Scuba Diver to Attempt World Record 7-Day Freshwater Dive... Again

Last week we reported on the aborted world record freshwater endurance diving attempt made by Allen Sherrod -- who was looking to stay underwater for a week.

Well, he's back.

Scuba diver Allen Sherrod is hoping the second time is the charm for his quest to establish a world record freshwater endurance diving attempt. His first attempt ended about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 15, about 62 hours into the projected seven-day dive, when illness forced him to abort.

The new attempt is set to start at noon Monday.

Sherrod had planned to spend Sept. 12-19 in Lake David near downtown Groveland, but problems soon developed.

'In 48 hours I was getting full (flu) symptoms,' Sherrod said. 'We planned for everything except me getting sick. (The second dive will) be pretty much the same, except this time I won't get the flu.'

Sherrod was speaking at his shop in Clermont, where he had just finished a safety briefing for some of the divers on his all-volunteer team.

Their next stop was to be Lake David where the team is, in fact, making some changes. Those changes are linked to the very reason that Sherrod decided to make the dive.

'I wanted to bring attention to what's happening to the lakes,' Sherrod says.

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Safe diving, Allen.

World Record Attempt Cut Short After Scuba Diver Spent Nearly 3 Days Underwater

Despite that, wow.

Groveland native Allen Sherrod resurfaced early Wednesday morning after being submerged 10 feet below of the surface of Lake David for nearly three days.

With the help of scuba gea,r he has been underwater since noon on Sunday, raising awareness to keep local freshwater lakes clean. He and his safety divers had been even picking up trash at the bottom of the lake. Sherrod was attempting to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest scuba dive in freshwater but the project has its challenges.

Sherrod surfaced around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, saying he was suffering from flu-like symptoms.

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Mackinaw Wreck Diving (Cedarville & Barnum) Footage

In this episode, the Talking Scuba crew dives the Straits of Mackinaw, MI with Mike Bernard of Mobile Divers LLC and Greg Such of Shipwreck Adventures. In this first video installment, the guys dive the bow section of the Cedarville wreck as well as the Barnum.


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On-Scene Photos: WWII Helldiver Raised from San Diego Reservoir

In early June we reported that salvage teams had obtained necessary permission to raise a World War II Navy dive bomber, and in mid-July that the crews were prepping the recovery site in a San Diego reservoir.

Last Friday the Helldiver showed herself on dry land for the first time 65 years, after being lifted 90 feet from the lake bottom.

The SB2C Helldiver aircraft was brought to the surface after days of work to free it from several feet of mud and debris on the dark floor of Lower Otay Reservoir, where it was spotted last year by two men using a fish finder.

Divers from A&T Recovery in Chicago said the tail of the plane was sticking out of the silt, but the engine was completely buried.

A crowd watched Friday as the mud-caked, single-engine plane, with both wings attached, broke through the surface of the water then officially touched shore at 3:50 p.m. PDT.

Its propellor was mangled, but splotches of blue showed through the corrosion and mud elsewhere on the aircraft.

The plane will now be dried out, disassembled and trucked to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., for restoration and display, said Taras Lyssenko, A&T general manager.

The Helldiver crashed when the engine failed during a training flight on May 28, 1945. Sgt. Joseph Metz and his pilot swam to shore and survived but have since died.

The plane was all but forgotten until Duane Johnson and a fishing buddy spotted the outline of a plane on the fish finder.

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Neutral Dive Gear has obtained these exclusive on-site photos of last week's recovery effort, courtesy of Donald Young.

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Anyone else just get the chills?

Saving Private Catfish

In their latest episode, Talking Scuba hosts Bob Shoemaker and Jim Norton talk about dreams of diving, the importance of learning about the dive tables, returning to the importance of buoyancy, and a recent local dive that involved saving a catfish.


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John Ford Lake Diving Footage

The guys over at Talking Scuba recently had the opportunity to dive the private inland lake John Ford, located in Newaygo, Michigan.

Here's some of their footage.


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Crews Prep WWII Helldiver Recovery Site

Last month we reported that salvage teams have received necessary permission to raise a World War II Navy dive bomber from a San Diego lake.

Those crews are now preparing the recovery site for that effort.

City of San Diego ranger-divers on Tuesday will begin preparing the recovery site to lift a vintage World War II fighter plane that has been at the bottom of Lower Otay Lake since it crashed there in 1945.

Capt. Bob Rasmussen, director of the Florida-based National Naval Aviation Museum, said he should have an exact date for the recovery operation by the end of the week.

“We’re going to give it a shot, and we’re looking at the middle of August right now,” Rasmussen said.

That news set off a chain reaction in San Diego, where the city, which owns the reservoir and water, will prepare a triangular boom that will be used to collect any fuel, oil or other toxins that may leak from the plane when it’s being recovered. A&T Recovery, based in Chicago, will conduct the complex operation of cleaning debris from inside and around the plane. Divers and engineers will then work off a plan drawn up by Taras Lyssenko and his engineers from A&T Recovery.

“The first thing we have to do is pull all the mud back and from inside the plane and around it,” Lyssenko said. “We have to see what the structure and integrity of the plane is like before we attempt to lift it. We have to see if there is any fuel or toxins there.”

Lyssenko said the salvage could be done in stages. For instance, if the engine is off the plane or not secure, it may come up separately. If it can be secured, then divers will do that and raise it with the plane.

“We won’t know anything until we pull the mud back,” he said. “We need to make sure everything on the plane is attached and secure. It’s not a simple thing.”

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Scuba Diver Recounts 10-hour Swim for Survival

An exhausting feat; luckily with a happy ending.

The Sheboygan County men who disappeared while diving on a Lake Michigan shipwreck made it back to shore on their own after battling the current for 10 hours, one of the divers said Tuesday.

David Rittmann, 29, of Adell, said he and Jamie Smallish, 28, of Beechwood, remain at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Ozaukee in Mequon today, recovering from hypothermia and the physical strain of fighting the lake for their lives.

"We figured we were swimming close to around eight miles if not more, because we'd swim so far and the current would take us back out, then we'd go swim again," Rittmann said in a telephone interview from the hospital. "They're saying it's like we ran a marathon, and we're not marathon runners."

Rittmann and Smallish, former classmates at Ozaukee High School, hit the water about 1 p.m. Sunday to explore the Niagara, a side-wheel steamer that sunk a mile off Harrington Beach in 1856. Smallish had previously explored the wreck, which is in about 55 feet of water, but it was a first for Rittmann.

Rittmann said the men spent 20 minutes underwater before surfacing together next to his boat, which was moored above the wreck. They had taken off their flippers to climb aboard when the current tore them away.

By the time they gathered themselves, the men were out of sight of Rittmann's boat. Seeing no other option, they headed for shore.

"I didn't even know if we were going to make it or not," Rittmann said. "We just tried keeping a positive attitude. That's all we could do is keep on going."

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Can't help but wonder if they would have been better off with webbed scuba diving gloves.

Scuba Diving Michigan Lakes and Wrecks

The guys over at Talking Scuba discuss their most recent dive stories in Michigan inland lakes and wrecks in Lake Michigan. The episode includes terrific dive footage and photos from Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates.


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Judge Rules 19th Century Lake Erie Shipwreck to Remain Sunk

Agreeing with state attorneys, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio has ruled that the state of New York, under the U.S. Abandoned Shipwreck Act, is the owner of a 19th century sailing ship sunk in Lake Erie near Dunkirk.

The two-masted wooden sailing ship may have been used by the British during the War of 1812 and later may have had a role in the Underground Railroad, transporting escaped slaves from the United States to Canada, Foschio said in court papers.

Since 2004, officials of Northeast Research, a private company that specializes in searching for shipwrecks, have been seeking ownership of the vessel, which they want to raise from the lake’s depths and put on display on Buffalo’s waterfront.

But historic preservation officials in state government contend that the ship is better off where it is, in a deep pocket of the lake about 20 miles from Dunkirk.

State officials also contend that divers working for Northeast Research damaged the ship and mishandled human remains on the ship during a dive to examine the vessel in 2004.

Your thoughts?

Scuba Divers Find Hotel 300 Feet Beneath Lake Surface

Yes, you read that correctly. An 'incredibly intact' hotel 300 feet underwater.

Attakulla Lodge was Thought Lost under South Carolina's Lake Jocassee

CNN has published an incredible story about how divers have found a hotel intact 300 feet deep in Lake Jocassee. The hotel was found in Lake Jocassee, which is a man-made body of water in upper South Carolina.

...

Historically the hotel was part of a neighborhood dubbed Jocassee Valley. It was called the Attakulla Lodge.

The neighborhood's well-being was interrupted by the Duke Power Plant who wanted to fend off four rivers endangering the town. However in creating a dam, the company wiped out Jocassee Valley's structures.

The owner of the Attakulla Lodge was successful in preventing the power plant from demolishing his hotel.

It was a temporary victory. Later the water poured back in and hit the hotel.

At that time it was believed the lodge was destroyed but as it turns out it was simply submerged and incredibly intact.

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