Hookah for cave(mine)exploration

[Parangjim]

I've read that a hookah system is good to only about 75 feet DOWN in the water. My question is not about vertical push, but horizontal. Would there be an ending distance for running an airhose into a (nearly) straight water filled mine? I realize that weight, kinks in the line, etc. would all be limiting factors. Theoretically, could you set up a system to walk 250 feet into a mine using a helmet and airsupply and use a wired intercom to talk to base and another diver?

Of course this is only theoretical, I don't really know a cave/mine that has about 200,000 silver dollars hidden in it.

 

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[dano91]

You dont want a Hooka system for that dive. Try twin tanks and dual reg's

 

[Parangjim]

Thanks dano

but would that give me the ability to talk to base and dive partner?

 

[Gold Digger]

With one of those intercom helmets that has the regulator built in...

 

[Colorado Bob]

PARANGJIM,
You may want to re-think the Hookah thing. I have spent a lot of time underwater with hookah gear and it works great, if used right. You don't have to worry about the line, it will float fairly well. We never used over 50 ft. as we had no need for it, but some of the guys were using 100ft. lines. We used a pressure reserve tank between the compresser and the main line. If you go into a cave you have to be carefull and make sure that you tie off the engine and compresser unit well away from the cave opening. If you let it get inside the cave it will be pumping all of the the exhaust fumes to you. BAD NEWS.. Don't know about the helmet thing, but you can buy a full face mask with built in regulator and intercom.

 

[Parangjim]

Gold Digger, Colorado Bob Thanks for the suggestions. Trust me, I will NOT go cave diving without a partner! I may have found a way to side-step all the "water" and go straight to the silver.
Now my question is, how do I get a 6-foot silver statue out of a cvave and up a hill about a mile. Oh, well, it's the finding not the having.
parangjim

 

[TOWcritter]

If it's solid silver, I have a battery powered sawzall and plenty of blades. We could cut that thing up real nice into smaller manageble pieces. Then it would be real easy to get out. What do you say?!

 

[Parangjim]

You know,
I'm thinking about calling the State University and just telling them to come get the d~~~ thing. It was reported before (not by me) as looking faintly Aztec.( written up decades ago in local newspaper) I don't see it that way, but I've never met a real Aztec.

And remember , this is all just hypothetical.

 

[Parangjim]

Anyway, the original estimate was way off. (What a surprise) Only about 4500 silver coins, 200 odd pounds of bar silver, and "Lenny" this god-awful statue. Why is it everyone can find gold but me?

After I move out of States we might get some interesting photos. (Theoretically)

 

[Colorado Bob]

Parangjim,
Where there is a will there is a way. A little at a time, my man. Keep a zipper on it and go for it.

 

[2bit4reale]

regardless of having voice communications and a buddy, venturing into an underwater cave without proper instruction could be a FATAL mistake!! And walking on the bottom = O visibility. the majority of cave diving accidents are from ppl who have absolutely no cave diving training. there is nothing in that cave worth your life.........just my $0.02 worth.

 

[Parangjim]

Okay, good friends,
To everyone who has sent me private messages, Thank you. At this time I do not need another partner!
Please remember that this was only hypothetical! No one with good sense would spend FOUR YEARS doing research and preliminary ground work then tell a public forum about it. There wasn't really a cache of old coins (English? Spanish?) and silver bars just laying on the ground in a water filled cave. That cache wasn't really reported in the newspaper back in the 1920's when some coon hunter found it and retrieved about (modern count) 10,000 dollars of coins. And as far as I know, no one illegally dug a trench in a National Forest with a backhoe and drained said cave.
It was just a vagrant thought that ran through my head one day. "What if..."

After I bought my DFX I became just another fat guy in ugly shorts and black socks doing recreational coinshooting...in odd places. Next year I'll be doing that coinshooting in beaches way farther South.

Now, if somebody really good on here would like to organize a recovery on the treasure cave of Salado Texas, or Cocos Island I would love to join. I'll probably have some new TH toys by then.

Thanks to everyone for the great advice and words of wisdom, they've been appreciated.