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Underwater Geocaches


Dew Crew

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I thought you could not have a under water/ground cache.

Ahh, not true, young tadpole. There are caches out there that require all kinds of special equipment; SCUBA gear being one of those. I seem to recall one being at a significant depth, at that-almost at the limit of recreational diving. There was a thread on here not too long ago about one located several hundred feet inside a storm drain--definately underground. And they have been placed in caves also.

 

I personally hope to place an underwater in one of the many lakes in the area (SCUBA not needed, snorkel will help) but I've got a couple other caches I awant to get out first. And....pretty soon the water is going to get hard here.

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Ahh, not true, young tadpole.  There are caches out there that require all kinds of special equipment; SCUBA gear being one of those.  I seem to recall one being at a significant depth, at that-almost at the limit of recreational diving.

dkwolf, you might be thinking of 'The Rapture of the Deep' - (Scuba MultiCache) by The Artful Dodger, though it is only in 90 feet of water.

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CCD & Lady Di also have the Scuba School II geocache in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

 

The cache is onboard the wreck of the "Field and Sea," a thirty five foot cabin cruiser sitting upright in thirty feet of fresh water.

 

d5f50c30-a65a-4a63-bab8-2e09c95b3725.jpg

 

Though the cache was listed back in May, I decided to wait to log it in hopes that the unfound cache would encourage a few cachers to become divers as well.

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This is my personally filtered list of scuba required caches (as of this morning). Any not on the list either don't have the attribute, or I couldn't tell that they were actually scuba-required.

(GCPRAC) Scuba Cache:Innerkip Quarry (Ontario, Canada)

(GCJMTR) Ambitious Snorkeller (Ontario, Canada)

(GC213E) Allveeaare / Underwater stash (Estonia)

(GCK181) Phobias IV - Hydrophobia (Finland)

(GCNQ40) Horka - Pumpenhaus (Germany)

(GCTA90) Plaetzle (Germany)

(GCTRRP) 20,000 Leagues Under The Pub! (United Kingdom)

(GCH5FJ) Minus 30; SCUBA Cache (Arizona, United States)

(GCT98H) Underwater SCUBA Cache at Breakwater in Monterey (California, United States)

(GCVGCH) Scuba Steve's First Time (California, United States)

(GCGM0D) Neptune's Trident (Idaho, United States)

(GCTYBA) Sinker (Idaho, United States)

(GCNWR2) Scuba School II (Massachusetts, United States)

(GCQGMQ) Atlantis (New York, United States)

(GCPTP0) Bluestone Diver - Road to the Abyss (North Carolina, United States)

(GCK9PV) The Deep Dam Cache (Tennessee, United States)

(GCKDPR) Dean's Deseret Dive Destination (Utah, United States)

(GCR35X) Jorsted Junk (Washington, United States)

(GCPVAM) Got Lungs? (Wyoming, United States)

I really must start planning some scubacaching trips (now that I have my card). :)
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Wish I had some SCUBA equipment to do some of these. WOW!

Might I suggest learning German while you're saving up for your openwater cert and gear? :laughing:
(GCPX5K) Attersee "Unterwasser Pavillon" (Austria)

(GCJMTR) Ambitious Snorkeller (Ontario, Canada)

(GCPRAC) Scuba Cache:Innerkip Quarry (Ontario, Canada)

(GCPDXD) LA CACHE SOUS-MARINE SACACOMIE (Quebec, Canada)

(GC213E) Allveeaare / Underwater stash (Estonia)

(GCK181) Phobias IV - Hydrophobia (Finland)

(GCPM44) Atlantis (Germany)

(GCGWK8) Fishermans Cache (Germany)

(GCNYGM) FROGGY-DIVE (Germany)

(GCN8MZ) Gluckgluck - Nur f�r Taucher - Divers Only (Germany)

(GCNQ40) Horka - Pumpenhaus (Germany)

(GCR7HZ) No Subs * * * Scuba Cache (Germany)

(GCTA90) Plaetzle (Germany)

(GCTRRP) 20,000 Leagues Under The Pub! (United Kingdom)

(GCH5FJ) Minus 30; SCUBA Cache (Arizona, United States)

(GCVGCH) Scuba Steve's First Time (California, United States)

(GCT98H) Underwater SCUBA Cache at Breakwater in Monterey (California, United States)

(GCGM0D) Neptune's Trident (Idaho, United States)

(GCTYBA) Sinker (Idaho, United States)

(GCNWR2) Scuba School II (Massachusetts, United States)

(GCQGMQ) Atlantis (New York, United States)

(GCPTP0) Bluestone Diver - Road to the Abyss (North Carolina, United States)

(GCK9PV) The Deep Dam Cache (Tennessee, United States)

(GCKDPR) Dean's Deseret Dive Destination (Utah, United States)

(GCR35X) Jorsted Junk (Washington, United States)

(GCPVAM) Got Lungs? (Wyoming, United States)

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Does anyone speak Estonian or German? There are just a few caches with the scuba required attribute that I cannot comprehend to know whether to mark them in the yes or no column:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCHRWD

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCTCMZ

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCPCH7

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCV2G6

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCVYDY

 

Not counting those five, the current tallies are:

129 Scuba *NOT* required.

28 Scuba required/advised.

3 Not enough information.

 

(For a total of 165 caches with the attribute. As you can see, there are a lot of misinforming hiders out there.)

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Okay, I *was* going to wait to post this until some of the vast number of misuses of the "requires scuba gear" attribute were cleared up (some people seem to be in "Oooooh, pretty..." mode when it comes to attributes). Since there has been no apparent progress on the abuse situation, I've done some more updates so that it can be at least a bit useful, even in spite of the pollution (can we CITO attributes yet?). In no way am I upset about the wheels of cleanup moving slowly, by the way, but there seems to be no legitimate reason not to share this in the meantime, so, without further ado...

 

ClayJar's "Scuba" Cache List

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Okay, I *was* going to wait to post this until some of the vast number of misuses of the "requires scuba gear" attribute were cleared up (some people seem to be in "Oooooh, pretty..." mode when it comes to attributes). Since there has been no apparent progress on the abuse situation, I've done some more updates so that it can be at least a bit useful, even in spite of the pollution (can we CITO attributes yet?). In no way am I upset about the wheels of cleanup moving slowly, by the way, but there seems to be no legitimate reason not to share this in the meantime, so, without further ado...

 

ClayJar's "Scuba" Cache List

 

Thanks!!

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As an active public safety diver and an active geocacher, it didn't take me long to start searching for "SCUBA" caches, assuming that SCUBA keyword searches or the SCUBA attribute would provide an accurate list.

 

As ClayJar has noted, a search using these techniques produces a massive list of domestic and international caches that may involve SCUBA, snorkling, wading, or they may have nothing whatsoever to do with diving.

 

I may have accumulated added deco time penetrating U-boats and watched Das Boat far more than Dive Princess can tolerate, but I apparently haven't absorbed enough conversational German to be of use in deciding if a SCUBA cache in Frankfurt requires my doubles to get to, or if the owner simply fell into the attribute icon craze.

 

If you're watching some of the renowned SCUBA caches like 'The Rapture of the Deep' - (Scuba MultiCache) or Yukon Diving (SCUBA, Underwater), then you've probably noted that the caches appear on my SCUBA caches bookmark list.

 

All of the caches that appear on my SCUBA caches bookmark list are in the Continental United States or its territories, the cache pages are in English, and unless you're Jacques Mayol or Carlos Coste and have the capabilities and support personnel on standby to freedive, then SCUBA is mandated.

 

That drops the list down to about 10% of the initial search results.

 

As a side note, under the premise that the SCUBA requirement automatically increases the difficulty to 5 under the Groundspeak guidelines, I think that this in itself warrants the creation of an independent cache type, and cache type icon.

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Hey, Wreck Diver! I love your bookmark list. If I can get the time, transportation, and requisite buddies to do geocaching-on-scuba, they will be at the top of the list (or they may even *be* the list). I'm currently collecting dive time in my log book and trying to talk some buddies into diving to place my own true SCUBA cache to get a spot in your bookmark list.

 

I hope my being an information junkie and making a comprehensive overview doesn't make me come across as a paper diver. I just like learning and analyzing things, and hydrocaches are the latest relevant topic on which I can play with data.

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I finally got a day off, so I had a chance to post the request in the Geocaching.com Web Site forum to request that SCUBA and rappelling cache type finder/owner icons be developed to recognize the extreme commitments that cache owners are showing in developing these difficult caches, and the finders that ultimately set aside weekends to search for them.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=133665

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I have placed an underwater cache that is designed to be found by diving in a mask with fins. It is at the bottom of the Echodale Lake in about 12 feet of water.

I did a maintenance visit today and I will admit that I think it is the most fun I ever had doing a maintenance check on on one of my caches. It took a total of 6 dives to the bottom with multiple helpers to retrieve the cache. The first layer of protection had failed but layers 2 and 3 were both fine, the cache log was dry.

It is very difficult to find as the fine silt on the bottom disturbs easily, turbidity is always high and the cache is disguised to look like the lake bottom. Other rocks on the silt bottom further confuse the search, it is very tough. I wasn't sure I was going to find it, how embarassing would that be.

This type of cache can be a lot of fun and it really is a 5 star cache for terrain, the 4 stars for difficulty also seem accurate to me after today's visit.

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We've been thinking of placing an underwater cache for a while, one that only requires snorkel equipment (approx. 10-15' deep). I was wondering if anyone had any advice for putting the cache together; Containers, writing materials, anchoring ideas, etc. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

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