DiveCaching

[+CoBiker]

I recently read an article in Sport Diver magazine about DiveCaching - caches placed underwater accessible with SCUBA equipment. It refers to GC.com many times. I haven't found any reference to DiveCaching on GC.com. Nor is there a unique category. I also searched popular dive areas (Cozumel, Aruba, Bonnaire, Curacao, Florida) for caches that look to be under water and found nothing.

 

Anybody aware of dive caches or anything in the works for unique Scuba Dive Caches?

 

CoBiker

[+Panther&Pine]

Using PQ's you can find caches that require SCUBA diving. Edit: You're looking for attributes.

Edited May 19, 2011 by MooseJawSpruce

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Using PQ's you can find caches that require SCUBA diving. Edit: You're looking for attributes.

There are even power trails of them in the desert.

[+Caped Crusader]

Here's one for you: link.

[+dfx]

Try this search: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?key=scuba&submit4=Go&sortdir=desc&sort=ter

Some other search terms also come to mind, such as http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?key=dive&submit4=Go&sortdir=desc&sort=ter

[+t4e]

this ONE was discussed recently in the forums

 

there's lots around, run a PQ like the Moose suggested, although you will not get them all since a lot of people don't use attributes and also you will get some that are not real scuba caches because i noticed that some CO's use the attribute for caches on powertrails so one way to weed most of those out is to define your PQ with a terrain of 4 and higher

[+Panther&Pine]

this ONE was discussed recently in the forums

 

there's lots around, run a PQ like the Moose suggested, although you will not get them all since a lot of people don't use attributes and also you will get some that are not real scuba caches because i noticed that some CO's use the attribute for caches on powertrails so one way to weed most of those out is to define your PQ with a terrain of 4 and higher

An application of some common sense and looking at the map will help weed out the ones that aren't actually SCUBA caches.

While it is possible to have a SCUBA location inland, there are some areas that make it improbable.

Looking at high terrain caches in an area would be good as well.

[+dfx]

Since the links to what the OP was talking about haven't been posted yet:

 

http://www.nbc12.com/story/14670176/cache-the-fever-of-divecaching

 

http://beadiver.com/divecaching

[+Don_J]

this ONE was discussed recently in the forums

 

there's lots around, run a PQ like the Moose suggested, although you will not get them all since a lot of people don't use attributes and also you will get some that are not real scuba caches because i noticed that some CO's use the attribute for caches on powertrails so one way to weed most of those out is to define your PQ with a terrain of 4 and higher

 

Unfortunately, some still abuse the attribute. I ran a PQ for the west coast states, scuba, T+4. One of them is a grandfathered moving cache. Another has a photo of the view from GZ.

 

[+gtsally]

These two were just published 05/19/11:

 

The Northern Light

The Queen of Nassau

[+Borst68]

GC14YW3 and GCYB3B are two scuba caches near Buffalo. Not quite the tropical locations you were searching for but its scuba nonetheless.

[+t4e]

These two were just published 05/19/11:

 

The Northern Light

The Queen of Nassau

 

woow both for someone with training in technical diving

 

out of curiosity i'll put them on my watchlist to see how long till the first find

[+sword fern]

here is onein conneticut. Its pretty popular, in the sense that it's on youtube. Talkings about winter ice in the area make it undesirable to scuba in the freezing cold.

[Sushi_Boy]

Hmmm...

 

As both a diver and someone who's been caching for a while now, I was fairly excited about the idea until someone in my scuba club asked how they could locate divecaches in the area. I think DEMA's going to have a hard time getting the momentum they're hoping for unless they can find a way for people with basic memberships to easily identify divecaches. PQ's aren't the answer since most divers who aren't already cachers aren't gonna shell out the $ for a premium membership.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Hmmm...

 

As both a diver and someone who's been caching for a while now, I was fairly excited about the idea until someone in my scuba club asked how they could locate divecaches in the area. I think DEMA's going to have a hard time getting the momentum they're hoping for unless they can find a way for people with basic memberships to easily identify divecaches. PQ's aren't the answer since most divers who aren't already cachers aren't gonna shell out the $ for a premium membership.

 

 

A premium membership is $30 a year. A quick search of scuba equipment rental prices seems to indicate that $30 was about what one would pay to rent tanks and a regulator for 1 day. How often does a typical certified diver rent equipment?

[+t4e]

Hmmm...

 

As both a diver and someone who's been caching for a while now, I was fairly excited about the idea until someone in my scuba club asked how they could locate divecaches in the area. I think DEMA's going to have a hard time getting the momentum they're hoping for unless they can find a way for people with basic memberships to easily identify divecaches. PQ's aren't the answer since most divers who aren't already cachers aren't gonna shell out the $ for a premium membership.

 

 

A premium membership is $30 a year. A quick search of scuba equipment rental prices seems to indicate that $30 was about what one would pay to rent tanks and a regulator for 1 day. How often does a typical certified diver rent equipment?

 

it all depends some may go diving every weekend in which case owning the equipment is more cost effective, others perhaps just go diving couple of times per season

 

the major issue here is that when someone plans a dive and rents equipment they are planning for a longer dive to explore the area, going for a typical dive cache that may take 5 minutes is not exactly a "diving trip", but of course it also depends where it was placed and if there's anything else to see to continue to stay down there after making the find

 

takes quite a bit of time and preparation to get ready for the dive, this ain't snorkeling, of course it also depends on the water temperature, if you need a wet suit is going to take even longer

[+dfx]

And of course you never dive alone, so you need to organize for a dive buddy if you don't have one, and any dive gear you rent you gotta take x2.

 

But I don't even think PQs is the way to go to locate scuba caches. Probably depends on the area, but the few searches I've tried mostly turned up non-scuba caches that have the attributes and/or ratings set for some other reasons. And then there's the scuba caches which don't have the attribute set. A textual search seems to work just as well, maybe better, but the best way is probably a manually compiled list, such as a bookmark list or an external website.

[knowschad]

Hmmm...

 

As both a diver and someone who's been caching for a while now, I was fairly excited about the idea until someone in my scuba club asked how they could locate divecaches in the area. I think DEMA's going to have a hard time getting the momentum they're hoping for unless they can find a way for people with basic memberships to easily identify divecaches. PQ's aren't the answer since most divers who aren't already cachers aren't gonna shell out the $ for a premium membership.

 

 

A premium membership is $30 a year. A quick search of scuba equipment rental prices seems to indicate that $30 was about what one would pay to rent tanks and a regulator for 1 day. How often does a typical certified diver rent equipment?

 

it all depends some may go diving every weekend in which case owning the equipment is more cost effective, others perhaps just go diving couple of times per season

 

the major issue here is that when someone plans a dive and rents equipment they are planning for a longer dive to explore the area, going for a typical dive cache that may take 5 minutes is not exactly a "diving trip", but of course it also depends where it was placed and if there's anything else to see to continue to stay down there after making the find

 

takes quite a bit of time and preparation to get ready for the dive, this ain't snorkeling, of course it also depends on the water temperature, if you need a wet suit is going to take even longer

 

I would at least hope that dive caches would be hidden in places where further exploration would be desirable, and that the cache would be only a brief stop along the way.

[knowschad]

And of course you never dive alone, so you need to organize for a dive buddy if you don't have one, and any dive gear you rent you gotta take x2.

 

But I don't even think PQs is the way to go to locate scuba caches. Probably depends on the area, but the few searches I've tried mostly turned up non-scuba caches that have the attributes and/or ratings set for some other reasons. And then there's the scuba caches which don't have the attribute set. A textual search seems to work just as well, maybe better, but the best way is probably a manually compiled list, such as a bookmark list or an external website.

 

I would think that divers would only be hitting one or at the most, two, caches on any one diving trip. It shouldn't take much to look over the results of caches on the PQ to chose one or two (and to eliminate any bogus SCUBA attributes). After all, they're not powercaching.

[+dfx]

I would at least hope that dive caches would be hidden in places where further exploration would be desirable, and that the cache would be only a brief stop along the way.

Ideally yes, but at least for the very few scuba caches that we have around here, the cache seems to be the biggest incentive to get in the water there But this might be very different in places that have a lot of underwater attractions.

 

I would think that divers would only be hitting one or at the most, two, caches on any one diving trip. It shouldn't take much to look over the results of caches on the PQ to chose one or two (and to eliminate any bogus SCUBA attributes). After all, they're not powercaching.

Sorry for not having been clearer. I meant that the ratio of actual scuba caches vs. bogus results was so low that it made the PQ virtually useless. In many searches that I tried I wasn't able to find a single real scuba cache among the many returned caches. Again, probably highly location dependent, but generally I've had a much better luck with text-based searches or bookmark lists. Of course you can't directly search for bookmark lists, so that kinda sucks too.

 

Example: For my extended home area, if I search for caches with the scuba attribute, I get 4 results, one of which is a real scuba cache, and it has "scuba" in the name. If I expand the search even more, I get 24 caches, 5 of which are real scuba caches and all of those have either "scuba" or "dive" in the name. There's one more which might be a scuba cache, but it hasn't been found yet, so hard to tell.

Edited May 27, 2011 by dfx

[+Mother Wolf]

CoBiker - here is a site to check out. Also FB has a page for dive caching that will give you info www.DiveCaching.org

 

Here are a couple of dive caches

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6fea7518-da3c-4c87-97bd-60da0d8c9c74 this is located in a quarry used by divers for wreck diving. You have to check in at the office & show proof of Dive Certification to dive. It isnt for the cacher looking for a dive thrill. You have to be certified.

 

Another awesome dive cache is here

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=7acd7842-eb92-44b3-933f-15915fca508b this is located on Catalina Island off Long Beach/Lagoona Beach, Ca area. Awesome dive & its a virtual.

 

Heres 1 for ya 1/2 mile out to open water off La Jolla.......should dive it

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=9125d5a4-f82b-4cb6-8eed-614df8d7254d

 

Of course the others mentioned here off the Fla Keys are great.

 

****Remember that combining caching with diving is great but do it with a friend, that is experienced. Renting equipment if you dont have all of your own is fine but for the TRUE dive caches dont be a weekend wanna be diver. It holds its own safety factors.

 

But it is something to consider doing as another awesome form of recreation though it isnt cheap.

 

When caching leave only footprints (and maybe some swag) & with diving leave only bubbles. ENJOY the best of 2 great worlds. GO PADI!

[+dfx]

GO PADI!

 

Or SSI. Or ACUC. Or NAUI. Or ...

[+t4e]

 

I would think that divers would only be hitting one or at the most, two, caches on any one diving trip. It shouldn't take much to look over the results of caches on the PQ to chose one or two (and to eliminate any bogus SCUBA attributes). After all, they're not powercaching.

 

who knows, those guys have some diffrent ideas for the use of their scuba equipment, chasing the google car

 

 

Edited May 27, 2011 by t4e

[+Mother Wolf]

 

I would think that divers would only be hitting one or at the most, two, caches on any one diving trip. It shouldn't take much to look over the results of caches on the PQ to chose one or two (and to eliminate any bogus SCUBA attributes). After all, they're not powercaching.

 

who knows, those guys have some diffrent ideas for the use of their scuba equipment, chasing the google car

 

 

 

 

Now that's funny!

Edited May 27, 2011 by Mother Wolf

[+dfx]

There's one more which might be a scuba cache, but it hasn't been found yet, so hard to tell.

 

After an epic FTF, I'm happy to report that it is indeed a scuba cache. Theoretically it could be done with snorkeling gear only if you have good skills and if conditions are good, but it definitely won't be easy. So the attribute did its thing for at least one cache

[Sushi_Boy]

t4e - that's hilarious!!!

 

NYPC - my point is that DEMA and Groundspeak are approaching a group (divers) and saying "Hey, you're a diver. Here's another hobby that you can try at the same time. And oh, it's gonna cost you $30 to even have a good way of taking a peek at it. Before you ever get started..."

 

They're going to have a hard time convincing divers who were not already geocachers to get interested in it. There needs to be an easy (and yes free) way to let divers get a taste of it before expecting them to pay for a premium membership.

 

After all, how many geocachers signed up for a premium membership before they found a cache, or even after finding their first one?

Edited June 2, 2011 by Sushi_Boy

[+hzoi]

There are a number around San Diego I ran across while looking for caches to do later this month.

 

I remember seeing one in the middle of the New River in West Virginia, but I can't find it now.

 

There are a few interesting ones out in the Pacific, including this B-24 wreck.

 

Look around, they're out there.