I don't know what it is...but when Woody presents himself and smiles I feel happy...He's the kind of guy that has this "happy energy"....You start to like him for free.
@@moejuggler6033yeah that bothered me. They are such a great team and I don’t think that Woody was ever disrespectful or trying to be argumentative or anything like that. I think he was just doing what he is ‘supposed’ to do and give his perspective and first thoughts both to the video and Gus’s and vice versa for Gus. Didn’t they just get back from a dive though so maybe (hopefully) they’re just tired and irritable and have spent way too much time in very tight quarters together without a break.
The key to this story is it happened in 1983. I got certified that year. The norm back then was a single tank; a single mouthpiece; and lots and lots of buddy-breathing training. Did I say LOTS and LOTS of buddy-breathing training? YES.
@@vetsandvardongrips9920 absolutely agree, also they are very serious about following guidelines and proper techniques, but if your a person who’s going to wiggle through a tiny opening you’re not supposed to enter, you don’t follow the same guidelines. If you did you would not dive where you’re not allowed.
I did a bit of research on the story and it's based on newspaper article that can be easily found. So this really did happen. The important point is when. It happened in 1983 and back then probably the equipment and training wasn't anywhere near what it is today.
That's what I was saying. This occured in 1983 and they didn't have the same equipment as we do today. I love both Woody and Gus, but Gus is too quick to judge or shut down everything/ everyone. Chill out my friend!
@@nibbynibberson7717 yeah but Woody always believes it's a possibility until proven otherwise, so it balances out Gus being incredulous until proven otherwise. ♥️ I'm definitely more of a Gus, lol.
This happened in 1983. I got certified in 1978 and we were taught to buddy breath. It sounds like they were not cave divers and cave diving was a new thing back then, with not a lot of training available. I believe the had single tanks and depending on the set up, may have only had one regulator. I remember diving with "J" valves back then. So I'm thinking this story is 90% true and the rest is fill in to make the story better. Love You Guys, keep up the good work.
I just opened up NSS’s accident report from 1983 and read the report myself. The analysis does mention they were members of an advanced diving class at SW Texas State University. And considered to be “extremely experienced and intelligent divers.” It also mentions they did not use a line. Not that they lost it, but there wasn’t one at all that they were using. The last line of the analysis is particularly interesting “This fatality is only one of a number that occur each year in water-filled caves, yet it is encouraging to note that ***none have yet occurred within the divers of the caving community***.” That indicates to me that they were not cave certified. It also mentions that they used “normal SCUBA gear.” 1983 was a long time ago but was there gear made specifically for cave divers at this point? Unfortunately I think this is another case of ego.
Woodys ability to think outside the box is just as important as Gus critical thinking. That’s what makes you two a great team and that because your opposites,ying and yang. Can’t have one without the other.
@@jamesmiller5304 I wouldn’t say that. Yes Gus at time can be rough around the edges especially when woody acts a little bit nutty. Everything you said about woody is correct but Gus strengthens are different than woodies, Gus is knows how to talk and be professional when woody at times needs to know when to stop talk and interrupting a guest, I don’t think he does it out of rudeness just is so excited to talk he can’t help it. Gus can read the situation and know when to tell Soddy shhhh. Woody on the other hand gets gus to think in a different way instead of the linear way he thinks.
Thank you for doing ur research & lookin' up wen this incident occurred... ii knew this must've happened YRS ago judging by tha picture tht was shown in tha beginning , so there's a possibility "a line" wasn't present while they were diving!!!
Gus's comments on running out of air slowly may be accurate for today's equipment. That was not my experience back then in 1983. I had a very minor situation at 30 ft deep where the instructor came over to me and saw that my gauge showed 500. He quickly motioned me to go up; pressed the inflate button on my buoyancy vest and I began to go up on an emergency ascent while making sure I was breathing out. At about 10ft I needed to take another breath of air and my air was shut off solid as could be. Instantly. I just held my breath those last seconds to the surface and was fine. But the point is that my air shut off INSTANTLY. That was my experience with air instantly being gone, anyway. But that was 1983.
That useful context. I did find it annoying during the video that gus kept on talking as if they had modern equipment lol he's comparing what they had 40 years ago to his modern rebreather setup
8:40 this is a reported fact of the story Gus. Ballen didn't just make up the buddy breathing. They obviously had to do it for some reason. Also, obviously they knew it was coming that they were running out of air the few breaths before they did. So again, Ballen's comment is perfectly reasonable. All the sudden they did run out of air. That doesn't mean they hadn't noticed beforehand that it was approaching in just a few breaths
I don't think they are questioning (or Insinuating) that Mr. Ballen is wrong about them buddy breathing. (They are actually friends with Mr. Ballen) They are discussing WHY they would have had to do this, as it would be unnecessary. But the key here, it's that this was in 1983. Perhaps they did not have the equipment to allow two people to have their own mouthpiece (whatever it's called) to breathe from one person's supply of air. Someone in the comments said their equipment had this feature in 1988, but that buddy breathing was still HEAVY taught back then. Leading me to believe that it was around this time in the 80s, some did and did not have this type of setup that is used today, as it may have been the time period this specific part of diving equipment was being produced and not everyone had this feature yet.
I had the good fortune to dive Jacob's well as part of my PhD research, not long after I was cave certified. It was an incredible and humbling experience. I called the dive when we hit a restriction I wasn't comfortable with thankfully after I got the samples I came for. The dive is no joke and probably one of the more technical dives I've done. Mad respect to the members of the Jacob's Well Exploration Project for their ongoing work!
Interesting! Down to which chamber did you go? Since it was part of your PhD research, can you confirm that no one has ever done to the 4th chamber and survived or have recent efforts made it possible to research that part? And finally ;): would Woody and Gus have a chance of becoming part of the Jacob's Well Exploration project ;)?
@@hidden_sense9839 don’t know how deep he went but it wasn’t the 4th cause it is true and they were able to get only one of the bodies out in the 2000s
Over a dozen people have died in Jacobs well. In 1979 two Texans drowned in the 4th chamber. Others drowned in the 4th chamber and were flushed out. Mr. Ballen is speaking facts. He always does his research and he's good at it. That's why I watch his channel.
Not really on this one. The Jacob’s Well Exploration Project mapped around 7,000 feet of caves. Most of which are well past the 4th chamber. Gregg Tatum was on the team with over 250 dives in Jacob’s Well and most of them were past that point. It’s just extremely difficult to find truly accurate info on diving the well and even on the number of actual deaths. Depending on the source it is anywhere from 8-12. Still love the Mr. Ballen videos though.
John Willcox, Danny Self and Wayne Russel all made it past the fourth chamber in 1984. Wilcox and Self did make it out alive as well, but Wayne Russel didn't
At least nine people have died diving into Jacob's Well, which is quite a lot considering the number of people who visit the area, prompting some to call it 'one of the most dangerous diving spots in the world'. Love the videos! Keep up the great work!
I noticed that thanks to your videos, a lot of real crime/ disappearance youtubers are much better informed about the technical parts of cave diving and what mistakes were made
And I'm informed enough to notice! Idk if I'll ever get into openwater much less cave diving but I feel like I'd be ever so slightly more prepared just through watching these guys if I were.
Back in the day, a second, second stage was not standard in scuba. This is one of the safety improvements that came from tech diving into Rec diving. (Could explain why they had to buddy breath)
Not trying to critique, but I'm guessing you mean octo, not second stage. I wonder if they were really out of air too. I have regs that you can easily breathe down to nothing and others that are hard to pull off at 500 lbs. Also the possibility that he had a j valve on the tank and may have only realized he had more air after separation from his buddy. It would be hard to admit something like that to others.
@@js4120 no cretique taken. :) yes I refer to the second second stage also known as octopus and usually comes in yellow. :) It is a bit misleading to say that a standard single tank divers have two regulators, cause they in fact usually have one first stage, and two second stage. (Failure point is usually at first stage so you do not have pure redundancy, but good for air share in an emergency) Maybe better phrasing would be that I called it backup second stage regulator
@@js4120 some say modern regulators don’t give you much hints when they go out, as airflow is quite optimized, however if you ever tried to empty a tank completly, you notice that the emptier it is the slower air flows, so I guess it should give a few hard breaths before tank is really empty.
Back in 1988 when I got my certification it was part of the training to learn to share air like that. Having only 1 regulator was fairly common. It’s all I had for years since I was buying my gear by the piece. Buddy breathing like that was brutal in open water and the thought of doing it in a cave through restrictions is mind blowing. Those guys had nerves of steel! I wonder if coming out if both divers had had dive lights and if so could that have allowed the 2nd diver to make it too.
I’m really glad woody is there to explain to Gus that just because Gus thinks he wouldn’t make those mistakes, someone else may. And that this accidents happen with issues and not having skill. Just because Gus thinks he would behave correctly in this instance does not mean he would. Or that something “should” occur this way. I also do appreciate that Gus is asking these questions. Thank you Woody for always listening and calmly trying to work through the question!!
You guys have inspired me to start working on getting certified after saying I never would my whole life. Y’all explaining that by following procedures it’s pretty safe helped me want to overcome my fear. New to your channel and I’ve been binging your videos. Thank you for the amazing content.
You meet people that have worked to their whole life doing some job that they never really liked and then when they hit their mid-40s and fifties they decided to start doing their hobby as their job and then they regret not doing that their entire life
"CAVE DIVER REACTS TO DANGEROUS TRUTH OF JACOB'S WELL" Was the first dive talk video i watched two years ago. Man you guys have come far!!!!!! Hope you have many more years to come!
Hi guys, on the topic of the octopus and buddy breathing you need to keep in mind that this incident happened in 1983. While they existed back then, they were not standard equipment. NAUI for example had them as part of their standard equipment for learning to dive but I also know people who learned in the mid 80s and their training material had no mention of a second demand valve. PADI just about introduced them as there Junior OWD and Junior AOWD around 83/84 had printed "Alternate Air Source Required." on them but the adult version did not, so you could learn with your parent and one of your cert cards said you need an octo while the other did not. A friend of mine was a dive guide in HI in the early 80s who once told me that when he did his dive master (around 1980) nobody had them on the island and by the time he moved away (around 1985) the shop owner required the dive guides to have them but not the customers. In that sense, while it isn't unreasonable for people at the time of the incident to have known about octos, they weren't as common place and depending on where they learned to dive, you may not have known of their existence.
Want to seriously thank you guys.got into a conversation with my Dad about technical diving and he was impressed with my knowledge and terminology.all taken from your very cool videos
This series of videos MrBallen does are my favorite and I love your guys' reactions to his videos. I've watched so much Dive Talk that my first question in any of these stories is why aren't they following a line?
I think Gus missed the bit where he said in 1983.... So judging their equipment, training levels, processes and procedures by modern day standards is simply out of context for the time they were diving.
I didnt think ANYTHING could make me love Mr. Ballen's stories more, until I discovered these two gentlemen. I was born in northern, NORTHERN Minnesota. Like, I camped the Boundary Waters for the first time when I was 4, Northern Minnesota. I'm not a professional diver, not by a long shot. AOWD is as far as I went with my certifications, and that was almost 15-20 years ago. Watching you guys react to these ALREADY insane cave-diving experiences absolutely fascinates me. Not to mention you're incredibly hilarious; even the facial expressions are absolute gold. I LOVE that Mr. Ballen was down for this collab. It just makes me love him even more! Awesome video, guys! I'm so glad I found you! 💚💚💚
There is apparently 7,000 feet of cave mapped in Jacob's Well. A channel here on YT by the name of "Austin American-Statesman" has a video titled "Take a rare glimpse of the mysterious depths of Jacob's Well," in which they state they are the sole owners of the research permit for the site. Sadly the water has since stopped flowing and the future of the spring remains uncertain. Thought I would mention.
@@commonsense-og1gz I'm sorry I do not know exactly, but if I recall they closed the location to visitors at the time of the video being posted. It should be noted that the American South-west has received significant rain in the past year, improving conditions on the Colorado River as well as Lake Meade. I simply do not know what the current situation is, it may have improved or it may be the same. Your guess is as good as mine.
As a fairly new diver (20 dives logged, few being ocean) this is such a great informational channel with real life practical experiences. Bravo gentlemen
My understanding is that there have been a few people to reach the fourth chamber and survive. They said that it has very beautiful limestone formations and is pretty much pristine because of how few people have been able to reach it. It also has a layer of very fine silt as well so I wouldn't be surprised if part of the issue for the other divers (aside from having to squeeze in after taking off your tanks) is that they inadvertently kicked up that silt.
The only thing I'd say is we definitely need more info about how things were set up nearly 40 years ago- did they even have line run? I'm not sure how standardized everything was in 1986. Was it standard for everyone to have 2 regulators yet? Not to mention we have no idea if they were even actually buddy breathing bc no one survived to say how exactly things went down.
Sorry for the long post but included a lot of information as I lived near Jacob’s Well and studied it a lot when I was younger. Yes divers have made it in and out of the 4th chamber alive. The Jacob’s Well Exploration Project team actually mapped around 6,000 feet of cave. Their website has some interesting pictures, info, and video. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a full map of the caves from the exploration project. Sounds like it was only distributed to certain agencies to help protect the well site. There have been 8-12 deaths in Jacob’s Well, none of which to my knowledge were trained cave divers, and many were just early on recreational divers. Only bodies that were ever trap were from an incident in 1979 where Kent Maupin and Mark Brashier die after a gravel slide blocked them in the 4th chamber. Brashier’s body was pushed out by the current 2 years later and Maupin’s body was recovered in a recovery project in the early 2000’s. The well has been closed to diver for awhile now and is only dive-able by permits obtained through Hays County that they never issue. Might be able to get a dive team together with the BlueWorldTV guys and might have a chance for approval to film. If any chance that would be possible the Exploration Project guys would be the ones to ask. I have swam there many times over the years. Loved diving to the bottom of the first section at 25 feet just to lay flat and be pushed back up by the flow. Haven’t been in a while but the flow rate used to be fairly high. Unfortunately, the flow rate is currently so low it’s been closed due to unsafe swimming conditions. Best write up about the dive is here with info included from one of the JWEP divers with over 250 dives in Jacob’s Well. Many of which included going past the 4th chamber. www.texasstandard.org/stories/plumbing-the-depths-of-jacobs-well/
Hey guys. I think it would be great if you can make a video about the History, Evolution and Timeline of Safety Protocols and Practices for Cave Diving. You seem to react to a lot of Cave Diving Incidents that have happened a long time ago and it would be enlightening for the viewers to know whether the divers were being irresponsible or if the standard safety protocols during that time was just not up to par compared to today’s.
Omg I was thinking the same! I started thinking about it when I watch videos explaining all of the gas mixtures and it to me is like how did they figure all this out?! Im a great swimmer but never even snorkeled so…
Maybe not seal it, because that’s tampering with the interior of the cave, but at least put some signs or something to warn people about it being a false chimney?
@tosca donna that's a good suggestion but you won't see a sign in zero visibility. You could hold a plate up with an airbag maybe? We could think of 100 solutions and each one would have a drawback to it. It is just a shame when any life is lost.
In 70es and 80es when you had 18-22 year old college kids diving with just basic open water training, or even without that, there was apparently many deaths. In 1980, Don Dibble, a dive shop owner with more than 40 years of diving experience, after getting trapped by collapse/gravel and almost dying while attempting recovery of 2 college kids' bodies, attempted to seal off the depths of the well by building a grate of rebar and quick-set concrete at the entrance to the third chamber. Six months later, Dibble found the grate dismantled. Divers not only dove with the proper tools to pull off the grate, they also left a note for Dibble. "You can't keep us out," was written on a plastic slate.
Jacobs well was going to be my first stop when I come over September too dive anerica IAM giving the ocean a miss don't want my ass getting chewed my by all the nasty sharks u got 🤣
@@Apollo55_ Nobody who was attacked by a shark was trying to bother them. Most people didn't even see them coming. They are predators. You are not always off the menu. Bear man thought bears were his friends until he hung out around them too close to hibernation. How do you know if that shark is hungry and trying to survive?
@@HansenSWE If I'd done it, that's EXACTLY what it would've said... either that or "Don't bother trying to keep us in" or something like... haha... just the kind of asshole I am, I guess... Textbook definition of "Missed Opportunity"... ;o)
I love this channel so much, really enjoy the vids but I do wish Gus would listen out for the date of the incident before trashing the dead people for being dumb when the equipment they ‘should have had’ wasn’t about yet 😂❤
The bodies in that chamber have been removed, and a research team has managed to go past that 4th chamber, revealing that Jacob's Well is super long. Here is the video ruclips.net/video/srE_u9CmIso/видео.html it's fairly recent, so perhaps Mr Ballen told the story before this update was released
I'm looking at their map in the video you linked, and I'm struggling to see the line. Can you provide any more detail, or interpret the map he laid out?
💐💐RIP Kent Holmes Maupin (21 May 1959- 9 Sep 1979)(aged 20), and Mark Alan Brashier (6 Oct 1958-9 Sep 1979)(aged 21) you will truly be missed and my prayers go out to you both, and your families.💐💐 They tragically lost their lives in Jacob's Well back in September 1979. 💐💐RIP Stephen Walker (aged 23) he was a professional diver and drowned in the well on Labor Day 1978.💐💐
I have been in there. Back to about 3000 feet in. If my memory serves me there was one serious restriction. At about 120’ deep it leaves out and has good size tunnel
That would be really scary for me to do that is still really cool that you get to go that deep down hope you have a great day Mike young you are a really cool diver ❤❤❤
Guys, Actually the Jacob's Well Exploration Project has been in the 4th chamber and beyond and surveyed more than 7000 feet of tunnel, and pushed it to over 4000ft penetration John
I'd love to know how the guy lost his gear in the first place. Did he just drop it? Even if you had to take it off to get through, wouldn't you have some kind of tether? How deep is the chamber? If he dropped it, why not swim down and get it? Did he maybe have a catastrophic malfunction? I guess we'll never know.
The timeframe matters, buddy breathing was standard practice when I learned, and “octopus” first stages with more than one regulator were rare. ABLJs were also standard and BCDs as they exist today didn’t exist.
When you guys comment on these videos you have to put yourselves in the timeframe that these incidents took place. Not excusing it but but it gives more context regarding some of the decisions made.
I want to dive it, just so I can screw a sign to the false chimney in the hopes it helps future divers not make a potentially fatal mistake. Things I've learned from you guys: 1 always have backup air, 2 always have a line in and out, 3 ALWAYS dive with a buddy and never alone.
People have survived Fourth Chamber. I think they made it to 5th or 6th chamber. JWEP Team found Kent Maupkins remains in fourth, along with others. One lady left her camera in the fourth chamber and later returned to get it. It would be cool to find that footage
I lived in Austin for many years. Jacob's Well is a perennial karstic spring measuring about 12 feet in diameter at the surface. It was believed to have been originally discovered back in 1850 or so and featured a fountain of water spouting up in the middle 5 feet high. That now is only a mere ripple due to development over the years. The water comes from Trinity Aquifer. The average depth of the fully submerged cave is about 120 feet. Sadly, a fairly recent Texas newspaper article reports that 12 people have died in Jacob's Well. Thank you for your video on Jacob's Well and I greatly appreciate the comments here that explained the 1980's era of diving and buddy-breathing training.
Yay I just binged all your Mr John B Allen videos this week! Don't know why just felt in the mood, but now I think universe told me so perfect timing since I finished the last yesterday. ♥️
Is there a way to find out how long I've been subscribed to this channel? I just remember seeing 100 or so subscribers when I first started following you guys. I almost wish I had started way later so that I could binge watch everything instead of already watching every show since the beginning and having to wait for the new ones. Lol. I really love you guys and it's been great watching you grow!
Ooo, I love this topic. I even got to visit Jacob's Well once on a roadtrip from Canada to Mexico. My friend was looking for destinations on the way, and I suggested the spot.
If this was in 83, the octopus wasn't standard during these divers' first cert classes (which was probably in the 70's). That certainly explains the buddy breathing. I THINK Octo was standard during this period but they were still operating with the old standards they were trained with.
I went to swim Jacobs Well this summer. Diving is closed to the public, researchers only. They have an education center with fossils, research videos and photos from previous dives and they even have a tv running with video footage of past dives of the well! Very cool! Swimming is by reservation only and spots are almost impossible to get for the summer. I definitely recommend!
Apparently people have lived to tell about being inside the 4th chamber, they say it is a virgin limestone cave with no gravel and a thick silt layer on the floor
Gus reacting to The first Jacobs well video was also the first video i came across you guys and fell in love, funnily enough it was a Jacobs well question where i won my Meg tooth! So i would have loved to see you guys dive this safely with line etc to really show you cant just blame the location, it is a shame they will not allow you to dive there. Mad to think buddy breathing was all they had then, no extra reg and stuff that just seems crazy to us today.
Jacobs well is an attraction for regular people, not just divers. It make sense that they stopped allowing divers because setting up the equipment is disruptive to other visitors.
6:15 again on Friday morning. Okay. I'll meet you here next Friday at 6:10 AM so Dive Talk will just be part of my Friday morning routine. Congrats, my Friday morning automation routine is now to play your channel after my alarm and hearing my calendar for the day instead of playing my latest podcast. :) But seriously, I respect and enjoy great content to look forward to on a consistent schedule. Keep doing what you're doing; it's working!
I would love to see merch with that heartbeat line, but made of a dive line and the heartbeat grafted out of the arrows you place on the line. The amount of stories we hear of people who would have lived simply by a piece of string is crazy.
Re the ubiquity of a secondary regulator. Only last year I was in the Canaries when two divers amongst the group I was to dive with that day unpacked their equipment bags to reveal that neither had a secondary! Both were in their twenties, both from Germany, and both claimed it was normal practice where they usually dived. Suffice to say they ended up with shop sets :)
Problem is the research team in charge are the only ones with a permit. They haven't publicly released a newer map of the cave and the last footage they released is from 8 years ago. People wanna see the well
Why? If you are cave certified, you will have your line to guide you safely out and if you are not qualified/equipped to do this dive and decide to do it anyway, well, then it's Darwin's awards time.
@harrod harrod why???? Did you watch the video? By your logic, Health and safety rules shouldn't exist either. Just let the dumb fuckers die then hay? Or you could, I don't know, mabey put a big fucking sign there!
It's now more restrictive than these guys describe. You now can't even swim in the water anymore. They don't want to even take any chances of anymore deaths.
Firstly, Love the vids! 👍 Buddy breathing was an important skill for divers back then. And oddly, starting in the late1960s, single-hose regulators became the standard, which complicated things in "out of air" emergencies. But since it was routinely taught back then w/ a single hose, it wasn't considered crazy, like it is today. And just to mention, it seems not many people had a good or proper modern setup especially in the 70s & 80s. If interested there are many "buddy breathing" vids on youtube. 👍👍
Gus, this happened quite some time ago, you of all should know that people knew less back then and didn't understand the risks as much, chill out dude... also, just because you do everything by the books doesn't mean everyone else does, people panic and some don't have the money or smarts to use the right equipment. we aren't all rollin in dough dude... what an elitist mindset, fix it man.....I never thought id use that word..lol
Thanks for the video. I really like watching your reaction and learning more about modern day diving. To the point of multiple regulators: I got my open water diving certificate with the german diving club (VDST) around 2005. Everyone, including the instuctors, just had a single regulator. So buddy breathing and even sharing the regulator with 2 other persons while ascending was something we had to practice for the certificate. So i don't know when this equipment became available. Back then even basic diving computers were really expensive and out of reach for most divers.
Around 5-minutes in, the story was dated in 1983, but Gus and Woody were kind of chattering over it, so it's hard to quite catch... AND in the 80's, Dive Equipment was A LOT more primitive than it is now. Cave Diving was widely regarded as "suicidal" by most, and Narcosis was still a plague among technical divers while they cleaned up the math and got things better and more precise... In any case, the buddy breathing thing was just normal emergency procedure back in the day. ;o)
10:38 just simulate it in a pool or open water. Would LOVE to see that experiment. Not just what y’all think it’s the “right” way to do things, but the ridiculous things you could just try when everything seems lost.
Hi Woody! Hi Gus! It’s been a while. Missed my two favorite divers who even with my debilitating fear of the deep water, I’d go in the water with anyway because you guys are cool. 😊
Hi guys, I dive in the ocean and used to live in Texas next to the well. You are right that it is a spring and the chambers are INCREDIBLY still the water in the swimming area moves and is really cool and pleasant but it is almost like the chimney becomes a flue that causes the water to become stagnant in movement. As for the fact ut is closed and why it is true, no one has survived that went into #4, and the authorities refused to allow anyone to retrieve the bodies down there saying it was not worth loosing more lives 🥺. My best friends ex is a lifeguard at the swimming area, and I have heard the horror stories. Also as how they buddy breathed on the way back up, I was told one was going backwards, and the other was going forward. Edit - your question about a line for the LONGEST time there was no line at all, which is stupid as all get out!!! Thankfully, there is supposed to be a line now. Also, for anyone who reads this far, running out of air is like trying to breathe out of a straw, and the closer you get to zero, the more the end of the straw collapses. And yes, I have had it happen. It was a TOTAL rookie idiot mistake that, thankfully, I was near my friend, and also, we were in the open ocean by Guam looking at the Reef.
Was at a safety stop once and a newbie diver swam up and frantically signaled out of air. I gave him my regulator quick and let him breathe, took it back then gave him my secondary reg. Was so surprising and he looked desperate and was not my buddy so maybe that’s what happened
Grew up and currently still live not far from Jacob's Well. One of the saddest things it was ruined by inexperienced and unqualified divers and barricaded. And now with our water shortage, the water level has dropped a ton and is now closed to the public altogether. Never got to dive it🥺
I still cant believe Gus and Woody cave dive for fun haha
John let’s go diving. Not in a cave but maybe a cool cavern? Or a wreck? Pick a spot and let’s go!
@@DIVETALK the artic
@@DIVETALK all 3 of you are amazing! I hope Mr. Ballen takes up this offer and brings the family.
Come on John! Would love to see a video of this adventure! 😊
You should do it sometime even if not for RUclips. Take a break and relax
I love how as Mr Ballen says "it gets darker and narrower and scarier the further down you go" Woody and Gus are looking more and more excited.
Yes, like saying : Yeah, baby...!!!
(;
:p There are actually 6 chambers, but most people seem to say only 4 chambers.
I don't know what it is...but when Woody presents himself and smiles I feel happy...He's the kind of guy that has this "happy energy"....You start to like him for free.
@Auschwitz Soccer Ref. Yeah man. Love him! Gus is great too, but Woody has a special charisma!
Love him and I don't know em lol - but this was one of the most argumentative sessions they've had tbh.
The kind of smile/energy I’d love to find in a lifetime partner!🤗❤
@@moejuggler6033yeah that bothered me. They are such a great team and I don’t think that Woody was ever disrespectful or trying to be argumentative or anything like that.
I think he was just doing what he is ‘supposed’ to do and give his perspective and first thoughts both to the video and Gus’s and vice versa for Gus.
Didn’t they just get back from a dive though so maybe (hopefully) they’re just tired and irritable and have spent way too much time in very tight quarters together without a break.
I know he’s so sweet 😭 his intro is hands down my favourite part of the video every time
Every reaction video in a nutshell
Gus: "why are people so dumb?"
Woody: "well let's look at the positives."
Lol i love these guys.
The key to this story is it happened in 1983. I got certified that year. The norm back then was a single tank; a single mouthpiece; and lots and lots of buddy-breathing training. Did I say LOTS and LOTS of buddy-breathing training? YES.
Good comment here. I think they have a hard time relating these stories to the time they took place and the difference in equipment and techniques.
@@vetsandvardongrips9920 absolutely agree, also they are very serious about following guidelines and proper techniques, but if your a person who’s going to wiggle through a tiny opening you’re not supposed to enter, you don’t follow the same guidelines. If you did you would not dive where you’re not allowed.
@@vetsandvardongrips9920 yeah and just like every new equipment and techniques we use today for anything is by trial and error.
I did a bit of research on the story and it's based on newspaper article that can be easily found. So this really did happen. The important point is when. It happened in 1983 and back then probably the equipment and training wasn't anywhere near what it is today.
That's what I was saying. This occured in 1983 and they didn't have the same equipment as we do today. I love both Woody and Gus, but Gus is too quick to judge or shut down everything/ everyone. Chill out my friend!
He actually said "In 1983" in this video clip, but Woody and Gus were talking over it 🤣 around the 5:57 mark lol
@@nibbynibberson7717 yeah but Woody always believes it's a possibility until proven otherwise, so it balances out Gus being incredulous until proven otherwise. ♥️
I'm definitely more of a Gus, lol.
Exactly, back then it was a LOT harder to go deeper because they didn’t have computers or a lot of the tech we have today.
@@nibbynibberson7717 well said!!! ii was thinkin' tha same exaxt thing...
This happened in 1983. I got certified in 1978 and we were taught to buddy breath. It sounds like they were not cave divers and cave diving was a new thing back then, with not a lot of training available. I believe the had single tanks and depending on the set up, may have only had one regulator. I remember diving with "J" valves back then. So I'm thinking this story is 90% true and the rest is fill in to make the story better. Love You Guys, keep up the good work.
I just opened up NSS’s accident report from 1983 and read the report myself.
The analysis does mention they were members of an advanced diving class at SW Texas State University. And considered to be “extremely experienced and intelligent divers.”
It also mentions they did not use a line. Not that they lost it, but there wasn’t one at all that they were using.
The last line of the analysis is particularly interesting “This fatality is only one of a number that occur each year in water-filled caves, yet it is encouraging to note that ***none have yet occurred within the divers of the caving community***.”
That indicates to me that they were not cave certified.
It also mentions that they used “normal SCUBA gear.” 1983 was a long time ago but was there gear made specifically for cave divers at this point?
Unfortunately I think this is another case of ego.
Thank you so much for finding this!
Wayne Russel died in Jacob's well and was an experienced cave diver and a member of the NSS Cave Diving Section, but he wasn't certified.
Woodys ability to think outside the box is just as important as Gus critical thinking. That’s what makes you two a great team and that because your opposites,ying and yang. Can’t have one without the other.
They would be a perfect duo for a movie trilogy: “Woody & Gus’s Adventures”
WOODY=thoughtful, compassionate, scans the situation (ACE GUY)
GUS=people are stupid & reckless, I'M SMART & PEFRFECT. what a team.
@@jamesmiller5304 I wouldn’t say that. Yes Gus at time can be rough around the edges especially when woody acts a little bit nutty. Everything you said about woody is correct but Gus strengthens are different than woodies, Gus is knows how to talk and be professional when woody at times needs to know when to stop talk and interrupting a guest, I don’t think he does it out of rudeness just is so excited to talk he can’t help it. Gus can read the situation and know when to tell Soddy shhhh. Woody on the other hand gets gus to think in a different way instead of the linear way he thinks.
I was taught to buddy breathe in my open water class in 1988 but we still had an "octopus" regulator. FYI....invented by Sheck Exley!
Thank you for doing ur research & lookin' up wen this incident occurred... ii knew this must've happened YRS ago judging by tha picture tht was shown in tha beginning , so there's a possibility "a line" wasn't present while they were diving!!!
Me too, mid 90s.
Omg I love your channel!
Open Water as well, Octo was the back up for your buddy. Maintenance is a huge issue, get your gear inspected! It’s a life support system.
Me too in 2013 (I did CMAS)
Gus's comments on running out of air slowly may be accurate for today's equipment. That was not my experience back then in 1983. I had a very minor situation at 30 ft deep where the instructor came over to me and saw that my gauge showed 500. He quickly motioned me to go up; pressed the inflate button on my buoyancy vest and I began to go up on an emergency ascent while making sure I was breathing out. At about 10ft I needed to take another breath of air and my air was shut off solid as could be. Instantly. I just held my breath those last seconds to the surface and was fine. But the point is that my air shut off INSTANTLY. That was my experience with air instantly being gone, anyway. But that was 1983.
That's scary :(
That useful context. I did find it annoying during the video that gus kept on talking as if they had modern equipment lol he's comparing what they had 40 years ago to his modern rebreather setup
8:40 this is a reported fact of the story Gus. Ballen didn't just make up the buddy breathing. They obviously had to do it for some reason. Also, obviously they knew it was coming that they were running out of air the few breaths before they did. So again, Ballen's comment is perfectly reasonable. All the sudden they did run out of air. That doesn't mean they hadn't noticed beforehand that it was approaching in just a few breaths
I don't think they are questioning (or Insinuating) that Mr. Ballen is wrong about them buddy breathing. (They are actually friends with Mr. Ballen) They are discussing WHY they would have had to do this, as it would be unnecessary. But the key here, it's that this was in 1983. Perhaps they did not have the equipment to allow two people to have their own mouthpiece (whatever it's called) to breathe from one person's supply of air.
Someone in the comments said their equipment had this feature in 1988, but that buddy breathing was still HEAVY taught back then. Leading me to believe that it was around this time in the 80s, some did and did not have this type of setup that is used today, as it may have been the time period this specific part of diving equipment was being produced and not everyone had this feature yet.
I had the good fortune to dive Jacob's well as part of my PhD research, not long after I was cave certified. It was an incredible and humbling experience. I called the dive when we hit a restriction I wasn't comfortable with thankfully after I got the samples I came for.
The dive is no joke and probably one of the more technical dives I've done. Mad respect to the members of the Jacob's Well Exploration Project for their ongoing work!
Interesting! Down to which chamber did you go?
Since it was part of your PhD research, can you confirm that no one has ever done to the 4th chamber and survived or have recent efforts made it possible to research that part?
And finally ;): would Woody and Gus have a chance of becoming part of the Jacob's Well Exploration project ;)?
@@hidden_sense9839 don’t know how deep he went but it wasn’t the 4th cause it is true and they were able to get only one of the bodies out in the 2000s
Over a dozen people have died in Jacobs well. In 1979 two Texans drowned in the 4th chamber. Others drowned in the 4th chamber and were flushed out. Mr. Ballen is speaking facts. He always does his research and he's good at it. That's why I watch his channel.
The 2nd guys body was recovered in 2000.
Facts
Personally, I deal in sources.
Not really on this one. The Jacob’s Well Exploration Project mapped around 7,000 feet of caves. Most of which are well past the 4th chamber. Gregg Tatum was on the team with over 250 dives in Jacob’s Well and most of them were past that point. It’s just extremely difficult to find truly accurate info on diving the well and even on the number of actual deaths. Depending on the source it is anywhere from 8-12. Still love the Mr. Ballen videos though.
John Willcox, Danny Self and Wayne Russel all made it past the fourth chamber in 1984. Wilcox and Self did make it out alive as well, but Wayne Russel didn't
At least nine people have died diving into Jacob's Well, which is quite a lot considering the number of people who visit the area, prompting some to call it 'one of the most dangerous diving spots in the world'. Love the videos! Keep up the great work!
So we DO know what's in that chamber!
It’s FAR from the most dangerous and not even technically challenging.
The only people who’ve died were open water divers.
@@ljb8157
YES, the entire cave is mapped and it’s publicly available.
@@JordanReedYT That's what Google said it's the most dangerous place not my words.
@@solarbr33ze13 Google lies. Look up Dahab.
I noticed that thanks to your videos, a lot
of real crime/ disappearance youtubers are much better informed about the technical parts of cave diving and what mistakes were made
Yes! I noticed that too. Love that they are spreading accurate information and people are absorbing it and passing it on. ✌️🧡
This is very true
And I'm informed enough to notice! Idk if I'll ever get into openwater much less cave diving but I feel like I'd be ever so slightly more prepared just through watching these guys if I were.
I noticed it too!!
And they all just copy Scary Interesting's content 3 days after it comes out
Back in the day, a second, second stage was not standard in scuba. This is one of the safety improvements that came from tech diving into Rec diving. (Could explain why they had to buddy breath)
Not trying to critique, but I'm guessing you mean octo, not second stage. I wonder if they were really out of air too. I have regs that you can easily breathe down to nothing and others that are hard to pull off at 500 lbs. Also the possibility that he had a j valve on the tank and may have only realized he had more air after separation from his buddy. It would be hard to admit something like that to others.
@@js4120 no cretique taken. :) yes I refer to the second second stage also known as octopus and usually comes in yellow. :)
It is a bit misleading to say that a standard single tank divers have two regulators, cause they in fact usually have one first stage, and two second stage. (Failure point is usually at first stage so you do not have pure redundancy, but good for air share in an emergency)
Maybe better phrasing would be that I called it backup second stage regulator
@@js4120 some say modern regulators don’t give you much hints when they go out, as airflow is quite optimized, however if you ever tried to empty a tank completly, you notice that the emptier it is the slower air flows, so I guess it should give a few hard breaths before tank is really empty.
Back in 1988 when I got my certification it was part of the training to learn to share air like that. Having only 1 regulator was fairly common. It’s all I had for years since I was buying my gear by the piece.
Buddy breathing like that was brutal in open water and the thought of doing it in a cave through restrictions is mind blowing. Those guys had nerves of steel!
I wonder if coming out if both divers had had dive lights and if so could that have allowed the 2nd diver to make it too.
I’m really glad woody is there to explain to Gus that just because Gus thinks he wouldn’t make those mistakes, someone else may. And that this accidents happen with issues and not having skill. Just because Gus thinks he would behave correctly in this instance does not mean he would. Or that something “should” occur this way.
I also do appreciate that Gus is asking these questions.
Thank you Woody for always listening and calmly trying to work through the question!!
I've been binge watching all of Dive Talks and MrBallens videos for like the 4th time now. I love the content. Keep it up, guys.
I do it, too.
You guys have inspired me to start working on getting certified after saying I never would my whole life. Y’all explaining that by following procedures it’s pretty safe helped me want to overcome my fear. New to your channel and I’ve been binging your videos. Thank you for the amazing content.
You meet people that have worked to their whole life doing some job that they never really liked and then when they hit their mid-40s and fifties they decided to start doing their hobby as their job and then they regret not doing that their entire life
Same! Still staying away from caves though haha.
@@xLUGUBRIOUSx haha It will be a long time before I would feel confident enough to take the training for cave diving, if I ever do.
"CAVE DIVER REACTS TO DANGEROUS TRUTH OF JACOB'S WELL" Was the first dive talk video i watched two years ago. Man you guys have come far!!!!!!
Hope you have many more years to come!
Hi guys, on the topic of the octopus and buddy breathing you need to keep in mind that this incident happened in 1983. While they existed back then, they were not standard equipment. NAUI for example had them as part of their standard equipment for learning to dive but I also know people who learned in the mid 80s and their training material had no mention of a second demand valve. PADI just about introduced them as there Junior OWD and Junior AOWD around 83/84 had printed "Alternate Air Source Required." on them but the adult version did not, so you could learn with your parent and one of your cert cards said you need an octo while the other did not. A friend of mine was a dive guide in HI in the early 80s who once told me that when he did his dive master (around 1980) nobody had them on the island and by the time he moved away (around 1985) the shop owner required the dive guides to have them but not the customers.
In that sense, while it isn't unreasonable for people at the time of the incident to have known about octos, they weren't as common place and depending on where they learned to dive, you may not have known of their existence.
Want to seriously thank you guys.got into a conversation with my Dad about technical diving and he was impressed with my knowledge and terminology.all taken from your very cool videos
This series of videos MrBallen does are my favorite and I love your guys' reactions to his videos. I've watched so much Dive Talk that my first question in any of these stories is why aren't they following a line?
I think Gus missed the bit where he said in 1983.... So judging their equipment, training levels, processes and procedures by modern day standards is simply out of context for the time they were diving.
Cave diving was being pioneered in the 70s and 80s but I’m pretty sure the procedure for recreational divers was simple, don’t go into a cave.
I didnt think ANYTHING could make me love Mr. Ballen's stories more, until I discovered these two gentlemen. I was born in northern, NORTHERN Minnesota. Like, I camped the Boundary Waters for the first time when I was 4, Northern Minnesota. I'm not a professional diver, not by a long shot. AOWD is as far as I went with my certifications, and that was almost 15-20 years ago. Watching you guys react to these ALREADY insane cave-diving experiences absolutely fascinates me. Not to mention you're incredibly hilarious; even the facial expressions are absolute gold. I LOVE that Mr. Ballen was down for this collab. It just makes me love him even more! Awesome video, guys! I'm so glad I found you! 💚💚💚
More B Allen, love it! Found you guys because of his videos a year or so ago. You became one of my favorite channels and I'm no diver
There is apparently 7,000 feet of cave mapped in Jacob's Well. A channel here on YT by the name of "Austin American-Statesman" has a video titled "Take a rare glimpse of the mysterious depths of Jacob's Well," in which they state they are the sole owners of the research permit for the site. Sadly the water has since stopped flowing and the future of the spring remains uncertain.
Thought I would mention.
Thank you!
so people are technically still allowed to dive in there with a permit? or is the cave permanently closed?
@@commonsense-og1gz I'm sorry I do not know exactly, but if I recall they closed the location to visitors at the time of the video being posted.
It should be noted that the American South-west has received significant rain in the past year, improving conditions on the Colorado River as well as Lake Meade.
I simply do not know what the current situation is, it may have improved or it may be the same. Your guess is as good as mine.
@@The_Man_In_Red interesting. i hope that no cave ever gets shutdown to everyone. certified divers should always be allowed.
As a fairly new diver (20 dives logged, few being ocean) this is such a great informational channel with real life practical experiences. Bravo gentlemen
My understanding is that there have been a few people to reach the fourth chamber and survive. They said that it has very beautiful limestone formations and is pretty much pristine because of how few people have been able to reach it. It also has a layer of very fine silt as well so I wouldn't be surprised if part of the issue for the other divers (aside from having to squeeze in after taking off your tanks) is that they inadvertently kicked up that silt.
The only thing I'd say is we definitely need more info about how things were set up nearly 40 years ago- did they even have line run? I'm not sure how standardized everything was in 1986. Was it standard for everyone to have 2 regulators yet? Not to mention we have no idea if they were even actually buddy breathing bc no one survived to say how exactly things went down.
I'd imagine only one set of equipment was found and the one with no equipment had gone too far to make it there without buddy breathing
At 11:00 or so Mr Ballen says one of them made it to the surface.
Sorry for the long post but included a lot of information as I lived near Jacob’s Well and studied it a lot when I was younger. Yes divers have made it in and out of the 4th chamber alive. The Jacob’s Well Exploration Project team actually mapped around 6,000 feet of cave. Their website has some interesting pictures, info, and video. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a full map of the caves from the exploration project. Sounds like it was only distributed to certain agencies to help protect the well site. There have been 8-12 deaths in Jacob’s Well, none of which to my knowledge were trained cave divers, and many were just early on recreational divers. Only bodies that were ever trap were from an incident in 1979 where Kent Maupin and Mark Brashier die after a gravel slide blocked them in the 4th chamber. Brashier’s body was pushed out by the current 2 years later and Maupin’s body was recovered in a recovery project in the early 2000’s. The well has been closed to diver for awhile now and is only dive-able by permits obtained through Hays County that they never issue. Might be able to get a dive team together with the BlueWorldTV guys and might have a chance for approval to film. If any chance that would be possible the Exploration Project guys would be the ones to ask. I have swam there many times over the years. Loved diving to the bottom of the first section at 25 feet just to lay flat and be pushed back up by the flow. Haven’t been in a while but the flow rate used to be fairly high. Unfortunately, the flow rate is currently so low it’s been closed due to unsafe swimming conditions.
Best write up about the dive is here with info included from one of the JWEP divers with over 250 dives in Jacob’s Well. Many of which included going past the 4th chamber. www.texasstandard.org/stories/plumbing-the-depths-of-jacobs-well/
Today at Dive Talk, the partial pressure of awesome is 100%!!!!!
Woody seems so kind I would love to be one of his students
You guys gotta post more videos of your personal dives. Would be cool to see
Stay tuned. Some being posted next week .
As a viewer who also dives I second this :)
Hey guys. I think it would be great if you can make a video about the History, Evolution and Timeline of Safety Protocols and Practices for Cave Diving. You seem to react to a lot of Cave Diving Incidents that have happened a long time ago and it would be enlightening for the viewers to know whether the divers were being irresponsible or if the standard safety protocols during that time was just not up to par compared to today’s.
Omg I was thinking the same!
I started thinking about it when I watch videos explaining all of the gas mixtures and it to me is like how did they figure all this out?! Im a great swimmer but never even snorkeled so…
I have to say you’re thumbnails are EVERYTHING!! You guys really get into them. 😊
Question: if they sealed the 4th chamber for everyone's safety then why not seal the false chimney for the same reason?
🤔 good question
Maybe not seal it, because that’s tampering with the interior of the cave, but at least put some signs or something to warn people about it being a false chimney?
@tosca donna that's a good suggestion but you won't see a sign in zero visibility. You could hold a plate up with an airbag maybe? We could think of 100 solutions and each one would have a drawback to it. It is just a shame when any life is lost.
In 70es and 80es when you had 18-22 year old college kids diving with just basic open water training, or even without that, there was apparently many deaths. In 1980, Don Dibble, a dive shop owner with more than 40 years of diving experience, after getting trapped by collapse/gravel and almost dying while attempting recovery of 2 college kids' bodies, attempted to seal off the depths of the well by building a grate of rebar and quick-set concrete at the entrance to the third chamber. Six months later, Dibble found the grate dismantled. Divers not only dove with the proper tools to pull off the grate, they also left a note for Dibble. "You can't keep us out," was written on a plastic slate.
Jacobs well was going to be my first stop when I come over September too dive anerica IAM giving the ocean a miss don't want my ass getting chewed my by all the nasty sharks u got 🤣
@@helene6295 Leave them alone and they leave you alone. Sharks are not nasty.
Would have been scarier if the note said "You can't keep us in!" 😧
@@Apollo55_ Nobody who was attacked by a shark was trying to bother them. Most people didn't even see them coming. They are predators. You are not always off the menu. Bear man thought bears were his friends until he hung out around them too close to hibernation. How do you know if that shark is hungry and trying to survive?
@@HansenSWE If I'd done it, that's EXACTLY what it would've said... either that or "Don't bother trying to keep us in" or something like... haha... just the kind of asshole I am, I guess...
Textbook definition of "Missed Opportunity"... ;o)
I love this channel so much, really enjoy the vids but I do wish Gus would listen out for the date of the incident before trashing the dead people for being dumb when the equipment they ‘should have had’ wasn’t about yet 😂❤
Give me one example
I’m still not sure how I got here, but I’m obsessed. 😆 I work remotely and have you guys playing in the background all the time! My new faves!
This story happened in '86. I presume,back then they didn't have the same equipment as divers have today. And the same knowledge about cave diving.
The bodies in that chamber have been removed, and a research team has managed to go past that 4th chamber, revealing that Jacob's Well is super long. Here is the video ruclips.net/video/srE_u9CmIso/видео.html it's fairly recent, so perhaps Mr Ballen told the story before this update was released
I was just looking for an update on that question (whether someone had survived the fourth chamber), thank you!
@@lomekii you're welcome
I'm looking at their map in the video you linked, and I'm struggling to see the line. Can you provide any more detail, or interpret the map he laid out?
just the idea that there are bodies down there that we can't even retrieve for funeral scared the living daylight out of me
💐💐RIP Kent Holmes Maupin (21 May 1959- 9 Sep 1979)(aged 20), and Mark Alan Brashier (6 Oct 1958-9 Sep 1979)(aged 21) you will truly be missed and my prayers go out to you both, and your families.💐💐 They tragically lost their lives in Jacob's Well back in September 1979. 💐💐RIP Stephen Walker (aged 23) he was a professional diver and drowned in the well on Labor Day 1978.💐💐
Gus with the sword had me dead
two of my favourite channels combining! Love it!
I have been in there. Back to about 3000 feet in. If my memory serves me there was one serious restriction. At about 120’ deep it leaves out and has good size tunnel
That would be really scary for me to do that is still really cool that you get to go that deep down hope you have a great day Mike young you are a really cool diver ❤❤❤
I hope you guys know how much we appreciate your videos. Keep cranking out the content because I have nothing else to binge on! Much love.
Jacob's well collab!
Guys,
Actually the Jacob's Well Exploration Project has been in the 4th chamber and beyond and surveyed more than 7000 feet of tunnel, and pushed it to over 4000ft penetration
John
Thanks for covering this guys!
I'd love to know how the guy lost his gear in the first place. Did he just drop it? Even if you had to take it off to get through, wouldn't you have some kind of tether? How deep is the chamber? If he dropped it, why not swim down and get it? Did he maybe have a catastrophic malfunction? I guess we'll never know.
The timeframe matters, buddy breathing was standard practice when I learned, and “octopus” first stages with more than one regulator were rare. ABLJs were also standard and BCDs as they exist today didn’t exist.
When you guys comment on these videos you have to put yourselves in the timeframe that these incidents took place. Not excusing it but but it gives more context regarding some of the decisions made.
I want to dive it, just so I can screw a sign to the false chimney in the hopes it helps future divers not make a potentially fatal mistake. Things I've learned from you guys: 1 always have backup air, 2 always have a line in and out, 3 ALWAYS dive with a buddy and never alone.
People have survived Fourth Chamber. I think they made it to 5th or 6th chamber. JWEP Team found Kent Maupkins remains in fourth, along with others. One lady left her camera in the fourth chamber and later returned to get it. It would be cool to find that footage
I never comment. But when I saw Gus pull out that knife I about died from laughing so hard. I seriously love it 😂.
Woody does have the tendency to bust out the "well....actually" quite often. 🤣🤣
I lived in Austin for many years. Jacob's Well is a perennial karstic spring measuring about 12 feet in diameter at the surface. It was believed to have been originally discovered back in 1850 or so and featured a fountain of water spouting up in the middle 5 feet high. That now is only a mere ripple due to development over the years. The water comes from Trinity Aquifer. The average depth of the fully submerged cave is about 120 feet. Sadly, a fairly recent Texas newspaper article reports that 12 people have died in Jacob's Well. Thank you for your video on Jacob's Well and I greatly appreciate the comments here that explained the 1980's era of diving and buddy-breathing training.
Yay I just binged all your Mr John B Allen videos this week! Don't know why just felt in the mood, but now I think universe told me so perfect timing since I finished the last yesterday. ♥️
Is there a way to find out how long I've been subscribed to this channel? I just remember seeing 100 or so subscribers when I first started following you guys. I almost wish I had started way later so that I could binge watch everything instead of already watching every show since the beginning and having to wait for the new ones. Lol. I really love you guys and it's been great watching you grow!
Been watching his videos for awhile now thanks to you guys.
I have a question why would people not seal off or block the false chimney?
I've been waiting for you guys to cover this video since I first found your channel :)
Ooo, I love this topic. I even got to visit Jacob's Well once on a roadtrip from Canada to Mexico. My friend was looking for destinations on the way, and I suggested the spot.
If this was in 83, the octopus wasn't standard during these divers' first cert classes (which was probably in the 70's). That certainly explains the buddy breathing. I THINK Octo was standard during this period but they were still operating with the old standards they were trained with.
I went to swim Jacobs Well this summer. Diving is closed to the public, researchers only.
They have an education center with fossils, research videos and photos from previous dives and they even have a tv running with video footage of past dives of the well! Very cool!
Swimming is by reservation only and spots are almost impossible to get for the summer. I definitely recommend!
Your guys’ dynamic really is perfect
Apparently people have lived to tell about being inside the 4th chamber, they say it is a virgin limestone cave with no gravel and a thick silt layer on the floor
Honest question if the false chimney doesn’t have anything in it why don’t they put a gate on it so no one goes in it?
Gus reacting to The first Jacobs well video was also the first video i came across you guys and fell in love, funnily enough it was a Jacobs well question where i won my Meg tooth! So i would have loved to see you guys dive this safely with line etc to really show you cant just blame the location, it is a shame they will not allow you to dive there. Mad to think buddy breathing was all they had then, no extra reg and stuff that just seems crazy to us today.
Jacobs well is an attraction for regular people, not just divers. It make sense that they stopped allowing divers because setting up the equipment is disruptive to other visitors.
6:15 again on Friday morning. Okay. I'll meet you here next Friday at 6:10 AM so Dive Talk will just be part of my Friday morning routine. Congrats, my Friday morning automation routine is now to play your channel after my alarm and hearing my calendar for the day instead of playing my latest podcast. :)
But seriously, I respect and enjoy great content to look forward to on a consistent schedule. Keep doing what you're doing; it's working!
I would love to see merch with that heartbeat line, but made of a dive line and the heartbeat grafted out of the arrows you place on the line. The amount of stories we hear of people who would have lived simply by a piece of string is crazy.
Re the ubiquity of a secondary regulator. Only last year I was in the Canaries when two divers amongst the group I was to dive with that day unpacked their equipment bags to reveal that neither had a secondary! Both were in their twenties, both from Germany, and both claimed it was normal practice where they usually dived. Suffice to say they ended up with shop sets :)
Yes there have been elite divers who have successfully dived the 4th chamber of Jacob's Well but each has a different story to tell.
The incident happened quite a long time ago... Everything's come a long way since then.
Problem is the research team in charge are the only ones with a permit. They haven't publicly released a newer map of the cave and the last footage they released is from 8 years ago. People wanna see the well
3:10 - A big fucking sign saying, 'False chimney', or 'Don't go this way, it's a dead end!' would help.
Why? If you are cave certified, you will have your line to guide you safely out and if you are not qualified/equipped to do this dive and decide to do it anyway, well, then it's Darwin's awards time.
@harrod harrod why???? Did you watch the video? By your logic, Health and safety rules shouldn't exist either. Just let the dumb fuckers die then hay? Or you could, I don't know, mabey put a big fucking sign there!
If a cave is silted out a sign would be redundant. So it's right not to encourage untrained divers to venture into caves
@Epiphany the sign should be on the outside, on the way in, it's no good on the way out.
Gus made me not want to watch this one... Woody is very well spoken and his counter points to Gus were awesome
Absolutely brilliant show, love to hear your opinions and honestly, great video x
It's now more restrictive than these guys describe. You now can't even swim in the water anymore. They don't want to even take any chances of anymore deaths.
Firstly, Love the vids! 👍
Buddy breathing was an important skill for divers back then. And oddly, starting in the late1960s, single-hose regulators became the standard, which complicated things in "out of air" emergencies. But since it was routinely taught back then w/ a single hose, it wasn't considered crazy, like it is today.
And just to mention, it seems not many people had a good or proper modern setup especially in the 70s & 80s.
If interested there are many "buddy breathing" vids on youtube. 👍👍
There nothing better than a colab from my 2 favorite YT channels!
Gus makes too many assumptions that these people are using the right equipment and are trained and knowledgeable in cave diving.
I wonder what percentage of diving incidents can be directly attributed to human error… 95%??? More or less?
@S. M. Good question. I’ll have to check that out…
Gus, this happened quite some time ago, you of all should know that people knew less back then and didn't understand the risks as much, chill out dude...
also, just because you do everything by the books doesn't mean everyone else does, people panic and some don't have the money or smarts to use the right equipment. we aren't all rollin in dough dude... what an elitist mindset, fix it man.....I never thought id use that word..lol
Thanks for the video. I really like watching your reaction and learning more about modern day diving.
To the point of multiple regulators: I got my open water diving certificate with the german diving club (VDST) around 2005. Everyone, including the instuctors, just had a single regulator. So buddy breathing and even sharing the regulator with 2 other persons while ascending was something we had to practice for the certificate. So i don't know when this equipment became available. Back then even basic diving computers were really expensive and out of reach for most divers.
Around 5-minutes in, the story was dated in 1983, but Gus and Woody were kind of chattering over it, so it's hard to quite catch...
AND in the 80's, Dive Equipment was A LOT more primitive than it is now. Cave Diving was widely regarded as "suicidal" by most, and Narcosis was still a plague among technical divers while they cleaned up the math and got things better and more precise...
In any case, the buddy breathing thing was just normal emergency procedure back in the day. ;o)
10:38 just simulate it in a pool or open water. Would LOVE to see that experiment. Not just what y’all think it’s the “right” way to do things, but the ridiculous things you could just try when everything seems lost.
I just love how the 2 of you challenge the fuk out of each other
Woody lays down the law & Gus goes ahead and antagonizes with facts!
What a team 🙌🏼
Back in the 80s as part of our scuba course we learned how to buddy breath sharing a reg! Wouldn’t want to try this in a cave though!
Hi Woody! Hi Gus! It’s been a while. Missed my two favorite divers who even with my debilitating fear of the deep water, I’d go in the water with anyway because you guys are cool. 😊
Hi guys, I dive in the ocean and used to live in Texas next to the well. You are right that it is a spring and the chambers are INCREDIBLY still the water in the swimming area moves and is really cool and pleasant but it is almost like the chimney becomes a flue that causes the water to become stagnant in movement. As for the fact ut is closed and why it is true, no one has survived that went into #4, and the authorities refused to allow anyone to retrieve the bodies down there saying it was not worth loosing more lives 🥺.
My best friends ex is a lifeguard at the swimming area, and I have heard the horror stories. Also as how they buddy breathed on the way back up, I was told one was going backwards, and the other was going forward.
Edit - your question about a line for the LONGEST time there was no line at all, which is stupid as all get out!!! Thankfully, there is supposed to be a line now.
Also, for anyone who reads this far, running out of air is like trying to breathe out of a straw, and the closer you get to zero, the more the end of the straw collapses. And yes, I have had it happen. It was a TOTAL rookie idiot mistake that, thankfully, I was near my friend, and also, we were in the open ocean by Guam looking at the Reef.
I have been watching divetalk since yall were at 20k subscribers. Glad to see your channel has grown so much
“There’s no way they were Buddy breathing dammit!”
Was at a safety stop once and a newbie diver swam up and frantically signaled out of air. I gave him my regulator quick and let him breathe, took it back then gave him my secondary reg. Was so surprising and he looked desperate and was not my buddy so maybe that’s what happened
Grew up and currently still live not far from Jacob's Well. One of the saddest things it was ruined by inexperienced and unqualified divers and barricaded. And now with our water shortage, the water level has dropped a ton and is now closed to the public altogether. Never got to dive it🥺
There’s been a couple 100 deaths in Jacob’s Well over the years.