RED DEVIL SCUBA SUPPLIES

Hello, my name is Jeremy VanRuymbeke and I am still fairly new (2nd yr) to the red devil family so luckily I drew the short straw to write a blog about a recent Red Devil dive trip five local divers took to a place called Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri. Its one of National Geographic’s top 10 adventures. About a hour south east of St. Louis. 11-12 hours total from Chatham. We managed to rent a mini van and packed all our gear and essentials excluding tanks as these are provided by the facility and as I explain later on, we were extremely happy we didn’t have to supply our own. Surprisingly 5 men and gear, there was still lots of room to be comfortable for the long trek. We left around 7 am I believe and with an hour back time change arrived just after dinner in time to get settled at the hotel and grab some supper. The drive down was entertaining if you are a farmer and like to crop tour because other then the billboard signs that was it. For me and Aaron this was just fine but for the guys in the back they had a nice DVD player to watch a few movies to make time pass. ( suggestion: Super Troopers make for some fun laughs) The town of Bonne Terre itself was just a regular little town with the essential stores and restaurants, nothing spectacular. We took it easy the first night in preparation for the 3 dives the following day.

In the morning we arrived at the mine at about 7am. Lots of signs to find the mine itself but if there wasn’t you would never know it was there. Surrounded by houses in a normal looking neighbourhood this place looked nothing like I was expecting, a small parking lot some little buildings and a trailer like building as the main office. My original thought was where’s the mine? We took our safety briefing, video and signed those ever so popular “sign your life away” waivers and we were on our way. We were instructed to suit up once we got down to the mine so we gathered our gear and made our way to this little shed. ( no bigger then 10 x 25 feet) in the middle of the parking lot. They opened the door and in we walked. A 20 foot ramp down to a set of doors and then like walking down to the bat cave a set of stairs that went 125 feet down. No big deal when your adrenaline is pumping and you are carrying all this gear you don’t realize you will have to do this to get out as well. ( no tanks….woo). When we got to the bottom we followed a trail through the mine which was light up somewhat so you knew what you were stepping on . By the way, no one was busting my chops about my dive bag with wheels then. Lol The sheer size of this place was breathtaking, a massive cavern with walking paths everywhere for tours. We arrived farther in the mine where the water was and the sight was just incredible, as far as you could see was this big cavern and pillars cut out to support the roof which was at least 70 feet from the water surface.(Billion gallon lake) Even if you wouldn’t dive here just to walk down and see this was worth the drive, like being in another world and the fact we hadn’t even got in the water yet just made all five of us jumping inside. The setup was perfect as there was a huge deck platform with benches to gear up and a tank filling section where all you had to do was grab a tank and go. As for 4 of us we were new to this place so the guide again gave us a dive briefing and checked every single persons gear before they entered the water.. A very tight run operation. In the water we go and do a few skills in the water to prove our skill set. As we noticed later on Red devil was represented very nicely compared to some other people there. GARY would have been ……okay lets be honest somewhat proud! The dives were guided by one diver in the front leading the way and another in the back . No lights were allowed for the first dive but there was plenty of surface lighting that it wasn’t needed on the earlier trails. The visibility was incredible about 100+ feet and no silt so no pressure on anyone to not silt up a dive. The dives never got deeper then 60 feet so a great place even if you are new to diving. If you can get past the fact you are still diving in a mine. Overhead environment was minimal on the first few dives but the later dives they got farther and ohh so much cooler. Water temp was a constant 59 degrees but for us tuff Canadians just another day at the beach. As for sights it was unbelievable. When the mine closed back in the early sixties. The miners just laid there shovels and tools down and made there way out. Eventually water filled in and that’s exactly how it looked. Shovels still leaning against the wall and drills still in the wall. Lead carts left with rubble in them. Tools scattered on the floor. Now we only did 5 of the 20 something trails and if the first 5 are any indication then the next trip is defiantly on my list. Lots of neat things to see and the dives lasted about 45 -55 min depending on air consumption but even if you are a air hog you surface swim back to the platform and snorkel you way back right over top the other divers so you really don’t miss out on anything. The first day we did 3 dives and followed it up with 2 more on Sunday before we made the trip back home. On the drive home since leaving around noon we decided to drive part of the way home and find a hotel then do the rest in the morning. I defiantly suggest this as after 2 days of diving and doing dives that morning it makes for a tired crew. Cost for the trip was roughly 500$ excluding food. (and equip. rental if needed) Well worth the money and the long drive. I cant wait for next year to do it again and try some of the other trails. Hopefully we can get 2 vans full of divers as this was an incredible fun road trip to do some diving. Great for the winter months when our water is frozen. This trip would allow open water cert. but advanced would defiantly be helpful as the dives do get dark on the later trails. Thanks to Aaron and Red devil for organizing this trip and looking forward to dragging gary down there next year. Cheers!