SCUBA divers swim through the water with perfect neutral buoyancy, able to hover in place like
a fish.
SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
The Self-Contained part is important.
Since SCUBA divers carry their own air supply and breathe through a small, portable regulator,
they are free to go wherever they want.
But long before SCUBA was invented, people still dove.
Underwater breathing apparatus has been around since the 1820s when the Deane Brothers in
England figured out how to pump air down into an airtight helmet and suit.
Soon the underwater world became accessible to people.
The umbilical to the surface limited mobility, but deep sea divers as they were often called,
could now perform all kinds of tasks underwater from construction to sponge collection.
The surface-supplied air meant an unlimited air supply.
TRAINING FILM: …Make his first dive.
In the 1940s, a training film for the U.S. Army Diving program was produced.
Helmet diving hadn’t changed much in 50 years, but the 4 window U.S. Navy Mark V helmet
had emerged as the world’s best.
It was used by the military from 1916 all the way up to 1984.
TRAINING FILM: Getting underwater and staying there is itself a test of diving skill.
Despit his 40 pound shoes, 84 pound belt, 54 pound breastplate and hat, as a diver calls
his helmet, he may float like a cork, if he fails to control the flow of air into his
suit.
Helmet diving with more advanced modern helmets is still used today for construction, oil
rigs, salvage and other work which might require a diver to be underwater for hours at a time.
I want to try it, so cameraman Rick and I head to New Jersey, where the Garden State
Underwater Recovery Unit practices helmet diving and sometimes still uses the Mark V
for rescue operations.
I meet up with Vincent Scarponi and his team at their base…
…and we head out to the Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton, New Jersey where I will dive.
Helmet diving requires a lot of surface support, so the team has brought three boats.
We are diving off of a pontoon boat, specially configured as a platform for Helmet diving.
In just a few minutes we reach the dive site and now I have to learn how to don all this
gear.
Wayne Gerhartz is going to help walk me through it.
JONATHAN: Sit right here?
VINCENT: Okay, the first thing you are going to do is put the suit on.
You just take the bib out and then slide it out a little bit.
Now stop.
Shoes you want on tight, because they are flat bottoms and they do suck into the mud
a little bit.
So you don’t want to pick your foot up and have your shoe remain on the bottom.
JONATHAN: That would be bad.
VINCENT: Doesn’t have to be a lot.
JONATHAN: I can see it’s getting heavier and heavier!
But that’s nothing.
Now the weight belt!
VINCENT: This one’s only 45.
Only 45 pounds he says.
JONATHAN: Alright, here we go.
I’m almost feeling like I’m getting used to this.
WAYNE: Hold your head still!
Vincent turns on the flow of air, which makes a lot of noise, but at least I can breathe!
As they seal me in, I realize that there is no way I can get out of this gear without
help, or even open the front window for air.
My life is in the hands of the dive tenders.
This is more claustrophobic than cave diving.
Fortunately, there is an intercom system, so we can talk to each other.
JONATHAN: Can you guys hear me?
VINCENT: Yeah we can hear you!
JONATHAN: Oh sweet!
VINCENT: I want to give you two taps.
I want you to stand up, walk to the ladder, turn around and go down the ladder backwards.
JONATHAN: Okay!
JONATHAN: Okay, getting up!
Turning around.
As I turn around to climb down the ladder, I can’t see anything, so I am doing it by
feel and I have to trust what the tenders tell me to do.
JONATHAN: Okay, it’s a good thing they are small steps!
As I go one step at a time into the water, the tremendous weight of the gear starts to
become offset by buoyancy.
JONATHAN: It feels so good to get down into weightlessness.
Okay where’s that descent line?
Right here?
VINCENT: So grab the descending line with your right hand, wrap your legs around it
and just proceed slowly
JONATHAN: Wrap my legs around it?
VINCENT: Yeah, you want to lock on to it..
JONATHAN: This is cool.
The ladder doesn’t go to the bottom, so I basically slide down a rope like I’m going
down a fire pole.
JONATHAN: Going down the descent line!
Clearing the ears.
Going down.
Down.
I have hit bottom!
The water here is not bad.
A GoPro inside my helmet gives a little bit of an idea what it looks like from inside.
You really can’t see much.
JONATHAN: Wow!
You don’t have much view out of this thing.
You’ve got the side windows, the front window…
VINCENT: Usually there’s not much to see when you’re doing construction work!
JONATHAN: Well I can see my left hand out the left window, my right hand out the right
window and this is pretty cool.
Between the typical lake visibility and such tiny windows, I have no idea where I am or
which way I’m going.
Cameraman Peter Venoutsos is giving me directions.
JONATHAN: This way?
That way?
He wants me to go this way?
Unlike scuba, which only delivers air when you inhale, there is a constant flow of air
through my helmet, although the bubbles that come out the back increase when I exhale.
JONATHAN: Man it’s hard work climbing through silt that’s up to your knees!
VINCENT: Yes it is!
Try staying in the clear water.
VINCENT: OK, now stop for a second and see if you can feel the end of the yellow pneumo
line.
I’m going to send air down.
JONATHAN: You’re going to send air down the yellow pneumo line.
The pneumo line is an open hose that can serve as a backup air supply, but it’s main purpose
is to feed the pressure at depth back to a gauge above, so the tenders know how deep
the diver is.
JONATHAN: I have bubbles.
Now the bubbles stopped.
VINCENT: OK, it’s 15 feet.
JONATHAN: 15, nice!
VINCENT: Don’t forget that’s 15 where the pneumo line is.
It can still be another three or four feet from the line to your feet.
JONATHAN: The weirdest thing about this experience is actually--to me--is how much it hurts your
feet because when you are walking in the muck, there’s a lot of muscle power required in
your feet to keep yourself from tipping over as the muck squishes around from behind.
JONATHAN: That’s cool.
So, I now have my little selfie stick, which is way cool, and it’s recording, which is
cool.
Woo hoo, selfie stick!
I don’t know…how many deep sea divers in the eighteen hundreds had a selfie stick!?
Oh, I’m going to make a major muck action here.
And I can get a shot of Peter.
Say hi Peter!
Alright!
Eventually it is time for me and my selfie stick to head back up to the boat.
Even though I’m wearing over a hundred pounds of gear, I’m buoyant enough in the water
that I can pull myself right up the rope with one hand.
Climbing up the ladder is another story.
With every step, more of my gear goes above water.
Each step is harder than the next.
Getting the helmet and weight off is a relief!
JONATHAN: Well, I’ve done my first dive with the Mark V helmet and I’m here to tell
you that, as fun as it was, it’s a lot more work than scuba diving!
So I might just stick to scuba diving!
But, wow!
Underwater in 500 pounds of gear!
Somebody give me a torch!
I feel like I should build something!
So while helmet diving is not the best way to explore the underwater world, it is an
important part of the history of underwater exploration, and remains to this day one of
the most effective ways to work for extended periods of time in the Blue World.
And thanks to the incredible effort of these generous members of the Garden State Underwater
Recovery Unit, I got to experience diving in a real Mark V helmet and experience for
myself the rich history of diving.