Record set, history made in Roaring River Cave
Above, KISS Rebreathers owner and head-diver, Mike Young, approaches the narrow stricture 224 feet below the surface water of Roaring River Spring.
Photo courtesy of KISS Rebreathers.
Photo courtesy of KISS Rebreathers.
July 21, 2021
Sheila Harris
While some 50-plus-year-old men are starting to make plans for retirement, Mike Young, owner of KISS Rebreathers in Fort Smith, Arkansas, is slipping into layers of warm clothing, a dry-suit, and closed-circuit underwater rebreathing equipment and diving into places where no man nor woman has gone before.
He and his team of equally-intrepid, experienced divers did it again over the weekend. Reaching a depth of 239 feet below the surface water, they dove deeper into Roaring River Cave than any person has been. Their purpose, however, was not solely to break a record.
With the permission of state park officials, the dive team from KISS Rebreathers has plans to create a video for use in the park’s nature center and to map previously uncharted territory below the spring’s surface.
Making history, Mike Young, while wearing his “skinny diving gear” was able to successfully penetrate the narrow stricture at a depth of 224 feet in Roaring River Spring Saturday morning. The stricture had been discovered by previous divers in 1979 and in 1991. However, due to their traditional bulky SCUBA equipment, they had been unable to pass through the narrow opening.
With the new technology offered by Young’s compact Sidewinder Rebreather with sidemounted air tanks which fit snugly below his arms, he was able to slip through the fissure which before had been considered impenetrable.
“There’s a navigable tunnel on the other side that runs laterally,” Young reported, after he resurfaced. “Due to time and air limitations, I couldn’t explore any further on this dive, but I hope to later.”
Young said he had been closely monitoring the water flow at Roaring River prior to the team makings its third scheduled trip to the park on Friday.
“The first part of the week, the cubic-feet-per-second (CFS) water flow was in the mid-30s, about the lowest it’s been all summer,” he said. “After rainfall Thursday night, it was up to the 50 CFS mark before our first dive Friday.
(The water flow can be easily determined by checking the United States Geological Survey (USGS) site at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07050152.)
The KISS team made an initial dive into the spring Friday afternoon to check out subsurface water conditions and put safety lines and air tanks in place. Tim Bass, a videographer with NWA Adventure Dive, was also on hand to begin filming the KISS team’s explorations.
“The water was the clearest we’ve ever seen it Friday,” Mike Young said, as he geared up for what he hoped would be his record-breaking dive Saturday morning.
With the water-flow down and the visibility good, Young’s confidence that he could make it through the stricture was well-founded.
Some two hours later, Young, along with teammate, Joe Heinrichs, returned to the surface of the spring and reported “mission accomplished.”
Satisfied with the day’s 239-foot dive and the breaching of a stricture once thought to be impenetrable, the KISS team was content to wait until the following day to begin mapping efforts of the newfound underwater area.
According to diver Greg Ables, the mapping dive planned for Sunday would be a bit riskier since it would call for time-consuming underwater technical work by cartographer Jon Lillestolen.
As it turned out, Sunday’s mapping plans were put on hiatus after heavy rains Saturday night took the water flow up to over 120 on Sunday morning.
“The water flow was just too high to get any more work done this trip,” Young said, “so we brought all of our air tanks and safety lines back up, and we’ll try again in August.”
In a light moment for onlookers, a two-year-old child was startled to the point of screams when the first of five divers resurfaced beside her feet as she stood with her parents at the guard rail of the spring.
Before doffing their diving gear, Jon Lillestolen and Mike Young surprised hatchery visitors by slipping into the spring-fed pond for a leisurely swim in search of the remains of the old undershot mill wheel reputed to lie below the surface.
Last weekend’s dive was participated in by Mike Young, Joe Heinrichs, Jon Lillestolen, Greg Ables, Neal Brownlow, Charles Walker and the sole female diver, Gayle Orner.
Orner was pleased that the record-setting dive was accomplished on July 17, a date recognized as “Women’s Dive Day” by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
Mike Young, however, was a little disappointed that mapping efforts had to be postponed.
“In the caving world,” he said, “broken records and new discoveries aren’t real until divers can bring back survey data.
“We’ll get it next time, though,” he added.
The KISS divers have a fourth trip to Roaring River State Park planned August 27 - 30.
In the meantime, Young has three other diving expeditions planned: one to an area 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina, another to a cave system in the Bahamas, and a third to explore shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, where, he said, the cold water has reputedly preserved the lumber on a ship that sank in 1850.
Sheila Harris
While some 50-plus-year-old men are starting to make plans for retirement, Mike Young, owner of KISS Rebreathers in Fort Smith, Arkansas, is slipping into layers of warm clothing, a dry-suit, and closed-circuit underwater rebreathing equipment and diving into places where no man nor woman has gone before.
He and his team of equally-intrepid, experienced divers did it again over the weekend. Reaching a depth of 239 feet below the surface water, they dove deeper into Roaring River Cave than any person has been. Their purpose, however, was not solely to break a record.
With the permission of state park officials, the dive team from KISS Rebreathers has plans to create a video for use in the park’s nature center and to map previously uncharted territory below the spring’s surface.
Making history, Mike Young, while wearing his “skinny diving gear” was able to successfully penetrate the narrow stricture at a depth of 224 feet in Roaring River Spring Saturday morning. The stricture had been discovered by previous divers in 1979 and in 1991. However, due to their traditional bulky SCUBA equipment, they had been unable to pass through the narrow opening.
With the new technology offered by Young’s compact Sidewinder Rebreather with sidemounted air tanks which fit snugly below his arms, he was able to slip through the fissure which before had been considered impenetrable.
“There’s a navigable tunnel on the other side that runs laterally,” Young reported, after he resurfaced. “Due to time and air limitations, I couldn’t explore any further on this dive, but I hope to later.”
Young said he had been closely monitoring the water flow at Roaring River prior to the team makings its third scheduled trip to the park on Friday.
“The first part of the week, the cubic-feet-per-second (CFS) water flow was in the mid-30s, about the lowest it’s been all summer,” he said. “After rainfall Thursday night, it was up to the 50 CFS mark before our first dive Friday.
(The water flow can be easily determined by checking the United States Geological Survey (USGS) site at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07050152.)
The KISS team made an initial dive into the spring Friday afternoon to check out subsurface water conditions and put safety lines and air tanks in place. Tim Bass, a videographer with NWA Adventure Dive, was also on hand to begin filming the KISS team’s explorations.
“The water was the clearest we’ve ever seen it Friday,” Mike Young said, as he geared up for what he hoped would be his record-breaking dive Saturday morning.
With the water-flow down and the visibility good, Young’s confidence that he could make it through the stricture was well-founded.
Some two hours later, Young, along with teammate, Joe Heinrichs, returned to the surface of the spring and reported “mission accomplished.”
Satisfied with the day’s 239-foot dive and the breaching of a stricture once thought to be impenetrable, the KISS team was content to wait until the following day to begin mapping efforts of the newfound underwater area.
According to diver Greg Ables, the mapping dive planned for Sunday would be a bit riskier since it would call for time-consuming underwater technical work by cartographer Jon Lillestolen.
As it turned out, Sunday’s mapping plans were put on hiatus after heavy rains Saturday night took the water flow up to over 120 on Sunday morning.
“The water flow was just too high to get any more work done this trip,” Young said, “so we brought all of our air tanks and safety lines back up, and we’ll try again in August.”
In a light moment for onlookers, a two-year-old child was startled to the point of screams when the first of five divers resurfaced beside her feet as she stood with her parents at the guard rail of the spring.
Before doffing their diving gear, Jon Lillestolen and Mike Young surprised hatchery visitors by slipping into the spring-fed pond for a leisurely swim in search of the remains of the old undershot mill wheel reputed to lie below the surface.
Last weekend’s dive was participated in by Mike Young, Joe Heinrichs, Jon Lillestolen, Greg Ables, Neal Brownlow, Charles Walker and the sole female diver, Gayle Orner.
Orner was pleased that the record-setting dive was accomplished on July 17, a date recognized as “Women’s Dive Day” by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
Mike Young, however, was a little disappointed that mapping efforts had to be postponed.
“In the caving world,” he said, “broken records and new discoveries aren’t real until divers can bring back survey data.
“We’ll get it next time, though,” he added.
The KISS divers have a fourth trip to Roaring River State Park planned August 27 - 30.
In the meantime, Young has three other diving expeditions planned: one to an area 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina, another to a cave system in the Bahamas, and a third to explore shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, where, he said, the cold water has reputedly preserved the lumber on a ship that sank in 1850.
Above, the KISS Rebreathers team prepares for their Saturday morning, history-making dive into Roaring River Spring, where they descended to a never-before-reached depth of 239 feet and breached a narrow restriction once thought impenetrable. Divers, left to right, are Neil Brownlow, of Fort Smith, Charles Walker, of Louisiana; Gayle Orner, of Wisconsin; Joe Heinrichs, of Fort Smith, Arkansas; Jon Lillestolen, of Virginia; and Mike Young, of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Wearing his “skinny” diving gear, Mike Young eases through the narrow stricture to discover a navigable passageway running laterally at a depth of 239 feet. Further exploration is planned for the team’s next scheduled diving expedition August 27 - 30. Photo courtesy of KISS Rebreathers.
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Above, Jon Lillestolen prepares to explore the mill pond right after his Saturday morning dive into Roaring River Spring.
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Above, Jon Lillestolen (right) receives an adjustment to his regulator from surface manager Greg Ables (left) prior to Saturday dive.
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Above, left to right, Joe Heinrichs, Mike Young, and Gayle Ornerpause for a park visitor's photo opp prior to Saturday morning's dive into Roaring River Spring. Photo by Sheila Harris.
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