Dedicated to the Memory of Parker Turner
June 9, 1952 - November 17, 1991

Sand poured through the only way in or out of the cave. Trapped, fears of just about every cave diver but one that is quickly dismissed as impossible, a freak of nature. But, on November 17th, 1991, as Parker Turner and Bill Gavin were completing their dive at Indian Springs, Wakulla County Florida, someone or something caused tons of sand to come crashing down on the only entrance. The two divers inside were trapped-30 feet from safety, yet blocked by a wall of sand. I got the call from a friend in the Sheriff's department. As I drove to the search and rescue site, I thought about Parker and how he helped change the face and future of cave diving.

Five years earlier, the phone rang at my home in Tallahassee, Florida. A deep voiced man with a thick Louisiana accent told me he wanted to get certified as a NACD cave diver. It seemed the man on the other end of the phone, Parker Turner, once lived in Mexico and SCUBA dived a Cenote called Carwash. Right from the start I knew Parker was one of those divers who valued training. He already had his NSS-CDS certification but he 'now wanted his NACD training. More training, more experience and respect for safety which was Parker. He made it through the course and we continued our friendship. It was Parker who introduced me to cave diving in Akumal, Mexico.

With cave diving related deaths and accidents making news. Parker felt a sense of responsibility. There had to be a way to prevent more tragedies. He designed the 'Please stop unless cave trained' signs now posted in many cave systems around the world. Parker also developed the NACD Regional Safety Officer program and served as the first International Safety Officer. The idea was simple: support remote areas with better education about safe cavern and cave diving.

Some people get involved in activities and test the waters, so to speak, in many areas. Parker focused on two - safety and preservation. Extensive research with geological and hydrological experts, the United States Government, the State of Florida and Florida State University led him to one of the most interesting and extensive water drainage systems in North America. With the help of his friend, Bill Gavin, Parker developed the Woodville Karst Plains Project (WKPP) in Florida. This project would help answer many complex questions about one of the largest underwater cave systems in the world. WKPP would also guide the State of Florida to sound, prudent decisions to protect the most precious commodity: water. Parker Turner didn't get involved in research or safety issues to satisfy his own ego, he did it so others would benefit.

My mind drifted to all his accomplishments as I drove to Indian Springs that Sunday afternoon in 1991. How could such a safety conscious diver possibly be in danger? I pulled up to the scene, amidst cave divers, friends and the sheriff's cars and waited along the edges of the pond. Gavin had made it out of the cave alive thanks in part to Parker. We later learned that the two were ending their dive when a wall of sand trapped them inside the cave. Parker tried desperately to tunnel his way through to safety. He went so far as to take off his double tanks, hoping he could fit. He managed to clear a partial path only to die a mere 30 feet from a stage bottle. Up until the end, Parker's actions benefited someone else. That path he cleared helped guide his buddy Gavin to safety.

On Monday morning, November 18, 1991, Sheriff's divers inside Indian Springs recovered Parker's body. His death is the only diving related tragedy in history that did not involve human error.

Foreward

Once you get an idea in your head and it persists constantly, you have two choices. Forget it and block it out of your mind or make it happen. Obviously, I chose the latter. My entire cave diving career has always been about sharing. Sharing knowledge, that’s why I love teaching safe cavern and cave diving. Sharing information so you can learn and have the opportunity to experience these beautiful cenotes and underwater cave systems, as I have been lucky and blessed to dive. My biggest enjoyment in life is seeing the wide grin on a face, the joy in people’s eyes when they accomplish a goal. It is the bubbling excitement in their voice as they chatter about their opportunity to witness the incredible beauty of the caves. It is a moment that makes it very special.

My underwater cave photography is the same thing. It’s giving people the chance to behold the splendor, the magnificence of an unimaginable underground world. It is capturing the instant so that it can live on forever. When divers look at my images and you watch the delight leap out from their comments, it is a satisfying high. The exultation of others is the tranquility I get with cave diving and my photography.

This is what this web site is all about. Sharing so you can learn and experience what I have been given as a gift from life the knowledge and wisdom. In my mind, not one person owns the cenotes or caves. They belong to everybody. If you are trained and qualified, can perform the task in a safe manner and possess the healthy attitude to respect this unique environment, you have as much equal right to experience and enjoy this spectacular world as anyone else. It all boils down to having the opportunity. There is nothing more that I detest than a selfish, elitist ego.

My track record speaks for itself with sharing. The summer of 1991, I organized a small cave diving exploration expedition with the help of Tony & Nancy DeRosa along with Hilario Hiler. We invited several cave divers I knew to continue the exploration of a cenote originally named Cenote Zapote (after the tree). Alton Hall, Keith Kinard, Pat Watson, Paul Perk jumped at the invitation for the week long excursion and with them they brought a friend – George Irvine – who had recently became cave trained in Florida and was his first “opportunity” to go exploring underwater caves. We had a wonderful week of exploring. Between us, we installed and surveyed close to 8,000 feet (2,424 meters) of cave passages. Our first dive with me was Hilario, George, and Paul as we laid about 1,500 feet (455 meters) of line in a huge, gorgeous passage. George was fantastic with “names” as he called it, appropriately, the “Monster Canyon”. We named the cave system “Toucha Ha” (Monkey Water in Mayan) because of all these spider monkeys that hung out at the cenote and threw berries at us for invading their world. I have a “team photo” of that experience and every time I look at it, it reminds me of the fun sharing that time with those guys.

The next summer, we organized another exploration expedition. Our good friend, Camilo Solis Acosta, had two more cenotes on his ranch he wanted Tony, Nancy and I to check out. It was May 25th, 1992. I had already organized the exploration team of Ivan Cappelli, Randy Douglas, Sam Ferra, Cliff Keck, and Don Redinger who were known as the “original” five amigos of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With that group we added Allen Jonushaitis of San Francisco, California who greatly wanted the opportunity to explore. The expedition was set for the first week of August. Don Camillo showed Tony and I this water well on his property explaining he had seen a dead cow in it years before. Frantic for a virgin cave system, I climb down this hole muttering desperate people do desperate things. Finding a small room, my hopes were further dimmed. Poking around, I finally found this small passage. Squeezing through it and negotiating 30 feet of passage…wham… I “popped” into this huge tunnel. You should have seen the grin on my face at that exact instant. The rest is history. We had a tremendous successful expedition exploring both Sistema Tortuga and Sistema Vaca Ha. That first official exploration dive was given to Cliff and Allen at the water well (Vaca Ha meaning cow water). Their first dive they laid 1800 feet (545 meters) of line. You should have seen Allen’s face after that dive. The beam on his face was awesome. I took a picture of him with that smile which I will cherish forever. Because, you know, it’s all about sharing.

During the summer of 1973 I was the lifeguard and pool caretaker for a “Jack Tarr” hotel in downtown Clearwater, Florida while attending classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. There I met an elderly World War I veteran named Mr. Earl Wood. He was sixty years older than me and had been severely wounded in that ugly war and lived on total disability from the government. For weeks he would stare at me while I was working during his strolls around the hotel grounds. One day, he came up to me and introduced himself. He invited me out to dinner and we became fast friends. He told me about his life experiences, his “girlfriend” he never got to marry because of the war and joy of living and the frustrations of life. This went on for a year and a half. About every two-three weeks he would take me out to dinner and we would go to a variety of local restaurants. After dinner I would take him back to his hotel and every time he would give me money. Not a lot but as a struggling college student there were several times he saved my butt. Each time he gave me money I would try hard not to accept. I valued our friendship more and money was not going to be a factor. But each time he would insist I take it and would simply say he was “passing it on”. I learned much from Mr. Earl Wood.

Hopefully, this web site will accomplish my goal of “passing it on” in a responsible manner and serve as a good educational tool for the future. At least I feel I gave it my best shot.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Stevegerrard@cavediver.com

www.steve-gerrard.com

www.cenotesoftheRivieraMaya.com

Cell Phone – 9 84 127 1550

Home Phone with Answering Machine (011-52) 9 84 87 35037

Please sign my GUEST SIGN-IN at my Web site!

You Don't Know If You Don't Go

Steve Gerrard promised to take us somewhere special. It was a mantra that the blond-haired instructor and guide had offered each morning for the last six days of our week long tour. After logging a dozen dives in cenotes de Riviera Maya, I concluded that "especial" never ended; it just kept going down another passageway. We knew the drill. Gerrard was sporting one of his shit-eating grins as we loaded the gear into the Volkswagen van. Then he threw out the bait. "Only seven cave divers have been there before," he said stretching out the c-a-v-e d-i-v-e-r-s in his folksy North Florida drawl.

We were forced to abandon the rusted-out van an hour later when the single-lane dirt road abruptly ended leaving us several kilometers short of our goal. We got out and walked, keeping a sharp eye out for chem-chem trees that punctuated the barely-discernible foot-path. Even a brief contact with their bark causes painful, open boils that resemble cheese pizza.

Our barefoot Mayan sherpas trudged on ahead with the gear, clearing the trail with machetes. Hours later we arrived at an ancient limestone temple the size of one-car garage that had long since been reclaimed by the jungle. The earth parted at its base revealing a muddy, thirty-foot long crawl space which led the entrance of the cave.

Cenote Temple is part of a labyrinth of underwater cave systems that honey-comb the Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists estimate the caves flooded more than 13,000-years ago when the surrounding sea level rose. The Mayans who first settled the peninsula believed that the cenotes were windows to the underworld.

After belly-crawling our way to the cenote entrance, we were soon negotiating a passage through the twisted limestone tunnel while being showered by a light rain of silt and small clumps loosed from the ceiling by our bubbles. It was a sure sign that few had passed this way before. Gerrard was running the reel up ahead humming something oddly reminiscent of "Thus Spake Zarathoustra." Under the circumstances, the theme song from "Indiana Jones" seemed more appropriate.

Gerrard began signaling with his light when we rounded the next corner. We quickly filed in behind him. Dead ahead lay a human skeleton spread-eagled on a rock. Its bony left hand pointed off into the darkness. We circumnavigated the rock in a slow circle giving it a wide berth so not to disturb the remains. Evidently, the ancient explorer¹s journey had ended here more than 130 centuries before.

Cenote Temple is just one of the unique systems that Gerrard highlights in his new web site, ³The Cenotes of Riviera Maya.² I can think of no better guide. The 53 -year old, explorer, educator, author and photographer has built a career around his passion for cave diving.

Cave certified in 1975, Gerrard has logged more than 7000+ cave dives in the U.S., Belize, Brazil and Mexico, explored 45-some new systems, and trained more cavern and cave divers than anyone in the world. At last count, he had certified over 2000 students. Today, he teaches independently living in Puerto Aventurasl, Mexico and remains one of the most active instructors in the field.

Gerrard has long been a guiding light at the National Association for Cave Diving based in Gainesville, Florida, where he served for fourteen years as general manager, president, vice president and editor of the association journal, and helped establish training standards for the sport. His articles and photographs have appeared in dozens of magazines and he was responsible for compiling and editing the book, ³The Art of Safe Cave Diving.²

Gerrard began exploring the Yucatan in 1986 when he, Mike Madden and Juan Jose Tucat laid nearly two kilometers of line in Nahoch Nah Chich setting a record for surveyed line in a single cave dive. Nahoch presently ranks as the longest underwater cave in the world. He continued to make pilgrimages to what has been called cave diving¹s new frontier until 1992 when he packed up his gear and moved to Puerto Aventuras.

In 1996, Gerrard organized and led the Ejido Jacinto Pat Expedition which mapped more than 60 kilometers of new cave passage. As a result of his efforts and many others, the Yucatan now boasts nine out of the ten largest underwater cave systems in the world. Now he has condensed more than two and a half decades of experience into this information-packed web site that will likely become a must site to view¹ for those interested in exploring the Yucatan frontier.

The Cenotes of Riviera Maya offers an in-depth guide to the art and technique of Yucatan diving ranging from what to pack to detailed descriptions of over one hundred cenotes and cave systems. Through out its pages, Gerrard emphasizes diving safety and cave conservation. In addition to chapters on exploration and risks, the book presents a detailed analysis of the accidents that have occurred.

They have a saying in the RIVIERA MAYA: ¨You don¹t know if you don¹t go.¨ my advice is to start packing. Just make sure that you read Gerrard¹s web site first.

--Michael Menduno