National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section

Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society UWS Volume 39 Number 1, Jan/Feb/Mar

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Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological SocietyUWS Volume 38 Number 3, JUL/Aug/Sep 2011

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Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society

Click Here to Download PDF of Volume 38 Number 2 Whole Issue

Journal of the Cave Diving Section of the National Speleological SocietyUWS Volume 38 Number 4, Oct/Nov/Dec 2011

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By Paul Heinerth

Wes, my old friend…Where do I begin to tell my story of the man known as Wes Skiles?

The year was 1976.  While still at the University of Florida, I first heard of Wes Skiles at Ginnie Springs.  He was one of the many divers hanging out there.  The property had just been purchased and a gate was being welded at the entrance of the cave entrance of Ginnie Spring.   Sometime the following year, veteran cave diver Sheck Exley had referred to Wes as the new cave diving kid from Jacksonville that was “a pretty good cave diver.”  Read more »

By Agnes Milowka

When I first met Wes, only a few weeks after moving to Florida for my year of sunshine and cave diving, I had no idea who I was about to meet as we headed to his house for a visit. I didn’t get a brief. Something like, ‘Hey, you’re about to meet the great and indomitable Wes Skiles,’ would have been a good heads up.  But no, instead I waltzed into his office and after being casually introduced, I said to the guy wearing a singlet and a bandana ‘nice pictures’ in reference to all the cave diving prints that graced the office walls.  I figured that like most people, he had just bought them to decorate the walls. I liked what I saw, as the pictures were impressive. Read more »

By Bill Stone

It was in the fall of 1980 that I first met Wes Skiles.  I had driven down to Jacksonville non-stop from Maryland to continue training in deep diving with Sheck Exley.  Sheck was teaching me how to dive deep on air for an expedition I had planned for 1981 to the San Agustin sump in Mexico.  He recommended I pick up a set of twin 104s for work in Florida and went so far as to recommend a dive shop where I could get them:  The Aquifer Dive Center in Jacksonville.  It happened to be the dive shop owned by Clark Pitcairn, who was then Sheck’s partner on several pioneering, long stage dives going on at that time.  Wes worked for Clark and split his time equally between surfing and cave diving – getting off once a week on Wednesday evenings with Clark to dive a spring somewhere or the other in the Wild West that was spring diving in north Florida in those days. Read more »

By Tom Morris

I met Wes Skiles in the early 1980’s.  He more or less just dropped into my life.  I was inside the cavern at Peacock Slough bagging some litter, when a diver came crashing to the bottom.  He seemed to be having a seizure.  As I reached for him, he righted himself, mimed a belly laugh, pointed to the bag of trash, and gave me the okay sign.  Then, off he went.  The diver, of course, was Wes.   We met later in the parking lot and were soon diving together. Read more »

By Brian Kakuk

Like so many of today’s cave divers and explorers, my first cave dives were influenced directly by a man who would eventually become not just a colleague but a great friend.  In 1990, while perusing an old VHS tape of Sea Fan’s video magazine, I came upon a short video article on multiple lighting techniques in the underwater caves of Florida by some guy named Wes Skiles.  In the video, Wes went on to explain in his distinct north Florida drawl, how multiple slave strobes could be used to create amazing images in underwater caves.  The video article ended with a strong disclaimer that diving in such places required specialized training and equipment. Read more »

By Jill Heinerth

Underwater Canada used to be one of the finest consumer dive gatherings in the industry.  It was there that I first met Wes, just over twenty years ago.  A confident, animated soul in ostrich skin cowboy boots, he was presenting his exploration work to a rapt crowd, hanging on every word. Read more »