LXD045 : Lamar Hires – Cave Diving Pioneer

Retrieved from ScubaGuru - Expert Advice & Best Practices for Scuba Diving Professionals Lamar Hires – Cave Diving Pioneer, Explorer and Manufacturer In this episode of The League of Extraordinary Divers I chat with legendary cave diving explorer and manufacturer Lamar Hires. Early Days Lamar Hires started diving in 1979 after moving to Jacksonville, FL. The springs of North Florida were the closest dive sites to Jacksonville that didn’t require getting on a boat. After diving all of the springs countless times, he was naturally drawn to the caves. He earned his NAUI open water instructor rating in August 1984. And in November 1984, after cave diving for five years and logging over 1000 dives, he earned his cave instructor rating with the NSS-CDS. He has gone on to explore and map many cave systems in North Florida and around the world with a small group of dive buddies. The motivation to explore and challenge himself led to the design of many new Dive Rite products and diving styles. Lamar was one of the first to use sidemount techniques to push caves beyond the range of back mounted cylinders. In 1985 he used this knowledge and experience to write the first sidemount specialty program for cave divers for the NSS-CDS. Over the years Lamar has tested and experimented with various cylinder configurations to evolve sidemount diving into the specialty that it has become. Exploration He has tested gear and explored caves and wrecks around the world, including caves/mines in Finland, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Australia, Japan, Italy, Russia, and numerous sites in the USA. He was part of the team that connected Telford Springs and Luraville Springs, two cave systems in North Florida. This dive set a short-lived world record for sidemount traverse in 1989, with a distance of 7600 ft. He has been in the icebergs of Antarctica and under the ice in sub-freezing water temperatures. He also dives plenty of wrecks, having been on wrecks in the Dry Tortugas, Egypt, Israel, UAE, Norway, Antarctica, and the Great Lakes. Lamar is passionate about cave rescue and recovery. He has traveled around the world for the International Cave Rescue/Recovery team, training divers for this specialty, including Australian and Italian teams. Lamar is still a very active instructor. He has trained more than 650 people to cave dive since 1984, and continues to train rebreather, sidemount, cave, and other technical divers. Dive Rite After joining Dive Rite in 1984, he developed the first back mounted wing specifically for diving heavy double cylinders that would later become known as the Classic Wing. An updated version of the Classic Wing continues to be a popular wing today. He brought the backplate that is widely used by technical divers into mass production in 1984. He also worked with SEIKO EPSON to develop the first user programmable nitrox computer, the “Bridge”, in 1992. After being with the company from the start, in 1997 Lamar bought Dive Rite from his friend and co-founder Mark Leonard. Lamar continues to actively dive in caves and wrecks around the world. This provides the inspiration for developing and improving the Dive Rite product line by testing it in any environment imaginable. Items In This Podcast Inspired by Sea HuntUsed Ned Deloach’s Underwater FloridaWes SkilesWoody JasperLloyd BaileyRescue 911 Show – Cave RescueCave Rescues and RecoveriesThe invention of the Classic WingThe invention of Sidemount diving for US cave systemsMapping 14 cave systemsDive Rite ManufacturingNSS-CDS Sponsor Special thanks to our episode sponsor Aggressor Adventures Thanks For Listening! Thank you for joining me again. Do you want to give a shout out to our guest on this podcast? Leave a note in the comments section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Please leave an honest review for The League of Extraordinary Divers podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! And, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. The post LXD045 : Lamar Hires – Cave Diving Pioneer appeared first on ScubaGuru.