I was invited.....

[NC_Bob]

NC_Bob,

Anytime! I live in Beaufort, SC and dive for Megalodon teeth and bottles. There are few nice wrecks here offshore and currently working on finding a few.

Robert,

It looks like Beaufort, SC is very nearly my closest coastline, I've been planning to go on a Megalodon tooth hunt since I first heard about them last fall, _and_ I'll get to meet someone from the forum. A "threefer!"

For the immediate future, I have obligations the next couple of weekends (although I'm hoping to get on a U352 charter if there's still space) but then I'm free the last weekend in April and the first 3 weekends in May. If any of those work for you let's make a plan.

Let's see: my ancient 3mm one-piece, go dry, or is it time to buy some new insulation? Of course, all of us here _hate_ buying new gear, right?

Bob.

 

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[rgecy]

End of April, you should be able to use the 3mil. Temp should be around 70+ by that time and the air temp well into the upper 80's.

My weekends or weekdays are flexible. I will check the tide charts and see what it looks like around then. Typically best to get a slack tide. We can have as much as a 9' difference on a full/new moon here and the current will rip through the creeks at 3-4 knots. Vis. goes to nothing and your having to kick you but off. Not Fun!

Robert

 

[NC_Bob]

Sounds like a plan. Let's talk (maybe more appropriately via email?) in a couple of weeks and sort out some details.

Thanks!

Bob.

 

[rgecy]

I just wanted to update this thread.

NC_Bob came down to dive with me this past weekend. It was a good visit, although we ended up getting in the water late due to a few setbacks. But in the end, we were able to get in 3 dives and found some fairly nice Megalodon teeth.

The first dive was about 32' and we burned an entire bottle. I think the final log on Bob's computer was 70 minutes. The vis was about 18" (inches) and we found a number of small teeth and some in the 3-4" range. I think Bob had a new respect for zero vis, black water diving. I was very impressed he didn't freak out! Although he admitted that at about 15' he had some second thoughts, but none the less, made it down and completed the dive.

The current started to move pretty good and we decided to do our second dive in about 25' of water just around a bend I wanted to check out. No teeth, but I did find some bone. Which leads me to believe the teeth are probably there, but they are most likely buried 6-8 inches in the sand and mud. The dive was short and I only spent about 1000 psi.

Third dive was near high tide and we returned to the first site since we knew there were teeth there. With the high tide, the depth was now about 38'. This time the vis was near absolute zero. Probably 6-8 inches at best. The sediment was thick and we actually got separated. You must imagine being within an arms distance and not even being able to see your partners light. None the less, it makes you focus when the vis is this bad. I actually found fewer small teeth and more of the large teeth on this dive because I was going by feel more than sight. I think we ended up pulling 3 or 4 in the 5.5 to 6 inch range, but they were in poor condition.

I gave Bob the biggest tooth from the day and I am sure he will post some pictures when its cleaned up. Its about 6 inches!

Robert

 

[DennisB]

Robert,

Thanks for posting this dive. It is nice to see what everyone is doing. I wish everyone the best of luck this year in your endeavors.

Dennis

 

[NC_Bob]

I think Bob had a new respect for zero vis, black water diving. [/b] I was very impressed he didn't freak out! Although he admitted that at about 15' he had some second thoughts, but none the less, made it down and completed the dive.

Oh my! And how! OK Robert, I'll 'fess up, I was a tad nervous thereb at times! I _thought_ I'd done bad vis (2-3 feet) and I've done my share of night diving. But this is both, and then some. At about 15 feet it looks like there's a black curtain hung horizontally in the water. You can look down at this kinda shimmering black layer and turn over and see the dull olive green of a cloudless sky and noonday sun. And you tell yourself 'it's just dark, and "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost" and drop through the curain. Now it's black below, and of you roll over it's totally black above as well. It's darker than a night dive because a UK C8 only penetrates about 6 inches while on a night dive you can see some distance with the light. I'll admit that my chest tightened and the instinct was "run for the sun." When I get freaked out underwater I allow myself 2 or 3 deep, fast breaths, and that seems to get me centered again, so I blew a lot of bubbles, "got a grip," and met Robert on the bottom.

70 min. 33 feet. A dive such as I've never experienced. Nose literally right on the bottom. At one point I ran my hand over a rounded object and thought "this is a skull" although it was strangely slick. Turned to Robert to show him and it was gone. On the boat he said "I was going to point out a horseshoe crab, but when I tried to get your attention it was gone." And there were weird noises. Above us, then answered from behind, or way off to one side. Robert described than as like a bullfrog call, which is about as good as I can do. Perhaps a little softer and more drawn out than a bullfrog. We'd seen dolphins from the boat, and on the last dive I saw one right above where Robert surfaced. On the fossils forum someone suggested alligator, but I'm not convinced...

The current started to move pretty good and we decided to do our second dive in about 25' of water just around a bend I wanted to check out. No teeth, but I did find some bone. Which leads me to believe the teeth are probably there, but they are most likely buried 6-8 inches in the sand and mud. The dive was short and I only spent about 1000 psi.

Dive 2 in a different place we hit lots of mud and got separated about 90 seconds into the dive. Mud, worse vis, no teeth. Now I'll confess that although I'm quite used to getting left behind when I'm obsessing about some picture I'm trying to get, getting separated in these conditions kinda freaked me out a little. OK, quite a bit. On dive 1 I was able to stop and look around and see this faint red glow of Robert's light that was (like Greg Brown's little squeaky sounds) "coming from far, far away." I'd think "Whoa, we're getting pretty far apart" as it looked like the light was several feet away, so I'd move towards it and bump into Robert about 6 inches later. So suddenly I'm quite alone. No reassuring distant red glow. No regulator noise. Just me and the bullfrogs. I knew Robert would be heading up-current so I tried to follow. After about 10 minutes I (thought I) heard tank-banging and, very relieved I must admit, figured it was a "let's bag it" signal and decided to surface. No Robert, but from the boat I could see nice regular bubbles. Maybe the key to this psychic stuff is simply wanting it badly enough, as I think I really wanted that dive to end and Robert did eventually bang on his tank to signal he was going up; I just heard the banging about 10 minutes before it happened!

Third dive was near high tide and we returned to the first site since we knew there were teeth there. With the high tide, the depth was now about 38'. This time the vis was near absolute zero. Probably 6-8 inches at best. The sediment was thick and we actually got separated. You must imagine being within an arms distance and not even being able to see your partners light. None the less, it makes you focus when the vis is this bad. I actually found fewer small teeth and more of the large teeth on this dive because I was going by feel more than sight. I think we ended up pulling 3 or 4 in the 5.5 to 6 inch range, but they were in poor condition.

Dive 3. As Robert says, we got separated again. The vis on this dive was worse again and it's only a matter of a few feet between still together and quite alone. In clear water it seems you can hear a reg some distance away, but I think all the junk in the water also mutes any sounds. Robert had said that the tide would turn in 30 minutes, so not wanting to end up downstream of the boat once we were separated I decided to end my dive at 20 minutes to give myself a good "get back to the boat" margin. Stayed into the current and was pretty sure I was fairly close behind Robert's position as the vis would be "good" at maybe 9-12 inches and the would abruptly drop to zero which I attributed to his fanning and disturbing the silt. Picked up a couple more small teeth and surfaced at the end of the rectangle defined by the anchor line and the granny buoy (which both ran in the same direction as the tide was turning). 2 minutes later from the boat I saw a dolphn right where I thought I'd surfaced and about a minute after that Robert surfaced in at pretty much that exact spot.

There's "fabulous diving" where you see tons of stuff (or I imagine bring up a coin or cannon) and there's "fabulous diving" where you experience something truly new. This was both as it presented some new challenges _and_ led to some artifacts--treasures to me--that I'll talk about and show people for quite some while. Robert: Thank you for a great day's diving, for your super hospitality, for some new tales to tell, and for that awesome tooth! Let's do it again!

I gave Bob the biggest tooth from the day and I am sure he will post some pictures when its cleaned up. Its about 6 inches!

It cleaned up really well. Robert, sent this via email earlier, but for anyone else who'se interested, here's a pic (should have included a scale, but yes, it's about 6 inches along one side!)

Again, great dives. Thanks Robert!

Bob.

 

[DennisB]

Wow! What a great story! The teeth are great. Someday I will get mine.

Dennis

 

[southern maine diver]

Hey Bob and Robert...

Those teeth are spectacular!!!!!!!

I have been looking for a place to dive for shark teeth and have been dissappointed down in Fla.. Two shark tooth dive charters being cancelled because of "poor visibility", go figure... Anyway, I have always wanted to make some shark teeth dives. I'm not squeamish about low visibility, I dive it More often than you could imagine. Underwater searches for lost mooring blocks in zero visibility at 80'? Sounds crazy, but it has to be done... crawling around on your hands and knees until you "bump" into it...

I use a search line though. I drop my search weight in the water right on the GPS number's and then slide down the line, hookup my search line and then do a series of circular search patterns. I can usually find what I'm looking for, but if I don't, I just pull myself back to the search weight and I am right back where I started from. Using a search line in low visibility can certainly improve your confidence level. Knowing that yo can get back to your entry pint is "priceless".

Anyway, I'm getting of the subject here... but I would certainly like to hookup with you Robert and maybe do some Meg-tooth diving... I know now that I won't be dissappointed..

Thanks for the great story,

Wayne

 

[rgecy]

Bob and I had a great time. Here are the rest of the teeth I found that day and a few others I threw in. I am sure the one Bob showed in the picture is a good 6 inches, and even in that condition would probably bring $150 or more.

You can see how beat up some of the teeth are that came out of this area. This leads to the speculation that they may have been dumped there with dredge spoils.

My schedule is filling up with summer approaching and I plan on spending a good number of weekends in Florida. But if you guys have any weekdays available or can come on short notice, I am flexible.

Sorry about the bad picture! I threw them together real quick on top of my freezer in the garage!

Robert

 

[ScubaFinder]

Robert, I'd sure like to go sometime. Maybe I'll follow you back after one of our Florida excursions and get in a day or two of shark tooth diving.

Do you have to do any cleaning, polishing, or freshwater soaking on these. or do you just pull them out and let them dry?

Jas

 

[rgecy]

I should have taken a before picture. They were covered in growth. Some even had little coral chutes growing off them and were covered in calcified worm deposits, etc. You could barely even see some of them.

Some people just let them dry out and then take a wire wheel set up on a bench grinder and basically remove it with the wire brushes. Then they use a buffing wheel and polish them up. They come out looking great, but if you are not careful you can chip some of the enamel off. This is the quickest way.

I let mine soak in white vinegar for a day or so and the deposits just about fall off. Then I will put them under a buffer using a dremel tool or small buffer on a bench grinder. Takes longer, but is actually easier and safer on the teeth.

 

[DennisB]

....and you are still gonna make me come down and get one of my own huh? LOL.


Dennis

 

[rgecy]

....and you are still gonna make me come down and get one of my own huh? LOL.

Dennis

Absolutely! Now what fun would we have if I just gave them away!

 

[Voldbjerg]

If you want to "train" for noviz diving i can recomend a restaurant in Berlin - Unsichtbar http://www.unsicht-bar-berlin.de/unsicht-bar-berlin-v2/en/html/home_1_idea.html. Blind waitors and everything is pitch black. It sharpens your senses and its great fun

Robert: Are there a reason that your not using buddy lines on dives like that?

V

 

[NC_Bob]

Robert: Are there a reason that your not using buddy lines on dives like that?

Well I can answer that one. Let's face it, would YOU want to be tied to someone like ME in zero viz about an hour after we met...

What an odd concept for a restaurant. Part of me's thinking that it would really enhance the smell and taste aspects of eating, and the darker part of would constantly be wondering just exactly what was I eating... Cool link. Thanks.

Bob.

--Same day, same ocean; that WAS a buddy dive!

 

[Voldbjerg]

In Denmark we make buddy lines using quick connectors from garden hoses(gardena). These can be released even when under strain and a float at the midle of the line will keep it from snagging. It just makes communication between divers easier when its zero wiz.

About the resaurant - its a great experience, that you should grab if you get the opportunity.

/V

 

[alpha105]

A lil bit of a suggestion....try to make the dives, if in lake michigan, a ways away from the shore.....its much more beautiful....have fun!!!

 

[malady]

You can find sharks teeth in the springs here in Florida as well. I have never found a big one but I wasnt searching for them. I just found by pure chance small ones.

Have fun and safety first!
Malady

 

[diverlynn]

Dennis B
Here's another shark tooth dive in the Carolina's which I am making in July on the way up to Hatteras to dive the U-Boats.
http://www.spearitcharters.com

Diverlynn

 

[DennisB]

Thanks Lynn! My only question is why didn't you get ahold of Robert Gecy? You would not have had to pay all the big bucks out for a charter! LOL. Have a safe dive and enjoy.


Dennis