Depth charged
Night scuba dives offer thrills and training
By: JOE
PARRINO Kentucky New Era
The catfish nearly frightened Brandon Malone out of
his flippers. The 18-incher emerged predator-like right next to Malone’s
diving partner Nathan Borho. Malone frantically tried to get Borho’s
attention. But the mouthpiece of his regulator prevented Malone from calling
out.
The “Jaws” moment was brief. The catfish, probably just as spooked as
Malone, flicked its tail and vanished into the black depths.
A good scare is one of the thrills of nighttime
scuba. Like an underwater haunted house, divers navigate a dark world in
eerie silence.
“I was pretty much scared the whole time,” Malone said. “Even the scissors
on my belt scared me. They kept floating up and touching my face.”
On their Friday dive at Christian County Quarry, the two divers bumped into
catfish, bluegill and some of the quarry’s bigger residents.
The Pennyroyal Scuba Blue Springs Resort, which has
leased the old limestone pit since 1992, boasts more than 40 submerged
attractions.
Malone and Borho found several sunken boats, a
school bus, and a Huey helicopter.
Dennis Tapp, the resort’s co-owner, answers playfully when asked how a
helicopter got to the quarry floor.
“Well, one day it was flying over a little too low and…” Tapp jokes.
The truth is Tapp and his son Chris hauled the helicopter, removed the
rotor, degreased it from top to bottom, repainted it and then lowered it
carefully into the water with the help of 2,000-pound lift bags.
Installing the helicopter was well-worth the effort, said the 61-year-old
Dawson Springs resident.
“The more (attractions) you put in, the more divers you get,” Tapp said
National scuba tours list Pennyroyal Scuba as a
premier diving site. Borho and Malone drove down from central Indiana to dive
the quarry.
The Tapps have been sinking land, water and aircraft for the past 15 years.
Other prize additions to their collection include a 1941 Dodge fire truck and
a motorcycle.
Borho really wanted to find the motorcycle. Last summer, he and Malone took
turns snapping photos of each other riding the bike. But under night
conditions, the task became more difficult.
Dennis Tapp had little trouble following the divers’ movements, though he
stood on dry land several hundred yards away. Flashes of fluorescence
appeared wherever Borho and Malone shone their underwater flashlights. Their
oxygen tanks also carried an adhesive glow stick.
As bullfrogs bellow in the background, Tapp explained the enchantment of
scuba diving
“I love the solitude I can get down there.
Everything is quiet. All you hear is the bloop bloop bloop of the regulator.
There are so many colors, animals and things that the public just doesn’t
know about.”
Tapp said he took to the sport like a fish to water. He reports no
discomfort at depths of 100 feet where atmospheric pressure is four times as
strong
Tapp’s first plunge came in 1963 at the urging of a
high school buddy. Since then, he has strapped on the tanks at every
opportunity, diving lakes and ponds around mid-America and over coral reefs
at more exotic locations. One of his most memorable dives was of the USS
Oriskany that was sunk off the Florida coast to be an artificial reef.
Tapp has been a member of the Kentucky State Dive Team since 1976. The team
practices at Blue Springs regularly because of its depths, 127 feet at one
spot, and its variety of sunken objects. Many of the members also belong to
their region’s search and rescue teams.
Night diving keeps the team’s skills sharp for competitions and real-life
emergencies. The team practices in even darker conditions than Friday night’s
“It’s like Braille,” Tapp said. “We learn to do
everything by touch.”
Borho, Malone and most of Tapp’s customers have some, but not extensive,
certification. Friday marked Borho’s 22nd dive and Malone’s 33rd.
The two surfaced with confused looks after the first five minutes. They
were lost.
“Nothing was where we thought it was,” Borho said.
The divers eventually get their bearings by looking
back at the lighted pavilion where they parked. A few laughs and bloops
later, their heads disappear, lost to the world beneath.
