From Ivo’s Timeline:
“Since the release of our movie a lot of divers from around the world had written us, requesting that we post more exploration footage and tell a bit more about our exploration projects. I have been wanting to write the story of the Ixtlan exploration for a while now, and I may do that soon when I overcome my indolence, but for now I am posting a clip with some genuine exploration footage from February. It is just the easiest clip I can find, as it was prepared for a friend some time ago. A scene from it is in the movie too.
The clip may be very boring for non-divers, as it is just swimming and laying line. Don’t watch it if you are not into this kind of thing.
As for the dive itself… this is the exploration of one of the short lines at Ixtlan, we called it “The lower level passage” as it goes relatively deep compared to the rest of the system. This is just one of (as of today) seventy three (73) lines at Ixtlan. It is not a particularly long one, but it is nice. It has a branch connecting to a different line, as you can see at one point.
As we are diving every day there and about 80% of the exploration dives are filmed we have tons of really cool footage. Maybe in time some of it will come out, but in the meantime I hope you will enjoy this clip. It was a nice dive, nothing out of the ordinary, except that the clip of my wing bungee broke at the beginning of the dive and since I didn’t want to to cancel, my makeshift solution didn’t look too pretty, or tight, as is visible.
Also, for those technically inclined – contrary to the popular style I never use a horizontal trim while exploring. I set my trim a little bit off so that I can easily look up (something which I find so important that I may actually do a write-up on it some day).
Anyway – as I already said – a warning: this is some BORING footage. I am posting it especially for these folks who want to know what an exploration dive looks like. If you are in a lazy mood you may enjoy it, but don’t expect fast action, fancy editing, heroic deeds, quick tie-offs, etc. You have been warned smile emoticon We are not posing for the camera, we don’t even notice it anymore.
Enjoy”