SWFL Technical divers was honored to participate in the Push Button Hill Expedition 2019. This project, headed by Marty Watson, was to document the deep water reef know as Push Button Hill located approximately 13 miles offshore of Stuart, FL. Three dives were made over the summer with increasing depths from 110m-150m. While not bringing back the documentation we were hoping, we were able to get some limited video from this area that showed how even at those depths, there were still reef ecosystems that seemed to be doing well. The site is more of a large mound than a wall. It is still challenging to hit the predetermined spot on the reef due to the extreme currents and cross currents that pound the site from the Gulf Stream. It certainly made shooting the bags on deco an interesting debacle! We studied charts for weeks in advance of our dives, but mother nature always has her own plan. As is often said, no plan survives implantation.
The first set of dives to take place included divers Marty Watson, Chris Cole, and Eric Hernandez. I had to call the dive due to a stomach bug I had contracted the day before. Dry suits and stomach problems don’t mix! Chris ultimately called the dive himself after his controller was torn from his unit during the gear up. Eric and Marty were able to decent on the site for around 20 minutes before blowing bags and returning to the boat. It was at this point Marty knew he had found something special. I was drawn in to Eric’s stories of limitless visibility and an entire ecosystem down deep in the depths were light is starting to fade. A second trip was planned for a few weeks later and we kept our fingers crossed that the winds and good viz would hold.
The second dive was a great success. I was able to join the original three divers to partake in this dive. While several additional divers committed they all called the dive for one reason or another. With depths exceeding 100m it is important to be in top shape and we all know anyone can call a dive for any reason. That also includes before the boat leaves the dock! That being said, this played havoc on expedition leader Marty trying to coordinate the dives with Peter at Stuart Scuba. Stuart Scuba was operating at a loss on the first two trips due to lack of divers. The pool of divers to call for these types of dives is very small. While I certainly don’t have the actual numbers, by my best guess there are probably a couple hundred people in the world that can dive to these depths. Getting ten of them on the same boat at the same time is a feat in itself.
The seas were flat calm this day with little to no wind. The four of us napped the entire two and a half hours out to the site. DM Jay had to actually wake me up! While no wind is great for conditions on the water, it made the heat oppressive. Given temps at depth were hovering around the 50 degree mark dry suits were mandatory. Jay, the divemaster for this trip, did a great job keeping us hosed down and ice on our necks while Captain Steve lined us up. Marty and Chris splashed first followed by Eric and myself. Visibility was amazing! As we descended through the multiple thermoclines we were able to keep each other in sight even though we were hundreds of feet away from each other. Hitting the mount at around 120m we split into our teams and start cruising through the ridges. The site was stunningly beautiful. Multiple ridges and crevices carved into the ocean floor that was hosting an abundance of smaller reef fish. Swarms of amberjack dart around the depths and lurk in the shadows. As I scootered up the site I ultimately ended my dive around the 90m mark and headed topside. On deco we encounter several species of pelagics that kept us entertained for the long deco. High fives were had back on the boat with promises of heading back out again. Pizza and beer were consumed in copious amounts during the dive debrief!
By this time word was quickly spreading throughout the tech community about what we were doing. For the third dive we were able to take on several additional members of the expedition. John Bentley and Kate Swanson joined the team as our safety divers. Kristin Paterakis came on board to take photos topside and on our decompression stops. Drew Dye and Mark Ogden joined up as additional deep divers to explore the top part of the mound. We lost Chris Coll due to some other diving obligations he had but we picked up Marty’s wife Michele in his place. The boat was a fair bit more crowded this go around. With seven scooters on board and enough bailout to supply a cattle boat of open water divers we took off!
Lady luck continued to be on our side or conditions. The boat ride out was enjoyable with all members swapping dive stories and planning future dives. As we neared the site all BS disappeared and a serious tone overtook the boat. Two teams of deep divers had target depths exceeding 130m for this trip. Any issues at that depth are almost always going to be fatal. It is imperative to double and triple check everything during the gear up process. DM Jay, along with Kristin, John, and Kate were all helping us into our gear and the Capt was lining us up for the drop. The goal for this dive was to determine how deep the reef went down. The goal was to have the current carry us into the mount. Anticipating great visibility again we would be able to spot on the ocean floor where the reef started and scooter over to that spot. Marty and Michele splashed first while Eric and I made our way down the boat to follow them. Mark and Drew went in immediately behind us.
As we descended through the great blue it was quickly discovered that in the chaos of splashing one of the safety divers had inadvertently passed the leash to Eric’s scooter through the shroud before clipping it to him. Eric, failing to notice this once making it in the water, quickly locked the scooter up tight upon engaging the throttle. I failed to notice any of this as I follow Eric down to depth. As we were descending Eric was trying to clear the jam along with maintaining the decent with his wing and dry suit. He was task loaded to say the least. We hit our planned depth of 120m and began to look for the reef line. This is when Eric signaled to me his issue with the scooter. 120m is no time to try to solve that problem do we just let it be. As we continue to scan for the reef line we realize that we can’t even see the bottom! Together we descended another 15m and it was then that the ocean floor came into site. It was a barren desert of sand. A vicious cross current had deposited us further east than we planned and we were completely off of the reef. With the ocean floor some 30m below us and our bottom time quickly evaporating we decide it’s time to cut our loses and head back up. This was a welcome to me as even in my dry suit, hood, and gloves I was COLD. My lips, the only exposed part of my body, was tingling and felt like I was getting stabbed by dozens of little needles.
As we work our way back through our first deco stops I signal to Eric that he should deploy his SMB and then I would follow in kind. This is when we got to find out about the 4 knot current we were in. Eric lets go of his bag for it to pretty much start heading out more horizontal than vertical. He looks at me considerable nervous as he is watching line getting thinner and thinner. Eric later described what happened next as fighting a marlin. As I drift with him he continued to struggle to take in the slack from the line. We have now worked our way up to 30m of depth and the SMB can be clearly seen at the surface, but it certainly isn’t overhead. That’s when the reel was ripped from Eric’s hands and it starts drifting away. I take off after it with the scooter as this is our only signal to the boat that we have started deco and giving them our current location. Visibility is excellent and I am able to keep Eric in sight during this time. I use the scooter to help take some of the slack from the line before returning the reel to Eric. I deployed my SMB immediately after that to let the boat know we were both okay. Once our deco stops started getting a little longer Eric and I pulled the prop off of his scooter and cleared the leash out. This was to our great enjoyment as scooter races could commence! It was then that Kristin, John, and Kate showed up to liberate us of our deep mixes. I gladly handed them over everything but my shallow mix and gave Kate my scooter. I was done with it for a while. When John went over to Eric, Eric jerked his scooter away like a toddler that doesn’t want to share their toy! It was hilarious. As he says “no one touches my scooter”. It still makes me smile thinking about it!
When we cleared deco Eric and I surfaced and were quickly up the ladder and back on the boat. Apparently we toughed it out the longest as everyone else was already out of their gear and the PBR was flowing freely! As DM Jay is helping us to our seats we quickly plop down in our seats. I usually stay on the loop as I unclip my reels and other accessories from my harness. Eric doesn’t usually buy into my madness of this act. As soon as the DSV leaves his mouth, Kate materializes out of nowhere with PBR in hand. “Beer?” she asked Eric. We all apparently follow the common thought that beer assist with decompression and helps get rid of the bubbles! Eric seats there completely geared up and chugs this beer. This is the part of technical diving you won’t find in a book. Your instructor certainly won’t tell you about it. It isn’t until you start getting invited out on these expeditions that you find out these things occur. It brought back memories of my first tech expedition were multiple blenders and a decent portion of a liquor store was brought along for the 5 day trip. When I questioned the multiple blenders I was told “Every good diver knows you need redundancy”.
It was around this time Marty finds his way over to me and says “please tell me you got some decent footage”. I frowned and gave him a brief overview of our dive. He sighs heavily and tells me that they encountered the same issue. This trip was a bust for footage from the depths. Kristin was able to get several glamour shots for us on deco and topside for profile pics. That alone was worth the price of admission! It took us a minute to realize that the boat sure was going a lot slower than before… A quick word with the captain and he informs us that the vessel is experiencing some mechanical issues and that he is going to limp us back to the dock and that we should plan for a much longer ride back. This didn’t cause alarm for anyone as the beer was plentiful. It was then a storm materialized out of nowhere around the same time that the engine stalled. A quick call to SeaTow and we all gathered below the overhang to wait out of the rain. I won’t share the stories told, but needless to say we are a fairly close group now. Several hours later we are back at the dock and loading our gear back into our vehicles. While it was a shame that the fun had to come to an end, I was glad to sit in a padded and air conditioned seat. I nodded off to sleep as Eric drove us back to our coast to return home.
There are talks about heading back out for one more hoorah before the winds hit, but I’m out for this year. I wish the rest of the team luck if they try again this year, but I will be back for next year. Until then we will return back to more familiar sites and await another adventure. All pictures in this post are credited to Kristin Paterakis.