At that moment Beauregard knew he was onto something big. That morning he made the first dive of his career into the fecal lagoon, and two weeks later he achieved instructor status and acquired permits to open Fecal Lagoon to public diving.
“We dove as deep as we could on air, but needed more,” Beauregard explained. “And it all came together when we hired the Mexican fellas to work the farm.”
Unbeknownst to Beauregard, the migrant workers had placed their Porta John in close contact to the intake valve of his air compressor, the results were immediate.“I’ll tell you what,” Beauregard said, “The air comin outta that thing smelled like a Tijuanna outhouse, but we used it anyway. And I’ll tell you what, that day I made it to 350 feet.”
It was unbelievable, like magic, divers from Bubba’s Dive Team kept going deeper and deeper, ignoring the rational physics that had limited them, and they were making it back.
Beauregard claims that members of his dive team have gone as deep as 700’ on the new mixture with no ill effects (other than perhaps bad breath). When we asked him about decompression, he gave us a confused look and changed the subject.
The methox bandwagon is now in full swing in south Florida. Beauregard has even gained the blessing of the PNDN (Pay Now Dive Now) certification agency to begin teaching classes in methox. When Advanced Diver reached Joe Profit, head of the PNDN, he sang the praises of methox. “It’s unbelievable,” he said, “It will change technical diving as we know it.”
Not everyone is sold on methox. At a recent technical diving conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl, the head of a major certification agency spoke out on the dangers of the new gas, calling it “Fart Oil,” and “A real danger to the already suspect oral hygiene of the technical diving community.” And while we must keep a watchful eye on any new breathing mixture, it is hard to argue with the results.
Profit sees methox as a marketing giant waiting to erupt, already in the works are methox t-shirts, methox specific tanks, and most recently, engineers for the PNDN have been laying plans for a methox rebreather. A simple concept that works off the diver’s own natural gas supply. Bottom times may vary depending on what the diver ate the night before.
ADM's dive team did not get to dive the Fecal Lagoon on our visit, unfortunately each of us got violently ill our first day there, but Beauregard assures us that it will pass in time. We are all very excited to dive the new gas and hopefully explore the outer reaches of Fecal Lagoon |