Lamar Hires

Open water certified in 1979, Lamar and a friend began driving from their home in Jacksonville to north central Florida to explore the springs (and look for girls). Without proper training or equipment, they began diving Peacock Springs, Little River Springs and any spring they could find in Ned Deloach’s “Underwater Guide to Florida”. Too poor to think about paying an instructor, Lamar and his dive buddy stopped for air fills at Aquifer Dive Center in Jacksonville one afternoon. There they met an instructor named, Wes Skiles, who topped off their tanks and asked them where they were going.

“We were too nieve to know any better. We told Wes we were diving Peacock and he immediately became worried," Lamar explains, "he said we had to get training and we shrugged him off. We didn’t have money for training. Then he tried to give us a copy of Sheck Exley’s "Blueprint for Survival". I shrugged that off, too. I didn’t have the $4 to pay for the book.”

Instead, Wes gave them Sheck’s guidebook and as Lamar began reading it he realized they HAD to get cave trained. They returned a few weeks later and Wes not only certified Lamar, but also gained a newfound dive partner. Lamar and his buddy continued checking out all the springs in the guidebook hoping to find something that had been overlooked. They had heard about Rock Bluff and when they discovered it was walled out at a tight restriction, they began digging. Lamar brought Wes back and together they surveyed the system and pushed it another 1400 feet.

Lamar went on to become a modern day explorer and dive pioneer. He has spent over twenty five years exploring and surveying the extensive underwater cave systems near his home in north central Florida. A legend among Florida cave divers, Lamar is known for his expertise in sidemount diving. He developed the very first training guidelines for sidemounting and has taught many of today's well-known sidemount divers.

Underwater exploration, education and conservation are a passion that has led Lamar all over the world. He has mapped and explored cave systems from the rugged mountains of Japan to the remote jungles of the Dominican Republic. Not a stranger to the ocean, Lamar's curiosity for exploration has taken him to the rarely dived icy waters of the Antarctic as well as countless wreck dives off the coasts of Florida and the eastern United States.

When Lamar began diving in 1979, exploration-quality dive equipment was not commercially available. At that time, technical divers made their own gear, fashioning backplates out of metal stop signs and sealing flashlights in plastic bags. In 1984, Lamar joined a start-up dive equipment company called "Dive Rite" and there he helped bring to market the first buoyancy compensator for double tanks known as the "Classic Wing." Dive Rite also mass produced the first metal backplate and invented the "Bridge," which was the industry's first user programmable Nitrox- dive computer. In 1997, Lamar bought Dive Rite and has grown the company into a worldwide dive manufacturer with distribution in over forty-five countries. Today, Lamar continues as CEO, product development guru and top dive guy; leading a company of dedicated divers who share Lamar's passion for developing state-of-the-art dive gear for fellow divers.

Affiliations & Awards

IANTD Board of Advisors (current)

National Speleological Society, Chairman (1992-1994)

National Speleological Society, Training Chairman (1987-1992)

International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery (IUCRR) Training Coordinator (current)

National Speleological Society, Lifetime Fellow Award

Florida Springs Exploration Award, 2000

Contributing writer for Advanced Diver Magazine, Divers Magazine, Scuba Times and Sport Diver Magazine

Contributing author NSS-CDS Cave Diving Manual and IANTD Technical Divers Encyclopedia

Instructor: IANTD, NSS-CDS, SDI, TDI

Systems Mapped

1982 Rock Bluff, Florida

1984 Devil’s Ear, Florida

1985 Siphon Creek Rise Spring, Florida

1985 Bonnet Springs, Florida

1986 Little River, Florida

1986 Section 26, Alabama

1986 Cow Springs, Florida

1989 Suwanacoochee/Edwards, Florida

1989 Telford/Luraville Springs, Florida

1990 Silver Glen, Florida

1994 Blue Springs, Tennessee

1995 Akka, Shigawatari, Ryusendo Caves, Japan

2000 Unnamed sinkholes, Dominican Republic

2007 Rose Sink (on-going)

Ordinskaya Cave, Russia

Lamar and his son venture to the Russian outback to do some training and enjoy a little adventure during their annual summer vacation. Icy waters, a steep entrance and late night dinners made the trip all the more alluring. Divers are welcome to join Lamar next year, if you dare! Click the title to read the full story.

Return to Azure Blue

After twenty years Lamar Hires and Wes Skiles return to Azure Blue, an incredible cave that is off the beaten path. Click the title to read the full story.

Broken Line at Bluebird Spring

During an attempt to connect two cave systems a team of three experienced cave divers became trapped. As they discussed who might come to their rescue they realized that the most qualified rescuers were themselves. Click the title to read the full story.