ABOUT SURVEY DOWN

Hi, my name is Rory O'Keefe, I am an underwater cave cartographer, explorer, and the creator of Survey Down.

In July 2020, I finished mapping my first major cave exploration project, Sistema Exploradora. We had spent 18 months repeatedly hiking 12 bags of gear in and out of the jungle to dive the same cave, over and over again. It was immense fun, but a lot of work.

At this point in my life, I had mapped many sections of caves, but never a full system, and I had never reached a point where a map was ready to be printed. This time, I was ready to publish something, and I will never forget the day that I picked up my first set of prints - they were terrible! The printer had handed them to me in a crumpled roll, covered in cat hair, and I kid you not, a dried booger was stuck to the first map. To this day, I am still speechless.

Something had to be done. First, I found a new print shop, obviously, but second, the whole ordeal made me realize how much my work meant to me. It made me want to publish my maps - but where?

Survey Down is a place for cave cartographers to publish their maps, and to share their art.

-Rory O’Keefe

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