Overhead Environment/Cavern Course with Martyn Farr

Tuesday morning and I pitch up at Martyns front door in South Wales for the TDI Overhead Environment Foundation/Cavern Course. I was joined by Rob, an amiable Trimix Certified Banker from London.

Martyn takes a refreshingly informal approach to teaching and for this reason captures your attention without the need for masses of slides and OHP's. After a quick slide show and introductory lecture the rest of the course was hands on.

The course has been specifically tailored to diving in UK style environments and Martyn is keen to point out differences in the kit required here as opposed to that suitable for warmer climes. For example, cute little reels with thin technical line (as sold by every diving retailer in the UK) are a menace in the UK where viz can be zero and hands are numb. Martyn introduced reels "A La Farr" - much larger with thicker line which was tagged every 10m in a way that could be felt by numb hands wearing thick mitts and also indicated the way out.

After a few minor tweaks to our kit we were off to the swimming pool (with the cover left on to keep the light out - clever) practicing line laying, blackout drills and air sharing prior to the dives on day 2.

Martyn used Dinas Quartzite Mine as a venue for the practical day. This Victorian mine that stopped production in the 1960's is about 600 metres from the road and about 40m above it so to save wear and tear on our backs we did a double load carry.

The water starts 80m walk into the mine and is crystal clear. After the dive brief we set off on our first dive, following a fixed line for about 50m. The layout of the mine is such that there are open water windows every 20m or so and the fixed line actually rises up to a higher level so that it is directly under an open air space.

On the next dive, Rob set off laying line as he went. About 30 metres later he signalled that he had reached "Thirds". We left the line in-situ and headed back to dive base.

After another dive brief and recalculation of thirds, me and Martyn were off again, back to the reel & further into the tunnel system. By this time the biting cold was starting to numb my hands and I was glad of the thick 5mm line we were using. Martyn's comments the previous day on the uselessness of thin line in the Uk were ringing very, very true. We reached our planned turn-point and I started to reel the line back in.

Problem...the split pin holding the spool onto the reel handle had disappeared and the reel was falling apart. At the time, I wondered if this was an intentional part of the course (later I was assured not). Whatever, I got the line back onto the reel in a fashion and surfaced a couple of minutes later.

Just enough air and digital dexterity left for one last dive. Martyn suggested a blackout drill but made it clear that this was not a required part of the sylabus but we could do it if we so wished. In for a penny in for £320 I decided to get my monies worth and off we went, retracing the route of our first dive to the first open water window. Here we switched our torches off and followed the line back to base in complete darkness. At one point, the line is caught under a railway track and does not form a perfectly clear route to open water. Not to worry, after feeling around for about 10 seconds I found the line and continued. Then my fin got caught in the line but after a few moments I was free again and rose gently to the surface.

During the dives, Martyn hung in the water above us and left us to deal with whatever problems occured (self dismantling reels, entangled fins, lost lines et al). Because of this I learnt 1000 times more through dealing with things myself rather than having the instructor being too keen to help out. To start with there were a few times where I wondered where he was but as I became more accustomed to the environment I realised that there was an orange light imprinted on top of the blue light from my LED torches and that he was watching my every move like a hawk.

What next? I am off to the local chandlers to buy a load of thick line and makings of a suitable reel and need to find someone to gain further experience with.

I would recommend this course to anyone wishing to progress their Overhead skills in the UK. Excellent!

[beanie]

find a BT engineer and chat em up for there blue polyprop

[Spike Jackson]

Claire and I did a course with Maryn Farr at the beginning of the year and really enjoyed it. He is a great instructor and all round decent chap. It was quite an eye opener when we did a black out drill in the pool trying to find thin nylon line with gloved hands. I literally walked my hands right over the line (lying on the bottom) three times but never felt it.

[Phil Ennis]

Nice report Steve, sounds like you had a ball. Did I read it wrong or did you cram all that into one day?

Originally Posted by Phil Ennis

Nice report Steve, sounds like you had a ball. Did I read it wrong or did you cram all that into one day?

It's 2 day course (long days). Day 1 covers all the theory and a practical session in a swimming pool finishing off with some more theory (conveniently held in the pub) and we finished at about 10:30pm.

Day 2 is spent humping kit to and from the Dinas mine with as many dives as you have air for in between. I got 4 dives in with a total time of 74 minutes.

[narked at 90]

great report steave,i've been thinking of training for a few years in cave as i've done plenty of very cool dives in overhead.wrecks and stuff,but my most memerable dive has been inside a cave and think this is a path i may be wanting to explore.

cheers john routley

[ClaireDJ]

Originally Posted by narked at 90

my most memerable dive has been inside a cave and think this is a path i may be wanting to explore.

cheers john routley

Caves are great - Spike and I have done a full cave course and have never seen visibility like that! Gin clear....
Those mines in Wales are also great.
Loved Martyn Farr's course - we had only done back-mounted twin 12 cave dives so it was really good to learn the British system of side-mounted 7's.

By the way - humping 2 loads over that hill is better than humping one load but I still took strain!!!!

[NotDeadYet]

2 Loads? I need at least 3

The good thing is one kit run takes exactly the same amount of time for a kettle on a Trangia stove to boil. Light it as you leave, by the time you're back a brew is ready

The one thing that makes the carry easier is a walking pole. Really surprising the difference it makes when carrying a load, I always use one now, despite getting the p**s taken out of me (would happen regardless).

Apart from faffing around in Dorothea, I've only done 6 dives in open-water this year (4 of those weren't that good). Once you start there is no going back...

[Reeve]

I did the same course with Martyn back in March. Had a great time & have re-visited the silica mine a number of times mostly on my own.

This has been followed up with a number of caves and sumps in the Black Mountain and Abergavenney area. Now I've started I'm really enjoying my Thursday evening trips, and fortunately have found an equally enthusiastic local buddy for both wet and dry cave trips.

Spent last night at Pwll Dwfn surveying the sump to see if there's any merit in trying to have a dig of the boulder choke. A possible spring w/end messing about there.

Glad you enjoyed the course.

gareth

p.s you can do it in one trip easy, cylinders, harness, regs, reels etc in a rucksack and the rest in a bag on your chest.

[Spike Jackson]

Originally Posted by Reeve

I did the same course with Martyn back in March. Had a great time & have re-visited the silica mine a number of times mostly on my own.

This has been followed up with a number of caves and sumps in the Black Mountain and Abergavenney area. Now I've started I'm really enjoying my Thursday evening trips, and fortunately have found an equally enthusiastic local buddy for both wet and dry cave trips.

Spent last night at Pwll Dwfn surveying the sump to see if there's any merit in trying to have a dig of the boulder choke. A possible spring w/end messing about there.

Glad you enjoyed the course.

gareth

p.s you can do it in one trip easy, cylinders, harness, regs, reels etc in a rucksack and the rest in a bag on your chest.

Alright loudmouth - I saw a chap carry all his gear and twin twelves in one load! Then he came back to see if he could help us mere mortals....

Two loads for wussies like me....