My Farrworld C&OE course last weekend

[ardhill]

Originally Posted by Sixsquid

The cavern/cave diving grabbed me the moment I saw anything on it.

Same with me.

I keep thinking of doing Martyn's course but not gotten around to it as yet - other things keep getting my time and money.

Your Report makes me want to go even more, it sounds great!

[Letz]

Originally Posted by ardhill

Your Report makes me want to go even more, it sounds great!

and that makes it worthwhile, thanks

[deeptechgnome]

hi all I was on the course with sixsquid and make her right it was a great course martyn is a great instructor all going well I hope to be doing my intro dive with martyn in december as a birthday present to myself

[Letz]

Originally Posted by deeptechgnome

hi all I was on the course with sixsquid and make her right it was a great course martyn is a great instructor all going well I hope to be doing my intro dive with martyn in december as a birthday present to myself

Best kind of birthday presents

I couldn't remember Nick's YD handle, well it is a mouthful and would like to thank him publicly, for being a great buddy, and his girlfriend Emma for all her input and assistance

It was actually great that deeptechgnome (I think that's gonna have to become dtg..... or Shrek ) and I clicked well as a buddy pair, not that I saw much of him in the mine ha ha

When we did the river dive on Saturday we had no problem understanding each other's communications and connected quite well for, effectively, 2 complete strangers. Ok, we had quaffed a few beers together the night before

We weren't that good at signalling in the mine and on the 'lights out' drill I didn't feel any tug on my fin from Nick, but then he managed to keep himself from being 'fin scrambled' I can understand why a lot of UK cave diving is solo.

Martyn made a rather amusing comment regarding our buddy diving in the dark. It was something like "the lights out drill went without incident, which was a bit disappointing" LOL

I did ask and he said that there was usually a 'pile up' at the rail. So I guess dtg and I managed to 'dive in synch'

Cheers Deeptech

[Mike Phillipson]

Really enjoyed reading about it.. well done!.. green incoming

Did you have to reconfigure much of your kit, i.e. long hose on singles etc?

Mike

[Letz]

Originally Posted by Mike Kent

Really enjoyed reading about it.. well done!.. green incoming

Thanks

Did you have to reconfigure much of your kit, i.e. long hose on singles etc?

Mike

I had already configured my twinset regs with long hose on to a single cylinder set up and have been using snoopy loops for a variety of things a while now. I had also prepared stuff like knife on arm etc.

The only thing I had to adjust on the course was how I had my compass, due to dangling (even a little bit is a no no in caves/caverns) and snoopy loop my guage and inflation hose even closer to my body.

I have billy rings on my weight belt but I couldn't even use those. I had to carry my safety reel on a bungee secured over the top of my dry suit exhaust valve. Basically your arms end up with everything on them LOL

I need a second dry suit now. One without cuff rings, that has protected, reinforced bit, like knees, and possibly without cargo pckets. I also need to sort single cylinder diving with my wing as the BCD is a bit of a pain to entirely empty if you use it on the surface.

I also want to start working on kitting up for independant side slung twins

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by Sixsquid

I need a second dry suit now. One without cuff rings, that has protected, reinforced bit, like knees, and possibly without cargo pckets.

For the first couple of years I did all my cave diving in my DUI (compressed neoprene), but I got fed up with putting holes in it and having it mended at least twice a year ... I now use a membrane (Otter Brittanic) for cave diving and I'm very happy with it.

Ciao,
Peter

[AMW]

With cave diving it is a case of a suit to suit the site . I have two neoprene dry suits one an Othree rear entry that I use for resurgence flopping. An Otter extreme front entry with no pockets (streamlining) for sumps that are near the entrance or folds up into a tackle bag to carry it. I have a two piece semi dry that I can cave in for longer caving trips. For short multiple sump caves I have a warmbac one piece caving wetsuit. With caving most suits have about a two to three year life although the Othree is going well at five years (mind you resurgence flopping is easy on suits ).

It is a case of using a suit that will do the job when you get to the sump and in the UK that means caving 98% of the time. So you need to decide what will do the job.

Andrew.

[Letz]

Lots of useful dry suit info, thanks guys

Originally Posted by AMW

It is a case of using a suit that will do the job when you get to the sump and in the UK that means caving 98% of the time.

I think I'll start by trying to find that other 2%

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by AMW

With cave diving it is a case of a suit to suit the site . So you need to decide what will do the job.

Andrew.

I'm still working up the courage to dive in my 5mm in a UK cave ....

Originally Posted by Sixsquid

I think I'll start by trying to find that other 2%

Good call ;-)