cheap dry caving gear

[hyweldavies]

Basic kit isn't too bad. If you're doing dry (ish) caves then you can get away with old clothes for a trip or two, but a boiler suit of some sort is very desirable else you'll end up with a bare midrif and get cold and scraped.

So going a bit beyond old clothes, I'd get a cordura or similar purpose designed caving oversuit (boilersuit) for medium dry caves, or a PCV suit such as Meander for wet caves. Cost between £50 and £100 depending on quality and deals. Old fleeces / jumpers underneath would do, but an all-in one caving fleece is better. Don't wear a diving thinsulate or Xethorm or you will die of heat-exhaustion. Wellies - I like heavy duty ones with toe-caps, but any wellies will do. Grip is important, but it's hard to tell if they are going to be grippy or not before purchase. The standard Uniroyal grey soled industrial wellies sold in caving shops are not great in this respect unfortunately, but it's hard to guarantee any better elsewhere. Most cavers wear wetsuti socks underneath to avoid cold feet.

Light - a proper modern caving LED is going to be best part of £200. Worth it, but you can make do with a Petzle Myo XP or similar for around £50, at least for a bit, and it'll serve as a backup, and be generally handy for everyday use.

Gloves - cheap industrial. Even if you don't get cold hands and are hardy, they do save a fall from becoming an injury. I like the yellow knitted ones with criss-cross grippy stuff. Couple of quid from B&Q, 99p from an industrail supply.

Helmet - a lightweight climbing helmet £30-£50.

Kneepads - in my humble opinion the only kneepads worht having are the £20+ ones with a special rubbery coating (usually yellow) on top of neoprene. These last for ages. I would not bother with any strap on velcro stuff. Any non coated ordinary neoprene ones will last about 5 minutes. As well as knee protection this holds your suit up to prevent it dragging, especially when wet. I wouldn't bother with elbow pads

Stick a survival bag in your hat, and perhaps a balaclava in your pocket and off you go (hopefully with someone else, rather than solo)

Other gear such as SRT (rope climbing stuff) is another story.

if you are near South Wales, then I can recommend my club South Wales Caving Club, South Wales Caving Club

Regarding shops - Bat Products in Wells, Caving Supplies in Buxton, Ingesport or Bernies or Daleswear in Ingleton Yorkshire.

Welles, gloves from your local emporium, Climbing helmet from climbing shop or from caving shops above - who'll also fit a lamp bracket or whatever to save you drilling your own holes.

Hywel

[rustferret]

I was into caving for many years before getting into diving and there is a really good caving shop in Buxton (lived there for years) but cant remember the name. I'll contact my sone and get the details. It's very good and make a lot of the gear them selfs.

Rustferret

[cgrosart]

Originally Posted by hyweldavies

Basic kit isn't too bad. If you're doing dry (ish) caves then you can get away with old clothes for a trip or two, but a boiler suit of some sort is very desirable else you'll end up with a bare midrif and get cold and scraped.

So going a bit beyond old clothes, I'd get a cordura or similar purpose designed caving oversuit (boilersuit) for medium dry caves, or a PCV suit such as Meander for wet caves. Cost between £50 and £100 depending on quality and deals. Old fleeces / jumpers underneath would do, but an all-in one caving fleece is better. Don't wear a diving thinsulate or Xethorm or you will die of heat-exhaustion. Wellies - I like heavy duty ones with toe-caps, but any wellies will do. Grip is important, but it's hard to tell if they are going to be grippy or not before purchase. The standard Uniroyal grey soled industrial wellies sold in caving shops are not great in this respect unfortunately, but it's hard to guarantee any better elsewhere. Most cavers wear wetsuti socks underneath to avoid cold feet.

Light - a proper modern caving LED is going to be best part of £200. Worth it, but you can make do with a Petzle Myo XP or similar for around £50, at least for a bit, and it'll serve as a backup, and be generally handy for everyday use.

Gloves - cheap industrial. Even if you don't get cold hands and are hardy, they do save a fall from becoming an injury. I like the yellow knitted ones with criss-cross grippy stuff. Couple of quid from B&Q, 99p from an industrail supply.

Helmet - a lightweight climbing helmet £30-£50.

Kneepads - in my humble opinion the only kneepads worht having are the £20+ ones with a special rubbery coating (usually yellow) on top of neoprene. These last for ages. I would not bother with any strap on velcro stuff. Any non coated ordinary neoprene ones will last about 5 minutes. As well as knee protection this holds your suit up to prevent it dragging, especially when wet. I wouldn't bother with elbow pads

Stick a survival bag in your hat, and perhaps a balaclava in your pocket and off you go (hopefully with someone else, rather than solo)

Other gear such as SRT (rope climbing stuff) is another story.

if you are near South Wales, then I can recommend my club South Wales Caving Club, South Wales Caving Club

Regarding shops - Bat Products in Wells, Caving Supplies in Buxton, Ingesport or Bernies or Daleswear in Ingleton Yorkshire.

Welles, gloves from your local emporium, Climbing helmet from climbing shop or from caving shops above - who'll also fit a lamp bracket or whatever to save you drilling your own holes.

Hywel

I'll think you'll find that the knee pads I was referring to are the neoprene ones with plastic yellow covering - but you can get them with neoprene loops which stretch and your knee pads will eventually keep slipping down...or you can buy the very same knee pads with velcro fastenings which will then custom fit you. And you can tighten them as and when you want.

[hyweldavies]

Cgrosart replied to my post...

"I'll think you'll find that the knee pads I was referring to are the neoprene ones with plastic yellow covering - but you can get them with neoprene loops which stretch and your knee pads will eventually keep slipping down...or you can buy the very same knee pads with velcro fastenings which will then custom fit you. And you can tighten them as and when you want"

Yes, those are the ones, but mine were one piece without the velcro. Mine didn't slide down, so I saw no need of the velcro. To be fair, I assumed the velcro would be a nuisance, but haven't tried it myself, at the risk of back-peddaling slightly

Hywel

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by hyweldavies

Yes, those are the ones, but mine were one piece without the velcro. Mine didn't slide down, so I saw no need of the velcro. To be fair, I assumed the velcro would be a nuisance, but haven't tried it myself, at the risk of back-peddaling slightly

Hywel

I have the velcro ones and they work fine: on a very grovelly muddy trip I sometimes have to adjust them, but it's not really a big deal