CDG

[GaryRE]

Hi Pete,

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by GaryRE

Hi Pete,

ahhh .... a sighting of that rare species ... a shy Red Rose member .... chuckle

[GaryRE]

Hi Pete,

Sorry about the reply yesterday, couldn,t see my girlfriends laptop & sent a bit prematurely so to speak. Can,t make the AGM but would like to meet up for a natter to see if cave divings gonna be my thing, (got this thing about the entrance at the bottom of Malham Cove)
Picked up on cave diving at a Red Rose dinner years ago when Ian Watson did a talk & read up on the rescue from Sleets Gill, very interesting.

Look forward to meeting up with you all soon

Regards

Gary (I,m not that shy just can,t see)

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by GaryRE

Hi Pete,

Sorry about the reply yesterday, couldn,t see my girlfriends laptop & sent a bit prematurely so to speak. Can,t make the AGM but would like to meet up for a natter to see if cave divings gonna be my thing, (got this thing about the entrance at the bottom of Malham Cove)
Picked up on cave diving at a Red Rose dinner years ago when Ian Watson did a talk & read up on the rescue from Sleets Gill, very interesting.

Look forward to meeting up with you all soon

Regards

Gary (I,m not that shy just can,t see)

Gary,

Would love to hook up and chat. Just for the record, i never encourage anybody to cave dive ... once it is clear that someone really wants to do it I'm happy to discuss and help if i can. I've never dived Malham Cove, so i can't comment, but there are probably better sites to start off with.

Anyway, i pm'ed you my email address as it's the best way to reach me, but i'll be on holiday next week. Email me and we can have a chat over the phone. Hopefully then we can hook up and get underground together and discuss where to go from here.

Take care.

Ciao,
Peter

[peterdevlin]

Originally Posted by GaryRE

Cold water not a problem, want to explore some of the systems previously beyond my experience, next question is the costs involved as I,m only kitted out for open water diving

... so how long is a piece of string?

initially you probably only need
a) a harness (various varieties, Martyn Farr, second hand dragon, warmbac too i think), typically around £100 new, less second hand
b) bottles: the workhorse of UK cave diving is the 7ltr steel 232bar ... these can probably be borrowed

I'm assuming you have regs (although you'll typically want a left and a right reg ... or 2 unhanded such as the poseidon cyclon) and most other things we need, although it may need tailoring ... we can hook up and talk thru my gear. In the meantime check out Duncan's website sump4.com/home

Once you get started it becomes an endless choice of what you want to do, and how much money you have ... most uk cave divers end up with a range of bottles from 2s to 15s or better for diving wet or dry ...

Ciao,
Peter

[GaryRE]

Took a look at Duncan,s site, a lot of good information.

My cold water regs are the usual Apeks ATX50/40, also a set of Seac Sub sorius warm water & an Oceanic Alpha 7 on my pony. Nothing left handed though.

Got a 12lt dumpy, a 12lt tall a 3lt pony

Aquion pro membrane drysuit

Old buddy commando bc & seac sub pro3000 bc

Wil have to buy, beg, steal or borrow the rest !

Gary

[cgrosart]

Gary, if you can, look at the CDG website and get yourself the new manual. That will give you something to chew over before you get going. It will be money well spent and even if you don't end up taking it up, it will still give you good pointers for diving and caving in general.

Warmbac

Home


These are your first stop for harnesses. Phone Kermit (Rich Warman) at Warmbac about 7 l cylinders - he occasionally gets them in. A pair of 232 bar 7s is all you should need to start out though try to collect some 3l if you can. A 12 litre dumpy may not be much use to you - longer cylinders tend to be easier to sidemount. It's personal choice, but I tend not to use 300 bar anything as the little extra gas isn't worth the extra weight when you have to carry cylinders underground. But it's personal choice. Multi- handed regs are most helpful and give you numerous options if you experience a failure.

[GaryRE]

Will do !!! ta

[GaryRE]

Do I need to convert to DIN ?

[cgrosart]

Din is the standard for cave diving. I don't know of many people who use A-clamp any more. It is one less failure point and A-clamp is considered a bit too fragile. Assume your kit is going to take a hoofing and take all steps to arrange it so that it is less likely to fail or be beyond repair.