Free Diving underground - not the usual type

[Duncan Price]

OK. I am now reliably informed that the thirds rule was in place in the CDG in 1970 and contributed to the exact sequence of events (not blame, I'm not assigning blame, just working on timelines) surrounding the death of Paul Esser.

I need to go back further.

Paul Esser lost his life because he reeled in a line that he had not followed from the start believing it led to surface - it did not and he cut off his escape (see page 38 in Underwater Potholer).

The vast majority of cave diving fatalities have been as a result of diver error which is not an easy thing to explain to the loved ones of the disceased.  Certainly there have been medical conditions or cave collapses which have claimed a handful of lives but most cave divers die by their own hand.

 

[graham]

Duncan, yes, I agree but that was not what I meant. I'll discuss it with you next time I see you.

 

[graham]

This thread has now deviated way off topic, but if anybody has anything else to add about the free-divers I'd still like to hear it. Thank you.

On the thirds rule, thanks to some useful answers to my questions from Dave Savage & Bob Churcher, I can pretty well tie down its introduction in the UK to around 1968/9. This would be very close in time to when people like John Parker started using twin sidemount setups but almost certainly before that happened. In 1966/7, it was not an acknowledged rule, but by 1970 it was 'gospel'.

I suspect that a trawl through the editorials of the CDG N/L for those years would pin it down even further, but the set that I have access to is about 700 miles away at present.

I'll also ask Martyn Farr how he interprets it now as his diving career effectively spans the whole period.

And as Duncan notes, I am aware that there are enormous technical subtleties in all this as diving technology has evolved over the years, such that a simple rule can require different interpretation in different situations.

 

[Andy Sparrow]

Morning all

Has anybody heard of NoTanx Apnea? I gather that they are a bunch of free-divers (as in down and up without air, not through sumps) and that they have been "freediving in chambers and underground lakes" in the UK. I'd like to know whether anyone has any knowledge of them & what they've been doing.

Thanks

Might be the guys I met on the Green the other day, about to set off down Swildon's to free dive sump 3.  There was 7 or 8 of them, a fit looking bunch of chaps and girls, and they said their big thing was free diving. 

 

[martinr]

Link copied from NoTanx facebook group:

youtu.be/jxbbcBkoxec

https://youtu.be/jxbbcBkoxec

nb video published 2013

 

[martinr]

Wales Caving the NoTanx Way, Jul 2014

https://youtu.be/5Ge0Ze7n-Sc

 

[martinr]

NoTanx : Phreatic Divers (Jan 2015)

http://youtu.be/VXnr0ASciYk

 

[graham]

Thanks Martin & Andy. Useful stuff.

 

[martinr]

Might be the guys I met on the Green the other day, about to set off down Swildon's to free dive sump 3.  There was 7 or 8 of them, a fit looking bunch of chaps and girls, and they said their big thing was free diving.

There's a recent photo on the NoTanxs FB group, might be the same group?

 

[Gollum]

I took them into Peak Cavern the other year to look at some future venues. They were coming back to film but it didn't workout.

 

[alasdair neill]

Did come across someone who was considering free diving a certain deep lake in a Devon cave. Hasn't done it yet & is still very much alive.

 

[Pete K]

I did some SRT training with them a year or so back now. Keep bumping into them diving in Rhiwbach now. Glad to see they are still exploring.