Cantclimbtom
Well-known member
No doubt advice to aspiring cave divers will be updated say you need excellence in frog kick, back kick, helicopter turns, ollies and drop ins 
On't scrounge for a skateboard
- Thread starter Pitlamp
- Start date
Pitlamp
Well-known member
Look at 'em all, laughing. Well I'm having the last laugh because this latest CDG innovation works a treat!
I promised to come clean once the skateboard had been tried, which took place this morning. It goes something like this. As many folk know Duncan Smith and I are on with the exploration at Austwick Beck Head. It's becoming quite a long cave now but mainly underwater. This means we're having to work out how to get in there with bigger tanks, along the 12 m long entrance crawl to the dive base.
We already have conveyor belt bolted down in the crawl and today I got myself and all the heavy equipment I was wearing in to the start of the diving almost effortlessly, by lying on the skateboard. (Think mechanic's trolley.) The grin, in Duncan's photograph of me below, says it all.
I'd like to thank Ed (on here) for supplying the skateboard and also Jack Dewison for the "caver post" delivery. Now Duncan's convinced I think he'd probably like a skateboard of his own. I'd also like to have at least one spare, because the plywood will spelch apart sooner or later with frequent soakings and the bearings on the wheels will not last for ever.
So . . . does anyone else have a redundant skateboard kicking about in the shed that grown up children no longer use? If so, these childish grown ups can find a very good home for it!
I promised to come clean once the skateboard had been tried, which took place this morning. It goes something like this. As many folk know Duncan Smith and I are on with the exploration at Austwick Beck Head. It's becoming quite a long cave now but mainly underwater. This means we're having to work out how to get in there with bigger tanks, along the 12 m long entrance crawl to the dive base.
We already have conveyor belt bolted down in the crawl and today I got myself and all the heavy equipment I was wearing in to the start of the diving almost effortlessly, by lying on the skateboard. (Think mechanic's trolley.) The grin, in Duncan's photograph of me below, says it all.
I'd like to thank Ed (on here) for supplying the skateboard and also Jack Dewison for the "caver post" delivery. Now Duncan's convinced I think he'd probably like a skateboard of his own. I'd also like to have at least one spare, because the plywood will spelch apart sooner or later with frequent soakings and the bearings on the wheels will not last for ever.
So . . . does anyone else have a redundant skateboard kicking about in the shed that grown up children no longer use? If so, these childish grown ups can find a very good home for it!
danthecavingman
Active member
Eh up! Any chance of an update on the exploration of this very interesting site please?
pwhole
Well-known member
I suspect without a level, fairly solid floor, it would be more trouble than it's worth. The most drag-tray-dependent dig I've worked on lately, which is cooleycr's outstanding effort (mostly digging solo), in the passage beyond Nixon's Aven in Peak Cavern, is now around 45m long, and involves pulling or pushing every drag tray back to the aven for dumping. It works mostly thanks to the numerous puddles, which lubricate and provide a bit of buoyancy to the trays as they ride over the hollows in a solid phreatic rock floor. I think the trucks on a skateboard would just collapse under the strain, especially with 30kg on top. Last time I was there I managed to get a 'mule train' load of three trays all the way to the end to save time, but it half-killed me.
The best spoil-disposal system I've seen was posted on here years ago, with an aerial ropeway running out of the cave. I hope to at least attempt something along those lines on a long-term project soon, but it certainly won't be going around corners!
The best spoil-disposal system I've seen was posted on here years ago, with an aerial ropeway running out of the cave. I hope to at least attempt something along those lines on a long-term project soon, but it certainly won't be going around corners!
Pitlamp
Well-known member
The late, great Mr. P. B. Smith installed a monorail in the TSG's Dowel Dale Side Pot dig. Spoil containers were brought up suspended from diabolo wheels, via many corners, vertical and horizontal sections and slopes. (Without checking directly I think there may be a description of this system in one of the TSG Journals.)
Pitlamp
Well-known member
Sure; two branches; the one heading up dale currently ends at 410 m on the brink of a pot. The other heads west and currently ends at 262 m from base. Total length of the cave is now exactly 600 m, almost all of which is underwater. The storms on 12th May screwed the vis though; so we're currently playing the waiting game again.
Bob Cromer
Member
Pitlamp, I took some stuff to my local (Wrexham) reuse shop at the recycling centre last week and noticed they had about half a dozen there, so probably worth trying yours , if you don't have any luck I'm sure I can grab a couple and get them up to the Dales,
pwhole
Well-known member
Many of the old cheapo skateboards used to be made from polyprop rather than ply - certainly the one I started out on was, but that was 1977, so who knows how it would fare now? Mind you...
https://tinyurl.com/2mzyec85
I can't believe how many original 70s boards are up there for big money. I used to drool over most of those then and I still couldn't afford one now!
https://tinyurl.com/2mzyec85
I can't believe how many original 70s boards are up there for big money. I used to drool over most of those then and I still couldn't afford one now!
Pitlamp
Well-known member
That's kind of you to offer Bob; thanks.
I don't think we have such a place out here in the sticks, so if you could grab a couple next time you happen to be there it'd be appreciated. Let me know what I owe you (maybe send a PM?) Be good if you could select the ones that look sturdiest.
danthecavingman
Active member
Although this is wandering off-topic, is the resurgence at Blind Beck (roughly due east) anything to do with the drainage off that side of Ingleborough. Is there a hydrological connection with Austwick Beck Head?
Pitlamp
Well-known member
Short answer - it's very likely. Tony Waltham was the first (I think) to point out that water from the Nick Pot area probably drained along the Sulber fault to Horton before Crummackdale was deepended by the most recent (Devensian) ice advance, which then allowed ABH to form, capturing the Allotment drainage. But he also proposed that overflow to Blind Beck Cave (which is very close to the Sulber Fault) probably still occurs. To my knowledge this has never been successfully tested but it seems entirely possible, as the north easterly regional dip would favour drainage that way. If so, it's potentially an important part of any Trans Craven Cave System which may be all joined up one day.
Where the Sulber fault crosses the steeply descending hillside just south of BBC there may be a truncated / hidden older passage emerging, very much in the fashion of the (originally concealed) Kingsdale Valley Entrance.
The geology referred to above is faily clear in the Google Earth image, so it's perhaps worth a glance at that. You can see how close BBC is to the Sulber Fault.
Does the above help? If you'd like further information maybe PM me. bacuse we're kind of drifting away from the main topic (sorry readers!)
Where the Sulber fault crosses the steeply descending hillside just south of BBC there may be a truncated / hidden older passage emerging, very much in the fashion of the (originally concealed) Kingsdale Valley Entrance.
The geology referred to above is faily clear in the Google Earth image, so it's perhaps worth a glance at that. You can see how close BBC is to the Sulber Fault.
Does the above help? If you'd like further information maybe PM me. bacuse we're kind of drifting away from the main topic (sorry readers!)
Pitlamp
Well-known member
Back to skateboards; does anyone know where I can get some dense foam pads, say 35 mm thick? The chest inflator on the drysuit digs in when riding the board, so I want to stick some dense foam along it with a recess to accommodate said inflator. Might as well be comfy . . . . ;-)
JoshW
Well-known member
Something like buoyancy aid foam? Contact some outdoor centres to see if theyāre getting rid of any that are out of date?
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