UBSS!

They the oldest student club at 100 years this year. They had a few year of struggling to attract people but have tryed super hard and now seem to have attracted a few and our back on the rise but they also had to replaced lots of kit this year and retire lots of rope witch they hasn't  been replaced as it was top priority. And being the oldest student club is pretty impressive......

Plymouth (A&E)!

They really need some decent SRT gear and have super keen members! When I was helping at SCHECC last year they had the biggest turnout to the training but were desperately short on equipment which was really limiting their ability to teach, practice, and go on trips. I'm sure they'd appreciate the help!

(I'm not representing my club here btw, I'm just chipping in, I don't know how that works...)

200m rope collected by Imperil this weekend 

CHECC Clubs, you just need to win it now 

Hi, I would like to nominate DUSA, Durham University Speleological Association.

The club is fairly small; their funding is very limited. They could really do with 200m of rope, let me explain why I feel they deserve it.

Although the club is run by students and primarily for students, they do allow non students to become members. I was fortunate to discover this fact and so joined around 2 months ago.

As a 48yr old newbie to caving and the only non-student member this year, the club invited me with open arms. They allowed me to come on not just one, but two, Fresher?s trips. They even went out of their way to pick me up from my home in Darlington, rather than have me travel North to Durham, then South again to make our way into Yorkshire. My first trip came at no charge as it was included in the membership fee, the second for a very small fee to help with travel and kit costs. This introduced me to the cave environment and provided me with an experience of two very different cave systems.

Since the fresher trips, they have allowed me to attend 3 SRT training sessions, which have been held on a weekly basis and takes place on a local metal bridge in the woods. This has given me and introductory SRT experience and an opportunity to face fears and gain confidence. All of this has been provided at no cost to their members or myself, with future sessions allowing members to further practice and develop rope skills. Further to these sessions, they have allowed me to come with them on a residential weekend at the Yorkshire Subterranean Society's bunk house, with bespoke training wall, giving attendees and myself a full day of 1:1 training, then took us the next day on a trip down to the bottom of Sell Gill Hole (Dry route) and back up again, all for a small token fee to contribute to food, fuel and accommodation at the YSS.

The students that run the club are both dedicated and passionate, they have given me what I consider to be an experience of a lifetime, something I always wanted to try, but never had the funds, opportunity or belief that it would or could be something I would ever get the chance to do. I have been most impressed by their professional attitude, inclusive approach and resourcefulness to create the maximum opportunity with a minimal budget. They have encouraged and inspired me, shown great patience whilst helping me to face a great fear of heights and given me an opportunity to continue with a lifelong interest which probably would have gone no further than attending a couple of fresher trips.

I really feel that they deserve this opportunity for new rope as a reward for what they have done for me and others, as well as generally promoting caving in a safe, responsible and inclusive manner. It would allow them to continue to offer more bridge training sessions and take larger groups on underground trips, whilst the use what available funds they have to replace and purchase other much needed equipment. I do hope you will give them serious consideration; it would be well deserved.


 

A reminder - there's 2 x 100m rope jointly donated by Spanset and ukcaving for the winner of this competition.

As CHECC is this weekend, CHECC Clubs - you'd best get writing 

Good luck.

Clube de Espeleologia Manduri.

Clube Brasileiro, localizado no interior do estado de S?o paulo, no munic?pio de Iporanga (PETAR). clube com numero reduzido de membro e a grande maioria jovens...
o clube tenta incentivar ao m?ximo as pessoas a praticarem espeleologia promovendo a conhecimentos espeleol?gico pela regi?o. temos cavernas verticais descobertas mas n?o exploradas pela falta de equipamento e atividades em processo que tamb?m sofrem pela
falta de equipamento...
o incentivo da ukcaving seria muito bem vindo e de bom uso pelo clube...

Hi Dudu, am I reading that right?  Caves not yet explored due to lack of equipment 

Dudu Oliveira said:

Clube de Espeleologia Manduri.

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These guys deserve a prize, if only for sheer brass neck!  Not to mention the unexplored caves....
However, the postage on 200m of rope to Brazil may be a tad dear.

Here's an idea.  Set up a "Just Giving" page, and the three people who donate the most money get to have a new cave, or chamber named after them.

And for Dudu:
"Aqui est? uma ideia. Crie uma p?gina "Just Giving" e as tr?s pessoas que doam mais dinheiro ter?o uma nova caverna ou c?mara com o nome deles."

BUSS!!

Birmingham have only had a caving club for the past 2 years. They?re all very new to caving and have very little to no kit.

Would be awesome to give them something more to help them in their early days of the  club!

Plymouth Adventure and Expo!

We?ve had a really strong interest in caving this year with lots of keen freshers. So far, we?ve had over 45 members cave with us on trips to local Devon caves, the Mendips and the Brecon Beacons. Many of our members are keen to do more advanced trips involving SRT, however we haven?t currently got the kit to be able to do such trips. We?ve recently had to retire 2 of our ropes with 1 being core shot and the other with sheath damage and there?s a lack funding from the club to go towards new caving gear. The new rope would be much appreciated as it would allow us to start teaching SRT to our members and give them the opportunity to go on more advanced trips further afield and put those skills into practice.

SUSS should get it because all the club's rope has somehow ended up being between 20-33m and I'm sick of doing 4 knot passes to get down Titan.

Graeme_F said:

Hi, I would like to nominate DUSA, Durham University Speleological Association.
.....

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For some reason I can't add a 'like'

Well done Graeme for doing getting involved, especially well done DUSA for making Graeme so welcome. This really shows everyone what a caving club and cavers are like.

Thanks, I cannot sing thier praises highly enough, they work tirelessly every week, constantly organising, driving, hosting and kit cleaning, all without recognition or reward, to create opportunities for everyone to learn and practice during the week and gain experience at the weekend. I have since commited to give my help when I can, to help them continue to do what they do.

I nominate Cardiff University Caving Club.

Our club went to Yorkshire for an SRT week last year and we discovered two things. First, that doing SRT in Yorkshire is a lot of fun. We went to Alum Pot, which really impressed everyone, as well as many other SRT caves. This is why we really want to repeat the trip this year. We also want to bring along as many other southern clubs as we can, since most of us don't get to do that many SRT caves.

However, the second thing we discovered was that all of our ropes are quite old. This means that, if we want to repeat the trip, we will have to replace most of them, especially if we will be lending them to other clubs. This is why we could really make a good use of 200m of shinny new rope!