Artur Kozlowski and I had a successful trip to Spain this August. Over a two week period we dived in Fou de Bor where we’d been previously and also looked at a site new to us – Molino near Matienzo.

Last year we passed the elbow of the sump at -80m and ended our line at -35m in a steeply ascending passage. Our final dive had been five hours and so we went well prepared for long deep dives. After a day of carrying kit we made our first dive, a short setup dive. We staged two Ali80’s of O2 at 6m and two 7ltr bottles of EANx30 and EANx38 at 33m and 40m respectively – about 380m from base.
On our second dive we were accompanied by Joel BV who wanted to do some filming. After the first 100m of passage we waved goodbye to our cameraman and headed off for the end of the line. I used my chestmounted rebreather, 12ltr of 10/55 and 12ltr of EANx33 and Artur used his Megalodon rebreather, Ali80 of 9/58 and Ali80 of EANx32. We got passed our deep point of 80m found last year with only a maximum depth of 78m. The visibility was much better and Artur reached the end of the line first at -35m and we followed the cave upto -12m completing deep stops on route. Here some horizontal passage was followed to -10m. After a short descent the cave headed up again and it looked like it might surface. My VR3 said we only had half an hour of stops - it looked like everything was going perfectly!. However just at this point a long gradual descent began. After 260m of new line the cave was back down at -44m and Artur finished his reel. I tied on my reel and ran out another 70m until -52m was reached and we called it a day. We ended up with a total dive time of four hours with 330m of new line laid.

After swapping kit around we headed back in for a second push dive – this time also taking an extra cylinder of TMx to be staged after the first deep section. We also felt we needed to do some survey work but combining this survey job with pushing was not ideal and where as previously the total time to surface once through the deep section had been half an hour the extra time taken with the survey meant this had already doubled before we’d even reached the end of the line. At 800m from base one of my PPo2 displays flooded and combined with the extra deco this was enough of an excuse to turn back. There was still survey work to be done in the deep section and if we split up we could both achieve an extension to the cave and the crucial survey. Artur therefore headed on till he reached our previous limit at -52m where a fresh reel was tied on. After a short shaft down to -65m two ways on could be seen – up an ascending canyon to the right or down a smaller passage to the left. Looking for depth Artur chose left and found himself at -96m shortly afterwards and in a massive chamber. He described the cave at this point as a massive collector and what looked like several passages coming in. Having now laid 140m of new line and bearing in mind he was now over 1km into the sump he called it a day. In total I ended up with a 5hour dive whilst Artur was in the water for over 6hours. The survey was completed upto 800m though the end of the line is now 1050m from base at -96m.

I make no apologies that this story is told from my perspective or is very narrow in its perception or scope, this is simply the story of my friendship and diving partnership with Artur. I’ve also put in links to Artur’s side of the story as I think it makes for interesting reading.

At Easter in 2008 I did my first cave diving in Ireland, in Fermanagh to be precise. Before I went I was conscious that there simply wasn’t anyone sump diving over there at the time. All the records of previous exploration were done by UK cave divers and members of the CDG and no one had done anything in Fermanagh since the 90’s. I figured Ireland had lots to offer and that with pretty much with no one else on the scene I’d have rich pickings for many years. The 2008 trip was really successful and I even came over to the SUICRO symposium that Autumn. At the symposium I listened to Artur talk about Polltoomery but I certainly didn’t think of him as a caver or someone who would be interested in the sort of diving I was doing.

To my surprise as Easter 2009 approached and we planned a return I began to get a few emails from him about Fermanagh. I wasn’t best pleased about this but at the same time I reasoned that as he was a ‘local’ I could hardly be precious or claim ownership of any sites. He made some advances in John Thomas and then turned his attention to Upper Cradle. We’d dived here previously (Simon Cornhill, Hilary Greaves and I) and unknown to us found new underwater passage whilst trying to reach the Monastir way. Artur carried on from the end of our line and surfaced in a new section of cave which he called the Northern Way. He showed his talents here, whilst we’d simply blundered into the sump laying line he followed his compass and knew he was going somewhere different. I was also impressed with his approach to diving these sites which seemed to throw accepted practice out of the window. The ‘traditional’ approach to this sort of site would be with a wetsuit and a pair of 7ltr bottles. A diver can effectively self-carry with this kit and have a 40-45minute dive before hitting thirds and getting too cold. Usually you would also wait for low water levels in the hope of getting good visibility. http://arturconrad.blogspot.com/2010/05/upper-cradle-hole-discovery-of-northern.html

Artur’s approach was very different. Due to owning different kit and finding it more awkward to transport cylinders from Fermanagh back to Dublin he preferred to take several much larger bottles. In fact for Upper Cradle he used 2 x 12lts and 1 x Ali80. He also didn’t own a thick cave diving wetsuit so all his exploration was done in his drysuit at this point. Finally waiting for good weather in Fermanagh is like waiting for Christmas in Hell so he assumed the visibility would be terrible and preferred to use the strong water flow to find the source of the continuing cave. Rather than see the way on, he’d feel it. All combined these new tactics gave him a long time underwater in relative comfort in which to figure out the sump, lay line and survey. I’m sure this approach to diving also stemmed from the fact that he didn’t have a group of peers and veteran cave divers telling him how it should be done – he just did what he thought best – and it gave some excellent results.

Over Easter of 2009 I was back in Fermanagh with Dave Garman and we arranged to meet Artur and Al Kennedy for a few trips including a dive in Upper Cradle to see this new section of cave and even attempt a surface voice connection. Dave and I wore wetsuits, home made buoyancy bags, wellies, helmet mounted lights and ‘small’ bottles whilst Artur was in his drysuit with a pair of 12s and a canister light.....

Santi heated vest

After the 2010 trip to Fou de Bor it was clear I needed to do something to keep me warmer during long decompression dives and began to look around at various heated vest options. The Santi vest instantly appealed for a few reasons. Created specifically for divers it’s made from breathable thinsulate so you don’t get sweaty but even when it’s not plugged in its an extra insulating layer. It is also comfortable and flexible. I was planning to wear it with several other layers but didn’t want to sacrifice the flexibility my membrane suit gives me. Finally Santi have a drysuit inflator with an inbuilt EO wet connector. Generally the two options for getting a connection into your drysuit are a separate port just for the vest or a special adapter which fits underneath your standard inflator. However the Santi inflator meant I didn’t have to make a new hole in my drysuit or slot an adaptor in underneath my current drysuit valve. This would have been a particular issue for me with my chest mounted rebreather and generally for cave diving having a chest inflator twice the height of a normal one doesn’t sound good.

I paired up the Santi vest with a battery pack made from lead acid batteries in a rocket tube. Combined these batteries give me a 17Ah pack. The rocket tube is fine at shallow depths and with cave diving I’m usually just going to be leaving it at 6m. The only major downside is the weight of the pack out of the water. 

• Rocket Tube Battery Pack Rocket Tube Battery Pack
• 
• 
•  

I was lent a RESCUEAN Pod for my trip to France. Essentially it is a constant flow device you can connect to a low pressure hose (BCD/drysuit hose) at one end and a breathing mask at the other. Or to put it another way you can turn a bottle of oxygen and a regular scuba diving regulator into an oxygen kit.

New Photos online for Culiembro Expedition as well as Fou de Bor

Photos are now online from two recent cave diving expeditions. The first to Cueva Culiembro in July/August then in October to Catalonia to Fou de Bor and Font Bordenera. You can find descriptions about both these expeditions else where on the site.