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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.....
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