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| Martyn Farr |
In UK and Ireland cave diving is practically a synonime of sidemount diving due to the nature of the underwater caves and difficult access to the most of them. Contrary to some people's beliefs sidemount diving was not born in the recent years in Mexico but many years earlier in England. For long Britons were breaking cave diving world records using sidemount configurations : in 1981 Martyn Farr and Rob Palmer made the world longest underwater penetration in Bahama Blue Holes and in 1991 Geoff Yeadon established world record through dive from King Pot to Keld Head... nowadays this great sidemount tradition is continued by people like Steve Bogaerts in Mexico.
I've learnt sidemount diving and cave diving under the direct supervision of Martyn Farr, Britain's foremost sidemounted diver and cave explorer. Since his first visit in Ireland in 1978 Martyn made many astonishing discoveries in Ireland, both in dry caving and cave diving. I had a privilige, over last four years to continue many of his projects only to confirm what he had already suspected: that Ireland indeed has one of the most unique system of underwater caves in Europe.
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| Extreme conditions in John Thomas' cave in the North |
Since 2007 I pursuit exploration in most challenging Irish underwater caves using sidemount rig in various configurations: drysuit, drysuit plus wing, wetsuit plus wing, wetsuit (optimal buoyancy), multistaging (8+), no mount (diving bottles pushed ahead of a diver, hand held, to nogotiate extremely tight, body size underwater constrictions). From the very beginning I used the sidemount system as a necessary tool for the exploration and not as a gimmick that simply looked fancy or cool ( although thanks god it does as well....).
Last 4 years have seen many important projects being moved forward in Ireland, mostly in sidemount configuration :
2007
- Long sought connection between Hell Complex and Robertson's cave in The Reef cave system in Doolin, county Clare.
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| Returning after 3h push dive in Mermaid's Hole |
- Exploration of Pollatoomary Rising in county Mayo - the deepest underwater cave of Ireland and Britain recorded at -103m - sidemounted, through 30cm wide underwater squeezes, in constant 0.5m visibility. Dark Rising
- Beginning of exploration underneath Gort Lowlands in county Galway, 2km of new underwater passages discovered – sidemounted and backmounted
- Mermaid's Hole in Doolin, the longest marine cave of British Isles pushed to 1025m from the entrance – sidemounted
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| Reaching surface in a virgin cave passage - Marble Arch |
2009
- Beginning of exploration in Marble Arch System in county Fermanagh, connection with Cascades created the longest cave of Northern Ireland, 9km - sidemounted Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, video footage
2010
- Marble Arch System extended to 12km through various underwater connections, second the longest cave in Ireland - sidemounted - Cradle Holes connected
- A new important cave found near Gort and explored for 1km at -80m. Potential for the longest uw cave in Uk and Ireland and one of the longest siphons in Europe/world - sidemounted and Megalodon ECCR - Discovery of Pollindre
2011
-mythical source of Fergus River was pushed further into the mountain – the limit of exploration is now 240m in sump 3, somewhere 2km from the entrance. Fergus River Cave - April push
- I'm still ALIVE..!! ;)))
Personally I look at the sidemount course as an introduction to technical diving and traditionally sidemount diving was applied mainly there. The most popular reasons the divers choose to learn sidemount diving is to participate in cave/cavern diving, wreck penetration or in tec courses using sidemount configuration. That's why I decided to combine some of my entry level tec and cave courses with the sidemount training. Apart of the Sidemount course which is run over two days and consists of four dives I run combined Sidemount + Tec40 (2-3 days, after that students may continue to Tec 45, Tec50, Tec trimix 65 and Tec Trimix 90 sidemounted) and combined Sidemount + Cavern (again, 2-3 day, and after students may continue Intro to Cave and Full Cave sidemounted)
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| Different custom made sidemount rigs from left to right: Martyn Farr's Explorer, Ultimate, UTD's Z harness and Steve Bogaerts' Razor |
During the Equipment Workshop the students will have a chance to customise and adjust their sidemount rigs either it's Razor, Z-harness, Explorer, Ultimate or a self-made one. If their don't have their own rig they're welcome to try some of mine harnesses free of charge for the duration of the course ( I'm not a dealer of any of them so I don't try to sell them before or after the course)
The offer till the end of the summer:
Sidemount course ( 2 days, 4 dives) – 200€
Sidemount + Tec40 – 350€
Sidemount + Cavern - 350€
For a detailed info on the sidemount course or any of the combined courses please contact me at:
I'm off to Doolin on the west coast of Ireland to continue one of my projects in Hell system for next couple of days (sidemounted of course...;)) but usually I'm replying within 24h ...;-)
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