Keeping an open mind about gear configuration

Photo Georges Gawinowski

The basics of a good foundation are inherent to the quality of the material or tools that are used in the building of that foundation. Gear configuration is one of the tools that will shape a cave diver career. Gear configuration is an essential topic. This is basic for all cave training. “Gear configuration is an important factor. Remember your training. Look around and ask other divers why they use a specific type of equipment or configuration. Be open-minded”. We need the best possible tools to do the perfect job. If I visualize a cave diver in the 80’s the gear set was limited to the basics. The equipment is probably safer today but divers in the past paid more attention on what they had, and I am sure it was taking long hours to get the best on their gear configuration set up. The main recommendations for a good gear configuration are redundancy, streamlining, accessibility and comfort. So let’s go back to the minimum gear requirements for Cavern diving, Intro-Cave to cave diving and Cave Diving. Original Article was published in the Volume 40 Oct/Nov/Dec/ 2013 Underwater Speleology The journal of the cave Diving Section of the National Speleological Society NSS/CDS

 Georges Gawinowski NSS/CDS Instructor

IANTD SE Training Director