Davy Jones Locker owner Tim recently went to Song Hong cave diving. During the trip he completed his ANDI hypoxic trimix certification on CCR with instructor Bruce Konefe.
Song Hong Cave Diving with Tim and Bruce
“Being an open circuit cave diver and enjoying the challenge of the deep caves of Thailand I have for a long time wondered about the benefits of closed circuit rebreather technology in relation to caves. As CCR divers will tell you the units work best in a classic diving profile (max depth work shallower). So when a diving colleague Bruce Konefe took me on a course, ANDI CCR cave, I was intrigued to learn about the gas management rules for cave profiles. This is because caves tend to follow their own profile without regard for the divers.
Song Hong Cave System
The cave where we were to complete our training, Song Hong, is a huge sink hole. It is located slap bang in the middle of Thailand. Local cave divers know Song Hong well and it stands out for its’ enormous size and depth. It also has a reputation for exceptionally clear water below the hydrogen sulphide layer. Technical divers wishing to complete deep trimix diver training use part of the sink hole which allows for direct access to the surface. This avoids the problems associated with currents and elevating respiration in the sea.
Rebreathers and Trim
As any rebreather diver will tell you you, rebreathers, due to the design do not lend themselves to achieving good trim, a skill that is essential for cave diving. A lot of time was spent moving weights and adjusting the height of the wing to counter the lift at the shoulders caused by the counter lung. The rebreathers I had with me, Evolution and Inspiration, due to the box they are protected by make it hard to move weights and tanks. To assist in this and I found it easier to remove the can and head and put them in a customized box. This has helped a lot and now it isn’t so much effort to maintain a horizontal position acceptable for cave diving.
Gas Management
Thankfully the gas management rules were a lot easier to master. Although it was surprising to see many applications of this. It depends on the amount of divers in a team and the amount of confidence in the individual team members, running from the bare minimum, carried around team members with a variation calculated at the largest RMV of this with a third reserve on top again. This is shared around the team to the old third in third out thirds developed by Sheck Exley. In this system each team member carries their own reserve.
It can be quite unsettling when at depth and on the way in to a cave if you start to have doubts about your buddy’s ability to keep his shit together when the said shit hits the fan and you’re relying on your buddy to carry part of the emergency gas you need to get to the surface! At this point you begin to choose your buddies more carefully bearing in mind it’s the team gas rule that that has helped cave divers push back the curtain and explore deeper and longer cave systems.
Overall though CCRs greatly enhance the divers ability to explore caves. With careful adherence to the gas rules (whichever one you adopt) and choosing your your buddies with as much attention to detail there is no doubt CCRs take cave diving to another level. Happily, I had good diving buddies and the shared enjoyment of achieving a goal of completing the 60 metre circuit added to the pleasure.”
Song Hong CCR Cave diving 2016 from bike09 on Vimeo.