There's a difference between having standards for performance/proficiency and mandating the type of equipment one uses. As Fofo said, some expeditions require participants to pass a rebelay course, but none that I've been on specify what type of vertical gear you must use. As long as you pass the course in a safe and timely manner, you're in. Rack or bobbin are equally popular. Some people use a Mitchell on rebelays, even though the more common system by far is frog. But certain body types don't function well with frog, and if you have one of those, you learn an alternative.
It is nice to be able to borrow equipment from team members, and one should be at least somewhat familiar with different systems, but I would balk at being told I had to have specific brands or types of gear. Mark On Wed, August 5, 2015 1:49 pm, Fofo via Texascavers wrote: > Hi Bill. > > There is a little bit of this happening in caving too. On any given > weekend the gear the type of gear that people take into a cave is very > different, everyone has their personal preferences. > > But on expedition caving there is more uniformity in equipment. You > don't see someone using a Mitchell system, another one with a Texas and > someone else with a Frog. The way that people cross rebelays is more or > less standardized, with some expeditions setting up mini courses outside > of the cave to make sure that people are crossing rebelays in a safe and > efficient way. > > That is more or less what GUE wants to do. So that any diver from any > part of the world can meet with another GUE diver and she will be > confident that if there is any need (for donating gas, for example) this > other diver will react in a specific way and there should be no confusion. > > The standards are rather long, but it's more like having a book > describing how to rig a rebelay and how to cross it so that a caver from > Washington can team up with a caver from Argentina and move as a team > knowing that they will be using the same kind of signals and same > techniques (which make it easier to look at someone and know if > something is off, instead of trying to figure out first what this other > person is trying to do). > > Sorry for the long reply! > > - Fofo > > On 05/08/15 9:28, Mixon Bill via Texascavers wrote: >> Sure, one would like to know that one's diving buddies are qualified and >> using equipment that is more or less familiar to you, so you can spot >> problems or help in an emergency; that is their argument. But it can be >> carried to extremes. See >> http://www.globalunderwaterexplorers.org/standards >> and the link there to a nearly 100-page list of training and equipment >> standards. I suspect (hope) that many cave divers would not find that >> much regimentation congenial. For example, their equipment standard does >> not appear to permit side-mounts, which have come to be seen as pretty >> much essential for a lot of cave diving. (That standard may be sometimes >> "honor'd in the breach.") Rebreather divers must use a "GUE-approved >> rebreather." >> >> Global Underwater Explorers clearly consider themselves an elite bunch. >> Others may disagree, or if they agree (certainly they have some >> impressive accomplishments), be put off by it. -- Mixon _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
