> In a very interesting post about differences between Florida and UK > cave diving, you used some terms I'm not familiar with. Could you > please define these? > > stoor (must be "debris kicked up by other divers") > abseiling (rappeling?) > SRT (search and rescue team? techniques?) > molefone (?) > > Thanks, > > Dave Yes, stoor is the silt and debris kicked up by you or other divers. Either because someone touched the bottom or just the action of finning too close to the bottom. In the UK you often hear the advice: "stay light". This means try to stay off the bottom. There is a technique, which I think was invented in Florida (Bill Mayne may know) called the "shuffle Kick" which is used by cave divers to reduce the raising of silt when space permits. The shuffle kick involves taking a slightly head down/feet up position and finning using a sort of cycling/pedalling motion. As opposed to the straight leg power fin movement. Abseiling is a technique for descending steep faces (eg cliffs). I don't know the term "rappeling" so excuse me if I state something you already know. Generally, a rope is doubled and anchored to a belay point at the top of a cliff. You then descend backwards standing perpendicular to the rock face, using some form of friction control device to control your rate of descent. You've probably seen this on all those commando movies. SRT stands for Single Rope Technique and is used for ascending steep faces, generally in caves. It involves two clamps, a shoulder harness, a sit harness (round thighs and waist) and a foot loop. The clamps are designed to slide up the rope but not down. To climb the face you slide the top clamp up as high as you can and then bring your knees up to your chest. Then you stand up and allow the lower clamp to take the strain while you again slide the top one up and repeat the exercise. In this way you shuffle up the face. A molefone is a radio location device. You take one underground and it sends out radio signals to a receiver on the surface. Surveying in, and beyond sumps is generally not that accurate. To find a dry way in the molefone is used to pin-point the surface location of the caver in the subterranean passage. Alan
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