Special Release - E050 Chris Jewell: Beyond Thailand

Speaking Sidemount

I'm super excited to publicly release Episode #50 with Chris Jewell. Previously this episode was only available to Patrons of Speaking Sidemount and is brought to you with the support of XDEEP.

Chris is a member of the British Cave Diving Group and was part of the team involved in the acclaimed Thai Cave rescue. Chris took part in the actual extraction dives of the rescue and in doing so became part of history as a key part of one of the greatest rescues of modern times.

Awards, accolades and numerous TV and speaking appearances followed and so it was awesome nearly 2 years later to catch up with Chris and ask him about how he got into cave diving, his experience in training and becoming part of the CDG, the importance of mentoring to the CDG training process. Chris reflects on his experience in Thailand some two years after the rescue, and he shares more on his terrifying lost line episode while extracting one of the boys from the cave.

Chris and I discuss the distinctions between sump diving and traditional cave diving, how this then drives decisions about your equipment configuration. We dive into detail on Chris' UK sump diving sidemount set up, we talk conceptually about carrying a long hose, gas sharing scenarios, and some of Chris' favourite cave exploration projects.

Enjoy, Steve