E075 Tom Crisp 2 - "Explorer-Adventurer"

This episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Thanks so much to both for their support that makes this podcast possible. Tom Crisp hails from my home New Zealand and is undoubtedly one of our finest cave explorers and I'll use the term, adventurers. Tom has based himself in Alberta, Canada to allow him to discover and explore the caves of that region. You may recall Tom and I spoke way back in Episode #15 and in this, episode #75 we catch up on what we've been up to over the past three and a half years. Tom talks about why he has based himself in Canada, his work and training with the Alberta Parks and how this supports his exploration projects. Tom shares how he shapes his life to support his exploration, the sacrifices and the rewards that come from this "calling". We chat about the active exploration projects Tom is working on in Canada and the geology of these caves before we talk at length about what it takes to dive in 2-degree water and access caves in sub-zero surface conditions. We cover Tom's sump diving set-up, before a fascinating exchange on knowing when to pull back when you encounter a stressful situation on a dive and we finish with Tom sharing some of the cave exploration projects he had to leave behind and pass on to other explorers here in NZ. All this and much, much more in this episode of…. Speaking Sidemount!!