Cave Explorer Rick Stanton at OZTeK'07

In cave diving there are two different styles; technical divers who dive in flooded caves but rarely leave the water and cavers who dive but treat the flooded section as a barrier to finding further dry cave. Rick Stanton is a rarity in that he is at the top of both disciplines. Time and again he has exhibited a knack for pushing beyond the limits at which others believed the cave to have ended.

Standing at the forefront of British cave diving for over twenty years, Rick Stanton will share his experiences with delegates attending the OZTeK'07 Diving Technologies Conference and Exhibition, to be staged at Australian Technology Park, Sydney, Australia on the 17th and 18th March 2007.

Hailing from Coventry, in England, Rick Stanton learned to dive in 1979, whilst at university, with the primary intention of exploring caves and sumps throughout the British Isles. This has been an ongoing process right up to the present day.

In the last 8 years, Rick has been involved in more technical cave diving using rebreathers, (often two at a time) for long penetration and depth. He has concentrated on the long deep siphons of N Europe, mainly in the Lot region of SW France, but also in the other French, Spanish and Italian caves where he specialises in combining caving techniques with long and often deep multiple sump systems, transporting large amounts of diving equipment through the dry sections of the cave in the pursuit of exploration.

In 2004 when six British soldiers were trapped in a Mexican cave by flood water, Rick Stanton was one of two divers flown out by the British Government to accomplish the rescue. Constantly making and adapting equipment especially for the cave environment, Rick believed that small, lightweight rebreathers offered a way of furthering exploration at many sites. He has developed and manufactured two CCR units, most recently a unique side mount, fully closed circuit rebreather which has been instrumental in his achieving the British cave diving depth record of 90m in challenging circumstances at Wookey Hole, the birth place of UK cave diving.

For updates on the exciting list of speakers and presenters at OZTeK'07 - The Diving Technologies Conference & Exhibition, check out the website at: http://www.diveoztek.com.au or contact the organisers at: [email protected]

Contributed by Richard Taylor added 2006-10-06