Hi, here's episode #79 Rannvá Jørmundsson - "Becoming an Explorer" brought to you by our brilliant sponsor XDEEP and the patrons of Speaking Sidemount. Huge thanks to both for their support that makes everything you are about to listen to possible.
One of the enduring themes of Speaking Sidemount is to shine a light on the applications of sidemount diving. I am a strong believer and practitioner in diving sidemount in nearly any application or environment but there's no doubt that if you dive overheads, and in particular caves, sooner or later you are going to find a space that is too small for backmount diving. Or you will need to lug gear far enough or over terrain where you'll want to break it down into smaller parts. This, of course, is where sidemount really shines and is the reason this podcast features many, many great cave divers.
I'd also add, that cave diving demands the highest levels of sidemount skills… buoyancy control, trim, and balance - what I call relaxed static stability... meaning the ability to be still in a confined space, and effective propulsion techniques including frog kick and the back kick. No other type of diving is as demanding in these aspects.
I draw a strong distinction between cave diving and cave exploration. Exploration requires and builds upon a strong foundation of cave diving skills and experience. But it requires much more. Aspects such as… searching for prospective caves, dealing with landowners, camping in remote locations, and complex access skills like single rope technique. Then there's the diving… preparation and planning, working in teams, reading a cave, line laying for survey, surveying the cave itself, passing unknown restrictions, and self-reliance or solo diving. Add to that the mindset and discipline required and it is quite a leap from your average cave dive.
I've often thought about how you get started and what it takes to become an explorer. There is no doubt that leaning on the experience of other explorers is the best way to go. By way of example, you may remember my discussion with Tamara May back in episode 60 released a couple of years ago now where Tamara talked about Project Xunaan in Tulum Mexico where Robbie Schmittner, one of the world's leading cave explorers had pulled together a team of six female divers to continue his exploration in that area. Along the way, he would teach and mentor them on what, for most of them, was their first genuine exploration project.
While COVID delayed this project, it also gave the team the opportunity to build on the initial plan including working with sponsors to support their efforts and filming the project. The result was a super interesting view into becoming an explorer and in this episode, I catch up with another of the Xunnan Ha team members…. Rannva Joermundsson. I had the pleasure of meeting Rannva at this year's OzTek conference in Melbourne Australia where Rannva along with her exploration partner Maria Bollerup gave two compelling presentations… the first on project Xunnan Ha and the second on their next project Expedition Buteng in Sulawesi Indonesia.
In this episode, I ask Rannva to share how she got into diving and progressed to cave diving. We talk about how she combines her passion for diving with her career working for two of my absolute favourite dive brands, Fourth Element and Shearwater. And then Rannva tells us about the amazing project Xunnan Ha. We talk about the planning, how they worked on the project, and what she has taken away from the experience.
Building on this we lean into her next project Expedition Buteng where Rannva is working with Robin Cuesta my new dive buddy and guest on Episode 71 "Caves of Sulawesi". Rannva discusses her partnership with Maria Bollerup on this project, the impressive team they have assembled, and the goals for the project including exploration, scientific, and community benefits.
We close by talking about some of the project preparation including KISS Sidewinder training in Mexico… enjoy :)!!
Steve