Appeared in DIVER March 2006
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LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
Wookey Exposed, DVD by Gavin Newman, Wookeyfilm
Wookey Exposed
(Wookey Film, www.wookeyfilm.com).
55min + extras,£17.63
A DVD extreme cave-divers will want to own but that also illuminates for others the dark places they penetrate - Gavin Newman has done a great job in producing Wookey Exposed.
This is a living history of cave-diving, starting with the 1930s explorations of Wookey Hole in Somerset, in home-made gear and then standard dress, by Graham Balcombe and pioneering woman cave-diver Penelope Pell.
We note the amazing achievements of Martyn Farr and then Rob Parker in the '80s, and end up with the recent feats of men at the top of their game, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen.
Presenter Roger Whitehead accompanies cameraman Gavin to Chamber 24 and isn't afraid to expose his own insecurities as he traipses through the dry sections between the underwater passages, ending up exhausted.
Gavin then films himself trying to dive further beneath a low overhang by scraping the gravel out from under him - not easy with a camera.
Just watching this is a claustrophobic experience, but Rick and John made their record-breaking advance (to a depth of 90m) after watching this film in 2003 and glimpsing an opportunity. They just 'popped through', says Rick modestly, intimating that further progress may still be possible.
More men have stood on the moon than have reached the end of Wookey Hole, but no huge public recognition awaited them, only the thrill of discovery. This DVD goes a long way to explaining why they do it.
It's great value too, as it also contains Nosey Parker, the 50-minute Leo Dickinson film of Rob Parker's 1985 expedition that inspired Gavin. |
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