Personal Gear
This is the personal gear you wear when you go caving - not including an SRT Kit. Think clothing, protective gear, footwear, gloves - this sort of thing.
Gear Items
Belt
A caving belt is almost key safety equipment: it lets others clip you in on steep ground and lets you carry small kit safely. Strength and reliability matter.
Elbow Pads
Soft neoprene pads that protect your elbows during long, abrasive flat-out crawls. Niche kit for advanced trips.
Gloves
Gloves keep your hands warm and protect them from sharp rock and abrasion underground. They also improve your grip.
Head Torch
Your headtorch is your essential light for seeing underground and has a huge impact on your caving experience. Generally, the brighter and better your light, the more you will see and the more enjoyable your time will be.
Helmet
This is used for stopping your head from bumping low roofs, protecting you somewhat from falling objects and mounting your head torch onto.
Knee Pads
Protecting your knees and making crawling much much more comfortable.
Oversuit
This is a protective outer layer that protects you from abrasion. It's not usually waterproof or intended to be warm.
Personal Tacklebag
A tiny PVC bag (~1 L) clipped to your belt for snacks, spare batteries and other essentials.
Undersuits
A fleece ‘furry’ suit worn under your oversuit traps warm air and keeps you comfortable in cold, wet caves.
Wellies
Wellies (rubber boots) are the standard footwear for UK caving. They're cheap, durable and perfectly suited to wet, muddy passages.
Wetsuit
Neoprene keeps you warm in very wet or cold caves when an undersuit alone won’t cut it.
Recommended Caving Shops
One of the original Caving Shops - run by cavers, staffed by cavers, for cavers. Physical shop in Ingleton, Yorkshire staffed by cavers. Modern online presence - and accommodating and thoughtful staff. Ingleton shop also includes a top tier cafe - recommended.
A specialist UK caving equipment shop operated by Tony Seddon since 2009. The shop offers a unique "travelling shop" service visiting Yorkshire Dales caving locations. As sole UK importer for European brands like MTDE, Tony combines cave diving expertise with personalized equipment advice.
Established in 1977 in South Wales as a Caving lamp and welly hire company, working closely with Outdoor Centres, we have expanded to provide Caving, Hiking, Climbing, Trail Running, Watersports and Expedition kit within a vast store in Cardiff and online. Up and Under staff are outdoor lifers providing many years of experience across all of our sports. Up and Under offer instore fitting services and phone or email advice and stock products from brands including Alp Design, Beal, Bestard, Climbing Technology/Skylotec, Fenix, Kong, Lyon, Petzl, Raumer and Warmbac. Up and Under provide a next working day delivery as standard and offer club member, Outdoor Education and Rescue Team discounts on request.
Run by active cavers Tom and Rubee, with focuses on ensuring that affordable beginner options are available as well as higher-end gear for more seasoned cavers. Next day delivery available, with a decent selection of headtorches, bags, suits, repair supplies and accessories.
A newer UK caving store, set up by cavers for cavers. Has its own line of gear under "Geo" brand.
A Facebook forum for buying and selling caving gear in the UK with over 2000 members. Fairly low traffic, but requests are often well answered. You must know what it is you want, and be able to assess if what you're being offered is suitable for use. Often a great hivemind to ask for advice with top expert contributors.