Photo courtesy of Andy Torbet

We caught up with Andy Torbet at the Adventure Travel Show at London’s Olympia. We reckon it’s the single safest environment he’s ever been in…

Andy Torbet knows a thing or two about overcoming challenges. After completing a degree in zoology he spent 10 years in the British Forces as a paratrooper, diver and bomb disposal officer. He served with the Airborne Brigade, the Army’s Underwater Bomb Disposal Team and the Maritime Counter Terrorist Group. He was involved in operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and the Falklands.

Andy is now a full time underwater explorer, extreme diver, climber and skydiver working as a regular TV presenter for the BBC, writing articles, giving talks and making his own films. He’s a highly qualified deep, technical and cave diver, a qualified mountain guide and climbing instructor and has jumped out of a plane (for a BBC science series) from 28,000ft. His projects have taken him across the world and to places no-one has been before, often alone.

Take a look at his website (www.andytorbet.com) and you’ll find details of many of his recent adventures. Like, for example, the time he joined 80 year old Sir Chris Bonington as he re-climbed the Old Man of Hoy, the legendary Orkney sea stack.

But what the website doesn’t tell you – and the reason we love the Adventure Travel Show so much – is the added details you only get when you sit in on the adventurers’ talks. Andy spent the entire climb wondering why his pack was so heavy. It was only when he finally reached the stack summit that fellow climber Leo Houlding revealed he’d smuggled a bottle of champagne into Andy’s pack for a bit of a celebration after 7 hours of climbing. Well, it wasn’t as if Leo wanted to carry it himself.

Before Andy disappeared into the wilderness again, we asked him about his adventures, and the technology he takes with him.

What are your feelings about technology? Do you love it, loathe it or feel excited by the possibilities it presents?
I’m a bit of a paradox really. I like and use technology as it makes some things easier (eg GPS) some things safer (eg Sat-phones) and some things doable (eg a head torch) – and I use things like mobile solar chargers all the time. But I really like going old fashioned, sleeping out in a scraped-together shelter rather than tent, using a flint and steel to light a cooking fire rather than stove, or a map and compass over GPS. But in the end what I do best is underwater exploration and for this I need technology. Without my mixed gas closed circuit rebreather – a pretty specialist piece of deep/cave diving kit – I wouldn’t be able to reach the distances and depths I have.

Do you use technology when you head off on an adventure, or is it merely a useful tool when planning?
When planning, online research is great as are some of the forums (I say ‘some’ as they swing from extremely helpful to poisonous) and things like Google Maps, e-maps or dive planning software make life much easier. But I probably use more varied technology on trips, like phone, laptop, chargers, cameras, dive computers, GPS, radio, sat-phone, lighting systems, etc.

What items of technology do you use most?
I use solar panels all the time and I rarely travel without my phone and laptop. These days you need to be able to communicate and record what you’re doing, so cameras are always amongst my kit.

Have you tried wearable tech?
I wear high-end SUNUTO dive computers on dive projects and I have a SUUNTO Ambit 3 watch for mountain work (it has GPS, altimeter, compass etc). And although I have electronic altimeters for skydiving projects I still turn to my faithful analogue one as I trust it.

What are the drawbacks of tech?
Power. The places I go are often bereft of a socket and sometimes the sun is in short supply so even solar has its limitations.

Is there some item on your wish list that manufacturers haven’t created yet?
I could do with an iPhone I could take below 200 metres. Not for the dive itself but you spend hours in the shallows decompressing and it gets boring. Some music or an audiobook would be handy.

What’s on your bucket list?

  • Cave diving the Cenotes in Mexico
  • Ice diving with polar bears around Arctic icebergs
  • Climbing in Yosemite
  • High altitude skydiving over Everest

As we’re primarily an Australian travel site, what’s been your favourite Australian travel experience?
I spent a month in Australia when I got home from a tour as a bomb disposal officer in Iraq. I travelled up the well-trodden path of the east coast. I thought the Barrier Reef would be my top spot but it was Fraser Island that came out on top.

Inspired? Follow Andy on Facebook and Twitter.

Read more interviews from Adventure Travel Show 2015
Planning your own Australian adventure / trip
Find out more about your favourite Australian destinations
Read the Global Grapevine blog