Tom Elms has achieved the position as Horizontal and Vertical Trip Leader. 

Tom became interested in caving after a road trip through east Gippsland led him to Buchan, where he came to the realisation that more caves existed beyond the show caves in the reserve. A follow-up trip led him to explore every cave he could find in the area, including those within the Potholes reserve, Dickson’s reserve, and Wilson’s. With no rope and no idea, he free-climbed into caves we now know to be Honeycomb, Georgiedig, Maxidig, as well as many more in an attempt to satisfy his curiosity. Thankfully, after realising that he probably needed training, he was introduced to Homeleigh and the VSA and fell in love with caving.

In parallel with his caving interests, Tom is also an active Whitewater kayaker. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Czech Republic in July to represent Australia at the Wildwater World Championships and has achieved recent success domestically in Australia’s extreme racing series. His experience in a variety of disciplines including canoe slalom, freestyle kayaking, and whitewater rafting has given him the skills to work as a whitewater instructor and high-performance coach for the last 5 years. Aside from his paddling, Tom is a full-time Osteopathy student finishing his third year of study and also an aspiring rock climber.

Congratulations to Tom on your achievement.