Diving: my first 18 months

[PapaBear]

I hope this is in the right place as I can think of no where else that is really appropriate.

Anyway, I thought for some bizarre reason that I would share the experience of my first 18 months of diving. I don’t know why, you say scuba and it just gets me excited because I have the buzz and after 18 months it doesn’t seem to be going away.

So going into our final year at university my buddy Shaun and I were high on the adventures of films like Sahara and Into the Blue. Having done a try dive on holiday in Kos we were determined that this Scuba thing was the sport for us! Neither of us are really into the team sport thing, in fact the nearest thing I’ve done to sport since school is played pool in the pub!
But anyway, along we went and sign up we did.

Having met the university club and since moved onto my local bsac club back home I can honestly say that I have never met a group of people that are as open minded and welcoming, and every time I go somewhere related to this sport I find that this remains true. I have yet to walk away from a group of divers that have not made me feel welcome, and long may this hold true!

Working swiftly through our Ocean diver course four of us went to Capernwray for the last weekend in November to get in our qualifying dives. At the time I am pretty sure that I thought I was cold, but I soon learnt afterwards this was not the coldest I would ever get while diving! To rub it in still to this day I have to say Shaun by this point had been relegated to surface cover having broken his leg and being told only how great it was to be diving out of the swimming pool at last and in some real water (naïve weren’t we!)
Driving back from Capernwray that weekend I was on cloud nine, I was a qualified diver! I will never forget that first weekend for the time looking up at the surface from 8 meters I watched my exhaled breath float up to break the mirror of the surface. I was hooked!

Shaun and his leg fully recovered and likewise qualified we began to tackle the Sports Diver training, but first came a quick trip to Eight Acre.

The first week in February, having just recovered from being frozen over I dived in Eight Acre lake.
Cold
Cold, cold!
In a leaky borrowed dry suit I soon figured out how cold it could really get diving in the UK over winter (for those who wont read further, yes I am that daft, I have done it since!) This was also the first time I experienced low visibility diving, I wasn’t that keen at first, but as I have become more used to it, like the cold I have grown to realise this is a part of our sport that does happen, and although it can be avoided I really do believe there is nothing to fear from low viz, you just have to work a bit harder to find what your looking for, and usually enjoy yourself more.
For those of you have only ever heard bad things about 8 Acre, don’t be put off, do go along. The guys there are really friendly and I have had some great dives there with viz as good as Capernwray and Stoney. Though if you went in after me I doubt you were saying the same thing!!

So at the end of it all I left university with the obligatory degree, and a qualified sports diver who had only ever dived inland lakes and quarries. With the mad struggle of returning home and getting settled I suffered the heart break of missing out on my first diving season. But I did get settled into my local dive club and use the time to splurge out on buying myself kit. As an aside to anyone thinking of buying first time dive kit, don’t be afraid of asking stupid questions! I am terrible for suffering from shiny thing envy, and the cost of them is often enough to make you want to sell a kidney!! That said there isn’t a single piece of my dive kit that I regret buying, and I did manage to resist the really expensive toys, well mostly anyway! One thing I will say though, a well fitted drysuit is a must, and if given the choice I would always prefer the neoprene neck seal, if only to avoid the discomfort of a latex one after 3 days hard diving. My regular buddy Shaun and I are still arguing over who had the better idea in buying exotherm arctics or the weezle extreme plus (if we ever get an answer, or a coherent argument I will let you know)

Another winter of the regular round of inland sites and still no sea dive, until…

Last weekend I finally made it to the sea, for three great days of Anglesey I finally got to do everything that I had been wanting to do for the last 18 months and put into practice all that I had learnt and rehearsed so many times at all those quarries. Diving Anglesey was like that first qualifying dive in Capernwray all over again, only better! The kit was my own, I was warm, I knew what I was doing and by day two what to expect, why oh why didn’t I do this sooner?
My reward for those few cold nights I have spent wandering why I continued to stick at something which I had yet to really do properly at sea was Anglesey that weekend. Although diving has had other benefits too, I take exercise more seriously as I want that bottom time, I know more people now then I think I ever have done and I met my girlfriend all through diving. Admittedly it swallows up all my money and I spend all my time thinking about it, but hey, doesn’t everybody have something like that? the wife and kids maybe? Luckily that one is a long way off for me!

So what is next for me with diving, well there is the Farne Islands next weekend, and a little trip to the Red Sea later in the year that I am still trying to convince the girlfriend will be a “two of us holiday”
I still have questions and I probably still make mistakes, but this is something that I love to do and will carry on doing, only from now on with a comfort zip! (everyone should get one) But if anyone wants to tell me about their experiences diving, I’m going to listen, if you want to tell me about a digital camera for the red sea and a torch for some UK night dives as well I even have a few questions, but at the end of the day, lets go get wet!

[Mark Griffith]

Nice review of your diving so far,hope things keep getting better.
cheers
Mark

[Mal Bridgeman]

Great post ... long may it continue.....
Mal

[stabjacket]

Unfortunatly the Shaun in the article is me, has been some good fun thou mate, and im lookin forward to next week at the farnes

Shaun

[Sparky750]

Great post and i know the feelings well

[XeN]

Nice Post!

As I am from the same neck of the woods from you, I expect to bump into you at some point

[PapaBear]

Thanks for the feedback guys, reassuring to know im not the only one who is perhaps slightly diving crazy.

XeN absolutely, look forward to it.

Shaun, cant wait for Farnes mate

[gwilson]

Originally Posted by Sparky750

Great post and i know the feelings well

As he said!!!!