NDC - where's my Buddy

[MATTBIN]

Having had another Sea dive blown out Lou, Caroline & I put plan B into operation (again) so we agreed to 'do' the NDC as we hadnt dived there, or Vobster but that was closed. So NDC it was, my major problem being how to get to the place given the M25 isnt worth a carrott these days. A cunning plan was hatced, drive South into London on the M1 and then out again via the M4. The plan worked, sort of, just took 3 hours thats all. 3 hrs to go quarry diving, sad or what?
easy enough to find, even with my nav skills (both above and below water).
Arrived shortly before the ladies and signed in, paid my £12 and had a look round. Bit sparse, but there are changing rooms, loos, a shop, chamber and scoff house. All was very clean and tidy. They also supply mats for changing on that you can put behind the boot of the car for your kit. A Landy and trailer takes you down to the waters edge, which looks like its about 300m vertically below the car park along a winding road, very rough.
Down near the water are benches, there are benches on the ample pontoons as well. All in all very wel laid out and planned for divers by divers. One small point, dont forget any of your kit as the walk back up is horrendous.
They also have a safety shed on the pontoons and it seems to be constantly manned, again a nice touch, very re-assuring.

Dive 1
So to the dives, the place is about a third the size of Stoney at a guess and from the pontoons its a short swim across to the East face where the wall seems to drop to in excess of 35m, I hit 32 and didnt want to go any deeper.
Initial descent was somewhat hairy as we were in a team of 3 and the viz meant the outer 'guys' couldnt actually see each other until we hit about 20m. Not very nice. Once past 20m the viz opened out a bit and we mooched about for 20mins until we hit deco limits, both planned and computer driven. We had calced 20min bottom, but pooters came up with 'rise' at 20min dive time. My ascent was pretty piss poor and I realised too late that without a visual reference I was all over the place, a lesson learnt and a mistake not to be repeated if I can help it. On the way up I lost L&C, missed my planned stop and hated the zero viz with 50m below me. Fortunately the computer advised I didnt need any stops as I had cleared the required by 15m. The pooter is air only and I was on 28%, another lesson learnt, Nitrox is wonderfull especially if you calc on air for conservatism. At the surface I waited for L&C to surface, they did shortly after me but they did at least get some stops in. We all agreed we hated it. There was nothing down there except boulders and silt.

Dive 2 - around the training platforms, crap again, no viz and no life, apart from 2 small fish, Lou reckons she saw a big one, narked. We were working well as a team and then lost Lou, we stayed still for one minute and surfaced (in 5m of water) Caroline was already up and looking for Lou's bubbles, I spotted them and we relaxed a little, she was less than 2m away.

Conclusions.
Well 300 miles for a quarry probably wont happen again, smb is a must, nitrox is a must, NDC is a nice place and could be brill but it needs something in there to make it interesting and someone needs to sort out the viz!
Oh and diving as a three is nowhere as easy as buddy pairs, hats off (or should that be fins raised) to the DIR boys for making it work.

Matt

ps No dci symptoms from any of us, given my profile I see that as a definite indicator that Nitrox is a minimum gas for safety. My bouyancy was all over the place on the ascent, see-sawing like a novice, I'm usually much better so it was a real shock to be so bad and a blow to my confidence, dive 2 helped me regain some of it. Must practice more.

[Steve L.]

Matt

You are right, It`s a long way to go for a hole in the ground. It takes Daz and me 20 minutes, or an hour to Vobster, which is a swine to find.

Vobster has more sunken gizmos, but the staff are friendly and efficient at both locations.

If you are coming this way again, give either myself or Daz en e-mail and we might be able to meet up

Regards

Steve

[Andy Phillips]

So you didn't find the tubes to swim through then, you can fit with 12's and stages, trust me, I've tried. Bit of a giggle.

I quite like the site. there arn't many places you can get depth for drills and practise. The problem with the vis is caused by the run off when it rains.

Andrew

[Chardy]

Matt,

I live close to the NDC and currently the viz is very poor above 30, below that although dark it is very good and earlier in the year it was around 10 metres in the shallow. As others have mentioned the run off from the sides does'nt help with the weather we are having.

The problem with putting large stuff in there is, there are two railway bridges on the road to the NDC meaning only certain size objects can be brought in and then lifting them into the water itself is a major issue as getting a crane on site is difficult because of the railway bridges.

One point to note, you should never have to walk up if you forget something, if you ask Mike, the guy on the pontoon he will radio up and come down and collect you or send the item down, the staff are very helpful

[Lou]

Well, it was 2 hours of driving for us. £12 each, plus £4.50 for the bridge. All was put right though when the lovely lady in the catering van asked us what we wanted for lunch because she would go shopping when we went down for our first dive! Truly! We decided on baked taters so she put them in the oven there and then. Real baked bungles just for us - bless!

A very, very leisurely kit up and at 11.30am we were first in the water. Noone rushes round the NDC it seems. A complete contrast to Stoney.

The first dive was pretty horrendous. As Matt said, diving in a three in the 1-2m viz was not fun. Below 10m we were doing ok, although I felt like I was looking out for everyone and it did stress me somewhat. That could just be the sense of responsibility I feel for anyone I dive with - I just can't do "same ocean" buddying.

The 9m stop was where it started going titties up though. The plan we had was no-stop on air (just), but we were on 'trox, apart from C who had stayed above me at all times. We were simulating the very conservative deco plan (air again) that we wanted to use on another dive. We started doing a free ascent up the wall and that was our mistake. Once we hit the poor viz C & I lost Matt who had been having trouble, and I concentrated on C. We did the 12 & 9 m stops as planned, but then when we lost Matt we threw up the SMB and did just an extended safety stop at 6m, followed by a slow ascent to the surface. The computer had cleared the 1 min recommended stop about 10mins earlier, so we felt surfacing to find Matt was an safe option.

He was fine on the surface and had, of course, seen our SMB come up so was unconcerned.

A SI of being mad, being thoughtful and being prompted into serious discussion followed. How should we dive in a three, the fact that putting up an smb is a very good plan, just for a visual reference in low viz, and that there really isn't alot worth the 8 degree thermocline on the deep side of the NDC

The second dive we went to the training platforms int he shallow end and did reg swaps, valve drills, bouyancy practise, inversions and spotting both fish that live there. There was a big one there, too. I think it eats divers who are stupid enough to dive in the zero viz!

We swam off the platforms with me in the lead, looking back every couple of fin kicks to ensure that Matt & C were still right on the end of my fins. Unfortunately a sideways movement to avoid a branch that loomed out of the horlicks lost them in about 2 seconds flat.

I retraced my steps immediately, sweeping my torch from side to side to try and signal them. In about 10 secs I was back at the platform and I watied, sweeping my torch for around 30 seconds before starting a\slow, spiralling ascent up the buoy-line. I couldn't see any sign of them at all until I broke surface to find Matt within an arm's length and C about 4m away. Freaky.

Last back up the hill, greeted off the bus by lovely catering-lady with "I'm going to shut the hatch, do you want any hot drinks before I do?" - she needs to be on the New Year's Honours list!.

In summary we learnt some lessons, have stuff to discuss, and found a site with nice staff & nice touches. I just wonder whether it can ever rival Stoney for shallower divers (OW training etc) when it has the potential for such bad viz - after all, rain isn't that uncommon, is it? I hope it works, I hope it stays open and I hope they stay as friendly and helpful.

Lou

[Angus]

The vis at the NDC down at 60m on Friday was in excess of 20m. That said it was a chilly 7oC with a substantial thermocline at around 9m which made the long stops much more comfortable.

Beware in the area of the training platforms if it has been raining. They have had some quite serious rockfalls in that area during the past week due to the Welsh weather!!

ATB