Less of a trip report

[Justin Owen]

Well last Saturday was my first open water dive! When I say dive, it was one dip to complete open water lesson 1 (BSAC OD) and another to have a swim round and have some fun!

We went to a quarry called Eccleston Delph which is North West of Manchester. A gang of us went up from the club, myself and another trainee, Emma, and some other qualified divers. On arrival we had to register with the centre as trainees, and fill out the application forms etc. Then it was to the car park to get kitted up! It wasn't the warmest of days, but we (the trainees!) were that excited about getting in the water it didn't bother us that much, so, it was on with the weezle and straight in to the dry suit. We then assembled all our gear and wandered down to the waters edge, grinning ear to ear... After hooding/gloving up, and fitting fins, we slowly wandered in to the water. The first thing i noticed was that you didn't feel the temperature of the water at all, so far so good. Then we got in as far as our necks and the water slowly seeped in to our hoods and gloves... Brrrrr! It was bloody freezing! But, surprisingly we became acustomed to the cold within a few moments... After the OK's on the surface, we headed down into open water for the first time...

Trout. I always thought fish were timid animals. No so in the 'delph'!! A mass of HUGE (and I WAS accounting for the magnification factor of the mask!) blinkin trout were upon us in moments! Golden, Rainbow, Brown... Lots of different colours, I didn't even know you could get silver/golden trout! After messing with our buoyancy and getting used to being deeper than 7ft for the first time, we slowly drifted down to the side in about 5M. Was strange how dark it got, though we were kicking up the bottom a fair bit trying to get our bearings and bouyancy spot on. Looking up was even stranger, seeing the light filtering down, with the shadows of the huge fish passing over you! Anyway, we had a swim around and heading along the side to a gravel bottom in the shallows. Here we did a few skills, inversion recovery, suit d/f removal and refit, AAS, and then the dreaded mask clear... We were now used to the cold somewhat, but when you take your mask of - jeez! It stops your breathing dead in you tracks! After relaxing a few moments, and after struggling with the first few breaths, we both completed the clearing. After that we headed back to the slip, and jettisoned are weight belts in standing depth to complete the first set of tasks (I know some of you don't agree with that but it's on the syllabus!).

At this point my face is aching from smiling & laughing so much (both on the surface and underwater!). After getting back to the van and de-kitting, it was straight on the phone to all my mates, including my friends who are on the OD course with me but don't have their dry suits yet... It was fantastic, the best thing i've done in years! I put a bit of air in the suit and was lovely and warm on the surface, no problems with cold at all, which I was very happy about. After a brief surface interval, which included a tin of hot soup each, we kitted up and headed back in.

This time it was a proper swim round, at a depth between 3 & 5.5M. We went round half the lake, learning bouyancy and getting used to the environment. We stopped at the far side where a telegraph pole marks a little beach-buggy type car in the bottom and had a poke round. We didn't see masses of fish, but the odd larger fish would scuttle past right next to us, coming from behind to give us a scare! The one problem we had was that because we were close to the shelf, and our instructor was leading, the viz suffered somewhat. I could have gone and swam side by side further forward but I was making sure I stayed right next to my buddy Emma in case either of us had a problem. This proved a good tactic as at this point I followed her to the surface after she had a problem with her mask and wasn't happy with her regulator. After some discussion on the surface, all three of us then swam back to the entry point on our backs at the surface.

That swim back was knackering! We had no idea how far we'd swam around! After getting back to the entry point, totally worn out, we headed back to the van and de-kitted once more. It was hand shakes all round, more soup and then getting back in to our civvies to head home.

All in all, a great experience. And I was totally made up with all the kit i'd gone out on a limb and bought. It's club night tonight, so it'll be time to hassly our instructor once more to get us in the water this Saturday too! Will let you know how we get on...  

[andy2tanx]

nice one Justin.  I enjoyed reading that alot and hope you get on well with the course so you can get in with us soonest!!

[Eddie]

Great report Justin, took me back to how I felt on my first open water dive! (and still do whenever I enter the water) glad to hear that you are sticking to your buddy, you never know when you might need each other! success with the rest of your open water coarse..

[MATTBIN]

Nice one Justin,
if your diving gets as good as your writing you'll have no problems at all mate.

Matt

[Kev Martin]

Justin

Excellent report.  One of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching people to dive is the excitement generated on those first open water dives.

Keep diving and keep those reports coming.

Best regards.

[Seadart Bob]

<font color='#333399'>Nice one Justin, enjoyed reading your report.
Takes me back nearly 40 yrs. Keep the reports coming.
Glad you liked it, even if it was a bit cold.
Cheers and safe diving.
Bob
                     

[Tim Ingmire]

Hi Justin great report mate. &nbsp;Took me back to my first OW mask clearance in Stoney - its a bloody shocker ain't it. &nbsp;One tip tho, dont let it stop there - mask clearance is a good one to practice on the safety stops - provided you tell your buddy first.

Glad you enjoyed it and look forward to you joining our gigs sometime soon.

Cheers,

Tim

[Mr T.]

Hey Justin,

Top report mate, clarity itself and very enjoyable to read.

Keep that sense of wonderment at what you're doing and you should always enjoy safe diving.

A tip about masks, clearing, one, for the use of.

I never dip/rinse my mask in 'that bucket of water' and swill it round at ANY dive site or off a boat dive: I always spit into it, rub the contents round both lenses - giving each a good and even covering - and then put the mask on, no rinse.

OK, you have blurred vision momentarily, but the 1st thing I do in the water is deliberately fill my mask with water and then rinse in out. Lenses now used to the ambient water temp and prevents 'fogging'.

Glad to see you're making good progress and looking forward to seeing you on a troop gig some time soon!

[Mark Chase]

<font color='#000F22'>Top class report M8

I hope for you that like me the wonder never leves you. Get cracking on practicing your SMB deployment for sea diving and keep in touch with your class M8's as its great to progress together.

Four of my class M8's are still at it and we formed our own club this year.

Safe diving

Mark Chase

[Ali]

I dived Eccy on the Sun 2nd.
To be honest, the vis is really bad. The first dive I just stayed in the shallow end by the beach and the vis ranged between 0.5-3meters. &nbsp;
Dive 2. We went down the shot to a good sized sea cruiser which was at 17m This boat wasn't too bad to see as it's white ! The boats bow over hangs a drop off to the deep area which is at 22meters I think. But as we dropped under the bow it turned black and the vis was 0.
We then moved to the armoured vehical which is a good piece to look around. The vis here is abit better 2-3meters and the depth 14meters.
The place it's self looks as though it could be quite good if only the vis can be sorted. The owner (Who is not a diver!) was saying he was looking into having a load of the silt removed &nbsp; &nbsp;We shall see
I will return later in the year for another wet or 2, but I don't think this is the ideal place for training OW at the mo.

Ali