BSAC Ocean Diver!

It's all over, bar the final stamp in my training log book.

I've successfully completed BSAC's Ocean Diver training course. Which means I'm qualified to dive to a depth of 20m, under the watchful eye of a qualified dive master.

As I've blogged before, there's nothing to stop me donning my kit and jumping into nearby Portland Harbour on my own. But common sense and good practice says I should always dive in the company of a buddy. And if I want to dive with a club I need to demonstrate that I know what I'm doing - hence the qualification.

The BSAC approach to scuba diver training is to use volunteer instructors. So we (I trained alongside my daughter) owe a huge debt of thanks to Geoff, Perrin and Simon from Alton BSAC. They've given up hours of their time to deliver lessons in the classroom, local swimming pool and open water sites. Their unwavering commitment and enthusiasm is to be commended. Thank you!

So what now? The next level of training is Sports Diver, which would allow me to drop to 35m underwater. A quick scan down a list of wrecks local to my Dorset home shows that those extra 15 metres would allow me to visit a much broader range of sites.

Then there's the change from wet suit to dry suit diving. Having picked up a second-hand dry suit it makes sense to get some training in how to use it.

And I ought to hook up with the local BSAC club. I've finally worked out where they meet and when; next step is to be there when they are!

What I still find incredible is that when 2010 opened, I had no intention of getting involved in scuba diving. Nine months later I've completed the course and, more significantly, I'll never look at deep water in the same way again.

Snorkelling in Portland Harbour

I couldn't resist it.

I've just bought a second-hand drysuit. Despite never having had drysuit training, I was keen to try it out. I've also just moved into a rented house within a minute's walk of Portland Harbour - a huge lagoon of blue water that shimmers in the sun every morning.

The combination generated an unbearable urge to get in the sea as soon as possible. So I did. I snorkelled in Portland Harbour wearing a drysuit.

And if you're thinking that I was courting with danger, be assured that I assessed the risks and stayed safe. Firstly, I took someone with me to observe from the beach and we had a quick chat about protocol - if I waved, I was in trouble. Not that it was very likely, but it's always wise to agree your hand signals in advance.

Secondly, I remained in shallow water at all times. By shallow I mean that when I lay on the surface I could reach down to the bottom with my hands. In Portland Harbour, at low tide, there's a huge expanse of shallow water that's less than a metre deep.

I had a great time. I've never snorkelled before and this was a very basic outing. Beneath me were shoals of tiny fish, probably some sort of goby, and numerous hermit crabs scuttling about their business. That was all I saw, but it was enough for one outing.

I also proved that the drysuit was, as far as I could tell, watertight, at least on the surface. I'll need proper training before I take it deeper. And I discovered that a drysuit is not ideal for snorkelling. It kept me warm and dry, but it was, predictably, extremely buoyant.

If I want to continue my snorkelling adventures it looks like a wetsuit will need to go on the shopping list.

Why Buy New Scuba Diving Gear?

"Don't buy new equipment because there's plenty of almost-new gear out there."

That's the advice I've been given over and over by more experienced scuba divers. Most of them seem to dive with equipment they've sourced through eBay or picked up elsewhere, having already been used by someone else.

Whatever you call it: second-hand, pre-owned or used - there's apparently no shortage of it and it represents great value for money, if you know what you're looking for.

The main source of this strong supply is over-enthusiastic novices, apparently. There's a fair crop who pour a large amount of cash into a complete set of new dive gear during their training, only to find that the sport isn't for them.

Some realise the error of their ways fairly quickly and try to recover a reasonable proportion of their investment through a quick sale. Others are slower to acknowledge their mistake, or simply need time to pass before they conclude that they'll not putting the shiny kit to good use. They pay a higher price when they sell up, simply because their equipment has spent years under the stairs.

As predicted by my instructors, I've benefited from the enthusiastic purchases of a trainee diver. I've never met the chap, but a contact heard he was selling off all his gear and immediately thought of me. Geography was a slight problem, as we lived at opposite ends of the country, but last week I got to see what was on offer.

I'm no expert and at first I was sceptical. When you're being asked to part with hundreds of pounds it's easy to be reluctant, particularly when what's on offer isn't new and shiny. But when you look at the list prices of new equivalents it becomes easier to take a bit of a risk and agree to take the lot.

So I'm now the proud owner of a dry suit, BC, regs, at least one cylinder and sundry other stuff. It hasn't seen service for a few years and while a visual inspection revealed no issues, that's no replacement for a professional assessment. I won't be diving with it until it's been signed off as being in working order.

But it proved the point. If you keep your ear to the ground you can pick up scuba gear for a good price.

Scuba Divers are Destroyers

I just read the BBC News story of divers who've discovered what may be the oldest surviving champagne in the world.

It came from a wreck in the Baltic. The world's seas are littered with sunken ships, many of them in shallow coastal waters because that's where the majority of people sail, within sight of land.

As a history lover, I'm looking forward to diving on wrecks. There's something special about getting close of old artefacts of any sort, and swimming around an old ship that relatively few people have seen for decades must be particularly exciting. Especially if you're one of the first to be there following its discovery.

But, sadly, it appears that not all divers respect the historic significance or integrity of a wreck. They're more interested in taking away souvenirs, and damaging the remains in the process. I've already heard plenty of stories of divers who've lifted objects from wrecks in British waters, and I've only been diving for a few months.

I can understand the magpie urge to take away bright, shiny stuff. And I would not be immune to temptation myself. Until I've had the opportunity myself, and made the decision about what to do, I'm not going to judge the behaviour of my fellow divers.  After all, if I find something that's interesting and portable, but leave it behind, the next diver who comes along is unlikely to do the same. So why shouldn't I take it?

Unless active measures are taken to protect a wreck, the reality is that it'll soon be stripped of anything that's easy to lift. And I'm sure not all of it is taken for personal pleasure, but is quickly sold on for a profit. The law says anything removed from the UK's seabed should be reported to the Receiver of Wreck, as it's someone else's property. I wonder how many calls they get from divers?

Removing items from wrecks is one thing - wanton destruction is another. I recently read posts on a scuba diving discussion forum about the destruction of items placed underwater in a quarry, as landmarks for divers.

It seems that some divers can't resist the urge to smash objects simply because they can, without any regard for the inconvenience and annoyance it causes to others. These are the sort who shouldn't be allowed near wrecks at all, because they'd simply break things up for the the sake of it. Not only would they spoil the submerged historic landscape for other divers, they'd also be at risk of wasting vintage champagne!

If you want to read the BBC News article about the discovery of champagne in the Baltic, click here.

Testing Times for Scuba Diving

It's a long time since I sat an exam.

But I had to take one yesterday. Learning to be a scuba diver involves plenty of practical work, in the pool and open water, but there's also a stack of theory to take on board. And your knowledge is tested with an exam.

Our training has covered diverse subjects including human respiration, how to plan a dive, the organisational structure of BSAC, how to dive a wreck responsibly, and more. We've mastered the BSAC dive tables and how to discipher the markings inscribed into compressed air cylinders.

If taking an exam isn't challenging enough, the pass mark is 80%. That's high, but it's all stuff that a diver needs to know.

Before the exam we had a revision session where we went through an example paper. A reasonable number of questions could be answered from common sense and general diving knowledge, while some required an understanding of how to use dive tables or remember technical terms.

There's always a slight nervousness before any exam. Do I know enough? Should I spend a bit more time reviewing my notes? The BSAC exams are marked on the spot, meaning you find out whether you've passed, or failed, there and then.

We were handed the paper and given 30 minutes to complete a multiple choice answer grid. Within moments I spotted questions that I would struggle to answer. Help! Turning the page I began to wish I'd spent more time reading the BSAC manual earlier that morning. My approach was to answer the easy questions and go back to the more difficult ones, and I was skipping too many to be comfortable.

So I was relieved when, moments later, it was discovered we'd been given a more advanced paper by mistake. No wonder I was having difficulty - we hadn't been taught most of this stuff!

We started again with the correct paper and it took me 15 minutes to complete a test for which I'd been given 30. Fortunately this wasn't school and we weren't forced to spend the remaining time in bored silence, waiting for the minutes to tick by.

The good news is that I passed, as did my daughter. But neither scored 100% and we spent time talking through the questions we got wrong. One or two technical terms had escaped me, and some points of procedure were open to interpretation, to me at least.

I have one lesson to complete and that's it, I should become a fully-fledged BSAC Ocean Diver. Which sounds grand, but it's the lowest level of qualification. I'll then have to decide whether to move on to the next level, Sports Diver.

At least I now have a better idea of what that involves, having had a sneak peek at the exam!

Vobster Quay is a Dump

Don't get me wrong - Vobster Quay Inland Dive Centre is a well-equipped dive location.

But there's no getting away from the fact it's a dump. Not that it's very different from other dive centres I've been to or heard about. They're all dumps.

It's curious how an old car, disused aeroplane or a boat that's past it's sell-by date suddenly become more interesting when it's sunk in an equally redundant quarry. Every weekend a fair proportion of the UK's diving community head for one of these holes in the ground, spending their precious recreation time swimming around flooded junk yards.

Today was my first dive in Vobster. During my hour underwater (two 30 minute dives) I encountered several sunken boats, a sliced-up aeroplane, the bridge section from a ship and a garden gnome with a fishing rod, complete with fish. According to their website and map I missed out on various other features including submerged cars and an industrial tumble drier.

The only aquatic life I encountered were hordes of trainee divers, mainly clustered around the many underwater platforms.

I didn't take up diving to see everyday objects in a slightly unusual environment. A disused boat or car isn't any more interesting, to me, for having been sunk.

To be fair, the main function of inland dive centres is to provide an opportunity for diver training and practice. They tend to be old quarries, filled with water, and without the various pieces of discarded machinery they'd be featureless pools where divers would quickly become either bored or lost. Or both.

The apparently random assortment of random rubbish is in fact a collection of carefully placed landmarks, allowing divers to navigate their way around underwater while giving them something to look at. It's also a great way of re-using old stuff, although I don't know how environmentally friendly it is. I assume the stuff is cleaned of toxins, such as oil, before it's tossed in.

I'll probably have to go to Vobster at least one more time to complete my training, and if I keep diving I might dip into an inland site once in a while. But I'm much more interested in diving in places where there's lots of marine life to look at, or interesting underwater features to explore.

That said, our seas have also been used as dumps for hundreds, if not thousands of years!

Scuba Mask Clearing is Easy

If you're struggling with mask clearing, take a break from it.

The other night I spent an hour and a half in the local swimming pool with the sole objective of overcoming this obstacle on my road to becoming a BSAC Ocean Diver.

I went along slight nervous. It's been a few week since my last dive, at Swanage, so I was feeling a little out of practice. I turned up to discover the club's monthly pool dive session was packed with novices on try-dives, getting their first scuba experience.

This was good news because it meant I didn't have an instructor to look after me. They each had a novice to care for and I was left pretty much to do what I wanted. The only thing required was that I completed the mask clearing exercises under supervision.

I've documented my mask clearing problems before. This time, with two sea dives behind me, I felt more confident. While diving off Swanage I'd had to do some minor mask clearing 'for real' when water leaked in. I also just felt more confident being underwater.

Climbing into the pool I found a quiet corner and ducked under. I tried to kneel on the floor of the 1.2m pool and after struggling to stay down I spotted the first problem of the evening - I'd forgotten to pick up a weight belt.

Moments later, with a borrowed 2kg of ankle weights around my waist (yes, it's possible and not because I'm particularly thin) I tried again.

I spent a minute or two kneeling on the pool floor, watching the novices as they were being shown the basics. I was still a little concerned about the mask clearing but it had to be done, so I allowed a small amount of the water in and then cleared it.

No problem. Okay, let some more in and clear. Again, no problem. I encountered none of the issues I'd had before - an inability to blow hard through my nose and subsequent inhalation of water, which had led to anxiety.

Something's either very wrong, I thought, or very right. So let's do the big test - I pulled my mask off completely and then put it back on my face, blowing air out through my nose all the time and clearing it in seconds.

I did it again. And again. It was ridiculously easy. One of the instructors came across to observe me do it and he added a new test, pulling the mask off my face while I looked the other way, and putting it in my hands. Again, I put it back on and cleared it in a moment. I went to the 3m pool, sank to the bottom and again, removing, replacing and clearing the mask presented no problem. I was even enjoying it!

I also witnessed the novice divers being introduced to mask clearing during their try dives. They too appeared to be finding it easy. It was a reminder that not everyone struggles with that particular exercise.

My advice to anyone struggling with mask clearing is to take a break from it and spend more time learning to be comfortable underwater. That worked for me. My two sea dives in Swanage didn't involve any training exercises - we just enjoyed the diving experience. But it gave me the confidence boost I needed to overcome mask clearing.

Some trainee divers, like me, aren't big fans of water. That meant I found it hard to relaxed in the stuff, which in turn made mask clearing a struggle. Those precious extra minutes of dive time have enabled me to become more comfortable, which in turn allowed me to conquer this particular challenge.

I mustn't become over-confident, because that brings its own problems. But I am almost looking forward to my final mask clearing exercise, in open water, this weekend.