Three days, two lakes and one leaky dry suit

TL;DR: As of today I'm a BSAC Ocean Diver. Three days, one pool, two lakes, one online exam. I lost a mask, found out a dry suit is not always dry, and spotted a loose weight belt at 18 metres. Ten out of ten, going again.

I've wanted to learn to dive properly since I was a teenager, off the back of a few holiday dives that never turned into anything. It sat on the someday list for years. Then I found out that Rebekah, a friend through my wife's work, is a diving instructor, and the someday list got considerably shorter.

I did the course with Turtle Diving Scuba, alongside Cameron, who was learning at the same time. Three days of training plus the online theory and exam. The appeal was simple: if the chance to dive comes up on holiday, I now turn up with the skills and the qualification already in hand.

Day one: a friend's swimming pool#

Kitting up, the regulator, the BCD (the vest that inflates and deflates and keeps you where you want to be in the water), then about a dozen drills. Mask removal and replacement. What to do if you or your buddy runs out of air. All of it in a heated pool where the worst case is standing up.

Which is the point of a pool. It also meant I finished it itching to try somewhere I couldn't just stand up.

Day two: Wraysbury#

Same kit, more confidence, one wetsuit, and water noticeably colder than the 20-something degrees I'd been spoiled with. We stepped straight in off the side, which feels deeply odd with that much gear strapped to you.

Cameron had trouble equalising his ears and had to call the session early, which does happen. The rest of us dropped to six metres and ran the same skills again. Taking your mask off at six metres is a different sport to taking it off in a pool.

Then, back on the surface, lying on a fully inflated BCD and feeling quite pleased with myself, I watched my mask slide off and head straight for the bottom of the lake. Rebekah went and found it. Only once she surfaced did we learn how mildly panicked she'd been, on account of dive masks not being cheap. Lesson permanently learned: hold onto your mask.

The second dive was out to a sunken boat, and the first time I had any real freedom to just look around. A few fish, something lobster-shaped, and the distinct feeling of getting hooked.

Day three: Surrey Hills, and the dry suit that wasn't#

Between sessions I'd asked Rebekah about dry suit training. Short version: a wetsuit gets wet, a dry suit keeps the water out so you can wear normal clothes underneath. In UK water that means deeper and longer with less chance of getting cold. In theory.

I did as much of the kitting up unaided as I could and was quietly pleased with how it went. Entry was a backward roll this time, the second entry being a forward roll. Still strange, still heavy.

The dry suit adds a bit to manage: a button on the chest to add air so the suit doesn't squeeze you, and a valve on the wrist to dump it. Raise your left arm, the air escapes, the suit tightens up. The drill that comes with it is inversion recovery: air migrates to your feet, your feet head for the surface, and you roll to get out of it. Very funny in other people's videos. Less funny when you remember a fast ascent is one of the genuinely dangerous things you can do down there.

At lunch I discovered that “dry suit” is more of an aspiration than a promise. My entire upper body was soaked, either a leak or water getting in past the seals. I'd been warned it can happen, it wasn't a cold day, and a spare jumper and a hot drink sorted it out.

The 20 metre dive#

The last one was the big one, the 20 metre dive the course requires. Cameron, Rebekah and I dropped down into the quarry together. It got cold quite suddenly at around 10 metres, and we checked depth between us on hand signals. We followed the rock faces looking for anything alive and found very little.

By 18 metres the visibility had dropped off a cliff and we somehow found ourselves in the middle of some tree branches. As we started up, I got myself upright and realised my weight belt felt loose. Several kilos of lead, which is the only thing keeping me down there, about to drop somewhere deeper than I'm qualified to follow, while I go up faster than I'd like with not much say in it.

I stayed calm, held the belt, and we surfaced. The dive was ending there anyway, we were getting low on air. Time goes very strange underwater.

What I actually took away#

Staying calm is the whole skill. Visibility disappears, kit shifts, masks get knocked, and none of it is a problem if you keep breathing normally and deal with it. I had two or three “oh dear” moments across the three days and I can see exactly how someone panics in any of them.

Also: hold onto your mask.

Next up is Nemo 33 in Brussels, a 33 metre indoor heated pool and the fourth deepest in the world. Warm water, no silt, no tree branches. I can't wait.

Fancy learning?#

If you've been thinking about it, take this as your sign. I put it off for well over a decade and the whole qualification took three days.

I learned with Turtle Diving Scuba, taught by Rebekah, in a group of two. Patient, thorough, and nobody made me feel daft for sending a mask to the bottom of a lake on day two. If you're anywhere near Surrey and you want to get in the water, start with them:

Website → amphibianscuba.co.uk
Facebook → Turtle Diving Scuba