Wraysbury;
or The Search for Easter Bunny
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Surrey
’s answer to the Loch Ness Monster aka Easter Bunny has recently been
sighted beneath the waves at the Wraysbury Diving Centre.
Two intrepid
explorers from the Banstead Underwater Diving Club (i.e. Alan and Alex
Kennedy, two trainee ocean divers with attitude), and their trusty
guides (i.e. experienced training officers Andrew Hubbard and Julian
Avis) braved the icy waters to search for this illusive creature and the
much reported cache of easter eggs!
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Armed with the
latest equipment from the national Dive show and an understanding bank
manager, Alan and his son Alex sunk beneath the unwelcoming waters for
their first open water dive.
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The search for Easter Bunny proceeded with a swim off the
platforms where we searched sunken boats and a taxi which had clearly
lost its way. Torch es
came in handy
but undoing the clips in 5mm gloves wasn’t easy and led to the
inevitable loss of buoyancy and stirring up of silt (or crap I believe
is the technical term!). The chances of finding our bunny was much
reduced. |
Having experienced a
buddy check, fin pivots and buoyancy control in a swimming pool nothing
prepared us for mask clearing in water at 7 degrees centigrade! The fact
that our buddies where not looking forward to it should have been a clue!
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| Still we remained resolute. |
| Having emerged from dive one, we replenished our spirits
with bacon and sausage sandwiches available from the local natives.
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Alex
even made friends with the local hottie (hot water bottle) to thaw his
frozen fingers. |
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Further tests
followed in order to understand the effects of near freezing water on
the human brains ability to determine surface codes and surface
intervals. Jenny (the Professor) Hubbard, was happy to confirm that in
two hours, dive two could commence.
Dive two was
just as eventful and the two explorers surfaced alive, dry and
thoroughly exhausted.
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So
what did we learn?
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Finding
an experienced club with members prepared to give an extra ordinary
level of support to novice divers is essential. Banstead is such a
club. Jenny’s patience and Andrew/Julian’s leadership help make
the learning experience much more enjoyable.
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The
attention to detail drummed into us in our practice lessons helped
to ensure a safe dive.
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Excitement
is no excuse for not regularly checking air consumption. I was
guilty of not telling my buddy when I reached 100 and then 50 Bar of
air. Returning to the surface with only 30 Bar is not recommended
and won’t happen again! We need to live the mantra “Plan the
Dive and Dive the Plan”.
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I
suspect arranging the 1st open water dive in a snow storm is the
divers’ equivalent of asking an apprentice to go and fetch a new
bubble for the spirit level or bag of sparks for the welder!
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It
feels good to have got two dives under our rather bulky weight
belts!
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Alan
and Alex Kennedy
24
March 2008
Additional photos |
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