Across the Pond: Scuba Diving in the UK

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GuestPost

 

Today’s blog installment is a guest post by a new diving friend from across the pond, Iain Sharp. 

Dive sites around the United Kingdom

I have been following and tweeting with Sheryl for a little while now and I was delighted when, after learning of my desire to blog a little more, being given the honour to contribute to her pages too.

To give you some background, I am based in Northern England and a lot closer to the (old) York rather than the New York! I have been scuba diving for many years and given that in England you’re never more than about 80 miles from the sea in any direction, a lot of my diving has been around the waters of this island.

The way that many people learn to scuba dive here in the UK may be different to the way that many people learn elsewhere in the world. Whilst there are the ‘resort course’ people who learn intensively whilst on vacation at a foreign destination and dive stores who offer a range of courses from the likes of PADI and other organisations, many people learn to scuba dive in the UK through a club environment. Whilst both of the other methods are perfectly legitimate ways to learn to dive, I’d like to tell you a little more about learning with a club as it is probably not something that you’re overly familiar with.

The club will usually have a (swimming) pool session at local pool one evening a week and there is also a social meeting or gathering in that other great British institution, the pub, on a weekly basis too. Whilst the members all pay a fee in to the club, there is no profit taken from the organisation and in another Corinthian demonstration of commitment, the instructors that teach for the club don’t take payment for their skills either. Since no one is making a profit, many clubs can afford their own sets of equipment, so that you don’t have to go buy lots of expensive kit or invest the monies in to things like their own rigid inflatable boats (remember, not far to tow it to the sea either!)

Scuba diving in the UK can be a mirror for life in general. The clubs are great sources and exchanges of information. This avoids the making of mistakes yourself and the use of more experienced people for their guidance. Certainly in life, it is very difficult to succeed without the help of others and surprisingly, a lot of this information and guidance is available without huge cost. It is often available for free or certainly inexpensively. Furthermore, with modern communication methods like the internet, message boards and blogs there is no shortage of information or guidance ‘out there’.

Given that the British are supposed to be a sea-fairing nation, there is also no shortage of nautical advice available for divers, however the seas around the UK are notoriously fickle in places and many dives in the sea need careful planning.

Perhaps the first piece of planning, especially for those that experience their diving in more tropical climates, is dealing with the cold. The waters around Britain, even in the height of a warm Summer, rarely exceed the low 60s Deg.F and a drysuit is pretty much essential all the year around.

Tidal movement at some sites can also be quite fierce and knowledge of the tides and charts is also useful. Generally, for scuba, dives are aimed for ‘slack’ water when the tides is not moving and there is a small time window to take advantage of the lack of current. If this is missed, some sites become dangerous / un-diveable at the height of the tidal movement and sweeping an unwary diver several miles away, with the need for the involvement of the rescue services to assist them.

Again, there are parallels with life in general. Planning for the future is essential and whilst life in general does not have it down physical chart / map, there is certainly a sizeable amount of navigation to be undertaken and storms to be avoided. Much of the diving that is done around the UK is pre-planned and like icebergs, hitting the water safely and successfully is merely the part of the iceberg that shows above the water. The planning and organizational part, including the clear instructions to everyone in the team as to what is expected of them and where they need to be (often this is time-critical, given the tidal movement) is often done some days before the actual dive takes place. There are even times that due to the weather or other circumstances, when the safest way forward is to cancel plans and come back again another time and try them. It wasn’t a case that the plan itself was ‘wrong’ or not up to the task, but merely because of things beyond the control of everyone contrived to stop the successful execution of the plan. Diving in the UK requires a certain amount of pragmatism that should also be transferred to life in general!

I find scuba diving to be a great way of keeping my own life in balance. It nurtures the human spirit to explore and see what is out there and beyond. It is non-competitive, learning and often cathartic experience. It allows an all too brief observation and entry in to an alien world that is often so close to our very doorsteps. It also provides excellent exercise opportunities and is a great way of getting fitter. I also hope this blog has given you some ideas of how some of the skills used in successful scuba diving can also be used to enhance your wider life in general, bringing your success both above and below the waves.

Guest Contributer: Iain Sharp is a scuba instructor based in Northern England. Visit his website: www.fivemetrestop.com. You can find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter: @FiveMetreStop.

 

A Room Without a View…

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…or how I spent 2hrs, 45 minutes of my vacation in a Hyperbolic Chamber

The View from Below

This past July I finally took a much needed vacation to the Turks & Caicos Islands to go scuba diving. I had been looking forward to getting back into the water since it had been two years since my last dive vacation. I was anxious to use my new camera and underwater camera.

Everything started out great. I arrived on the island of Providenciales on schedule and after the short cab ride to Club Med I joined my friends who had already been there for a week, for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach…ahhh heaven!

The following morning I woke early firmly first day of diving. It felt great to jump in and once again visit with the undersea world. A couple of reef sharks showed up to welcome me back, as did a sea turtle. What more could I ask for? I noticed the abundance of Lionfish on the reef however. And, consequently, the scarcity of other reef fish.

I tried out various settings on my camera trying to figure out the best ones for shooting underwater. I guess it probably worked have better if I hadn’t just bought the camera the week before I left for my trip! Reading the manual once just didn’t prepare me for all the shooting options. After 3 days however, I was starting to get the hang of it

My fourth day of diving started out like any other dive day, except perhaps for the slight nauseous feeling that I still had since coming up the night before from the night dive. Once I got into the water however I felt fine. I usually dive with 3 other buddies. My usual buddy was off taking a specialty course so it was just three of us. At the beginning of the dive one of my buddies told me that this other guy “might” end up tagging along with us since his buddy, one of the instructors, might have to take care of a student who had trouble clearing. I should have known that this uncertain buddy situation was not a good idea. We all signaled ok and proceeded on the dive, which for me maxed at 114 ft.

We were swimming along the wall, and I was taking pictures when I noticed that two of my buddies were getting too far from me and the other guy, who I assumed was with us was way back and much deeper than me. I waited and motioned for him to come shallower. He didn’t so instead I swam towards my regular buddies to catch up.

Maybe it was the exertion of swimming to catch up and fussing with my new camera, but I seemed to be running low on air. I signaled to my buddy that I was low and that she should stay close in case I needed to breathe off her octopus. We starts to ascend to about 15-18 ft to do our safety stop while swimming towards where we thought the boat was. I tried breathing from her octopus but the hose was twisted and I couldn’t get comfortable so I decided to continue to breathe off my own tank. What I didn’t realize was that as my tank emptied, it got very light, and consequently so did I, and I ended up surfacing too fast. I remember seeing a red flashing ascent warning.

On the surface I felt fine and we proceeded to swim to the boat after signaling to the crew on board that we were ok. After a surface interval of about an hour I dove my second dive at a max depth of 58 ft for 50 minutes. Other than a bit of a current, this dive was uneventful.

About 3 hours after my last dive, I was relaxing on the beach when I noticed a pain in my right wrist when I tried to move it forward or backward. I immediately went to see Alain, the scuba doctor to see if I should be concerned. He put me on O2 for 30 minutes and gave me an aspirin. There was no change at that point so he decided that I should go to the clinic on the island where they had a chamber. The

Having left my stuff on the beach, I went back to get it and take a shower. By the time I started to walk back to get the taxi to the clinic, my wrist was feeling much better. I was on O2 during the 15 minute cab ride to the clinic and again at the clinic for another 30 minutes. Dr. Euan Menzies, the British doctor at the clinic suggested that I go into the chamber to be on the safe side, although he did suggest that it was possible that my wrist pain could be tendinitis. If after the first 10 minutes the pain went away completely, then I would stay for a US Navy TT5 which would be for 2 hours, 45 minutes. If not I’d need to stay longer. Thankfully that was all I needed.

To complicate matters, I had to share the chamber with another fellow diver who was not as lucky as I was. I only had what the doctor called “pain only” DCS, whereas my companion was affected neurologically, unable to move his arms.

The inside of the chamber was pretty tight with three of of inside (me, the other patient and a tender to look after us). In addition, due to the pressure at depth, it was also extremely hot. We had to wear oxygen masks to breathe, with “air” breaks every so often. Needless to say, this was not a comfortable experience. My yoga breathing came in handy to keep my anxiety level down.

We were brought down to 60ft and, just like we were in the water, I had to clear my ears as we went down to relieve the pressure. We stayed at 60ft for about an hour and a half (although it seemed much longer to me) and then were slowly brought up to 30ft. After a while I was told to go into the smaller outer chamber, where they would be able to slowly bring me back up to the surface, while the other chamber remained at depth. While the outer chamber was quite small and I was alone in there, sitting on the floor, it was much more comfortable than the other space. Because we were getting shallower, it was a lot cooler in there. After another half hour I was at the surface and finally released. Time spent in the chamber: 2 hours, 45 minutes. I don’t know how I could have handled any more time in there. I’m not sure if it is this way in all chambers, but I wasn’t allowed to bring in a book or ipod (no metal and nothing flamable) so it is basically just sitting or laying down, breathing oxygen through a mask and staring at the walls. Pretty boring.

Overall I will say it was a pretty surreal experience, one that I do not want to ever repeat. All I can say is after seeing the bill I am so glad to have DAN (Diver Alert Network) insurance! I still had to put a deposit on my credit card and had to put the bill though my insurance first but, once they deny it, DAN will pay. If you are a diver, DAN is something you cannot be without. Accidents can happen, even to experienced divers like myself. I was given immediate and professional care by everyone at the Menzies Medical Practice.

I spent the rest of my holiday on the surface, swimming, snorkeling, sunning and hitting a few tennis balls, but still wishing that I could join my friends under the sea. Oh well, next time…

I’d rather be Beneath the Sea

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Sheryl Checkman and David Dunleavy at Beneath the Sea

Designer, Sheryl Checkman with artist David Dunleavy at his booth at Beneath the Sea

I would love to have been beneath the sea today but since that wasn’t possible I did the next best thing – I took a bus out to the Meadowlands Expo Center to “Beneath the Sea,” the annual Consumer Dive Show. I got to listen to some interesting seminar presentations, which succeeded in further wetting my appetite to get back into the water. I re-lived past dives during a presentation on the Turks & Caicos Islands by Michel Gilbert & Danielle Alary, discovered some new Photoshop tips from Larry & Denise Tackett and learned about photographing models underwater with photographer Jason Heller. Jason’s newsletter, Dive Photo Guide is a great resource for underwater photographers. In between seminars I got a chance to catch up with some friends from the two dive clubs that I belong to: OceanBlue Divers and NYUPS (New York Underwater Photographic Society).

And that was just the morning.

After the seminars I set off to walk the show, make some contacts and see who else I would run into. I stopped by my friend, David Dunleavy’s booth to see his latest work and catch up. David paints beautiful ocean life paintings and murals. I even bought one of his t-shirts. If you like the t-shirt that I have on in the photo above, it’s one of my “Life is Balance® Neutral Buoyancy Scuba designs.

I joined REEF to show my support for the ocean environment. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots organization helps conserve marine ecosystems by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active ocean stewards and citizen scientists. I bought a beautiful DVD  called “Sensational Seas Two” which is a compilation of various top underwater photographers and videographers and is narrated by Stan Waterman and Annie Crawley. It’s a wonderful view into the undersea world and all proceeds benefit ocean charities. I can’t wait to show it to my friends who don’t dive and always ask me what it is that makes me so obsessed with the sport!