The Chamber

The latest location to witness the crazies from Wraysbury was the The Diver Clinic in Reading!!

After a little detour round Reading......(Its not the easiest place to find!) we arrived at the Clinic, to be greeted by Spencer and his colleague Tim. If only they realised what they where letting themselves in for.

After the introductions including Paul's shocking admission that he only likes diving because of the rubber, Spencer began an interesting and informative lecture/discussion on DCI. This included the signs and symptoms, treatment , accident figures( there aren't that many !) and some cracking stories about the chamber and its visitors.(Don't worry no names were mentioned)

We then ventured to the Chamber.........after changing into our free t-shirts and jogging bottoms. Due to the nature of the chamber no out side clothing can be worn inside the tube.

 Due to the size of the chamber we split into two groups, so Duncan ,Yvonne,Clive, Paul and Arthur went in first.

The dives were to be to 7 metres for approx 20 minutes, the one the everyone noticed was how quickly you had to start equalizing , almost the moment we left the surface. Once moving the real fun began when you start breathing Heli-Ox(a combination of Helium and Oxygen). Lots of squeaky voices and giggling. Thanks to technology those outside the chamber can hear what's going on inside......and the windows give you an interesting view inside.....

This all made for an interesting experience........Then it was the second groups turn, Mark, Chantelle, Louise and Simon ventured into the tube. Twenty minutes and loads of giggles later they emerged.

An enjoyable and fact filled evening that gave us all an insight into how the chamber runs and how best to avoid going there in the first place.

We would like to thank the staff at the Diver Clinic for their time and patience with our motley crew, and for making such a serious subject good fun.

Nemo 33- The Belgium Adventure

Preparing for any kind of dive expedition takes meticulous planning, we had Paul do all the arrangements for us– enough said!  The night before saw everybody gathering kit and packing, the list was exhaustive, swim suit, towel, mask, qualification cards, passport and ticket, yes it’s that simple and no massive kit bags are required. 

Arriving at St. Pancras in the early morning found a quick coffee and breakfast to be in order. At this point we discovered the first flaw to our plan, no bacon sandwiches  - come back Arthur, all is forgiven!

The journey in itself was unremarkable, Mark read his kindle, Richard and Neo Slept, Yvonne and Chantelle nattered, Ruth laughed and Paul bounced around like a kid with ADHD!

Once in Brussels we were guided by Yvonne and seasoned traveller Neo, however the trams were nowhere to be found and taxis were only conspicuous by their absence. Our hero Paul eventually leapt in to save the day, taking his  life in his hands by jumping into the road to stop an oncoming taxi. It was then our turn and we all diced with death and Belgian traffic police -  seven people squeezing into six seats with a taxi driver who had no idea of where we were going. 

The front of house staff at Nemo do little to help you or explain what to do or where to go, but once the bell rang and we headed to the pool the support staff there were much better at explaining what do, in Italian, French and English! All the kit is ready for you to use, but check carefully what you pick up as some of the kit is fairly worn and getting a bit rough round the edges.  All of our tanks ranged from 140 – 160 bar so for any new divers a reminder to keep a check on the air is important.

Finally we get to dive, well after ten minutes of snorkelling!  Don’t expect to see anything exciting in the water, there is no lifeboat and certainly no fish, but you can have fun waving at people in the restaurant whose windows look into the pool.  After playing at ten metres for a while we headed towards the 33 metre tunnel.   There are some amazing sights to be seen in diving and looking down the 33 metre tube will never be in the top ten for divers who have been there and done that, however for people who have never dived in blue water or past 15 metres or so it will be number one.  At first it just looks dark and dim but as your eyes adjust you can see the bottom and can’t wait to get down there.  A downside, can I think of one, oh yeah, lots of dive computers means lots of beeping it may not be you, but it could be. Keep an eye on your computer and make sure you know what you are looking at, that no deco time runs out faster than you think.  When you are coming up it is easy to go too fast as you get lifted by the bubbles of people below you, there is a ladder on the wall so when you get to your deep stop it is really easy to be safe and keep at the right depth.  There are three ‘caves’ to explore.  But unlike the unfortunate divers in ‘Sanctum’ you will have no difficulty finding your way out the amazingly room shaped caves!  Overall this is a great venue for training and gaining experience.  It gives new divers the chance to experience deep water in a warm and clear environment.  More experienced divers can practise skills or play with cameras.  For me as a fairly inexperienced diver to have the likes of Mark, Richard and Yvonne around to keep an eye on things and to share good practise was invaluable. 

There are certain rituals in diving, some are for safety like checking your o rings, but the best ones are for fun like the after dive beer and where better to find a nice beer than Belgium?  A short and cheap tram ride gets you in the city centre of Brussels where there are a multitude of bars and restaurants and we spent a very pleasant afternoon eating, drinking and putting the world to rights before realising that we had to hit the chocolate shops for the various wives, husbands, children and significant others that we had left behind.  A little side note for Paul’s better half Johanne – yes, Paul really was in Belgium, and yes I think you should have had a much better present than a box of chocolates!

There are various tales from the day which will go down in Wraysbury legends, Chantelle desperately needing the loo, but with a lack of 30 cents giving the Belgian toilet attendant a ‘souvenir’ £2 coin.  Or indeed Neos effort to educate us in the way of culture by wanting to take us to the Museum of Famous Belgian People, if you know who they are answers on a postcard to . . . .

This was my first outing with the Wraysbury crew and all I can say is “Oh my god that was so much fun.  Where are we going next?..... When are we going ? ” 

Ice Diving the Return

We arrived to find ice again so rather than stop diving, we decided to run Ice Diving Specialities!

After spending sometime in the classroom going through the theory and safety aspects of Ice diving we ventured out onto the ice.

With chainsaw in hand we proceeded to cut several triangle shaped openings in the ice to allow access/egress from the water. Once we got kitted up we entered the water to lay the lines, one line from the confined area taking us over the bus and the second from the middle jetty to the Lifeboat. The visibility was 10 metres plus...it was in a word awesome!

So with lines laid and all divers briefed we entered the water accompanied by photographers from Sport Diver, first the divers took turns following the static line swimming over the bus and playing with the air bubbles formed under the ice and of course posing for the cameras.

After a hot drink (water temp was around 3 degrees) and a debrief we ventured in for the second dive.

On the second dive we practised reeling off from the static line in buddy pairs, the students also took it in turns to be attached to a tether which was manned by our very patient shore support. More posing for the cameras and also we demonstrated what use a knife was on the 3/4 inch thick ice....as you can probably guess not much use at all!

After two dives and some good fun we retired to the Scubar for warm beverage, some food and a debrief, oh and a beer.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone on completing the course and also how much fun it was to dive with you all. And i look forward to seeing you all diving in the near future.

We also put together a little video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TZy8xx3cHU

Ice Diving

We arrived at the lake this weekend to snow and ice!

And like a proper dive centre we decided to take the opportunity to run the Ice Diving Speciality!

After spending some time in the classroom going over the theory side of the course we ventured outside.
 With dry suits on and  various ice breaking implements Duncan, Paul and myself broke an entrance point into the ice then preceded to lay a line for the students to follow. With this vis between 8-10 metres finding the Lifeboat to tie of the rope was the easy bit, the hard point was breaking the ice from underneath even with a club hammer!!( this is why we ask you to be a qualified ice diver or take the course as the surface is no longer an option!)

We conducted our dives under the watchful eyes of  Dan and his support team of Jaye, Jo and Arthur who made sure all ropes and tethers where well looked after as well as the hardy souls in the water.

Duncan and Paul enjoyed the whole relaxing feeling of being under ice........their words not mine!

Hopefully a few more people will come down and experience this very rare opportunity to do such a specialised course in the UK.

Also big well done to Paul and Duncan for completing the course and for our surface support for being our support on a rather chilly day.

9 Go mad in Lanzarote!

On 19th November nine of us set out to Lanzarote to enjoy some winter sun and as much diving as possible! We arrived at Arrecife airport where the temperature was a lovely 28 degrees and the sun was shining, making a change from gloomy blighty.
Once we got our rooms sorted we headed out for some food, a couple of light ales and to meet up with Steve and Wendy from Safari Diving. I would like to add at this point that Duncan found the joys of caramel vodka and boy did he regret it in the morning along with his room mates Dan and Mac!
For the first dive we went out with Yokin just to check out the locals including a Grouper and an Angel Shark.
After that we decided to venture out on our own, so with cameras at the ready we went for a bimble following Duncan who became our underwater Tom Tom due to his uncanny knack of taking us exactly where we wanted to go and bring us back.
Over the course of the week we enjoyed some awesome diving and in between Louise completed her Advanced Open Water course and her Digital Photography Speciality, Dan, Duncan and George completed their Deep Speciality, Clive completed his Digital Photography, Night and Deep Speciality and Valerie completed her Advanced Open Water course! Huge Well done to those chaps!

We also enjoyed some great nights out with some really bad singing and dancing, darts matches, Everton trying to play football and lots of food.

I had an awesome time with some great people and a big thank you to Safari Diving for making us feel so welcome and helping us to do some great diving.

We shall return next year if you want to join us!