How to..
Each week, our entertainments reporter tries out a new activity. See the latest How to.. View the archive. This page last updated: Thursday, May 25, 2006.
How to.. scuba dive
Duncan Hall in his scuba diving kit. (1AL_2141) Picture: ANDY LAITHWAITE
ONE experience I will never forget is the day I went snorkelling on a coral reef off the coast of Kenya.
The difference between seeing the slightly choppy sea on the surface and the wonderful wildlife underneath was breath-taking.
But I did get some underwater envy when I saw two scuba divers swimming down below me among the reefs, while I was left splashing about on the surface with the back of my legs burning red.
So, with that in mind, I was looking forward to my full scuba introduction session with Dive In.
The company, which is based at Gildenburgh Water, off Eastrea Road, Whittlesey, offers two different beginners courses.
The taster session basically gives you an experience of what it is like to scuba dive with all your equipment set out for you.
The course I was on though was a full introduction to scuba diving, which takes you through two modules of the Certified Open Water Diver course.
In this course you are literally taken through collecting and setting up your kit, to the basic skills, which range from putting your head in the water to learning how to dive and surface properly, in the safe confines of the Manor Leisure Centre swimming pool .
On top of that you learn a series of drills, including how to pick up your respirator if you loose it, how to clear your mask, how to switch from snorkel to respirator, how to step into the water from the side of the pool, how to check your kit and how the buddy diving system works.
If it sounds a lot to take in, that is because it is – the two modules are packed tightly into a two-hour session in the swimming pool, which requires a lot of concentration both on the part of the diver and the team of three instructors which take them.
The centre offers you a chance to prepare beforehand though, by issuing everyone taking part with a book detailing the course and a video going through each stage of the two modules.
The equipment every diver has to carry includes a cylinder of air, which fits on a inflatable jacket called a BCD, which you inflate or deflate to control where you want to be in the water.
Attached to the top of the cylinder are two respirators, one for you and one for your buddy who swims alongside you, a device which inflates or deflates your BCD (which can hide in the most annoying places, as I found out) and a gauge to tell you how much air you have left in the tank.
On top of that, you are wearing flippers to power you through the water – something I was not used to at all – a weight belt and a face mask with a snorkel attached.
With all that gear on, you can feel laden down, although it doesn’t weigh nearly as much when you are in the water.
Before we even got close to the water the whole group was taken through picking up their kit and how to assemble it on dry land, before the instructors played the instruction video again to remind everyone what they would be expected to do in their first dives.
Then we all piled into cars to head to the swimming pool itself.
Much of the time in the pool is a bit of a blur now – there is a lot to take in, and much of it was done at breakneck pace. No sooner had I learned how to breathe through the mouth-piece than we were learning what to do if it ever got knocked out of your mouth.
Each process was broken down into five sections to make it easier to learn – with instructor Martin Stanhope leading us through each section, before instructors turned their individual attentions to each diver to make sure they could do it.
The thing you have to remember is that much of the instruction was underwater, so a lot depended on whether you were concentrating on what was being demonstrated in front of you.
I was having a particular problem staying knelt down on the floor of the pool, as my body seemed intent on rising to the surface or spinning me around in the water. This problem was eventually alleviated when one of my fellow divers kindly hooked my arm, otherwise I’d probably have stayed spinning around for the rest of the session.
I have to confess, the sheer weight of instruction being given out left me dazed, not helped by the fact it came after a long day at work, but I somehow muddled through most of the modules.
The main thing I had a problem with was learning how to clear my facemask if it filled with water. On top of that I seemed to get a taste for the pool water, which took every opportunity it could to flood into my mouth, leaving me dazed and uncomfortable.
That said, I felt pretty exhilarated when it was all over – and most of my fellow divers seemed to feel the same at the de-briefing afterwards.
Many were staying on for the rest of the weekend to finish off the first few modules of the Open Water Diver course.
Pauline Forster, who runs the centre, said: “The taster session is just giving people an experience of what it is like underwater.
“We have found it is better to give a fully open view of what they would be letting themselves in for. The full introduction is all about teaching the skills they will need for the courses.
“We get more people signing up for the full course after the introduction than we do for the taster session and the cost of the full introduction is taken off the cost of the full course.
“We tend to get a mixed group of people who have never had a go, to people who had a go on holiday. The ones who have had a go can generally go straight on to the full course.”
The full course can be as short as five intensive days or over two weekends, ideal for last-minute holiday plans, or as long as students want it to take.