It was a huge shock to the body when the dreaded sound of the alarm had made its way through the crisp morning air into the ear of each novice diver, on the morning of Sunday 4th March 2007. It was a similar feeling to that when you wake up for the airport, you don’t want to get out of your lovely warm bed, but you know there’s something better waiting for you across the daunting threshold of your bedroom, if only you could summon up the courage to make the leap of faith into the cold morning air. On most other mornings the alarms would have been turned off and forgotten about until waking up realised you’ve missed all your lectures of the day….again! But something was different; there was a proper reason to get out of bed. The day had finally arrived for the first trip outside of the lovely, warm, clear pool, during relatively daylight hours and into the great, deep, dark unknown of the quarry, at what seemed an unimaginable time in the morning (ok, so it wasn’t that bad, I’m just not a morning person!)
The sky looked grey, but it wasn’t too cold. Bob turned up with the bus exactly on time, too early to finish the cuppa tea, which had to be left, lonely, getting cold on the side. The drive to Vobster was a little subdued, probably as everyone was asleep, but there was still hint of excitement in the air nonetheless.
As the bus joined the queue for entry to the quarry, wait for it………..it started to rain! Whoopee!
We parked up next to the waters edge and unloaded the bus of all the equipment required to keep us happy divers for the day. The business of the day started almost immediately, we got our semi-dry suits on, feeling very self-conscious amongst the vast array of dry suits which we were surrounded by, but regardless, very excited.
The first dive was cold. Pretty damn cold. But not even (what felt like) artic temperatures (to the baby novices) could detract from the fact we were doing a real dive! A REAL DIVE!! After our stride entry, descent and some skills on the training platform, we were let loose to go for a swim, under the ever watchful eye of your lovely instructor. It was great to swim about at last. The visibility wasn’t too bad, about 4-5 meters (I think), enough to see strange objects, like sunken boats, upturned car, and most intriguing of all, half planes, appearing from nowhere, through the haze.
After the dive there was lots of time for burger eating, tea drinking, warming up and of course, not forgetting, the Vobster quarry novice dive trip quiz, prepared by the lovely Amanda. So, with the promise of flapjack with chocolate bits in and an amazing prize for the winning group, we diligently set about completing our quiz as accurately and as conscientiously as humanly possible.
The second dive was great, already adjusted to the cold from the first dive, there were more skills to do, including the dreaded full mask removal, and more exploring, and generally getting a feel for diving in all that equipment.
We got out, de-kitted, got into some lovely warm clothes, drank more tea, and had some lovely flapjack, where the winners of the quiz were announced, and their prize?… Only a massive tub of marshmallows. If only I’d have known, I would have tried harder. Oh well, I know for next time.
All in all a great day enjoyed by everyone, cold novices most of all. Can’t wait for the next one. The marshmallows will be mine!
