Storm Diving

One of the main discoveries of my round-the-world trip last year was that I love scuba diving. I had already done a discovery dive in Turkey and liked it but it was only when I got to Australia and completed my Open Water certification that I realised just how much fun it could be. I continued this hobby when I was in Nha Trang, Vietnam and would have completed my advanced diving course in Ko Tao, Thailand were it not for an unfortunate accident involving a bucket of whiskey, 2 puppies, a talking parrot and some sharp rocks. Nonetheless I arrived back in Ireland determined to keep this hobby alive and kicking. Due to a number of reasons that are mainly financial it was only last Saturday, over a year after returning from my trip, that I got it together to book a dive in the freezing cold Irish waters.

Apparently cold water diving is far removed from the tropical paradise diving I was used to on the Great Barrier Reef and in the Gulf of Thailand. As such, divers must take an orientation cold water dive with a dive master before tackling such waters by themselves. It was to this end that we found ourselves booking a cold water shore dive for the morning of August 16^th. We had already planned to undertake this dive a month previously however a bad spell of Irish weather meant that the visibility would have been practically nil and so we opted to postpone it. Thinking that we couldn’t really go wrong booking a dive in the middle of August we went with last Saturday. We figured even if the weather was bad on the surface, how bad could the visibility get?

The first indication I got that the dive might not go quite as planned was at 8am on the Saturday morning. I awoke to the sounds of a howling gale outside and raindrops being blasted against my bedroom window. Uh-oh, I thought. This can’t be good. I looked out my window and sure enough, there was a small, tropical storm going on in the Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown area. I nonetheless got out of bed and gathered my gear together in the hope that the bad conditions wouldn’t prevent the dive from going ahead. It was while I was getting ready that I received a call from my diving buddy Fi who was equally concerned with the weather conditions. Fi had called Ocean Divers (the crowd we were diving with) and had been advised that dives would still be taking place. Fair enough.

I had originally planned to walk the short(ish) distance from my house in Glenageary to Coal Harbour in Dun Laoghaire however that plan was now out the window. I grabbed a tiny, girly umbrella on my way out (I had left my large, manly one on the LUAS a few days previously) which did a pathetic job of keeping me dry. I was lucky that the bus came almost instantly I reached the bus stop but did little to relieve the moisture I had already accumulated in the short walk from my house. I arrived at the Ocean Divers office in plenty of time but pretty soaked. Fi was running late however such is the nature of scuba divers that everything is very relaxed and laid back and nothing runs on time anyway.

After a while hanging around and grumbling about the shocking weather for this time of year, even by Ireland’s standards, we were assigned our Dive Master, Dave, for the morning. Dave helped us to get kitted out with wetsuits, wetjackets, booties, fins, BCDs (Buoyancy Control Devices), regulators, air tanks and weight belts. Because of the torrential rain and force 10 gale it was decided that it would be easier to change into our wetsuits at the Ocean Divers office rather than outdoors at the dive site. And so several minutes later we found ourselves sitting in the front of Dave’s jeep clad in tight, not-very-sexy spandex wetsuits. What made it interesting was that there were three of us in the front of a two-seater jeep! Fi was in the middle, naturally, and whenever Dave needed to change gears, he was required to slip his hand between Fi’s legs to reach the gearstick. I can certainly see the benefits of a two-seater jeep.

When we arrived at our dive site, Scotsman’s Bay, we stayed in the jeep for several minutes while a briefing was held. Dave filled us in on where he planned to take us and what we might expect to see when we’re down there. I found it difficult to concentrate as the jeep was rocking from side to side such was the strength of the storm raging outside. Our spirits were temporarily lifted when Dave spotted a seal in the water. We were told that seals are very friendly and often like to swim alongside divers and play with them.

After the briefing we ventured out into the hurricane to assemble our scuba gear. It was at this point that we realised that Fi had left her BCD at the Ocean Divers office. Disaster strikes! Several solutions to this problem were considered and eventually we decided to ring Willie who was back at the office and would be leaving soon and driving past us to bring along Fi’s forgotten BCD. This idea seemed even better when Willie informed us on the phone that he would be along in five minutes. I now know that Willie is not the most punctual of individuals. I reckon we spent a good 20 minutes standing in the howling gale and lashing rain in nothing but a spandex wetsuit. The thing I found funniest though was that several people passed us walking dogs and jogging. They were staring at us like we were mad. I felt like saying to them “Why are you staring at us? We’re completely protected in our 14mm thick cosy wetsuits. You’re the feckin’ eejits out walking your dogs and jogging in the lashing rain!”

Eventually Willie and the BCD arrived and we were able to get our dive plan back on track. We assembled the gear in record time and painstakingly hauled it down to the steps leading into the sea. Once we had all our gear on and were ready to go, we one by one entered the water. Now I’m usually used to stepping off a boat to get into the water however this time we literally sat on the step leading into the water and waited for a gigantic wave to come and sweep us into the ocean! We floated in the water for a few moments before descending and beginning the dive.

I’ll admit it, I was a bit freaked out. All the diving I’d done previously was in perfectly calm and clear tropical waters. As I descended, I struggled to see my own hand in front of my face. Imagine how difficult it was to keep an eye on where Fi and Dave were. However we got down to about 4.5m and set off on our journey. While I found the dive to be beneficial and a good bit of experience, it was too stressful to enjoy it properly. I constantly had to look around to see where Fi and Dave were. Then I’d look at my air gauge and depth gauge, get caught up in some seaweed and by the time I was free, I’d have to look for Fi and Dave again.

We ploughed on regardless trying to make the most of it until about 20 minutes in, I began floating to the surface for no apparent reason. I tried my best to keep myself down but I just couldn’t stop myself from ascending. I saw Dave disappear from view and I had already lost sight of Fi a few moments earlier. When you’re diving and you lose someone, the procedure is to spend no more than a minute looking for them underwater and then ascend to look for them on the surface. I therefore floated patiently in the stormy sea waiting for the other two to surface. Dave was right behind me and so we had a quick chat where we decided it would be best to head back as the visibility was so poor. We waited for Fi for a couple of minutes and just as I was beginning to get worried, I head her calling from a short distance away. Although Fi was fine and not exactly a million miles away, it was shocking how separated you can get in such a short space of time.

We arrived back at the shore around 15 minutes later and honestly, I was grateful. The bad visibility meant that we couldn’t see anything underwater and any novelty that the weather conditions produced had long since worn off. The most difficult task was still to come though – getting out of the water! I tried to use the large waves to my advantage and get them to sweep me up the steps. Sure enough I managed to get swept up to the first step but as the wave receded, it pulled me back in with it. I clutched and clawed at the next step but just couldn’t manage to pull myself up. The gear on my back which is virtually weightless in the water weighs about 2 tonnes out of the water which didn’t help matters either. Eventually, Dave helped me up out of the water but not before I got my finger lacerated to pieces when a wave smashed me against one of the steps.

We were out of the water but now we had to get dressed in the rain! After a while I had my clothes on but was none the drier for it. The only thing left was the annoying part of diving – rinsing out your gear and stowing it away. We drove back to Ocean Divers and got that done as quickly as possible. Once we’d gotten a stamp in our log books to say we’d completed the orientation dive, we were on our way. Earlier in the week we had made plans to hit the pub after the dive thinking the weather would be nice enough to warrant it. We decided to change those plans somewhat and ended up buying the makings of an epic fry and heading back to my place.

A few hours later we were showered, dry, full and drinking a few cold cans of beer at home while the storm raged on outside. Wig, Rachel and Aileen were all present too and later in the day Ali came home from Portugal to a big surprise. Click here for details! The dive was interesting and I’m glad I did it however I am 100% certain that the next time I do a dive in Irish waters, it will be when the weather is of a sufficient standard to ensure I can at least see what’s in front of me. For all I know, that seal may have been swimming right beside me and I wouldn’t even have known. In fact, it’s likely as Dave reckons he was slapped in the face by the seal’s tail!

Now away with ye…