On the 14th of December a group of 8 hardy divers headed down to beautiful Babbacombe. Myself (Ben) and Lewis were there for training, Lewis was keen to use his new OWI status to help me get some more of my DL training ticked off. This meant we were first in the water as soon as we got to the dive site as we were planning to complete 3 dives. Our first successful dive was Lewis demonstrating how to be the perfect Dive Leader to me (which he was as always). As we were getting out the water the next 2 divers were heading into the murky water. I have to admit the visibility was pretty snotty, not to worry though as the divers were excited to get into the water.
A beautiful day for December! Credit: Cedric van den Berg
My dives were not the only training going on, Alex was completing the LP3 part of Dive Leader which requires him to plan and manage a days worth of diving under the watchful eye of Instructor Lewis. It was all running to time so far which was good news, and he had planned a night dive into the day which we were all excited about. I know at this point at lot of people will be interested to know what we saw, but I am a terrible fish person and personally am not a fan, I much prefer a big wreck to go explore. But I’m going to make an attempt of writing a list of what we saw down under the waves of Babbacombe Beach. Here it goes: Silt (unsurprisingly), fish, crabs, lobsters, eels. Yes, there is only one type of fish in existence I won’t hear anything on the contrary.
Practical Rescue Management (PRM). Credit: Cedric van den Berg
All divers got their first dive in and everyone seemed to enjoy it even with the sub-par visibility and very cold water for some of the divers in leaky drysuits :/ Before the night dive though there was one more piece of training to be done, this time on dry land. I had to complete my PRM (Practical Rescue Management) part of my DL training. This involved Lewis staging a diving incident with all the divers acting as a different part of the scenario, and me having to take control of the rescue and follow all the safe steps. For this scenario we had Alex towing in an unconscious diver who required resuscitation. Once this stressful scenario had been dealt with we had a debrief where I received feedback. Then it was time for the night dive woo.
Changing waves on the Night Dive. Credit: Cedric van den Berg
This was a great dive which I really enjoyed, even with the reduced vis there is something extra exciting about being underwater at night. I believe everyone felt the same and we all thoroughly enjoyed the dive. The day had been a great success even with some cold divers at points, but I guess that is what you get for going diving in December.
Faffing with Fins! Credit: Cedric van den Berg
On the way back we stopped off at McDonalds for some well-deserved scran.