Members Stories

I joined BSAC – Sheffield SCUBA in August 2024 as a Discovery Diver after finding my passion for scuba diving in Thailand’s famous Phi-Phi Islands. Since then, with the amazing support of Sheffield Scuba Club instructor team, I’ve trained and practiced at Ponds Forge every Wednesday night, aiming to advance to Ocean Diver and eventually Sport Diver. My goal is to get to the stage where I can enjoy the real fun of scuba diving trips and liveaboards, which aren’t open to Discovery “amateurs”, but also to simply relish the serenity of scuba diving every week, even in the pool.

During the autumn and winter of 2024, the club couldn’t organize any open water trips for Discovery Divers, so I had no opportunities to dive in UK open waters. Therefore, I was thrilled when the club organized a scuba diving day at Capernwray on April 19th, with a significant presence of instructors.

This was a fantastic opportunity for me and Nat, my much younger scuba trainee buddy, to test our “first half” of Ocean Diver skills test – OO1 and OO2.

April 19th was Easter Saturday, and my wife and I decided to book a cottage in Warton to properly enjoy my first experience in UK open waters, and the beautiful southern part of the Lake District. For those interested, Warton is just 10 minutes’ drive off Capernwray Diving Centre.

I had one big question in my mind: Would I enjoy diving in cold water? This was the main difference compared to my first dive experience in the Andaman Sea. I wasn’t sure, but I tried to prepare for it taking cold showers every morning to get used to the cold water. I even discovered a system to help me endure the cold water by distracting my brain with counting…1-100, 2-100, 3-100…

My wife and I travelled to Warton the day before, and she had the great idea of checking out the diving place. We were pleased to find this charming lake and a dedicated, well-organized diving centre. We took some pictures and dropped off the cylinder for filling to save time the next day.

On the diving day, we were lucky as the weather was better than expected, with no rain. The frenzy of early morning messages on the Sheffield Scuba WhatsApp group was the testimony of everyone’s excitement, the prelude of a great scuba day despite the early morning start pain and the long drive from Sheffield.

After the morning pre dive briefing, I went to collect my cylinder and prepare my kit. Then, I headed straight to the dry suit rental cabin where I received help to don it properly. In hindsight, I wish I had gone straight to the water afterwards, but I had another brief with my instructor Tessa to plan the dive. To avoid overheating in the canteen, I had to open the top of my suit. Later, I got back into my suit and zipped it up, thinking it was done correctly. I would learn though that was not the case.

After the final buddy check I finally got into Capernwray’s shallow water entrance and Tessa asked me to put my face in the water to get a sense of how cold it was. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as shockingly cold as I had expected; it was around 10º Celsius, so double digit cold. I was quite hot in the dry suit after walking 200 meters from the car park to the water’s edge with all my equipment on, so I couldn’t wait to get in the water.

However, it wasn’t meant to be that easy. As soon as I got in, I felt water flooding my dry suit, and it was cold. Not a great start.

I was immediately sent to change my dry suit, and a quick visual inspection revealed that the zip wasn’t fully closed. I forgot to ask my buddy to check my zip.

The rental centre staff weren’t happy about this, as it was a busy day, and they were struggling to keep up. They explained that I needed to take responsibility for properly donning the dry suit. Head down, I accepted the criticism, and they kindly provided me with another dry suit and undersuit.

An hour later, I made another attempt to get in the water. Buddy check, shallow water entrance, face in the water all that again. To my own surprise and my instructor’s bewilderment, I stopped and said, “I think I am getting water in my dry suit.” I had to get out again, and Pete, my other instructor was asked to check my undersuit. He visually inspected my dry suit and then opened it to check my undersuit. It was a hilarious moment when he started touching the parts where I claimed to feel cold water. Although it wasn’t funny for me or Pete, I bet it was amusing for bystanders. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that moment—it would probably have made it to the BSAC magazine.

The verdict was clear: my undersuit was wet, but there was no obvious entry point for the water. So, back to the rental centre I went.

When the lady from the till saw me again, they looked shocked, like they were seeing Captain Hook while Peter Pan was on vacation. I stayed calm, and they managed to keep it together and didn’t kick me out. Instead, they meticulously checked my suit. I tried to offer suggestions, but they had no interest in my opinion, so I properly “zipped it” this time. After checking, they discovered a leak in the neck seal—this time, it wasn’t my fault. I felt vindicated.

Another hour and a third dry suit later, I made a third attempt to get in the water. By this point, my hips hurt from the 8 Kg weight belt and felt a bit tired of walking up and down the hill with all the kit on. I also start feeling frustrated, not only because I was on my third dry suit in a few hours, but because I struggled with reattaching the hose to the dry suit during the final buddy check—something that had never been an issue for me before. Tessa encouraged me, and we finally got in the water. After three hours of trying, I was finally in the cool water of Capernwray and diving. Hallelujah!

Tessa took the lead, and we started a slow descent. The water was clear with good visibility and descending was calm. That felt nice and reassuring. Short in the dive lots of trout welcomed us and, like well-behaved pets, joined the dive with their effortless moves.

We left behind the 2 m platform and moved towards the 6 m platform. I noticed Tessa checking my skills, buoyancy, alternative finning technique, gas check. We reached the 6 m platform and sturgeons, the Capernwray stars, appeared in our site. They were very friendly, and we could even pet them.

Tessa indicated to get in kneeling position on the platform to start the skills check. I realised I was struggling with a bit of positive buoyancy that made me unstable on the platform, but Tessa noticed and from nowhere hanged another 2 Kg of weights on me – not sure where she produced those weights, loan from sturgeons maybe?

We start the series of basic skills check. Regulator in and out, regulator recovery, mask partial and full flooding, houses disconnections and reconnection, removal of air from dry suit and so on. I was pleased that everything went well including the houses disconnection and connection. Tessa was applauding me, and, in my mind, I heard her saying – “You see, I told you are overthinking it”.

On the regulator recovery skill check, due to kneeling position, I didn’t properly lean my right shoulder and couldn’t recover the regulator quick enough. So, Tessa asked me to repeat the exercise but everything else went better that I expected. Even removing air from dry suit was well executed although it was only my third time in a dry suit.

We moved further towards other wonders of Capernwray, the machine gun, Devil statue – where Tessa stopped for the Devil kiss, the pedals and mirrors robot. I have no idea if these are the real names for all these things because none of them are on the Capernwray diving site map, but it was good fun.

We stayed at 6-8 m for a few more minutes and then the gas check revealed the stark contrast between my air consumption compared to Tessa’s that barely used any air at all. I thought she has an air bank somewhere hidden – maybe a deal with the Devil? We slowly returned, not before Tessa fed the fish to express her gratitude for allowing us to ungracefully intrude their world.

Getting out of the water instantly reminded me of the weight of my equipment and I wished I could remove the weight belt and cylinder there and not on top of the hill.

After doffing the kit and taking the cylinder for re-fill we met for the debrief in the canteen where lunch was also served. Not considering the dry suits saga the dive went well, and Tessa was satisfied with my dive.

With OO1 out of the way next step was OO2 with Peter and my much younger buddy Nat, who is doing his BSAC Ocean Diver qualification for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Pete explained us what we had to do for OO2 and then we planned the dive. Although I felt tired, I was keen to get in the water to get this done with.

The OO2 part was more challenging that I thought, and the main reason was to conduct a AS (out of air scenario) skill test. The practice was to simulate AS at 6m, get to the surface and inflate “casualty’s” BCD using two methods – first method, casualty inflates its own BCD and second method the hero inflates casualty’s BCD. As both of us had to demonstrate both methods we’ve done the up and down trip four times, and this was exhausting. At some point during an ascent as hero I remember me and Nat spinning as in an elegant underwater ballet dance. But this wasn’t Swan Lake, and I was no ballerina, so I got really dizzy and had to stabilise to stop the spinning. Hence, we continued the ascent in a not so elegant fashion… When we got to the surface, I was shattered and asked Pete to stop and rest for few more minutes before repeating the practice.

We continued testing all other skills required and then slowly moving back to 2 m platform and shallow water entrance point. I was so exhausted, barely able to walk back to the car and doff the kit.

During the debrief Pete expressed his satisfaction with our skills – success!

After a long day, with dry suit adventures, frustrations and challenges but also lessons learned and the pleasure of amazing water and dives I was bone-tired, but pleased that I was finally “half” way on my long journey from Discovery to Ocean Diver.