Wahey! Some real dives.

Me and Miros the dive instructor took an Open Water Student up to Stoney Cove diving centre near Leicester to complete his training. It was my first time up there, I’ve heard alot about it but never got the chance to go before since its about a 2 hour drive from London.

The beginning was raining cats and dogs in typical English fashion. I managed to get kitted up in the vans rear compartment, as there was much less equipment so plenty of room. Had a mosey around the dive equipment shop (well stocked but expensive!). By the time the student was ready however, the sky beautifully cleared up as you can see in the pics above.

We completed all required dives, and managed to swim around for a slightly extended period of time. Fortunately the student was very cold-resistent wearing just a wetsuit. It also helped that the water visibility was unusually high with a good 10 meters. Unfortunately Miros was still recovering from a cold, so we couldn’t go down to the maximum 18m depth allowed for an Open Water diver. Nevertheless, looking at the sunken structures that were dropped around 5m was enough. The foray into the “house” and the change in colour hues as you go into a overhead environment reminded me of the times I went into the caverns and wrecks in the many other places I’ve dived around the world. It made me miss the old days to be honest.

I’m also pleased with how some of my new equipment turned out. The Custom Divers backplate and Apeks wing was bought second hand a couple of years ago in anticipation for more regional diving, and so that I wouldn’t have to fly my gear back and forth between here and the US. Covid stopped those plans, but now upon resumption, I don’t regret the new configuration. The one surprise was how much additional weight I needed on top of the 2.5 kg backplate and the 1kg single tank adapter. I actually need another 6kg to comfortably get down in fresh water. When I dive in the ocean again, I will most likely need 9kg. The two weight pouches I bought won’t be able to carry this, so I will need an old school weight belt. Back when I first started diving on a recreational BCD, I was annoyed at how foot heavy I was, but I didn’t want to change from my heavy Jetfins. It was a big reason for why I switched to sidemount, as with the XDeep Stealth, the weights go up the back. However, with a backplate and a drysuit, I actually need more weight and the waist, so I don’t mind a weightbelt.

Sadly there isn’t much more UK diving I can do for now. When I fly over to the US for the next few months, I will probably do some diving in the Carribean. Hopefully next year I can do some more local UK diving and fly over to the Red Sea with the missus. I also have my eye on the Canary Islands as another possible destination. Lets see.