A LIFETIME AGO , I DID SOMETHING very special . I pulled on a snazzy red wetsuit , hung a thing like an inflatable toilet seat [ that would be an adjustable buoyancy life-jacket – historical ed ] around my neck , and waded into the sea . I inhaled nervously through the primitive Snark regulator as I sank to my knees , and the clear water of Plymouth Sound closed over me for the first time . It was the culmination of years of dreaming . I had become a diver .
It was the televised adventures of one J . Cousteau that had planted the seed in me , but it was only after I became a father that I wondered whether the desire to explore beneath the waves would become a family trait . The strange thing is that I really hoped it wouldn ’ t .
I expect that the majority of us have witnessed the sorry spectacle of the reluctant loved one . A partner , spouse or
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W Above : Looking down on Village Bay
on the island of Hirta
P Right : Boreray and Stac Lee o I just got back from the club summer trip on the west coast of Scotland . Great weekend of diving from the club hoverboats , Necessary Faff and Pleasuremin although for the first day I had to sort out the ‘ Mr Fusion ’ on Faff as it had water in the fuel cell . Drained it , popped a very black , half-rotted banana skin in and was good to go .
Getting there is pretty straightforward now that the new King George VII hoverhighway is open . We just loaded the hoverboats up in Nottingham , set off with all 24 divers aboard and an hour later , we pulled into the accommodation in Lochaline , as remote and lovely as it ' s always been . Jean is still serving haggis burgers from her wooden hut next to the old ferry slip that we use to access the sea , so we had a quick breakfast then got into the planned diving for the weekend .
First dive we took it easy , just 80m down off the pier . Naturally , we were all supplied with a week ’ s supply of oxy-pills that allow us to store oxygen within our tissues in the same way that whales do . One breath and you can stay submerged for nearly two hours , although we always come up at 80 minutes , sticking to the rule of thirds . Davs left his child who learns to dive because their partner , spouse or parent does . And they really aren ’ t too keen . Personally , I reckon that not wanting to be underwater is an excellent reason for not being there , in fact it adds an unwelcome risk element to the experience . And even if both parties are keen , the shared experience of exploring the deep can cause friction .
I used to dive with a married couple who seemed perfectly happy on the boat , even going so far as to give each other a little kiss before submerging . But as soon as they hit the surface , regulators were not so much spat out , as blasted out by a high volume torrent of abuse . Nobody knew what had happened down there to cause such consternation , but the problem resolved itself anyway when the wife ran off with their regular skipper . Despite all of this , it was no surprise when my son Angus
he headline I saw on the BBC as I headed out the door was “ Floods as torrential rain hits Britain ”. I ’ d checked the journey and I had 819 miles to drive .
“ You ’ re mad , you ’ ll never leave port ,” were the stark warnings from my friends . But I thought , “ Hmm , you don ’ t know the skipper ” as I kept everything crossed . Anyway the lure of St Kilda , however iffy the weather , was far too strong for me to consider pulling out of the trip . I drove across the country , with the weather front nipping at my heels practically all the way from Penzance to Scrabster .
I arrived in Orkney the following day and the weather forecast was not looking good . It may be odd to talk about diving the wreck of the German Grand Fleet light cruiser Köln in Scapa Flow as a consolation : it ’ s actually one of my favourite wrecks , but my mind
adaptive suit set to ‘ tropical ’ until halfway through the dive – you could see him start to shiver before he realised and reset it to ‘ temperate ’ mode . He won ’ t be doing that again ! If you haven ’ t invested in the adaptive suits yet , they ’ re great . Wear them like normal clothes every day as they ’ re selfcleaning , change style automatically so they are suitable for whatever social engagement you are going to ( from digging the garden to a royal garden party ) and change their insulation depending on how warm your body is and how cold the environment is you ’ re in . Very smart , especially in 1973 ‘ Spandex Disco ’ mode .
For the second dive we hoverboated out to the Rondo – at 50m it ' s ideal for the novices , as they can ' t really get lost . The auto-skipper took us straight there ; bang on slack , without a single hitch , the shot-omatic deploying the line that automatically ties into the stern . The wreck is looking quite broken up , with only the ribs and bow remaining stuck together – the rest of the wreck has fallen to bits and lies in various piles of plates down the slope . The video from my GoPro Hero 69 can be seen on MyTube . Now that all wrecks older than 50
Century wrecks are at least protected from the magna-crowbars and electro-hammers g started to drop some rather broad hints about joining me beneath the waves . Perhaps I was lulled into a false sense of security , because I had already taught my wife to dive and , against all the odds , we are still happily married . I did my best to casually introduce some of the horrors of diving into my conversations with Angus , but he fended them off with terrifying logic that all fourteen year olds possess , by pointing out that nothing had put me off diving for the last 30 years . Damn .
Then fate intervened . His school was offering diving courses as part of its enrichment week . In a fiendish bit of manoeuvring , he casually announced that he had qualified as an open water diver . This was doubly devious because he knew that I would be unable to resist converting him to a BSAC qualification . So I braced myself for the emotional rollercoaster that lay ahead . The first potential issue that I had to deal with was fear .
When she was seven , Angus ’ older ( and wiser ) sister , Heather , was very keen to experience a balloon flight , so I treated her to one , especially as I wanted to try it too ! She loved the flight , and I should have , but I didn ’ t . I spent the entire time battling with a totally irrational fear that my precious first born was going to fall out of the balloon , even though she could barely see over the edge of the basket . This exaggerated protective urge would be no good underwater and I would have to fend it off at all costs .
Now it was time to put a dive plan together . It would be fair to say that I threw myself at this task with a bit more enthusiasm than I normally would for a 7m shore dive . In fact I have planned deep wreck dives 30 miles offshore with less precision than this . It wasn ’ t simply that I wanted the dive to go safely ; I wanted everything to be exactly right , because this experience was so important for both of us . I had chosen Porthkerris Beach on the Lizard Peninsula as the site , due to its profusion of life and excellent facilities , but Angus was adamant that his first ‘ proper ’ dive should be at the same location that I had mine ; Fort Bovisand near Plymouth .
was set on places further afield . Anyway , despite the wind we managed to get out into the flow on day one and enjoyed a couple of cracking dives . Day two and with a forecast looking annoyingly similar we headed out to Burra Sound . To our great delight , after the first dive a window of weather opportunity opened up and we battened down the hatches and were on our way .
Now , as we left Orkney there was talk of rough crossings so as usual when the going gets tough I went to sleep and missed all the fun . I woke as we arrived in Loch Eriboll six hours later , just in time for an afternoon dive .
This is a 10-mile long sea loch that has been used as a safe deep-water anchorage for centuries . It is the
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It was vital that the dive was recorded for posterity and there was only person whom I knew would be sure to fulfil the task faultlessly . So Plymouth-based photographer Kirstie Harris was duly begged , threatened , coerced and blackmailed until she agreed to help , but her services don ’ t come cheap , and a price of one cheese and beetroot sandwich was reluctantly agreed .
On the day of the dive , we awoke to perfect weather conditions , with barely a ripple on the sea , and a cloudless sky . Having all assembled on the quayside at Fort Bovisand , I discussed photographic strategies with Kirstie , which is a waste of time as her ideas are always better than mine anyway . Then I briefed Angus , emphasising that there would be no training or drills to undertake as this was effectively a guided dive for him . We kitted up and conducted possibly the most thorough buddy check of the millennium . My wife Julie and Skipper the dive dog were there to provide shore support , and Skipper had chosen to wear his special doggy lifejacket for the occasion . As we shuffled down the beach and into the blissfully cool sea , I ’ m not ashamed to admit that I felt a lump in my throat ,
most spectacular loch on the north coast of Scotland , with a backdrop of high mountains and wild , unspoilt terrain : truly lovely .
The skipper decided that the place marked Cliff 15 on the chart looked like it could make an interesting dip . There was a fair amount of plankton in the water at the surface , but this lessened as we descended past the kelp line . The rocks and boulders were smothered with cup corals , starfish , urchins , top shells and edible crabs . We even saw a couple of dogfish swimming through the kelp – not a bad start to the expedition .
Cape Wrath is the most north-westerly point on the mainland . Next morning we opted for a dive at Geodha Glas , on the north face of Cape Wrath . It
though I was sure that I hadn ’ t swallowed my mouthpiece . The fear that I had , well , feared was not evident , but it had been replaced by the fear that I might blub like a big girl ’ s blouse .
Just about holding things together , I let Kirstie go ahead as we waded into the middle of the small harbour . Then I gave Angus the thumbs down signal and we sank to our knees on the sand . For the first time , I was diving with my son . We were both grinning like Cheshire cats and we exchanged a ( manly ) hug . Now it was time to go for a dive , and I soon noticed that I wasn ’ t going to be working too hard to turn Angus into prime buddy material . He was always where I wanted him and responded to signals promptly and appropriately .
There was no need to cover a great deal of distance to give Angus a good introduction to our amazing British waters . There were nudibranchs ( don ’ t ask me the species ) everywhere , wrasse , pollock and blennies in their hundreds , and my new buddy was utterly enthralled , much as I still am 30 years after my first dive ! By virtue of my close monitoring , I was soon able to notice that ( a ) Angus had an impressively low air consumption rate , and ( b ) so did I .
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Interestingly , this was how I realised that I was perfectly relaxed and didn ’ t appear to have switched to ‘ mother hen ’ mode . Now , nature had saved the best until last for us as we were surrounded by a huge shoal of sand eels just before we surfaced . Surfacing produced another surprise too , as my own parents were waiting with Skipper and Julie as we emerged , just as they had been when I first surfaced 30 years ago .
So all went like clockwork , or so I thought . Angus went off to change out of his wetsuit whilst we all chatted and drank tea . He had been gone some time , when an old friend from nearby Totnes BSAC came over and told me that my son had asked him to tell me that he was trapped and needed my help . A momentary pang of fear gripped me before I remembered that he was no longer underwater , and sure enough , when I tracked him down in the accommodation block , he had become stuck inside his own wetsuit seals and was completely immobilised in a neoprene strait jacket . I ’ m so proud of my son – he ’ s going to turn out just like his dad .
Who is SCUBA Bloke ?
Nick Lyon has been a BSAC diver for 30 years and has more than 3,000 logged dives . An Advanced Diver , Advanced Instructor and Instructor Trainer , he lives in Truro , Cornwall .
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R The future of diving ? Graphic © Ian Legge
VAbove : The sun sets over North Rona
SBelow : Sula Sgeir means ‘ gannet rock ’. It does what it says on the
tin – it ’ s a rock , with 8,000 gannets
SCUBA Selection
Simon Rogerson introduces his personal selection of features from ten years of SCUBA magazine
The
sea temperature around McMurdo Station in Ross Island , Antarctica has remained the same for the past 25 million years , just a shade above -2 ° C
SCUBA Bloke : Like father her , like , like son son
Nick Lyon gets a special extended column this month , as he tells the story of going diving with his son , Angus , for the first time . Photography by Kirstie Harris
UK DIVING
Ontheedgeof theworld
1,600 miles by car and 555 nautical miles by boat was all it took to get Jane Morgan to St Kilda and back . So , was the diving in the UK ’ s most remote outpost worth the journey ?
THEFUTURE
Future shock
T years are legally protected under the 2050 ‘ Just Leave it Alone ’ Act , the 20 th and 21 st
Loch Eriboll
2073 : AClubOdyssey
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UK DIVING
What will a traditional club trip be like after another 60 years of BSAC diving ? Alex ‘ Woz ’ Warzynski of Nottingham University SAC gazes into his crystal ball to reveal a vision of the future
Atlantic isles
Marine ecologist Richard Shucksmith and keen Seasearcher Matt Doggett regularly visit remote habitats around the UK . A trip leaving Orkney behind for the distant North Rona promised much
Cape Wrath
SCUBA MEDIA
Freeze-frame
The film crews behind the BBC series Frozen Planet have captured some remarkable underwater footage . Simon Rogerson reports on the revolutionary filming techniques employed by the underwater units
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SCUBAHUB
Go to page 56
Go to page 58
THE FUTURE
Go to page 68
Go to page 72
This is not a ‘ Best of SCUBA ’, but a selection of highlights that show the magazine ’ s philosophy in action . ‘ Best of ’ could imply that we have tiers of quality , and that some material is regarded as more important than others . The truth is the opposite - every page has been planned and designed to be as good as it can possibly be .
Welcome , then , to my SCUBA Selection , a compilation of features going back to the first issue , a frenetic affair that emerged , almost fully-formed , in October of 2011 . We wanted it to be a bumper issue , so it was absolutely crammed with articles - I worked an 11-hour day for the six weeks leading to its launch , and somewhere in the chaos found time to interview the BBC ’ s Natural History Unit for a behind-the-scenes piece on their new series , filmed below ice . They provided a still that showed a camera operator filming while a plume of bubbles hissed , unnoticed from his first stage , but no-one wrote in about that one . Freeze Frame , December 2011 .
A deliberate tactic when we launched SCUBA was to create new personalities by giving columns to Michelle Haywod and Nick Lyon . Each quickly acquired a following , but surveys showed they could be divisive . This , I thought , was a good thing . When someone expresses an opinion , you are being invited to agree or disagree . The point was to inject some personality into the magazine , and I have chosen a column by Nick that appeared in December 2012 , Like Father , Like Son , that demonstrates the emotional depth of his writing .
I believe a diving magazine should have a strong visual heart , and that means getting the best available photography . From the early days , I commissioned features by Jane Morgan , who was diving all over the UK after taking up a position on the wildlife photography course at Falmouth University . In January 2013 we published On the Edge of the World , about a pilgrimage to St Kilda , encompassing a wide range of photography techniques .
In November 2013 we published a special issue devoted to BSAC ’ s 50th anniversary , with lots of features that looked back at the way the club has developed over the years . What that issue really needed was humour , so I asked Chair-to-be Alex Warzynski to write a comedy epic on what club diving might look like after another 60 years , in 2073 - A Club Odyssey . I broke the budget commissioning a graphic artist to imagine a future Woz flying his hypersonic hovercraft for a dive into the future .
By 2015 , SCUBA was attracting a new generation of underwater photographers who were happy to make UK diving their speciality . In July of that year , our Big British Feature was an account of an expedition to North Rona , Atlantic Isles , by naturalist-photographers Matt Doggett and Richard Shucksmith . Shetland-based Richard was still on my radar in April 2017 , when we put together our ‘ UK Megafauna Special ’, a favourite with the SCUBA team . The centrepiece was Once in a Lifetime , Richard ’ s astonishing account of swimming with humpback whales in his own backyard .
While SCUBA ’ s identity is British , we have a responsibility to overseas members , and also to travelling divers . Our Travel Special feature has published big features on many destinations . I have been an occasional contributor to this section – perks of the job – and I feel all my training and experience went into my account of diving Galapagos , Pelagic Partytime which appeared in September , 2017 .
In a sense , 2017 was a landmark year for the underwater world . It saw the release of Blue Planet II , which finally brought popular attention to the pressures facing our oceans , especially plastic pollution and overfishing . However , the BBC had really tightened up on pre-launch publicity prior to transmission , so it was nigh impossible to speak to any of the producers or camera operators , or to obtain publicity images before the first transmissions .
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