THEFUTURE
2073 : AClubOdyssey
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
S
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 .
Future shock
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 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 years are legally protected under the 2050 ‘ Just Leave it Alone ’ Act , the 20 th and 21 st Century wrecks are at least protected from the magna-crowbars and electro-hammers g
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