It’ s an icon of the Dorset coast, home to some wonderful dive sites, a dive centre and two boats. Yo-Han Cha loves Swanage
YO-HANCHA
UKDIVING
Pier review
It’ s an icon of the Dorset coast, home to some wonderful dive sites, a dive centre and two boats. Yo-Han Cha loves Swanage
Having learned to dive in the UK while living in Manchester, Swanage Pier wasn’ t a diving location that was easy to get to. The first few times I dived Swanage Pier, it involved taking the day off work on the Friday to give me and my buddy enough time to travel down from Manchester. When I mentioned this to my fellow columnist, Kirsty Andrews, I remember her mild surprise that anyone would go to that much effort to dive Swanage. It’ s not that she didn’ t appreciate Swanage Pier, it just surprised her that divers from the North West of England would want to travel all the way down to Dorset to dive it for the weekend.
Whenever I go diving off Swanage Pier, particularly in the summer, the town is teeming with tourists, so there’ s apparently more to do than to go diving. I’ ve never discovered what that is though, as there’ s so much diving to be done! For those of us who prefer to dive off boats, there are two
“ As a photographer, it’ s just macro heaven!”
excellent dive charters operating out of the pier. Of the many dive locations reachable by boat, the two main attractions seem to be based, as usual, on rusty metal.
I think most the UK divers that I’ ve met who are based in Southern England have dived the Kyarra and the Valentine Tanks. Personally, I prefer the tanks, well, the conger eels that are found in them, but I’ ve never had any luck with the visibility whenever I’ ve dived them! When I dived the tanks at the start of spring this year, we were the first divers on them that day, with reports of great visibility around Swanage. At the end of the dive, when I reached the surface, I realised that the shot line was about two metres away from my buddy and I. Neither of us had seen it before we started our ascent or during it! Apparently, the conditions were much better the next day.
There’ s can also be some epic drift dives around Swanage. My best ever UK drift dive is one the skipper called Old Harry’ s Drift.
The current was so fast, but the visibility was excellent that day, so I got to see so much! It’ s the only time I’ ve ever seen tope sharks while diving and it’ ll probably never happen again.
My favourite part of Swanage Pier, though, is diving under it. There is so much life under there! As a photographer, it’ s just macro heaven! There are nudibranchs, gobies and tompot blennies to be found. My personal mission every time I dive Swanage Pier is to find the Periclimenes sagittifer shrimp that can be found in the snakelock anemones. I don’ t always find them, and when I do, they’ re tiny and shy and don’ t want to be photographed. So, coming away with a photo of one always feels like an achievement.
To top it off, there’ s Britain’ s longest serving dive shop, Divers Down( est 1958), located on the pier, so you don’ t have to venture far for air fills. Swanage Pier is definitely one of the benefits of having moved to the South of England as this amazing diving location is now a mere two hours away. �
Archidoris pseudoargus sea slug |
Periclimenes sagittifer shrimp |
Edmundsella pedata nudi |
Tompot blenny |
Female blackfaced blenny |
Phoronis hippocrepia worms |
Leach’ s spider crab |
|
Crimora papillata nudi |
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