Sometimes, the effort we put into going diving can influence our decision-making process. Yo-Han has a confession in this regard
YO-HANCHA
Oh dear, empty pier
Sometimes, the effort we put into going diving can influence our decision-making process. Yo-Han has a confession in this regard
Have you ever turned up at a dive site and wondered if you’ ve made the right choice? Not just in the dive site, but perhaps even going diving in the first place?
There’ s a variety of factors that could influence your decision. It could be waves crashing over your dive site or realising that there’ s a hefty current ripping through. It could be the weather. I remember a rather wet day in Dunoon where the rain was coming in at a 45 degree angle. It didn’ t look like a good day to be outside in general, never mind going diving! Jason Coles of Wreckspeditions was completely unfazed and still took us out for a successful day’ s diving. Sometimes you just need to trust the local knowledge.
Sometimes the clues are pretty obvious. I was meant to be diving in Plymouth last Easter with Reading BSAC. However, the winds decided to be extremely uncooperative and the trip was called off. As the wind had a slight westerly slant to it, I thought perhaps we could salvage part of the diving weekend with a day in Swanage, normally protected from westerlies. Well, that was the theory.
The biggest and most obvious clue was when I arrived at Swanage Pier. One of the always friendly volunteers greeted me and when I said I was here to go diving under the pier, she said,“ Are you sure?”. At this point, I should have known that it wasn’ t worth getting out of the car. I should have just found a nice café in Swanage for breakfast and contemplated my folly. However, I had sacrificed a lie-in. I had set off rather early for what was meant to be a weekend and I didn’ t want that to be in vain.
So, I answered that I was sure and the next clue was“ Would you like to check the conditions first before you pay to park?” Swanage Pier is maintained by a charity, the Swanage Pier Trust, which is where the parking income goes. In my experience, charities aren’ t that hesitant at accepting funds.
I parked up. And there was plenty of parking available. It is, after all, an extremely popular dive site and you’ re lucky to get a parking space on the pier if you turn up at after 8.30am, which I had done that day – this was the third clue!
In fact, the only other car on the pier was that of my buddy, Mike Godley. He had been given the same choice as me, so I joined him at staring at the sea, debating how good or bad it was going to be. Based on sheer desperation in wanting to go diving and the fact that we didn’ t lose visibility of all of the seaweed the moment it went underwater, we decided that it was worth having a go.
We paid for our parking and got kittedup. Both our partners, Claire and Tanya, decided that we were mad( fourth clue!) and decided to go for an adventurous walk around Swanage instead. But you can’ t win the lottery if you don’ t buy a ticket, so Mike and I went diving that day.
It was not worth it. The visibility was so bad we had trouble finding the pier. All the clues were there to call off the dive but the sheer desperation to go diving got the better of us! Maybe next time we’ ll try to be more rational. �
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Yo-Han and Mike Godley at Swanage: They came, they saw... not a lot