SCUBA presents a fourth set of entries from our writing competition, with each author presenting a passionate insight into UK diving
For Jeff Lewis, a visit to Stoney Cove with two experienced Dive Leaders offered a chance for depth progression in great company an open circuit single stage tank set-up, with a strobe attached to his tank.
COMPETITION
A Dive to Remember: More stories
SCUBA presents a fourth set of entries from our writing competition, with each author presenting a passionate insight into UK diving
Judging continues
We have reached the deadline and are no longer taking entries, but will continue to print your stories while the judging process continues. There were a lot of entries, so please bear with us and a winner will be announced in the Autumn. Thanks again to our sponsor O’ Three, which is providing a 90 Ninety Trilaminate Dry Suit worth £ 2,500 for the author of the winning story.
Worth £ 2500
Briefing: For members of Stowe SAC, our closest open water facility is the Great Moor Sailing Club in Calvert which was a brick quarry, now a lake. It has a silty bottom, which requires divers to frog kick to prevent churning it up. By contrast, Stoney Cove in Leicestershire used to be a stone quarry and as a consequence has generally clearer water.
The Dive: For me, Stoney Cove is always worth the journey, for that clearer water and of course for the famous Stoney cobs [ bread rolls in the Midlands ] during surface intervals. This particular visit started with a WhatsApp group message; a group of our club’ s instructors planning to dive the Cove’ s pirate trail. I submitted a handwritten dive plan for depth progression in the company of two Dive Leaders.
We convened at 6pm, completed a safety briefing and buddy check and were in the water by 6:45pm, heading down to the Hydro box, a 5m-high metal structure sitting at 36 metres.
The dive down to the deep Hydro box was pretty much uneventful, with Dive Leader # 1 Steve leading the way and Dive Leader # 2 Eunice right beside me. Steve wasn’ t using his usual CCR, instead diving
Jeff Lewis prepares to descend
A little landmark
For Jeff Lewis, a visit to Stoney Cove with two experienced Dive Leaders offered a chance for depth progression in great company an open circuit single stage tank set-up, with a strobe attached to his tank.
When we reached the Hydro box, Steve poked his head inside and Eunice asked for a gas check. We started our dive back, in the same dive formation, and I could just about make out the light from Steve’ s strobe leading the way as he finned onwards. We reached the 22m shelf, where Steve led us to the bus. We couldn’ t resist finning carefully through the bus and continued to the 7m shelf, for our mandatory safety stop.
Steve then asked for another gas check. I was down to 43 bar, which meant I had passed my rule of thirds gas plan. Steve handed me the primary reg from his bailout 12L tank, which I breathed from until we all signalled that we had cleared our mandatory safety stop. Then back to the surface.
Debrief: I’ m lucky to be able to dive with competent Instructors and Dive Leaders guiding me through different dive scenarios. You see, this dive wasn’ t just about depth progression, it also encompassed a night dive and Accelerated Decompression Procedures( preparation) all rolled into one, a landmark dive in my dive career.
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