Cold Water Diving

Cold water diving requires a lot of neoprene! Putting on all the gear took some time...

• sleeveless, fleece-lined neoprene thermal top - check
• 7mm long-sleeved wetsuit - check
• 5 mm shorty wetsuit with hood - check
• boots - check
• mask and snorkel - check
• fins - check
• BCD & tank - check
• gloves - check

By the time I put all that gear on I was sweating. Then, into the water we went. At first I didn't feel the cold at all, but by the time the water level got to my hips...a cold tendril crept up the back of my legs.

I was diving with the dive master at ScubaDive West, Breffni, and a fella from the states who had, like me, never tried diving in water this cold. We went through some re-fresher drills and then off we went into the depths. Visibility was about 2 - 3 metres so we had to stay relatively close together.

There were no brightly coloured fish, no coral, no turtles, no sharks...and I feared that I wouldn't enjoy this dive because I've been lucky enough to see some magnificent things in the short time that I've been diving; perhaps I've been spoiled. But no, the underwater world never ceases to amaze. Alas, none of us had an underwater camera.

In the bay there's a 14 foot sunken trawler, very eerie when you look at it as a ship condemned to a watery grave. But when you see the population that uses it as a home, it's aspect changes dramatically. We saw the crotchety lobster telling us to get off his lawn with upturned claws as we shone a light in his hidey-hole at the prow of the ship. There were nudibranch eggs, which resemble delicate tissues folded into roses (nudibranches are little sea slugs that come in many different shapes and colours - do a search...they're cool).
Breffni picked up a scallop the size of his hand...it looks like a clam, but flatter. It didn't like being man-handled so it chattered away looking very much like a pair of plastic teeth chomping - it shot out quite far too! Apparently this is it's only defense against the deadly starfish...you think they're all nice and innocent, but they're not. We also caught a couple of big crabs indulging in some afternoon delight -  they probably didn't appreciate the flashlights. Ooops, sorry guys...carry on!

As we made our way slowly back to shore we spotted a Plaice, which is a flat fish, so it looks like a ray hiding in the sandy bottom. Up close it's got a squished face, that looks like it's been wiped from one side...weird. There were heaps of other weird and wonderful things, and now I would really like to learn now how to do drysuit dives - coz even though I had 12mm of neoprene, I was cold. Y'all know I don't like being cold. Perhaps I'll have to come back here to do that!

I could have gone for another dive, but it was already 1:30 and we had a fair bit of road to cover, again on small secondary winding roads...including corkscrew hill - well known to motoring enthusiasts