Tips for… Sea Diving

Only ever dived in quarries? Don’t worry, you won’t be the only one… but why are you missing out on the ocean?! Now we aren’t against quarries at all, we have one ourselves, but none of us could imagine diving in it day in, day out when there is the ocean on the doorstep.

Since we have offered guided dives in our local bays and from the boat, we have heard lots of reasons as to why divers had not taken to the coastline for their dives, and hopefully we can try and rule out some of those misconceptions in this article.

1. There is nowhere to dive… There are lots of places to dive. We are surrounded by coastline in the UK! The coastal waters of Scotland, Eyemouth, Portsmouth, North Wales… we aren’t exactly land locked! From the most central point of the UK, North Wales is only 2 hours, 40 minutes away. So, there’s no excuse here!

2. It’s cold! OK… this is true, at least for the winter period. For the summer though, we disagree. Our waters warm to a nice 24 degree surface temp in mid July/August and that’s warm enough for a 5mm wetsuit. If it is the cold ruling out the entire year in the UK, then maybe you have just been diving at the wrong time.

3. I don’t know how to plan the dive… A valid reason, but there are options. Guided dives are available from quite a few dive centres, and we recommend that you understand your limitations. The only way to become more confident though is by doing it. Next excuse…

4. There’s nothing to see… yawn! This is something we hear all of the time… forget the octopus, dolphins, nudibranchs, dogfish, starfish, lobsters, crabs, hundreds of fish species that we see on our dives each year. Yes, the UK has living species too, otherwise we wouldn’t dive here either!

5. I’ve only ever been in quarries… quarries are great, but there’s nothing like a nice drift to go with the current and explore a site, never knowing what you are going to see on a dive, sometimes loads and sometimes nothing. But surely as divers it is that excitement of exploration that we long for. It’s never going to change in a quarry, we can almost guarantee that boat will be exactly where you left it the week before!

So, come and give the UK coastline a go, forget the excuses and try it. It’s on your doorstep and there is so much here to see!

Find out more at www.duttonsdivers.com