Below is a letter from one of our members describing her
time on our outings to the Diver Training College to experience a couple of
dives with a difference.
TRIP BACK IN TIME
As divers we may sometimes sit and wonder what it would be
like to experience the methods of the past, we envisage pictures of men
underwater in canvas suits with brass helmets and lead boots. Well today a group
of us went along to the Divers Training Centre at Appleton Roebuck near York to
do exactly this, and also to experience the feeling of being 50metres underwater
and all the strange effects this has on us.
We begin with the Hard Hat dive as we call it and as we gather around a 6metre
tank to be briefed on the safety aspects and the use of the equipment we eagerly
await our adventure. We are shown
how to dress a diver in the suit putting on the breastplate and screwing it down
then step up to the platform where the boots and helmet are fitted ready for the
faceplate screwing in and the signal
to descend. On land the suit is
clumsy and awkward but as you enter the water with air being pumped into the
suit you balloon into a weightless world, albeit for the boots that keep you
firmly planted on the bottom of the tank. Just one or
two jobs to do and a walk
around the tank and you already feel the strain of lifting your feet and the
pressure of the helmet on your shoulders. Its
time to attempt the climb back to the surface and back to today it makes you
appreciate the lightweight dry suits of the modern diving community and how much
easier they must make commercial diving.
After a very nice dinner (all included in the price) we now go down to the
chamber room to experience the pressures of deep diving without actually leaving
the surface,
Again we have a safety briefing along with an explanation
of the equipment and its uses, a hyper baric chamber is more commonly used to
assist
divers when for some reason they suffer from the phenomenon known as the bends,
but today we are in safe and experienced hands and are all set to enjoy our
‘dive’. As we begin our descent the temperature rises and the pressure
builds, we took along a tennis ball and some 8mm neoprene and as we are
pressurised to greater and greater depth we watch the flatten, so much for a
quick game of tennis then I forgot the rackets anyway, we also notice that we
can no
longer whistle and our reactions are slowing then we start to giggle and
its infectious but the best bit is when you attempt to speak you’ve turned
into Mickey Mouse, by this time we are all in fits of laughter and its nothing
at all to do with Nitrogen Narcosis, is
it. After a short stay at 50metres we
begin our ascent noticing as we do so that the air seems thick and full of
moisture, its just like an early morning mist and now its getting colder
again and the tennis ball re-inflates itself as we reach our first safety stop
on our way back to the surface. Its
seems only a couple of minutes ago that we began our descent but in reality when
we check our dive chart being kept by those on the surface we have been in the
chamber just over half an hour.
A great day out and an experience to remember with thanks to the staff at the
Diver Training Centre for their patient support and supervision, and also to
their catering staff for an excellent dinner.
