Vobster

Arrived at Vobster early for my first Sport Diver open water training dive: the SMB lesson, with Nick and Julie. I tried out an old dive computer that Paul had kindly lent me, and a new torch (both very good). My first torch, a very small backup torch, had flooded on a previous dive.

The SMB exercise was very cleverly planned to enable us both, using a single buoy to operate it on descent and ascent stages. Julie had the SMB on the descent, we then used the SMB line as a buddy line as we swam over the top of the crushing works, I then took over the line and we descended beside the works and went along near the bottom of the cliff, before a re-ascent. My torch was good to have here. Further up on a silty slope, Nick demonstrated underwater skiing. We went up a bit further - it was a very nice feeling returning to the light, and Julie took over the reel for the ascent to the surface. We did a second dive (Vobster is a long way, so it was good to make the most of it), a nice easy swim and look round. We went down the shotline on the boat wreck, had a peer in and swam around. We then made our way over to the nearby wheel house to look round that. It has a small air-pocket inside the roof. Nick demonstrated his self-inflating DSMB and we surfaced using its line. Very enjoyable. After the dive we signed each other's log-books!