Welcome to cold waters!

October 13, 2008 on 2:06 pm | In Diving |

Up until three months ago I was what you call a ‘warm water diver’ - someone who’d happily spend a large part of their sunny holiday in the water but hadn’t seriously considered braving Scotland’s waters. By July I’d finally had enough of people telling me how great diving was in Scotland and shaking their heads when they found out I hadn’t tried it and signed up for a drysuit course with Deep Blue Scuba to add to my diving certification.

I can only recommend it! Divers will know that down there is a whole new world waiting to be discovered and a well-fitting drysuit will make sure you stay just that - dry - and warm.  Thus equipped, I took my first tentative steps into the 12 degree warm ?!? Loch Long on the west coast on a beautiful sunny July day and only little later was hovering above the so-called Anemone Garden, an amazing array of plants shimmering in all different colours.

Another, possibly more exciting, easily accessible dive site is St Abbs on the east coast near Eyemouth. Ample parking in the harbour master’s car park makes it convenient to kit up before meeting your skipper and motoring out of the harbour. There is a selection of dive sites here, which gives you plenty of choice but also accommodates different weather and water conditions. St Abbs is a favourite with Edinburgh-based divers because it’s close to home and there’s always something new to see. The Letterbox, which we went for recently, on my first dive after the course, is a swim-through under some rock and also allows you to see lobsters and other sealife.  St Abbs is great for crab and wolffish too, and it’s fun to spend your dive looking into the nooks and crannies of rocks to see what might be hiding in there.

I have to admit, on this dive, I never actually went for the swim-through. My ears weren’t equalising the water’s pressure properly, so being a coldwater novice and all I just felt too pre-occupied to venture into the dark. Dives since have been much more enjoyable and I’m off to the Sound of Mull on the west coast to take a look at the wrecks there in a couple of week’s time - watch this space for updates!

 Pictures courtesy of Deep Blue Scuba, www.deepbluescuba.co.uk

Yvonne Press
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Has been diving for six years, most of it in warm water. She started exploring Scotland's waters in 2008.