coAstAL LIFe Rapture of the deep scuba diving is fraught with dangers, but each year thousands of adventurers find that the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Bethany Hope discovers the appeal of diving close to home ‘You wouldn’t run a marathon with no training.

it’s the same with diving. You practise, and dive within your capabilities.’ One of the main attractions of recreational scuba diving lies in the privileges it brings. You are, after all, breathing underwater, defying nature thanks to technology. Divers explore a new underwater world, and feel like they’re the first person to step into a secret garden.

Whether divers are into shipwrecks, sea life, archaeology or photography, the seas of the British isles are teeming with sites to explore, full of different colours, shapes, textures and creatures. more ships have sunk around the coasts of the British isles than anywhere else in the world and it’s estimated that we have more than 60,000 wrecks.

they are a magnet for plant and animal life including fish, shellfish, and crustacea. Certain wrecks are out of bounds, such as war graves and those in a state of collapse, but divers can still discover boats that have been preserved for centuries. With no noise except the sound of the bubbles from your breathing, it can be an eerie experience.

Fantasies of discovering long-lost treasure chests are unlikely to materialise as only a few ships, such as galleons bringing bullion from the new World to spain, had coins, ingots of gold or silver aboard. But there are other treasures to be discovered in the waters of the uK and Roi.

People who have only dived abroad might be surprised by the range and popularity of dive sites around the British isles. Just as the view above the waterline changes around our coast, the underwater panorama varies tremendously. underwater treats for divers include reefs, pinnacles and caves, and diverse marine fauna from sea slugs to sharks. above water, divers often have a spectacular view too as some of the best dives are found near areas of outstanding natural beauty.

A sport for all? scuba diving promoters stress that diving is ‘a sport for all’, that anyone over the age of 10, male or female, can do it, but this isn’t the whole story. Your mind and body need to be in good working order in the first place.

tom templeton is a qualified diving instructor and part of a diving family but uses his experience at work too. as an RnLi training manager, tom trains RnLi divers in the survival tank at the Lifeboat College in Poole. they need to be ready to help in case of accident during lifeboat capsize exercises. He agrees that the sport of scuba diving is increasingly accessible, but stresses that there are limits: ‘Diving is for those who are adventurous by nature and fit. You don’t have to be match fit, but some people with medical conditions such as high blood pressure shouldn’t dive.’ scuba diving is an expensive sport, but not exclusive. to enable you to survive underwater for 30 minutes or more, you need a lot of good-quality equipment and protective clothing, which isn’t cheap to hire or buy. many dive clubs and shops offer a ‘try dive’, a taster of what it’s like to be under the water. this will help you decide whether to invest the time and money that will be required to pursue the sport.

Getting started if you are keen to learn to dive, there are several uK and Roi organisations that can help. the Professional association of Diving instructors (PaDi, see www.padi.com) is an organisation many will come across, perhaps on a one-off holiday experience. the British sub aqua Club (BsaC, see www.bsac.org) is the biggest of its kind in the world, with hundreds of affiliated clubs around the uK.

the irish underwater Council (www.cft.ie) plays a big role promoting scuba diving around the Roi, with more than 80 clubs.

to pass diving courses you need a good basic level of swimming, although there are exceptions for people with certain disabilities. You’ll also need to be comfortable with simple maths – the ability to calculate your rate of ascent from a dive will be key to your safety. the initial training typically comprises classroom, pool and open-water lessons, and successful divers will be qualified to dive to a maximum of 20m.

michael avril, RnLi sea safety manager, has been diving for 14 years, mainly off the east coast of scotland, and he stresses that qualifying is only the beginning: ‘You wouldn’t run a marathon with no training. it’s the same with diving. You practise, and dive within your capabilities.’ Local limitations some divers brave the cold and dive during the Winter, although the main season for diving around the British isles is generally may to september or October because of the likelihood of better weather. even in the season, an ocean dive may well be called off because of rough conditions. You might think that divers wouldn’t need to worry about a spot of rain or gusts of wind up above. ? However, they have to get out to and back from the dive site safely, whether in a dive boat or by swimming through the surf.

the weather affects visibility underwater – the ‘vis’. Rainwater run off from the land will cloud the sea and sometimes it will be so churned up that a diver would be unable to see their hand in front of their face. Visibility in waters around the British isles can be frustrating: it averages just 3m.

spring algal blooms and coral spawns can add to the effect, as will ebb tides, lack of sunlight and the depth at which you dive.

as well as protecting themselves, divers must manoeuvre with care to avoid damaging coral or disturbing the seabed with their fins. Despite all this, low visibility needn’t ruin a dive as marine life is sometimes best examined at close quarters. many divers even prefer night dives for a different view of the underwater world.

Dangers of diving scuba diving started in the 1940s but there was a rise in diver incidents in the 1990s, following an increase in the sport’s popularity. according to BsaC, there have been around 400 reported incidents in the uK annually since 2000. Considering the number of people diving, this is remarkably low. the emphasis on training and ‘belts and braces’ equipment helps reduce fatalities and the British Diving safety Group, chaired by the RnLi, reaches out to recreational divers with safety messages (see www.bdsg.org).

However, RnLi lifeboats still went out to 65 divers in 2006, and when divers are in trouble it is often life threatening. tom spells out why it’s so dangerous: ‘You have to respect you’re breathing in a non-breathing environment. it is an extreme sport.’ there are as many RnLi call outs to dive boats as to divers themselves. alistair Crowe, st abbs Lifeboat Operations manager and a dive boat shop owner comments: ‘the main problem with divers is that they have no knowledge of the sea. You can be a competent diver but be clueless with a boat. Divers are lucky to have the RnLi close at hand. not many sports get better safety cover. it’s an exceptional service and most divers know this.’ Common problems for divers include decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis. Both can be lethal. ? ‘You have to respect you’re breathing in a nonbreathing environment. it is an extreme sport.’ tOP DiVinG sites Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands a long-time ‘mecca’ for divers from all over the world, with wrecks from the scuttled First World War German fleet.

Oban and Sound of Mull, Argyll and Bute superb wreck dives and sheer underwater cliffs.

Farne Islands, Northumberland an extensive group of offshore islands renowned for excellent underwater life and diving with grey seals.

Isle of Man Features clear waters, wrecks, strong tidal currents and richer marine life including basking sharks.

Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork the wreck of Lusitania, torpedoed by a German u-boat in 1915.

Plymouth, Devon the liberty ship James Egan Layne attracts thousands of divers, but in recent years has begun to collapse. in 2002 former warship Hms Scylla was sunk close by to form an alternative site.

Isles of Scilly the clear waters have diverse marine life including friendly seals but also an extensive range of wrecks including the treasure ship Association.

Lundy Island, Devon the only true marine reserve in the uK, with an exceptional range of marine life.

thanks to BsaC for supplying the bulk of these recommendations. For further information visit www.bsactravelclub.co.uk. Decompression sickness, the ‘bends’, is caused by nitrogen gas bubbles forming in the blood and tissues of the body. the bends will strike if the diver has risen to the surface too quickly. alistair describes a recent shout to a diver with the bends: ‘His symptoms were classic. Back on the boat he was on his knees, in pain, constantly vomiting. We gave him oxygen and fluids and comforted him as best we could. He had to be taken to aberdeen hyperbaric chamber to be decompressed.’ nitrogen narcosis affects divers at depth and is a side effect of breathing nitrogen under pressure. iconic diver Jacques Cousteau called it the ‘rapture of the deep’ and it can feel like being under the influence of alcohol.

Diving instructors often tell the story of a ‘narked’ diver sharing their mouthpiece with a fish. Being 30m under the water isn’t a good place to lose control. sadly, some divers don’t surface in time to be rescued. Dave milford, Plymouth lifeboat Coxswain reflects: ‘Once the divers are down that far, you’ve got no control. as a lifeboatman, all you can do is look on the surface. You can’t get down there with them – it’s frustrating. the body of one diver turned up after 2½ years. it’s not the best bit of the job.’ this is why one of the main rules of diving is to always dive with a ‘buddy’. However experienced and careful you are, you can still get into trouble. tom templeton has had many safe and thrilling dives, but he’ll never forget how his buddy saved his life: ‘it was Valentine’s Day in 2004 and i ran out of air at 20m in the Channel. it was pitch black and the current was strong, so it was difficult connecting the back-up equipment.

then the “octopus”, my back-up air source, free flowed – i could hear the air coming out.

By torchlight, my buddy tried to assist while i got the DsmB (delayed surface marker buoy) up. i did a controlled emergency swimming ascent, but i needed my buddy. i took her main air source and she used her octopus.

a buddy gives you someone to rely on, to bail you out.’ see below to share in the diving experiences of RnLi member Donald macneill and meet another, perhaps unexpected, diver on page 46. ‘i did a controlled emergency swimming ascent, but i needed my buddy.’ close and personal up There’s a whole package of experiences to enjoy when you’re diving. For me, it includes the ‘messing about in boats’, visiting new locations and doing it all in the company of good friends. I’ve been diving for 11 years, and the dives from the ‘top drawer’ provide memories that will last a lifetime, often for very different reasons.

On one memorable dive my buddy and I were on a cliff in Loch Duich, near Skye in the Inner Hebrides, on a dark Autumn night. It was a site our dive club visited often, with no reports of tidal currents, but tonight was different – with the spring flood tide going like a train! At a depth of 35m, in the pitch black, we were being blasted along the cliff face, with the bottom at least another 0m below. On the surface we agreed the best description was ‘challenging’ because we couldn’t admit to ‘scary’! Another unforgettable dive for me was off Little Skellig – one of a pair of islands 5 miles off the coast of the RoI. Six of us dropped into the water in three buddy pairs. It was already a great experience – the sheer rocks, hundreds of gannets wheeling over our heads, but what was to come surpassed all that. As we reached the bottom in an amazing 0m visibility I became aware of a small, blurred shape circling on the edge of my vision.

within minutes we had a young grey seal, growing in confidence, and getting up close and personal with four divers.

Trying to keep him in sight I twisted onto my side – the seal followed; I rolled onto my back – he copied in a flash. The seal stayed with us for the rest of the dive, at one point even getting as close as to nibble my drysuit sleeve, forcing me to push him gently away. It was fun to the last moment as he played tug-of-war on the surface with our orange marker buoy.

Interacting with a wild animal in its own environment for nearly 0 minutes – I doubt I’ll ever match the wonder of that dive. .