Derek’s Dive Domain

A couple of Saturdays ago, I had another chance for a Hard Hat dive with the Historical Diving Society, which took place at Covenham Reservoir which is up in Lincolnshire.  I spent a very pleasant day with the HDS regulars, taking my turns at manning the pump, dressing in the divers and of course, diving the equipment myself.

There is 190 pounds of equipment to put on, but at least it is distributed about the body once on.  Now I remember what it was like to lug myself about pre-diet!  Fifteen minutes underwater is a fair length of time to experiment with the controls, the spit cock etc and I spent a few minutes playing around closing the valves etc and experimenting with my bouyancy, which is achieved by closing the valve and letting the suit blow up a little before opening the valve again to either balance the air flow or to deflate the suit by letting it all out again.

Adopting the “Hero” pose, as all good Hard Hat Divers do…

I always really enjoy these dives, as it reminds me how easy we have it with modern dive equipment, and its great fun to dive something different.  Maybe its a reverse rebreather thing, as the end result is that you can stay down for as long as the air pumpers keep going!