Derek’s Dive Domain

Every now and again, being a member of the Historical Diving Society throws up a chance to dive somewhere unusual.  These places have normally been rivers, docks and reservoirs, which can be quite interesting dives as they are not the sorts of places that you normally dive in scuba gear, and when you are diving in a Siebe Gorman 6 or 12 bolt hard hat it can be quite an experience.  On this particular day though, I got the chance to dive for the second time actually in the main show tank in the London Aquarium.  I did this way back in 2000, but have not managed to blag another dive there since, so I was particularly looking forward to this dive there.

After an uneventful coach journey down to London, and a 35 minute walk from Victoria coach station, over to the old City Hall buildings where the aquarium is housed (next to the London Eye) I arrived, and met up with the gang from the HDS.  After taking a couple of turns pumping the air down to the divers, it was my turn to get dressed into the gear

Once suitably attired and bolted into the suit by my tenders, it was on with the 12 bolt helmet, and once the faceplate was firmly in place, I had to negotiate the ladder to get into the main tank at the aquarium.  This is quite difficult with such heavy boots on, and the whole corselet and helmet is pressing into your collarbone and shoulder bones in the meantime.  Its definitely not the easy way to dive that we are all used to these days.  Once down the ladder I spent a pleasant few minutes bimbling around the tank, taking great care not to stamp on the bottom dwellers in the tank, and marvelling close up at the skillful gliding technique of the stingrays in the tank. 

After plodding around the tank a couple of times and waving at the public watching through the huge windows of the tank, it was back to the ladder and very slowly and carefully extract myself from the water and back to the waiting bench and tenders to be dekitted.

Its a great experience diving the old gear, and one that I can’t get enough of.  Mind you, I am not going to be able to use this dive as buoyancy practice, am I ?