STAFF REVIEW: DISCOVER SCUBA DIVING IN BRISTOL
People have always asked the question, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? Although there are numerous, endless answers to this age old conversation starter – being able to breathe underwater has got to be in my top three! With the Discover Scuba Diving Experience in Bristol, these fantasies can become reality as you can learn to take your first breaths underwater, with the help of fully qualified PADI diving instructors. On a Thursday evening in February, Rina and I were heading to Thornbury Leisure centre in Bristol to do just this, and be introduced to the wonderful world of life underwater! The Discover Scuba Diving Experience in Bristol offers a fantastic introduction into what scuba diving involves – including getting a feel for the equipment, breathing underwater for the first time and learning the basic skills and signals needed. These sessions usually take place two nights a week at two different leisure centres around Bristol, and are suitable for anybody over the age of 10. For anybody younger than this, their 'Bubblemaker' Children's Scuba Diving Lesson is perfect for any 8 and 9 year olds interested in trying out the activity.
As we arrived to the leisure centre café, we were warmly welcomed by Greg, and Collette, who was going to be our instructor for the evening. Discover sessions always begin with a briefing, covering everything from the equipment you will be using, to helping you understand the science of breathing underwater. Moving to another room, we took our seats, completed our medical forms and were handed our discover scuba diving information booklets. The briefing was interactive, and Collette would engage us by asking us questions about what was being said throughout. To begin, Collette explained how water pressure affects us, and how the deeper underwater you go, the more pressure water exerts. To visualise this, she described how depth affects a water-filled balloon versus an air-filled balloon. Whilst a waterfilled balloon keeps the same volume as you go deeper, an air-filled balloon gets smaller and compresses at depth. Luckily, our body is made up mostly of water, but we still have air spaces that depth affects… (ears, sinuses, lungs and mask). This moved us onto the next part of the briefing: how to equalize these air spaces when descending underwater. To do this, we simply needed to blow gently against pinched nostrils. We also learnt that it is for this very reason that you mustn’t dive with a cold or congestion, as you won’t be able to equalize properly! Out of the four air spaces, Colette explained that our lungs are our most important air space to equalize as we go up and down in the water. Doing this was simple; just keep breathing continuously! It was also at this point that we learnt the golden rule of scuba diving – to not hold your breath at any point.
With the science-y part down, it was onto the equipment as Colette whipped out an example piece of kit. The first piece of scuba equipment we were introduced to was the Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), a vest that essentially carries each other part of your kit, and helps you to float at the surface of the water! Attached to the back of this was our air cylinder, and the front holds the main regulator, as well as an alternate air source and air gauge. This vest was the base of our scuba kit. All that was left to introduce was our mask, to help us see, and our fins, to help us swim! With an understanding for each piece of the kit, Colette let us know that the final part of our briefing would be a quiz; a set of ten questions all about what we had just learnt. This is to ensure that everybody has a comfortable understanding of all of the basic skills and safety rules. With our briefing and quiz complete, we headed to get changed and meet Collette poolside.
Hidden Depths provide all the kit that you will need for your scuba dive, so all you need to bring along is a swimming costume, an old t-shirt, and yourself! You’re welcome to bring along your own wetsuit if you like, but this isn’t necessary as the pool is heated. As we met Collette, she helped us to choose correct sized masks and fins before we got into the water. With everything ready, it was time to get suited and booted! Although it initially seems like a lot to put on, both Rina and I were quickly comfortable with all of our equipment as we knelt in the shallow end of the pool. Collette then added some weights into the front pockets of our BCD’s, to help balance us out when we wanted to descend underwater. We were now ready to give it a go ourselves! Moving to the larger area of the pool, we checked our air gauges once again and took the plunge to descend underwater.
I have been a keen swimmer my whole life, and have always enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of underwater, so couldn’t wait to get started. As we descended, we began to take our first breathes underwater – which felt amazing! The sensation is strange, and definitely takes some getting used to. We remained in the shallow end of the pool for this part of the session, and Collette was extremely attentive to make sure that we were feeling comfortable at all times before moving onto the next stage. To communicate this underwater, we put into practice the hand signals that we had learned earlier on. There are various hand signals that we could use to communicate with each other when under water, including go up, go down, something is wrong and check your air gauge. Our most commonly used one was both a question and an answer, the simple ‘okay’ sign. As we all became more comfortable with the new feeling of life submerged, we gradually moved deeper into the pool, and were given the opportunity to swim around. At this stage there was one important thing to remember…What is the most important rule in scuba diving? Don’t hold your breath!
Now that we were happily swimming around (not having to come up for air!) Collette moved onto teaching us some skills that would be needed when participating in a dive. The first was how to remove, and replace your regulator when underwater to continue to breathe at a normal pace. This involved removing our regulators, releasing some air bubbles out of our mouths, and placing the regulator back in our mouths. Once placed back in our mouths, we could expel the water from the system in one of two ways: the first method was to push a button on the regulator that would blast any water inside straight out. The second, was to simply let out a big puff (imagine you’re blowing out A LOT of birthday candles) and the water would be removed so that you are able to continue breathing using your equipment. When going through these exercises, Collette would explain them to us above water, and then point at herself to demonstrate them under the water. Once demonstrated, she would point at myself or Rina to signal for us to try. Again, Collette was extremely patient and friendly, and wouldn’t pressure us into doing anything we didn’t want to! The final skill we learnt was how to remove any water from our masks should it sneak in – which involved creating a small break in the seal of the lower part of our mask, and slowly exhaling from our nose. Whenever we completed a task well, Collette would high five us under the water, so there was a lovely feeling of accomplishment for all.
Time really does fly when you’re having fun, because before we knew it, our session was coming to a close. To end the session, we all moved back into the shallow area to remove and return our kit before going back into the changing rooms. Meeting us back in the café, Collette presented us with our certificates, noting that with this session complete we had earned ourselves credit toward our PADI Open Water Diver course. This means that if you’re wanting to get back in the water, you’re in a great position to do so! I thoroughly enjoyed our scuba session with Hidden Depths, it has really opened me up into the world of diving and inspired me to pursue it further in the future. This introductory session is a perfect taster for anybody interested in the activity, and would make a wonderful gift for any want to be mermaids/mermen!
We would like to say a huge thank you to Greg and Collette for inviting us down, and providing such an in depth, educational session. If you want to check out a partner interview with them, click the link here!
