Making ready for internet hosting duties on the upcoming BSAC Diving Convention, Andy Torbet displays on his adventures snorkelling round Britain.
In a couple of weeks’ time it is going to be BSAC’s 2024 Diving Convention [Nb – Andy will be hosting the main stage]. A time for representatives from golf equipment throughout the nation, and presumably some from overseas, to get collectively, swap tales, replace and encourage. I hosted the convention again in 2019 – now I’m again this yr to compere the Fundamental Stage, and I’ll even be doing slightly side-quest as I ship a chat on snorkelling.
It appears unusual that regardless of my deep technical dives on tv from filming the Britannic at 120m to swimming into Arctic ice caves and loads of exploratory cave diving expeditions it’s, no less than inside BSAC, one thing so simple as snorkelling I must be greatest recognized for. However then I suppose it’s becoming. Since that is the place all of it started for me on the age of 12 at Aberdeen BSAC.
And so, in preparation for my speak I believed I’d look again at a couple of of the various highlights of the previous 12 years of snorkelling adventures this column has motivated me to undertake.
Cape Wrath
The unique 2011 mission which spawned this column, Britain By Snorkel, motivated me to go to the extra remote corners of the UK’s blue areas. One of the vital memorable was Cape Wrath. The wild, north-west nook of the nation with the black, 700 foot excessive Clo Mor cliffs dropping into the Atlantic was a really distinctive place to snorkel. A spot with an actual sense of edge-of-the-map journey.
Wildlife
The place to start? I’ve at all times mentioned that the dive ought to inform the gear, not the opposite method round. Use the appropriate software for the job. And I’ve discovered that regardless of the plethora of open and closed circuit equipment I personal, one of the simplest ways to come across wildlife, particularly bigger species within the UK, has been with a snorkel. Diving with blue sharks in Eire and Cornwall; basking sharks in Scotland; gray seals in Lundy and even mako sharks off California have all been achieved between the floor and two metres with nothing greater than a plastic tube and a duck-dive.
Kimmeridge Bay
Probably essentially the most benign snorkel I’ve finished. However an inspiring place to begin, the place I found my first Snorkel Path. It had been arrange by the native Wildlife Belief, who additionally employed masks to the general public. The concept was to comply with numbered buoys set within the shallow, sheltered bay, serving to guests to comply with the waterproof information to find the totally different habitats of the bay, and the creatures dwelling there. A implausible idea to encourage extra snorkellers and divers.
Rivers
Our waterways are typically shallow and never definitely worth the effort of filling, carrying and donning SCUBA diving equipment. So they’re typically neglected. However in the appropriate situations, they are often spectacular websites, effectively suited to snorkelling. The flexibility to do brief drifts after which wander again as much as the beginning level is a viable possibility because of light-weight snorkel equipment. Just a few highlights embody a number of journeys to the River Dart, together with the time after we snorkelled down river for 10 hours. Then there was the Orchy, with its whiskey-brown waters and deep-carved options. Or The Falls of Lora within the River Dee; protected in the appropriate situations, however a foamy, flowing rollercoaster at different occasions.
Kayak snorkelling
I realized to kayak in the summertime of 2011, purely for the power to achieve much less accessible snorkel websites. Ultimately it might result in me turning into certified as a Sea-Kayak Information, paddling to Lundy, across the Isle of Wight and on the Outer Hebrides. Probably the most memorable kayak journey was a day spent with my good friend Dan Bolt, travelling from Salcombe to Thurlestone in South Devon. Alongside the way in which we snorkelled six shipwrecks. Not a foul tally for a day trip.
Night time snorkelling
I had finished little evening snorkelling earlier than 2011, however when it was first urged to me as a method of bagging one other dive beneath Swanage pier earlier than bedtime, I realised that by slipping our timings we had created a unique dive web site. In case you are losing interest of the identical, conveniently situated dive web site don’t discover someplace else. Simply dive later. The sensation, aesthetic and marine life all change, permitting for brand spanking new discoveries and a unique perspective.
Andy might be internet hosting the BSAC Diving Convention on the Vox, NEC Birmingham on Saturday 19 October. For extra data, purchase your ticket or to e-book your home on one of many periods, go to bsac.com/convention
Article ‘A tube and a duck dive’ by Andy Torbet first printed in SCUBA journal, Concern 149 October 2024. Photographs have been substituted as a consequence of licensing rights.
