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Written by David Morris
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Saturday, 26 April 2008 15:29 |
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“To launch the rescue boat they have 20 men with saws and a lot of superglue” Today was a visit to a different-and unique-inland dive site. ‘The Rez’ is a disused covered reservoir that was opened as a dive site a few years ago, and offers a large overhead environment area some 40 x 20m that is just 2m deep. This offers a lot of dive time for your gas, and an air space that runs over the entire water surface means that the risks of this sort of diving are minimised.
We were soon approached by a big Rottie that took great delight in slobbering in my dive box. Rottie slobber is one part jelly and two parts superglue, and will take a while to wash out. I soon realised what she was after and hid the half time cow pat sized choccy cookies in the car. After making a fuss of the dog for a bit Martin the owner comes over to say hello and tell us the good news that the café is open. We wander in for a cuppa and in my case some nosh while we wait for the others to arrive. We complete the required paperwork, which has a question as to whether we wanted to be resuscitated in the event of an accident. I heavily circled ‘yes’, underlined it twice and was looking for a highlighter when Martin came back to take us for a walk and give us our safety briefing. |  |
We started the tour at the entrance, where we were advised that a giant stride entry into a metre of water was a bit ill advised. We were shown the Hobbit Hole as the entrance is called and then were taken inside the adjacent building to be shown the rescue equipment. Martin had clearly thought out the dive site rescue arrangements. If it went a bit wrong we were to surface and make a bit of noise with the whistles that we were provided with as we filled in the paperwork. Lights would then be turned on in the chambers and we were all to surface and go to the assistance of the diver in trouble. To aid in the removal of a casualty there is an overhead line in the middle of the chamber that leads to the exit point if the diver is capable of climbing the ladder, or the entrance point where they can be craned out. Pairs of reflectors are stuck on the roof, white ones lead to the exit and red to the entrance area, a well thought out system |  |
(Andy & Lee prepare to enter The Rez) 
| We finished kitting up and headed over to the entrance building for dive one. The entrance area is a bit crowded with two divers, and Martin advises that we use this bit of the site to try and get every last bit of air out of our suits and BC’s before entering the covered section. I had decided to dive on +2kg over my normal weight, with the others following suit. Noel was tempting fate by asking if four torches was overkill, but more of that later. Unusually for an inland dive site there is a ‘spit bucket’ for mask rinsing kept separately from the main water supply. After we moved into chamber 2 I looked around for Noel, but could only see a fin. Attached to it was Noel’s leg and he was on the surface. I popped up to make sure he was OK, and he was, and had popped up to put his fin back on. |
We had a slow meander around As we were first in and enjoying 10m+ of vis the ladder to the exit point is clearly visible. I took a quick photo as Frank clipped his reel on for a bit of line laying practice. Noel was experiencing difficulties with his torches, and having flattened three was onto his backup-backup-backup torch, which would struggle to outshine an amorous glow-worm. We followed Frank for a bit observing his lining technique and then headed back to the ladder and out, being helped by Mid Lancs SAC that had organised the day out.
We emerged into the daylight again and dekitted at the cars as Mid Lancs chaps were getting in again for their second dive. Even though Martin only allows 12 divers on site at any one time, staggering the entry times means that people have a less crowded dive.  Further tea was drunk and Jason gave me a second opinion on the whiffyness of my undersuit [leaking drysuits make things a bit smelly] as we chatted to Martin about the site and the diving. In all the Rez is an unusual dive site, and I imagine that on a nice sunny day the experience is even better with the sun out.
Drysuits are a requirement for diving the Rez, not just because of the temperature, 6C when we were diving, rising to a maximum of 15C in the summer, but because the water doesn’t get much movement and there may be the odd bug lurking about. (Gary ready to go) For dive 2 we had a look in the fishpond. Adjacent to the entry point is a fountain that is being used to store fish in preparation for releasing a few into the covered part of the site. Noel and I decided to drop in to the 6m x 6m x 2m deep pool, and after a minute of fumbling around in the dark and seeing sod all apart from fish poo we clambered out and went into the Hobbit Hole again for the proper dive. We had decided to give the treasure trail a go this dive, and promptly found the first map attached to the skeleton. From there we were directed to map number 2, which we didn’t find, instead going straight to map number 3. The dozen maps lead the diver on a merry chase around the underground reservoir, zigzagging through the chambers and doubling back a couple of times. Eventually we found where X marked the spot, a site that we had already investigated on dive one. Frank busied himself with some more line laying as I dazzled Jason with my torch by accident. Frank’s technique was better this time and he found his way back to the ladder with his eyes closed as I wound in after him. Noel had already made a quick exit as he had to be back home early. All in all, a very unusual dive, but a great day out. All the very best David Morris (The last diver who wound up the dog) |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:25 |
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