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The Journal, April 2003 |
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Learning to Dive ... In at The Deep End.
A unique partnership between Hull's hugely-successful visitor attraction The
Deep and an established local diving school is opening up the wonders of the
oceans' depths to more and more people. LEE KAREN STOW donned her wet suit to
find out more ...
A mere dip into The Deep - Hull's phenomenally successful submarium rising from Sammy's Point - is enough to drive you to the fathoms. Inspiring enough to make you want to become a scuba diver, one of the millions who have acquired their passports to the world's seas and oceans in one of the fastest growing, and addictive, sports of modern times.
Well, at The Deep you can realise that dream of learning to dive. But before you get your fins in a twist, this doesn't mean you can plunge into Europe's deepest
display tank to swim with the Napoleon Wrasse, blow bubbles at the potato cod and eyeball the grey reef shark. |
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Sorry, but the spectacular main tank is open only to The Deep's trained aquarists. Instead, if you enrol with the Deep Dive School - which has ben set up in a unique partnership between The Deep and an established Hull diving company - you can learn the theories of diving within The Deep's Lifelong Learning Centre before going on to complete the water-based training at Hull's Winifred Holtby School.
."It's fantastic, because everyone who learns to dive with us gets a tour of The Deep and lunch," says Sharon Ainsworth of The Deep Dive School, a vastly experienced diver herself and a keen marine conservationist. It is she who conducts the tour, pointing out, for instance, familiar species of fish in the realistic North Sea tank, which newly-qualified divers might see beneath local waves. "Plus the environment side is important, Making them aware. How we have to be careful as divers in protecting marine life.
Sharon is one of three directors who originally founded the Above and Below Dive School four years ago in Withernsea. Sharon and her fiance, now her husband, Martin, are former IT professionals who gave up their day jobs for a life at, in and around the sea. They taught divers from their home before teaming up with fellow divers Derek Johnston and Liz Westmoreland. "We had a boat, which we used to dive wrecks. There are thousands of wrecks of our coastline, a lot of them uncharted so it's a case of getting a good skipper, and local fishermen are good for that."
Though the business ticked over and grew steadily, Withernsea had it's limitations, so a move to Hull meant the dive school could cast its net wider and draw in more diving enthusiasts. Three years ago Above and Below's dive store settled beneath the arches of Craven Street North, off Holderness Road, to the east of the city centre, and took off at a rate of knots which has seen the school certify 400 diving students, and counting. |
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Martin alone, a senior instructor, has certified a hundred and received awards from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) for his efforts. He has also just qualified as a Course Director, one of four being accepted by PADI International, which covers Europe and the UK. "We are so proud of him," chips in Sharon. "He has worked hard for this."
Above and Below became so respected and successful that Colin Brown, chief executive at The Deep, approached them with the offer of training the attraction's aquarists to the professional level required. It is these skilled divers you sometimes see hovering in the main tank, checking all is well with the fish. Next followed the formation of a complimentary partnership between The Deep and Above and Below and the newly-branded "The Deep Dive School" was launched officially at Dive 2002 at Birmingham's NEC last October.
What The Deep attraction gets in return is more word-of-mouth custom (as if it needs any - visitors pour through |
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like seawater) but also a chance to drive home to people its applauded message that knowledge of marine life and the marine environment is crucial for the sustainability of the planet. So how do you become a diver at The Deep Dive School? Well staff at The Deep will point you in the right direction and complete novices from the age of eight upwards - and the hesitant - can plunge in for a trail dive for £10 on Saturdays at the swimming pool in Winifred Holtby School in Bransholme, which is a very suitable three metres deep at its deep end.
If you like it, or you are a novice that wants to get stuck in, you then enrol on a PADI Open Water Diver Course which is taught in the bright, spacious educational rooms at The Deep's Lifelong Learning Centre - complete with a salty whiff of the oceans - or you can learn at your own pace, with a self-study CD ROM. Prices start from £200 and kit is included. When the coursework is done, it's time to take the plunge. Pool training takes place at Winifred Holtby before moving to the outdoors. |
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"The site we are hoping to use for open water training is Capernwray in Morecombe, an old quarry that's been converted for divers. It has excellent facilities for the novice diver and goes down to 20-22 metres, gentle for for a first dive," explains Sharon, adding "there are many ponds and lakes around Hull but they have poor visibility". "In the summer, and if conditions are right, we will take them off our coast, because contrary to popular belief it's not brown and murky. There's a lot of life down there.
We have kelp forests, soft corals and crustaceans. You see dogfish, haddock, plaice, different types of flatfish, different types of wrasse. And then you have things like nudibranch, which are sea slugs, but the most beautiful bright things you have ever seen. That's without the wrecks. If you know where to go you can have some very enjoyable dives, but it has to be said that the North Sea is a fast-flowing, turbulent sea, which is why we use inland sites. Flamborough is a good place, so are the Farne Islands and St. Abbs is over the border in Scotland."
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But if this sounds chilly, you can study your theory at The Deep then jet off to complete your open water dives at Mojacar Playa in Almeria, one of the hottest corners of Spain. This is where Above and Below also runs a "sister" dive school. Once qualified you can take your diving to new levels choosing from wreck diving, underwater photography, deep diving, fish identification and underwater navigation courses or become a PADI Rescue Diver, learning how to make diving safe for others.
There's also an eco-awareness course, it's not just about diving. Sharon, already with a MSc in Marine Biology tucked under her weight belt, is currently studying a PhD with Hull University in the preservation of sea cucumbers, which are not fruit, but animals. "They are important in the marine world because they are eaten and they feed on things. They're important to the eco system and I'm looking at ways of preserving them."
Or you can follow Sharon and Martin's trail and dive the world, from the Great Barrier Reef to Hong Kong and Japan. "My first dive abroad was in the Maldives, about eight years ago, before any of the coral bleaching events had killed off a lot of the coral," Sharon told me. "It was out of this world, so breathtaking. The colours, the fish, so bright and vivid. Both Martin and I were emotional."
So taken with the Maldives, the couple chose the Indian Ocean destination for their honeymoon last November and experienced the dive to top all dives. "We saw a school of manta ray. It was very shallow, about five to six metres, and this massive bull manta ray came overhead and swept round us. It went away and less than five minutes later came back with a whole pod of them - about 40 manta rays - and some baby ones. We got it on video. It was the best thing I have ever seen. Next, I want to see a whale shark. Diving gives you a tremendous amount of pleasure. It is so stress free. A lot of people think they can't dive because they feel claustrophobic, but it's not like that. It's a silent, beautiful world. There's no nagging, no mobile phones, no television. It's so peaceful down there." |
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