Scuba diver gets swept away collecting scallops

BREAKING NEWS from the Press Association.......

A scallop-collecting scuba diver who supplies top chefs including Jamie Oliver was today lucky to be alive after he went missing at sea.
Darren Brown failed to reappear following a dive to collect scallops in Lulworth Cove, Dorset on Monday sparking a massive air and sea rescue.
Three Coastguard teams, RNLI lifeboats, Coastguard helicopter and the Royal Navy minehunter HMS Middleton joining the rescue.
The 41-year-old from Bovington was found three hours later, swimming with the tide near Ringstead Bay, three miles away.
Mr Brown said he had already been diving for an hour and a half when he got into difficulties.
He said: "But that's the joys of the job and the risks we take to supply the shell fish to these top celebrity chefs."
He was out diving again today and said: "You have to get back in the saddle."

Reading the quotes below from the Portland Coastguard regarding the incident and it is clear there are lessons there for all of us.
The spokesman said Mr Brown survived because of his dry suit and the fact he swam with the tide, not against it, to conserve energy.
"If you have a time the diver is due to surface and even after a few minutes he hasn't surfaced, assume there is a problem and contact the Coastguard," the spokesman said.
"He wasn't carrying any day flares or surface marker buoys which made it hard to find him.
"If you detach from your vessel and pop off a small mini flare people will see you straight away, but he had nothing like that with him.
"If it's just a head bobbing around in a very rough sea it's a very difficult target to locate. Most of the target is below the surface, and with two foot high waves you would struggle to find anyone.
"That's why we needed a large number of assets to locate him. He was a lucky chap."

Scuba diving Pembrokeshire

Some good news just emerged regarding our upcoming scuba diving trip to Pembrokshire - a "superpod" of hundreds of dolphins has been captured on film by conservationists.

Eight volunteer members of the Sea Trust came across the "mile-long wall of dolphins" near the Smalls Lighthouse in the Irish Sea.

pic by Richard Crossen

According to their blog posting by Richard Crossen:

"Nearly two hours out from Neyland we had not seen a cetacean of any sort but then a pod of 50 or so Common Dolphins appeared and after a while they came over to us and several, including some calves, rode in the bow wave. A nice foretaste of things to come.
"A little later approaching the Smalls Lighthouse things really got exciting as there were several thousand Gannets milling around and fishing.
Under them there were really large numbers of Common Dolphins and as we motored along we just kept seeing more and more – some close to the boat and others some way off. Sea conditions were rather choppy so it was difficult to gauge numbers but best estimate was of 1500 plus animals strung out over a mile or so with a range of ages from small calves to full adults. Needless to say a real spectacle!"

Footage of the superpod has appeared on the BBC website as well.



I just hope they have stayed around for us this weekend.

Homeowner uses scuba diving gear to escape fire

INTERESTING use for scuba diving gear.
US homeowner Michael Marin donned his scuba gear after discovering his $3 million mansion ablaze.
Phoenix Fire Department Capt Dorian Jackson says investigators believe the blaze started on the first floor and trapped Mr Marin on the second floor.
Jackson said the man grabbed scuba gear so he could breathe and used a collapsible ladder to escape the burning home on Sunday.
“In all my years on the job, this is the first time I’ve seen somebody use scuba diving equipment to get out of a fire,” Capt Jackson added.
Marin, who climbed Everest earlier this year, was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation. He is expected to be just fine.
He told ABC15 of the experience

scuba diving fortnight

It’s been a bit quiet on here of late and I can only apologise but with the weather in the UK so good I left the comfort of the comfy study chair to go scuba diving.

And it’s been a good few weeks - despite the odd problem.

There was the:
Try using the manual functions on my camera properly dive
I got lost in the bloody quarry I’ve dived hundreds of times because I didn't take my compass dive
someone didn’t do the zip up on my old drysuit properly dive
How many pike in the reeds? dive
Viz is so bad and it got so dark I thought I was about to plough into the wall dive
Dash off from work on time so I can make a dive dive
Viz is so bad the water turned a muddy brown dive
Chris Dean is better at taking photos than me dive
I wish I had his strobe and wide-angle lens dive
I’ve finally got my ‘suit of choice’ drysuit back dive

As you can imagine, some frustrating times and interesting lessons learned - but every minute spent underwater is time well spent.

Scuba divers: S-2 submarine wreck pictures

A team of scuba divers has found the long lost wreck of a Soviet sub that sank after hitting a mine in the Baltic sea almost 70 years ago.
The team of Swedish and Finnish divers announced the discovery of the S-2 earlier this month but I've just discovered some amazing pics of the wreck.



The crew of 50 were lost on January 3 1940 when the sub hit a mine as she navigated icy waters near the Aland islands during the Soviet Union's year-long war against Finland.
The team of divers were reported to have spend a decade searching for the wreck.
Found in February, the discovery was kept secret until earlier this month when she had been positively identified.

Divers found shipyard production number, 267, and a Soviet hammer and sickle, clinching evidence that it was the missing S-2 sub.
"My feelings were mixed," diver Marten Zetterstrom told Reuters about finding the vessel. "There it was, this war machine that was built to take ships down. I was happy, sad, depressed and elated all at once."

Gazing at these pics, you can't help but wish to have the skill and experience to do the same.