Ok, before I tell you about this months’ great Doing It dive to Vivian Quarry, in North Wales, I must tell you about something else first. It was lovely, all warm and lapping over the edge, mmmm a great one, and I absolutely loved it !

Yes, now you’re confused, sorry, I just had to let you know how great our, pre Vivian quarry, breakfast was at Pete’s Eats café. To the old hats among us, it just had to be done, a nice big fry up before we got the day underway. If nothing else it would help us sink – he he he.

As we made our way from Pete’s to Vivian Quarry itself we were more than a little shocked, we’d never seen so many eager little Doing It’ers, raring to get going with their dives. It was a superb sight, and proves that even in the winter its best to book your Doing It slot early.

With my able bodied colleagues of David Wilkes; Glen Williams; Steve Betts and Eeeaw (aka Andy Mason) to assist me, we soon dragged the group into line. Well with Sergeant Major David with us, this was definitely going to run like a military operation, with engineering type precision. No, don’t panic, we didn’t actually shoot anyone for deserting ranks to go to the bathroom, the cat-o-nine tales whipping was sufficient.

After we had completed our ‘meet-and-greets’, and that took some serious time, with so many new faces, we completed our dive-site briefing and buddy pairing. Once that was out the way it was time to get kitted up and dive in (excuse the age old pun) for our great days diving. Now there is something unique to the entry here at Vivian Quarry, and that’s the chance to throw yourself “kamakazee” style off the 10 ft high entry point. Now its defiantly not one for the feint-hearted, but hats off to some of the guys for giving it ago.

Once every one was in and starting their dives, I descended with my new buddies, only to find that, it is always much better to check your spare drysuit over more carefully before you jump in. It really isn’t that comfortable to have the less than tropical water of Vivian Quarry trickling in to your left leg for 45 mins, because your boot has decided to part company with your suit (Brrrrrr !).

As the others all headed out to join us, and laugh at my now ‘wetlook’ undersuit, it was great to see the newbies smiling so much. Of course the dive was great, but maybe they were also smiling, because we now know that Simon really can’t set off an SMB without tying himself up into a classical “birdsnest” of line and reel. “Hey Simon, Will has written a great SMB Speciality, do you fancy giving it a go ?”

Whilst we all topped up our energy reserves, and drained our flasks we discovered a very strange phenomenon had occurred. As Mark and Vicki showed us their photos from the morning so far, it seemed that we had all morphed into strange rounded caricatures of ourselves – hmmm maybe that extra helping of beans at breakfast wasn’t such a good idea ?!? It was then all explained that, it was all down to his new ‘fish-eye’ lens, oh and the odd Red Nose thrown in for good measure.

Second dive underway, of course without myself (well someone has to be surface cover – with a wet leg), and away they all went. This time the majority of groups headed around to take a pass of the Gnome Garden, on top of the Blast House. This time everyone’s boots stayed attached and even the infamous ‘SMB Birds nests’ were avoided, so I guess the smiles were maybe even a little bigger.

All in all a great days diving, in a superbly picturesque setting, with probably the best Doing It breakfast so far this year !