With the take up for Techsped # 1 being far beyond what was expected (or hoped for) it was time to rally on the South coast. Arrivals varied, mainly dependant on what time everyone could knock off (or sneak out of) work, but by last orders we were all assembled.

As this was my first “real” UK diving trip, I got nominated (or rather press ganged) into being the official reporter, for the weekend. So when I arrived to find a full hotel car park, I innocently and with the nest intentions found a small area of hard-standing to dump the motor on. I even checked politely with the girl behind the bar, just to be sure it was ok.

So that was it, in with the lads and on with the plans for the next days diving, no worries. No worries, that was, until the next morning when I got the “Mother of All B##ockings” off the land-lady. Apparently you can’t actually park on the hard-standing in front of the hotel, oh well at least I’d gained my first UK style dive weekend greeting (ouch my ears !).

So down to the real stuff, our dives onto the M2 and A3 Submarines; and Spaniard and Alex wrecks. With the assistance of the Dive Eclipse team (Portland) and the MV Top Gun, we headed off into the early morning Sun.

After “sweating our cobs off” for an hour on the way out to the M2 we began to gear up. Our illustrious leaders Phil and Nigel were of course first in, oh and incidentally last out, what a great advert for Inspiration rebreathers. The rest of us donned our twins; clipped on our stages and plunged in to the depths.

In our buddy teams we headed steadily down the shot line, with the smooth cylindrical shape of the M2 greeting us from about 26m downwards. The shot was positioned perfectly, just adjacent to the “fateful” hanger door. With all teams heading off in different directions, we were left to explore the starboard side alone – Wow what great feeling !

After heading back in for fills, oh and of course another “B##ocking” off the Landlady, we were off out again, for our second dive of the day. This second dive, on the “Spaniard”, was less impressive, however deliberately selected for its shallower depth profile (easing down our nitrogen loading ready for day two).

Our evening was spent in usual UK diving style, in the Pub, moaning about the Landlady moaning about us, and eating steak ‘n’ chips. The gear drying off in the kit room, well except Phil and Nige’s gear, they were still stripping it down, and down and down. Infact we’re pretty sure they were found sleeping with their Inspirations at some point on Saturday night (Hmmmmm, strange !!).

Second day, and fully initiated into the UK scene, I was prepared and ready to go, well after that much grease and lard for breakfast who could possible stop me (except maybe the Landlady of course !).

This was it, warm up over, and we were promised a truly great wreck for this dive. So with great excitement, and a somewhat more efficient kit up, in we plunged, and down the, by now, familiar shot line.

What wasn’t quite so familiar was the lack of wreck at the end of the line, but with our now invincible wreck diving abilities, we weren't going to be thwarted. In actual fact Phil and Nige, who of course had descended first, and had run the ‘jump’ line out to the wreck, after also find a lack of metal on the seabed.

This new experience of heading out into the darkness, was both exhilarating and a little scary, that all ended immediately as we saw the Conning Tower emerge from the darkness. As my lovely new Green Force HID 50 cut through the darkness we made our way slowly around the upper areas of the wreck. With lots of interesting features to discover, and a surprising amount of marine life (including one very over friendly Morey Eel), this was a truly great dive.

To end the weekend Phil took us out to the “Alex”, one hell of a big bit of metal, and in one hell of a mess. The star comment of the weekend being “that ain’t ever gonna float – it’s a right mess”, which I’m sure is an almost technical phrase.

All in all, I can honestly say that Techsped No # 1 was without a doubt the most adventurous and certainly best diving I have ever done !