I have to say that I’ve never felt more like a diver than when I was out of the water standing on the jetty recording the times that other divers got in. I felt like I was really pitching in; helping the club that had given me the ability to have such a brilliant hobby. I felt like I was ‘taking a turn’ almost at the task that, at first sight, seems to be… the less exciting part of diving.
It wasn’t boring. One of my friends mentioned that they thought surface cover looked boring but recording the divers’ times in and out and watching the surface for bubbles so I knew where they were, meant I had very little time to get bored. I also got to speak to some lovely people.
An open water course was going on that had two children on it, so their parents were on the surface eagerly waiting for their children to come back all happy smiles saying they had done the skills. I got to have a little chat with them and what should have been four dives turned into six for various non problematic reasons so there was always something occupying me.
I was a last minute option I think. A lot of divers were on a trip to Oban for the weekend so I have a feeling that they were looking for a diver who was staying home. Having had no experience in surface cover though, I was surprised they asked me. I soon found out that you don’t need any qualifications as surface cover because if an incident occurred the highest qualified person would take charge. In our case that would be the instructor. So clip board, and numerous sets of car keys later I did my first surface cover in the rain.
Everyone was so considerate of me. It was raining in the car park so my hoodie was on when one of the dive masters gave me a festival poncho, a plastic poncho with hood that I put on to stop my clothes getting too drenched. I did wear it. I did look silly but I didn’t care 😛 Diving comes with the tendency of looking…. Less than glamourous to pretty ridiculous at time. Vanity is something a diver learns to forget after a few months.
The assistant instructor then gave me a tin foil blanket for my legs but I didn’t need it, I got to keep the blanket though, he has loads apparently! And one of the student’s parents lent me an umbrella as well. That was really nice.
I did notice quite a few things on the surface that I had never noticed before in the water;
- First off I’ve never seen a rebreather except in pictures. That day I counted no less than six.
- I struggle to distinguish between divers in the water once they are geared up! It’s amazing how much I relied on hair (or lack off) to tell me where the divers were!
- There is a lot of responsibility, not least is having everyone’s car keys in my pocket!
- Hoses can be different colours. I saw pink, blue and green. Not so sure I like this, I didn’t think it highlighted the octo as much as it should have. In an emergency I wondered if an out-of-air diver would remember to go for the pink hose or the blue hose. The hoses did look pretty cool though but I’ll personally be sticking to the Standard black with neon yellow octo hose J
- Everyone is friendly. I was chatting to parents and I saw that in the water other instructors laughing with their students, friends were asking for gear, and people were having just as much fun getting out the water and taking photos as I’m sure they were having under it. It’s really heart-warming to see such a friendly side to people, it just reaffirms what I know about the diving community. It’s the best!
- And lastly, the instructors, divemasters and assistant instructors, they do so much! I knew that beforehand of course but I think surface cover just keeps a person remembering that!
I actually really enjoyed my day as surface cover, I would definitely do it again. That doesn’t mean I haven’t already planned my next dive though! 😀
Lil Scuba Diver
lilscubadiver 