September’s Dive Magazine as usual has a column in it by Monty Halls, a television presenter. I always enjoy his columns in the magazine as he has a good sense of humour. This month’s column continues with our hero living in the bothy that he rebuilt on the west coast of Scotland for a BBC series. He is heading off to visit a massive grey seal colony that is nearby, but he had to read up on grey seals first so he had something intelligent to say to the camera. His point was that he enjoyed the encounter with the seals so much more because he made the effort to read up on them beforehand.
I think he’s got a very good point. When I think about the dives I’ve enjoyed the most, they tend to be the ones where I know and understand what I’m seeing. Whether that’s the interaction between various marine creatures, such as shrimp and goby pairings, cleaner wrasse or shrimps and their customers, or whether it’s the layout of a particular wreck. For wrecks in particular I find a dive far more interesting if I know the historical context of whatever it is I’m diving on. As an example, in Chuuk several years ago I was diving the Emily Flying Boat. It’s not a particularly big wreck compared the ships that are there, but its history made it interesting. The Commanding Officer of the Fourth Fleet, his Chief of Staff and other senior Japanese Naval Officers, were returning from meetings in Palau. While on the way back to Truk, the plane was ambushed by US fighters and repeatedly attacked. Despite heavy damage and casualties, the pilot managed to escape the fighters and return to Chuuk. Unfortunately, the aircraft was so badly damaged that the pilot lost control while attempting to land in the lagoon and the aircraft crashed and sank. The pilot survived and was decorated for his actions. The Admiral and his Chief of Staff also survived. Knowing that made the dive a lot more interesting.
I went to Chuuk as part of a Club trip and we were diving from 2 tenders with 8-10 divers on each. I think the people on our boat enjoyed the trip a lot more and I suspect it was because we had all been reading up on the wrecks. So we knew what they were, how they’d sunk, what was on them, and we knew in advance what we wanted to see. In fact I would take down laminated sheets describing the wrecks, along with schematics, which meant that we could orient ourselves on the dive and remind ourselves what it was we wanted to see. But as an added bonus, the morning dives involved quite long safety stops hanging on a line, which was a great opportunity to read up on the rest of the wrecks we were going to be diving that day.
So whatever your interest, if you spend some time reading up on it in advance, you’ll enjoy your dives a lot more.
