Page 67 - The Wish Stream Year of 2022 CREST

you feel panicky, which is difficult when under- water and you can’t see anything. However, we all felt a massive sense of achievement after- wards that we had stretched ourselves outside of our comfort zones. One of the OCdts was also struggling with the transition
instructors noticed we had much more control. On our final dive, we swam down to 17m. At this depth the water was very murky and had a much lower visibility than before – like swimming in slime. We saw a Wessex helicopter and then
from the pool to the quarry and sadly had to stop with the quali- fication due to finding it claustro- phobic and uncomfortable. It was a shame for us not all to be able to complete the qualification, but he gave it multiple attempts, and this was a reminder to us all that AT is meant to be challenging!
At this depth the water was very murky and had
a much lower visibility than before – like swimming in slime.
we swam back up the cliffside to 6m for our 3-minute decompression stop before some final mask clear- ance drills, which we all noticed we were getting more comfortable with.
Finally, we returned to the classroom to complete our dive logs and paper- work. Seven members of the group are now qualified BSAC Ocean Divers, meaning we can swim to
On the final day, we went to the deepest and darkest depths yet. We began swimming down to 14m where we saw a big metal frame, which had lots of tiger mussels and sea sponge on it, which we all passed around underwater. The evi- dence of sea sponge was a good indicator of the cleanliness of the water. We were all really beginning to get a hang of our buoyancy and our
20m with a partner without an instructor, any- where in the world. We are all looking forward to scuba diving abroad in the future, hopefully with our soldiers, and felt a massive sense of accomplishment from learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. A massive thanks from all of us to the Sandhurst Trust for their generous donations!
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