Page 20 - RADC 2017

Diving
Cpl Kerry Stitt, RADC Dental Centre Episkopi
My week adventure training began with
a motivating brief on the importance of adventurous training within the British Army. This gave clear details on the aims and objectives of what the training should cover over the following week. This was followed by an introduction to the three other students who were on the course with me and all diving instructors. To my surprise, the Quarter Master from my
first time in Cyprus was one of the Diving Instructors and from this point on the banter was certainly top notch.
Then off to the classroom at the dive centre to have my head slightly frazzled with all the essential safety and general knowledge required for diving.
We proceeded to the swimming pool for our first diving experience, at this point I realised I would not look glamorous at any point during the week! Spitting in the face mask is essential to prevent it fogging up but the dental nurse voice in my head wasn’t too keen on this! Placed into buddy pairs, I was happy to be paired with a cheerful Scottish lad who, along with myself, had absolutely no previous diving experience. It was quite comforting being newbies together. On plunging into the pool we were taught all
the signs of underwater communication and actions on, to ensure we could look after each other if something went wrong under the water. The instructor was pretty pleased with our speedy progress and particularly impressed that both of us managed the mask clearing drills with ease - this is notorious for being the hardest drill for students to grasp on the first day. I must also point out that waterproof mascara,
It was quite comforting being newbies together.
perhaps, would have been a better choice but it did provide my instructor with a lot
of amusement. A positive debrief from the instructor gave me a slight confidence boost to go into the next day of the course.
The following days consisted with a lot
of classroom work, a challenging theory exam, and streamlining our new learnt practical skills and drills learnt on the first day of the course. Errors in kit set up now lead to a barrage of friendly abuse from fellow students. The first dive outside of the inland water training area was at “sheep’s dip” and, as the name suggests, at this site sheep used to be dipped into the water and blessed by the local priest. We completed
both walk in and dive entries to the water, upon doing so, I was totally amazed to find lovely rock formations, interesting caves and beautiful marine life.
For the last day of the course we were promised a dive on the Zenobia ship wreck, which is consistently voted within the top ten wrecks to dive in the world! Zenobia was a roll on roll off ferry that sank on her maiden voyage from Sweden to Syria, never reaching her destination. The Captain noticed steering problems, and the boat capsized and sank in Larnaca Bay to the depth of 42 metres, taking its estimated £200 million worth of cargo with her. The cargo of trucks and their contents have never been salvaged, and they can be seen still chained to the decks. Thankfully no lives were lost in this unfortunate event.
We completed one 20 meter dive, which was amazing and far beyond all expectations! Whilst diving around the outside of the Zenobia I enjoyed looking at the various structural aspects of the ship, but, being
18 RADC BULLETIN 2017
ADVENTURE TRAINING