The May-Day Experience

Padstow has it’s ‘Obbie Oss’. St Just had us!

Want to know what happens to those little kids who come up to you on the beach and ask "Are you a diver?", when you are standing there in full kit? They grow up and hang around campsites.

"How do you put that tent up?.......have you been in the local pub yet? ....is that a dive boat?....is there any treasure round here?......how much oxygen do you carry?.... is that tent really inside out? (YES it was!!! sorry DK but we couldn’t ignore that one could we!)".

All this while we were trying to put our tents up! Was it genuine interest or just the amount of vodka he was drinking? We will never know, the resultant sneaking about, having made sure he wasn’t around, added a little extra excitement to the weekend!

Although walking across the fields to get to the pub needed care to avoid the cowpats and mud! Fortunately the sheep had been locked up.......

It was a shame that someone had forgotten to tell the weather that May is supposed to be warm! The cold wind kept us all shivering in our tents, (just where had they locked away those sheep?) Blue is a very fetching colour.... but that didn’t stop us diving! Good job there were none of those macho types, with wetsuits, to show us up!

The diving was good, this was of course after we had ‘bump-started’ one of the boats! Whatdya mean ‘serves you right for taking the old battery’? Still it entertained all the spectators in Lamorna, (actually we used jump leads while the boats were afloat..great fun!  Water and electricity I hear you say, dangerous. No problem we were all wearing rubber suits!).

When we finally got in the water the plankton was doing it’s ‘springtime thing’ making the water gloomy, as it grabbed all the light it could get, to give it energy for those strange reproductive practices. Did we really swim through an orgy?

Despite this, the diving was good, if you kept out of the wind (who said that was due to the HSD?).

The Runnelstone, Logan rock, Juan Ferrer, Mystique, the Bucks, Carn Dhu, Gwenap Head to name but a few of the sites dived. Plus a bit of pot wrestling (or was it rustling?) to help out a local fisherman who had lost some gear, keeping it friendly for the future!

As for the Beachcomberesque antics of good old Robin Potts (ndortd.) himself......he bought me a beer, so my lips are sealed (ish).

Have you noticed how helpful the people of the far west can be? Walk in a shop with a local  who knows the shopkeeper, and they instantly add £10 to your bill! It was still worth it to get the neck seal fixed overnight, remember that Long Rock dive shop, they are very helpful....... if you can find the shop! Lots of tempting goodies to buy.

Thanks to Tony for organising the weekend, no small feat considering the motley crew who went!

Finally a message to all Dive Marshals:

!! BEWARE KEEN NOVICES !!

Nick Parsons - May 98