I did my first ever cold water dive in Boddam Quarry back in May 2009, while I was doing my PADI Dry Suit course. I'd only done a handful of dives in the quarry since then. So I thought it was time to head back and have another explore of the quarry. I rounded up two friends who were keen to dive the quarry. We were all going to be diving in wetsuits after recently diving other local dive sites with the water being 14 degrees, there isn't a huge amount to see in the quarry but it is good for getting used to diving in lower visibility waters and cold water.
We all geared up and did our buddy checks before jumping in. Initially jumping in the water didn't feel too bad. So we descended down too around 12 metres, the visibility to start with was terrible but after about 8 metres it started too clear up. On the bottom there was loads of interesting things including a game of noughts and crosses and a television. After we explored that area we swam further into the quarry, finally finding the famous burger van that Boddam quarry has! Having a play around the burger van was good fun. The burger van was at around 14metres and the water temperature was still around 12 degrees so defiantly bare-able. Afterwards we decided to find the bottom, swimming into the middle we found 21 metres but didn't stay around for long as at 21 metres it was 6 degrees and in wetsuits wasn't all that fun! So we ascended up slowly along the side of the quarry to go find the noughts and crosses again. Little play around and then it was time to find a spot to do a safety stop, as after 25 minutes everyone was starting to feel a little cold. Safely stop completed we ascended up to the surface, the surface water felt like a hot bath compared to the water at 21 metres deep!
I really recommend Boddam Quarry for getting yourself used to diving again, testing out new equipment or just a place for some dives when the local seas are too rough. We had a good day out but maybe should use 7mm wetsuits next time!
When I first started working in the diving industry in Aberdeen in 2009, I'd always heard people talk about the Linn of Dee salmon dive. I'd always wanted to try the dive but never been a massive fan of cold water diving. With this years summer being so good I decided to get back into cold water diving, as there is so many good dive sites on my door step.
On the edge of the Linn of Dee before the dive
The recent weather had been pretty good with no rain which makes the conditions for Linn of Dee perfect. I spoke to a lot of people to get the overview of the dive site and what are generally the main points of entry and exit. I knew the area anyway but not as a dive site. I therefor went up the night before to check out the area and all the points I'd been told about made absolute sense once I was standing on the edge of the river.
We half kitted up at the car and carried the rest of the kit down to the riverside near the entry point. Buddy checks done and plans discussed.
The water wasn't too bad but gloves and hoods were required but sadly we only had one hood. I had to give up my hood for my friend to continue the dive. We swam up the narrow gorge against the mild current exploring the little inlets and the rock formation was quite amazing. It was quite gloomy and dark at just a few metres down and we could have definitely have done with a torch. After about 5 minutes into the dive we came to the "V" which everybody had talked about. I put my face in front of the current and it just wanted to take my mask off. I knew this was going to be interesting getting through as it wasn't very wide and there was a strong current. We tried to fin through several times but each time we just got thrown back by the current.
Eventually we realised fining through the "V" wasn't going to work. Plan B was to pull ourselves through and fining down once half way through to get out of the current. This eventually worked but was hard work! Once in the last pool the currents got a lot stronger and if you ascended just half a metre you could be thrown back out through the "V" in just seconds. This happened to us the first time so we had to pull ourselves back through. This time we stayed on the bottom and explored the last pool, once we had explored the majorly of it we ascended a little and let the current take us back down the river like a massive drift dive.
We spent about 10 minutes working the way up the river and exploring the different pools and the current took us down in no time at all. We then explored down the river and all the various different pools until it was too shallow and we beached. I really enjoyed the dive. The Linn of Dee dive isn't really about diving to see the fish etc it's more of a playground in the currents which was really good fun. I'd highly recommend giving the Linn of Dee dive ago. We can arrange trips to the Linn of Dee along with accommodation, so if anyone is interested just drop us an email at dive@scubadubadive.com
