Many thanks go to the committees of Askham, Greystoke and Lazonby pools for joining with us to offer some drop-in, try-breathing-underwater sessions over the summer season. Apart from the day of torrential rain at Greystoke, the sessions were very well attended and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Watch this space for a repeat in 2023!
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and are determined to carry on for as long as there is stuff to collect. Maybe one day there'll either be treasure or nothing to find - those are the dreams!
After much thought and discussion, members of Penrith Divers have decided that being part of ScotSAC is no longer in the club's best interests and have made the momentous choice to change our governing body. The club will now join the Sub-Aqua Association (SAA) and begins the challenging but invigorating process of learning and understanding a new training regime and organisational methodology. Early signs are looking good that the SAA will help to move our club forward in exciting ways with a lot of input and opportunities to engage with other clubs all over the UK. Thanks and best wishes to all those involved in ScotSAC, who have given help, encouragement and support to Penrith Divers and its members over the past 40 years. There was a good turnout of club members to take part in our Christmas fun session. Two teams raced against each other to complete a variety of challenges from collecting bits off the bottom of the deep end for the snorkellers to swapping kit for the more experienced divers and many other things in between, including a quiz about various aspects of the pool and surrounds.
Unfortunately time ran out for the egg and spoon race so that can be something for another day! A great evening with Friends ... Penrith Divers and families Christmas night out at the Brantwood Hotel
Isn’t technology wonderful? Three types of technology certainly worked well together for Penrith Diver David Bell recently. Taking part in what he thought was just an undemanding explore of a new site, David was amazed to stumble across a mystery object which he initially took to be for writing notes. Closer investigation showed it to be a mobile phone in a waterproof case so he brought it back to the surface to look in more detail. This highlighted the first part of the amazing technology trio as the case had managed to keep the phone completely dry despite being submerged in more than 5 meters of water for some time. The second player in the technology story was the phone itself. In spite of being completely out of charge, just a few minutes with a battery pack and it was up and running again and showing a lovely picture of its owner on the front screen. Unfortunately, there were no emergency contact details saved so next came the biggest challenge - could that owner be located? This is where the third, and sometimes reviled, technological saviour came in. The wonders of social media! Reasoning that the phone must have been dropped when out on the lake, messages were posted in groups on Facebook that had a connection to either wild swimming in Cumbria or lake Ullswater. By the end of the day, multiple people had recognised the picture from Twitter and got in touch with the owner. Amazingly, the circle was completed and the phone returned after sitting at the bottom of the lake for over 3 months. It’s astonishing what sort of things you can find out in the lakes! Picture the scene - your mother sadly passes away, leaving you a fabulous woven gold bracelet as a keepsake. You safely lock it away, resolving only to bring it out for very special occasions. A few years pass and your son decides to get married - a special occasion indeed and a very fitting chance to bring your mother's memory along too.
The ceremony progresses beautifully and now it's time for some photographs with Lake Ullswater as a stunning backdrop. All is going well until you are helped up from sitting on the jetty and tragedy strikes! The clasp of your precious bracelet comes undone and it drops into the water below. Wading into the lake is no good as there is a steep drop before reaching the place the bracelet fell. Even the best efforts of a passing wild swimmer are to no avail! What next? Call in Penrith Divers to see what they can do. David and Katie took up the challenge and set off on a drizzly evening to attempt the almost impossible. After a chat with the hotel's wedding co-ordinator, George, who had strategically marked the site of the incident, they suited up and got going. The plan was to set off from either side of the post in question - having been careful to walk out a good distance away from the jetty to avoid stirring up the silt - and meet up in the middle for a second sweep. As luck would have it none of this careful planning was necessary as Katie managed, having spent a short time trying to get her bearings and figure out exactly where the jetty was underwater, to swim right over the top of the bracelet's resting place amongst the weed. All that remained was to have a quick look around in case there was anything else there to find, attract David's attention and re-surface to inform the curious young holiday makers who had stopped to see what was going on about what we had been doing. All in all an extremely successful mission with a very happy lady (and a good write up in the Herald) at the end of it :-) |
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