107. Site entry & exit

Suppose the intreprid bottle diver “Arfa Glass” has identified a good potential site. We'll make it easy...a jetty by a lake. Arfa does his risk assessment and reckons it is quite diveable. Amongst other things, he knows that the traffic is very limited, and none is due for the twenty or thirty minutes he'll be doing his dive. There are no fishermen in the area.

Of course he's too smart to simply jump in, because the depth of the water is uncertain and there could be submerged obstacles. Arfa therefore takes the precaution of using a seated entry from the side of the jetty. He inflates his stab jacket, lowers himself carefully into the water, and commences the dive. He has good hunting and finds some good bottles – everything goes quite swimmingly, in fact.

But then Arfa discovers a problem.He got in OK. But how the blazes does he get out?

In the above situation Arfa might be able to find a ladder somewhere - perhaps there's one on another jetty nearby. Or there might be a boat launch that he can swim to and just walk up. But if the lake was more remote, where the cliffs run shear into the water, and he lowered himself in from a rock ledge, he could be faced with the prospect of ditching his weightbelt and gear in order to climb out.

Remember, the number one criterion when determining a place of entry is how to get out again.In my experience any sort of entry that does not involve walking in and donning the fins at somewhere between thigh and waist depth has to be regarded as suspect. Gravitational entries are the most dubious, at least for a solo diver who has no boat or shore support. If I wanted to dive a jetty, I would much rather plan on walking in and out via a boat ramp or beach, and swim to and from the jetty using a dive flag, than rely on a jump or even a cautious slide.

Incidentally I also classify a ladder as a type of gravitational entry. The taller ones can be very difficult to climb up after a dive in full gear, and the risks associated with any fall are enormous. The state of repair must be very carefully assessed. If there is an alternative location that permits a walking entry, even if it means a bit of a swim to get to where I really want to be, then I would be inclined to favour it as long as other hazards (such as boat traffic) permit.

One other precaution that I am keen on observing, especially when entering a site for the first time, is to make sure that my stab jacket is fully inflated and then inch forward slowly, perhaps using a stick to probe the way ahead. Some sites drop away quite remarkably even before waist depth is attained.

Once I am at waist depth, I will take a compass bearing of the direction in which I wish to head. Then I'll deflate the stab jacket and lie prone in the water, breathing slowly and deeply through the regulator. This serves 2 purposes. Firstly it allows me to relax and normalise my breathing, and secondly I can simply stand up and clear the water if any equipment was to malfunction. Once I am comfortable I will follow the route out to the site.