North Wales Dive Trip - 30 Jan 2005:

Trefor Pier and Vivian Quarry

With the new years club resolution still fresh in the mind, to dive in the sea whenever possible, nine divers headed off on a good forecast, over the Pennines to North Wales. The object being the high acclaimed Trefor Pier dive, a few miles south of Caernarfon on the North Wales coast, with this site achieving a creditable write up in a recent Dive magazine.

At a distance of 175 miles from Leeds, an early start of 8am on Sunday morning, to reach Trefor in plenty of time for high tide at 12 noon, was required. As the depth is limited, it is best to dive this site at high tide, giving a maximum depth of 8-9 meters. Four of us packed into a Mazda Bongo!!!!!!!, a recent acquisition for Tony. Despite a slow cruising speed and only 25 mpg the typical drug baron bus proved to be an excellent transport for divers and the proverbial stack of gear.

Leaving the clear blue skies and winter sun in Yorkshire, the more familiar low cloud and rain of the North West got steadily worse till we reached Trefor. Heading down to the bay, signposted to the beach, there is ample free parking by the pier, though this might get crowded in the summer months. There are no other facilities there though the bay is quite scenic.

The assembled group inspected the site, a cold westerly wind was creating a small swell, while the water on the lee side of the pier appeared blue and very murky. Still undeterred we kitted up only to receive reports from early divers, from Wrexham, that under the pier the swell was strong and threw you around the pier struts and the visibility was poor, less than 1 meter.

Time for plan B, as the lowly slung Bongo!!!!!!!!(lol) had no chance of negotiating the track to Dorothea, thus the Vivian quarry was targeted. 15 minutes back north and into the Snowdonia hills, in the Llanberis valley, very low cloud and 'that fine rain that soaks you right through' courtesy of Pete Kay, was the order of the day.

Rob our DO with his jolly and positive attitude, whipped up enthusiasm in stark contrast to the author, with his completely negative view of cold, lifeless, featureless quarries. Vivian quarry is a small slate quarry adjacent to the east bank of the Llanberis lake, tucked away under an obvious sheer quarry wall. Entrance is through a short quarry tunnel from the back of a large car park by the main lake. Facilities here include: slate museum, shops and toilets, though a parking fee of £1 is required.

The dive site at Vivian includes a small shop, where you register and a compressor. Registration requires your BSAC, or other, identity, a £5 life registration fee and £5 day dive fee. For this you get another plastic membership card for your wallet. Not too sure how much a fill costs.

Onto the dive, a short walk round the quarry, fully kitted up, best to remember to take out the extra weights required for the former sea dive (doh), reached the entry point. A small platform to jump into 15m of water is adjacent to a lower platform reached on exit by a solid ladder, suitable for climbing with fins. All together quite good.

Down under, reasonably good visibility in a cold dark quarry afforded the opportunity to view the lack of life and the few bits of junk dumped in the water: allegedly two boats, some gnomes, a car wreck, a hut and loads of oil drums. At the south end, at 17 meters, we found the visibility poor with the bed covered in brown leaves whereas to the north, under the main wall conditions were brighter. Dive times varied in the four groups, a half hour dive allowed a full circuit at 15m, returning with well over 100 bar. Other less fortunate members saw shorter dive times owing to ear equalisation problems in the cold, 7 degree water.

Vivian provides a reliable fall back site if sea conditions are not ppropriate.

Divers: Rob DO; Tony DL; Rick, Pete, Graham, Nick Sports; Seb junior diver; John trainee and of course Jessica.

Web site at: Vivian Quarry