Following our RNLI Rhyl trip
On the 29th April 2018, members of our club enjoyed a dive at Vivian Dive Centre, Llanberis. We had started the day by delivering a cheque to Rhyl RNLI (see post) and we all thought whilst we were in North Wales, why not visit Vivian Dive Centre. It had been a while since anyone in the group had been and it’s good to practise skills, kit and techniques in a variety of situations so why not?
For those unfamiliar with Vivian it is set in the beautiful location of Llanberis, the dive site is an old slate mine and artefacts from its past can still be found around the site. The diving centre’s underwater exhibits include original mining memorabilia such as mine carts, a slate house and a blast house.
There are also a few other sites including a couple of boats and a tube which is useful for getting used to your spacial awareness when you have your dive kit on. Vivian has a couple of training platforms which are useful for techniques, newer divers or trying out kit.
All in all, Vivian can boast a pleasant dive. There isn’t too much depth and the routes are quite simple and circular. I buddied up with one of our more experienced instructors as it was a first time for me diving the quarry and we managed all of the main sites within a simple 45-minute dive. Following the dive I feel fairly competent that I wouldn’t get too lost if I went in again and I was leading, the visibility was pretty decent for a quarry with quite a bit of leaf litter at times 5 metres was quite easy as along as you were careful to not disturb the silt.
Trivia:
Quite a lot of Snowdonia was used as a location for the film King Arthur by Guy Richie and Vivian was used in one of the scenes. Here you can see a stunt man falling 80 feet into the quarry.
