My first open water freedive - well, sort of...

[naiad]

Today I went on a college trip to collect water samples and invertebrates on the river Test in Hampshire. I was wading around in the river, about 50cm depth, and generally splashing around and looking for anything interesting. The weather was very hot and I am so frustrated at not finding any local dive sites, and my clothes were starting to get wet, so soon I found myself in the water, and soon my face was in the water...

Because it was only 0.5m deep and fast flowing, I crawled along the stony bottom with my hands. The water was crystal clear, with big cushions of plants and lots of assorted creatures, including fish. 3 trout went right past me!

Very cold though, it is spring water, about 10C or a bit over!

Never thought that my first diving session would be without suit, fins or mask!

Now I have to face up to the anticlimax of wearing the wet clothes for the rest of the day.

Lucia

[BennyB]

I assume when they said to collect water samples they meant in little bottles, not in clothes

[Waterysmile]

You go girl!

See, no need for a suit, no shivering. I envy you the vis!

[jimqpublic]

I really think we should take up a collection to send Lucia to the ocean.

[Adrian]

What a brave girl! But I suspect your friends thought you were a bit daft, not understanding why. Or were you alone?

[trux]

Originally Posted by naiad

... it is spring water, about 10C or a bit over!...

I had to laugh, Lucia, reading this, knowing that you often posted about getting cold very easily even in a pool with +30°C water and wearing your wetsuit, and complaining that getting cold actually kills your diving reflex. So how was your diving response in the chilling 10°C?

[cdavis]

When it comes to diving, you do what you have to do. Great Story! Wish I'd been there.

Connor

[deep thinker]

Great idea Jim, Lucias ocean tin .
Cool story and interesting collection aproach. So how does the organisms in the river water respond to fabrick softener?
Anything to get wet hey

[naiad]

Originally Posted by Adrian

What a brave girl! But I suspect your friends thought you were a bit daft, not understanding why. Or were you alone?

The trip was meant to be for investigating water quality, but it soon became a day of fun by the river - several students were sunbathing, at least two were swimming, some were throwing water around and I was swimming/freediving. I did get the work done (measuring the flow rate and describing the surrounding environment), so I didn't get into trouble.

Originally Posted by trux

I had to laugh, Lucia, reading this, knowing that you often posted about getting cold very easily even in a pool with +30°C water and wearing your wetsuit, and complaining that getting cold actually kills your diving reflex. So how was your diving response in the chilling 10°C?

When I first started wading around, it was so cold that it hurt to keep my feet in the water. Soon I got used to it, and it didn't seem that bad! For some reason I find it much worse to get into cold water indoors than outdoors. Getting into a 27C pool is still quite bad. Maybe it is because it was a hot day and in direct sunlight, so it is easier to keep warm.

I was only holding my breath for about 10 seconds max, so it was hard to tell if it had an effect on my dive response. It was extremely difficult to hold my breath, but I was not shivering while I was in the water. When I got out, I started shivering, but still not as badly as after swimming in a cold pool. I guess this could be caused by the dive response - the shivering stops during apnea to conserve O2, then it starts afterwards.

The location was similar to this...
Image:River Itchen Ovington.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[land shark]

ahh Limestone spring creeks my favorites If you guys could really see one you would also be chomping at the bit to take a dive. They are so clear they look like there is a pane of glass over them. And they are teaming with life. study them well Lucia for they are becoming quite endangerd.

[naiad]

They are endangered here too. The Bullhead (European, not American) is becoming quite rare, because it needs clean fast-flowing water, and it is also unpopular with anglers because it eats trout eggs and fry. I doubt that it has any significant impact on the trout population, and anyway trout will eat their own fry.

It was strange to see how much life there was hidden under the stones - from the surface it looks almost lifeless apart from the occasional fish, but under each stone there is a community of mayfly and stonefly nymphs, limpets, leeches, insect larvae and bullheads. They stick firmly to the stones to resist the strong current. The clumps of plants contain insects and shrimps. There were also a lot of adult mayflies and dragonflies around.

Certainly a very interesting dive site.

[land shark]

Now is a good time to study the insects there for the next months there will be hatches almost every eveing. Ussually at sundown the stream literally comes to life, here we have blizzard hatches. Quite a delightful experience but can be very frustrating if your a fisherman