CILLIAN GRAYdescribes a his day
I RUN SCUBADIVE WEST diving school with my brother Breffni. Our parents set it up decades ago and chose Renvyle because of the quality of the diving; there is exceptional water clarity and amazing underwater topography.
Each morning I commute 50 yards from the house to the dive centre and check the schedule for the day. Divers start arriving at 9am. Diving attracts people from all walks of life. What they have in common is that they tend to be nice. I think it’s because there’s no competitive element to it.
If it’s a beginners’ group, we get the paperwork sorted and do a 20-minute presentation about the basics before introducing them to the equipment. Then we take them to some shallow waters to get used to it.
After doing more skilled practice at standing depth, we move them to depths of between six and eight metres to get a fuller experience. Novice divers always say the same thing: they thought it would be cold and dark. They are amazed that it’s colourful and warm.
For more advanced divers we run full-day boat trips. We’re about 40 minutes away from some amazing dive sites where the underwater scenery is spectacular. If you can imagine being suspended from a cliff edge and being able to see any part of the mountainside you want, that’s what it’s like to dive off the west coast. There are plenty of gullies and caves to explore, too.
We dock at either Inishbofin or Inishturk for lunch, where a local BB owner gives us soup and sandwiches, and we relax for an hour or so before getting back on the boat for the afternoon’s diving. The divers get back on shore in time for dinner and a few pints.
I’ll still have work to do, though, refilling air bottles, refuelling the boats and rinsing and storing 25 sets of equipment. Then there is the Padi paperwork to go through, as well as any administration work left over from the morning.
Once a month the staff all go diving together, to find new spots and so that I can indulge my interest in underwater photography. We run courses in that, too.
One of the most popular things we offer, and which is particularly good with spring tides when the currents are strong, is drift-diving. With it, you are taken out in a boat
and dropped off to go with the flow for up to four kilometres before being picked up. It’s brilliant.
Another thing about diving is that, apart from the normal fatigue that comes from physical exertion, it has a particular physiological effect on you, which means you sleep like a baby afterwards.
Scubadive West, Renvyle, Co Galway, 095-43922, www.scubadivewest.com