Advance! Scuba Diving on Ireland's West Coast

Did my Advanced Open Water PADI course over the weekend, atScuba Dive West in Killary Harbour/Renvyle, in Galway...

Did my dry suit dive on Friday afternoon in Little Killary. In those winds winds... the noise down below was mad! It was dark when we resurfaced, so it became a bit of a night dive. Dry suits are toasty. Wearing a tracksuit underneath, all that gets wet (in theory) is your hands and head!

Did a general boat dive and a navigation dive on Saturday... the first one was great, but the second one involved navigating by compass in 1.5m visibility!

Amazing rainbows yesterday while heading out in the boat - the light was very similar to the Giants Causeway last year...

Too much tequila and Guinness in The Bard's Den makes for ill divers...plus the constricting suits and a heavy swell. Some of us were racking our guts up over the sides before getting the water yesterday... minutes later I was descending down the line to do my first deep dive. Down to 30m... 100ft below the surface. Had to do written and memory tests down there to learn to recognise the effects of nitrogen narcosis... and yer voice sounds like it's on helium. Great visibility, around 5-6M.

Then did a wreck dive yesterday, which was cool, the Julia T, an old island supply ship sunk in 1998. Covered in anemones, urchins and inhabited by pollack and congers. Quite murky round there tho.

And then about 5 hours driving back to Dublin. SO tired today...