Vobster Quay, Somerset
by Frederik Hjelset

Vobster Quay is a new addition to the list of inland UK diving sites and the club took its first outing there on March 3 2004 for some training dives.
It is an old quarry located in the heart of Somerset that has been turned into a dive site that's ideal for remembering old dive skills and learning new ones. It has good facilities: ladies and mens' changing rooms with hot showers, a compressor, a dive shop (although no kit rentals) and of course the obligatory bacon/burger van.
As the UK diving season has (barely) begun, for the seasonal divers we all had an early start on Saturday morning to be sure to get a parking space near the water. Vobster Quay is about 100 odd miles from New Malden and should take no more than 1.5 hours without traffic or other delays. Down the M3, then A303-A36-A362, a left here, a right there, and before you know it, you're driving past a fence with a lake behind it. I was late of course and got lost as well, so by 9:30am the lower car park was full, but you can load your kit off and then drive your car 50m up the road to park, so it's not a problem. Entrance is £12 with a £10 key tag deposit (for id just in case).
Luckily Jo and Dave had got a space by the water so we kitted up there (at least someone got there on time!). David had prepared a Diving Timetable for the day, and this allowed for us trainee Sports Divers to do some training dives and (deputy) dive marshalling. The idea was to get 3 dives done, so we could all get some good training dives and practice dive marshalling.

The site is well laid out with the main entry point directly in front of the main building, allowing for a nice easy swim out to one of many numbered buoys. The entire site is roughly 1/3 mile long and 1/4 mile wide, with most of the diving around the 16-24m mark and a few 'black holes' of 35m+. Places of interest include the old 'Crushing Works', the 'Stone Delivery Tunnel', a cruiser named 'Jacquin II' (if you're missing a 42ft yacht, its in 17m of water in the middle of Somerset), some random welded structures and pipes and a blockhouse.

After marshalling duty and some buoyancy checks David and I entered at the main entry point and descended to 16m after a short surface swim. I was to do a simulated decompressions stop for my Sports Diver training, so we had the chance to swim around and enjoy the sights. Visibility was about 5m with the temperature 6 degrees away from freezing. We saw the crushing works, consisting of a high brick wall and some superstructure, as well as the tunnel before eventually ascending and doing the drill. By the time we surfaced I was a bit on the chilly side with the water being only 6°C (No, Norwegians think this is just as cold as you Brits), so looking forward to a nice hot tea!
The next two dives consisted of SMB and reel exercises for me, and I believe Andy and Alison did some SMB drills, navigation and rescue training. After the reel exercise visibility was down to 0.5m - sorry, this is why they call it training! Marine life is fairly limited, on the first dive I caught sight of movement on a girder and it turned out to be the home of a fair number of small crustacean/sea lice creatures. I'm not sure if they have plans to release any fish in Vobster Quay, but there is food for them. Speaking of food, the burgers aren't bad, and they have something called the 'Mega Deco Bap' at £4.50, I didn't see anyone eating those all day though.

By the time we finished our 3rd and last dive it was getting close to 4:45pm, which is last-diver-out-of-water at Vobster. We changed, debriefed, packed up and headed for the nearest open pub in Somerset. I believe everyone had some good training dives at Vobster Quay, the facilities are good, the visibility is ok and its not too far off major roads. It almost feels like a mini version of Stoney Cove. If you want a nice safe place to get your kit wet and do some training then Vobster Quay is a good alternative to Stoney Cove. There's less to see and do, but there are also less people, and who knows, maybe there will be some more attractions or marine life soon

Kingston & Elmbridge Branch


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