2021 in numbers
After doing a little number crunching I thought that it would be good to share some facts and figures to show just how much and what sort of diving JBOD was doing in 2021.
In the last calendar year, I did 92 dives with depths ranging between 3.9m and 52.4m and an average of 18.77m. These dives were between 7 and 113 minutes long with an average of 50.22 minutes. Unsurprisingly, given the pandemic, every dive was in the UK.
2021's dives used various kit configurations: 58 dives used a rebreather, 33 with a single wing, and one with a Twinset.
Due to the lockdowns and travel restrictions, the split between fresh and saltwater was relatively poor; I did fifty-seven dives in freshwater compared to 35 in the sea. As for water bodies I did 46 dives in quarries (almost exclusively training in Capernwray), thirteen in the North Sea, ten in various lakes in Cumbria, ten in Milford Haven, eight in the Irish Sea, two in the Firth of Clyde, and one each in the River Leven, Holy Loch, and Loch Goil
Variety being the spice of life meant that I had thirty-five different buddies - I'm counting everyone in the group I dived with rather than the actual person I was beside where there were multiple divers together.
The variety of buddies reflects the way JBOD integrates with other BSAC clubs and other organisations. Other than JBOD members I dived with Liverpool University, Lancaster University, Sheffield University, Sheffield SAC, BSAC Technical, and BSAC North West Region.
Obviously, all of the dives were pleasure but 28 were where I was instructing and 64 were bimbling, fish counting, and wreck exploring. The instructing was with the University of Liverpool, the University of Lancaster, and various CCR beginners introduced by BSAC Technical.
I managed to dive 33 different sites in England, Scotland, and Wales of which thirteen were new places or new locations at familiar places. The new places were wrecks in the North Sea out of Eyemouth, Milford Haven, Loch Goil, and Holy Loch.
In all of the diving we've done we have had no reported diving accidents.
Many thanks in no particular order to all of my buddies: Peter Crompton, Tim Allen, Paul Crinnion, Jessica Liu, Tim Birtles, James Jones, Alice Lloyd, Mike Adkins, Robbie Sandle, Tom Colbenson, Alice Newbould, Mike Camden Ward, Neil Turton, Hannah Short, Alastair Parker, Sean Kelly, Julien Marro, Andy Lane, Siobhan Child, Ezra Morris, Dan Loch, Wiktoria G¢rka, Liam Shore, Paul Gallagher, Stephen Kirwin, Jon Coleman, Rosie Horner, Alan Tweddell, Andrew Humby, Arthur Jones, Adrian Fish, Connor Brizell, Kim Shaw, Sophie Heptonstal and Paul Smith proving that diving is a team game.
I'm now looking forward to another rather more successful diving year where hopefully we can get better statistics and more diving. Hopefully, I'll see you down there!
