First Experience Diving on the Club’s RIB.
As a big wreck diving fan, I couldn’t say no to diving the Deutschland wreck which is about 25NM from Felixstowe. This was my first iDive RIB diving experience and I was a little apprehensive about going on the RIB as I haven’t had great experiences in non-iDive, much smaller RIBs before. I normally dive with my twinset so I previously found moving around the boat, gearing up, the ride, and getting out of the water unpleasant. This made me create a personal rule of “if it’s not a hard boat with a lift, kettle for tea, and a toilet, it’s a no-go for me”. However, the weather was predicted to be amazing, and I really wanted to dive some local wrecks, so I threw away my rule and went for it.
At the start of the day, getting the RIB in the water wasn’t a problem and we could load gear up easily in the car park before (great as usually I have to carry everything a long way when diving non-RIBs). There were 7 of us on the RIB and there was easily enough room to move about and have personal space, I even had a little snooze on the journey out as it was so comfy. I did swap down to a single cylinder for the dive, so we could save on weight as we were going out far. Gearing up and entering the water wasn’t a problem either. Getting back on the boat, I opted for the small ladder, which was surprisingly easy to use, and I believe even with a twinset would be perfectly navigable (removing the beached whale look of getting over the side). The weather was perfect so I can’t comment about how the RIB would handle waves, but I expect it wouldn’t be too bad. The journey back, getting the boat out of the water and unloading was easy.
So to sum up, would I go back on the club’s RIB… DEFINITELY! There are a few negatives like no kettle for a nice cuppa tea (I do like a bit of luxury after a dive), no protection from the weather (just have to be prepared for rain or sun) and the main one is there is no toilet (we were out for 5+ hours so it is something to consider if in a drysuit with no pee valve). However, the luxury of loading and unloading easily, having the ladder to get out of the water, a good amount of space onboard, and being able to launch in a multitude of places mean I have definitely scrapped my no RIB rule. I look forward to future dives and adventures on the iDive RIBs.
