Guest Blogger Lucy Renaud: Scuba Fest.

My name is Lucy, I'm currently studying Marine and natural history at Falmouth university, but my home town is Essex where I first learnt to dive with Orca scuba diving academy. I have only been diving for a year, but studying here in Falmouth is the perfect place to develop and improve my diving. I absolutely love the life I live here, just a completely different world from back at home. Relaxed, breath taking scenery, down to earth people (mostly hippies) and no better place to explore the mysterious underwater world.....

This is my first year living down here in Cornwall but also my first experience of the dive festival. It is held at Pentewan Sands holiday park, situated on the coast of St Austell. The whole campsite is taken over by us crazy divers !!!!
It's not just for the divers though, there were many activities and entertainment going on over the weekend: A blues band, a marquee full of dive equipment and lots of freebies, experience dives for the newbies to the diving world, photo and a fancy dress competition and of course lots and lots of shore diving. Or if that didn't take your fancy you could take a ride down to Porthkerris and grab a boat dive off of the historical wrecks or the reefs that are full of life.

As a dive group we did 2 boat dives on the Saturday and 2 on the Sunday. I actually only got round to doing one of these boat dives, unfortunately sometimes we all can be nervous when it comes to diving, there are many things we have to take into account when diving, especially a place you have never dived before. As the main man Gary says, if you are not going to enjoy the dive, leave it for another day. Diving is for enjoying yourself, being free and following your passion, its not to be panicked and make you stressed. So I sat out on Saturday, however still loved exploring the dive site and the down to earth people that worked there. I mean that's what its all about diving. Meeting new people that have the same love as you do, learning and teaching them stuff that either you or them may of not known. Getting to know different techniques and experiencing the diving together as a society.
Although I didn't dive on the Saturday I loved hearing from my friends, about there dives and how happy they were after, it filled me with joy. I did get a dive in on the Sunday though, which I'm happy in myself, as It was the first boat dive I have done. It is a lot different to a shore dive. But once you're under, it is so so much more exciting, the life down there, colours and growth makes you realise how important it is to protect our nature. It's what makes our planet keep going. It's not just about the marine life you see, the plant life down there is just indescribable, the Mermaid's glove the shapes it makes and the way it gentle moves with the current. The transparencies of the many anemone's you find on the coral reefs. Even coral alone is a wonderful exotic sight, especially when the light hits it. I saw lots of pink sea fan, which is usually common at depths greater than 10 metres. They are colonies of tiny creatures, so although they may just look like a plant, we must protect them too.

I truly agree that diving is an escape for many of us, and has changed many lives also, I mean myself I would of never of dreamed of living a life down here. In my eyes it is one of the most beautiful places in Europe. But I guess that is why it's important we do follow our dreams, and what more than a better way to do that by spending a whole weekend with like minded people, just exploring the deep blue. I would really recommend  to any of you new or well experienced divers to not miss next years dive festival, come join the life of being a scuba diver, I tell you, it's certainly a better way to life than any other.....