Gilwell 24

Saturday 11^th July 2015

2am – fly in, fresh from the Red Sea.

7.15am – back at the centre, see Ian off to Nemes for Open Water.

17.30pm – arrive at Gilwell.

18.30pm – begin a night of DSDs, with our own ‘24’ to envy Jack Bauer.

After a busy week of diving in the Red Sea, all the kit had to be washed and checked.  Once the kit was sorted out it was loaded up again into the trailer.  Luckily, it wasn’t our first time and with all of the tanks and kit we were taking with us, we were able to fully utilise the space we had.

Gilwell is the Scout HQ for England and once a year in July the association run ‘Gilwell 24’.  This is 24 hours of non-stop activities for Adventure Scouts; from driving lessons to paintball, white water rafting to high wire, live bands to film showings, fun fair rides and many, many more - including Scuba Diving.

                                                                           

We have helped out for the last 4 years, running the night shift from 6pm till 8am with the help of many Orca staff. This was a great night with a total number of DSDs sitting at 297…annoyingly short of 300 but still a great effort!

Following a quick unloading of the gear and a process in place for dealing with the constant stream of divers through paper work, briefing and then into the water, we were underway and we had the first divers at around 6:30pm. 

                                                                           

   

All of the people we met were having a great time, even when the weather turned against us and the hours ticked through the night with little or no sleep.

With so many DSDs and no compressor, we had to take all of the tanks we could get our hands on.  Dave Moss was doing the tough job of decanting air from the 15 and 12 litre tanks into smaller ones.  This is no simple task, Dave managed to keep us stocked with plenty of air throughout the night.

All of the kit was checked for air and defects after each dive.  A team of 4 divers were in the water at all times rotating every few hours.  The pool was outside and heated but it didn’t take long to feel the chill, we were in shorties but there were comments about dry suits for next year!  The frequent runs to the burger van and hot drinks van kept everyone going and in good spirits until we packed up to head home at around 8am.

All in all, a great night and we are looking forward to next year.