Preparations for Scapa Flow

[Marie13]

@Wibble

 

[Edward3c]

Hi Everyone,

I would like, in the coming years, to go and dive Scapa flow and see the ships of the great war.
From the information I have, it looks like just being a recreational diver will not be enough to really enjoy it.
Most ships appear to be between 20 and 40 meters deep so time might be very short at the bottom without Deco.

I have about 50 dives now and am "advanced" under PADI. My buoyancy is good but not perfect. I can do a frog kick and helicopter turn but not yet a backwards kick.
So, the question then becomes... How do I prepare myself the best for these dives?

At the moment, my plan involves something like this:
- Finish my Dry Suit training;
- Tackle the Deep diver & Wreck diver courses (probably on holidays in France in May).
- Do the Rescue course
- Possibly finish the year with Intro to Tech (learn to dive doubles) or Sidemount course.
- Beginning of 2025 do dives on doubles or Sidemount depending on route.
- Mid 2025 do Advanced Nitrox / Deco Procedures courses
- Finish 2025 getting used to doing those procedures by diving and possibly follow the Advanced Wreck course
- Somewhere in 2026 go to Scapa Flow.

As I have no experience doing Wreck diving, does this plan seem reasonable?

What are your thoughts on doubles vs sidemount?

Anything in the plan you would change?

Thanks in advance

As your based in Belgium, look to do your CMAS accredited training body (BGRS). 3star CMAS gives you mandatory deco and everything else needed to dive the Scapa wreaks.

 

[Centrals]

Scapa Scuba used to offer rec dive on the wrecks unfortunately it is NO longer available.
I remember the water temp was a steady 7-8C.
The three remaining battleships are huge.

 

[SpeedyJ]

There are a few different operators. We brought a group to the Jean Elaine with captain Andy Cuthbert (this trip report will give you some good info: Scapa Flow dive notes July 2013 but is from someone else).
Andy was kind enough to coordinate with Scapa Scuba (about a five min walk from the boat) to ensure cylinders were as requested. Spectacular trip, though I will attempt an earlier season trip next time. While April / May is colder, the vis tends to be slightly better.

More important than Andy's cylinder arrangement was mate Danny's promptness with tea and coffee as soon as your butt hit the seat.

 

[Wibble]

Scapa's a great place to dive. It's a large sheltered archipelago which means it's possible to dive most days, albeit not always on the big wrecks. It's cold, from 6C/42F in winter to 12C/54F in summer. Depths are max 42m/135ft.

Diving there means going down a line and up under a SMB as you do your decompression/safety stops. A drysuit is essential -- I saw a hardy Scottish chap diving a wetsuit. Never more than 30 mins and ran straight into the shower! We dived normally for about 90 minutes, could be longer by agreement with the skipper.

The 7 large wrecks are great to see and explore. The Markgraf battleship is upside down with the keel about 18m/60ft but it's so big it seems like a beach! The bottom is 42m/135ft which means you're definitely into decompression in a very short time. It's perfectly possible to do these dives with a single decompression cylinder, e.g. ANDP. It would be difficult to have much time with NDLs on the bigger ships.

Having said that, there's other shallower wrecks which are pretty, often the alternative dive sites for weather.

It's a great place to dive. For off days, Orkney is a nice place to visit unless you like trees!

Getting there means a long two-day car drive from Dover to Scrabster (near John O'Groats). Perth is a good overnight stop. I love the drive north of Inverness.

There's a 90 minute ferry from Scrabster to Stromness. You can go over as a foot passenger, parking your car in Scrabster and using their "cages" for your diving kit. If you take the car, you must declare the gas or risk them draining tanks -- "correct" labelling is important: AIR is allowed, helium isn't ;-)


My trips were done on a twinset (twin 12 litres) and I took a bottom stage of air helium mix for the Markgraf. That worked well as I still remember that dive.

Have wanted to go back there, but there's a lot of more interesting diving around Scotland and north west Ireland (Malin Head) when you're qualified for deep diving on a rebreather. So haven't been back since.

I definitely recommend it for people who are recreational divers but who can handle some decompression. Not sure it would be great to be there if you cannot do some decompression, e.g. 10 or 20 mins.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

In terms of training, you want:
- Drysuit + buy your own drysuit, preferably made to measure and get used to diving cold water
- Rescue course in a drysuit + 10-20 dives
- Intro to tech - if you are doing a lot of cold water, boat diving, I would do it in doubles/twinset rather than sidemount + 10 dives
- AN/DP + 5-10 deco dives

I did that for my first trip and had great time at Scapa, with 40-60 minutes bottom times and 10-20 minutes of deco. If I were you, I would plan a trip for mid-2025 and treat it as a training challenge. It helps if you can tag along a club or group of divers and if you can dive locally every few weekends.

I would skip deep diver (covered by AN/DP) and wreck - you don't need it to swim around wrecks. Sidemount is a contentious issue so let's not start a flamewar here . Once you are on a twinset, go play in some lower visibility quarries.

Pick the right instructor for AN/DP. In my personal experience, I would avoid training with volunteers for tech courses (BSAC/CMAS) as the quality is incredibly variable and a lot of the hobby instructors teach only few courses per year.

You probably don't need advanced wreck course on your first visit to Scapa. The ships are falling apart quite a bit so you won't be doing major penetrations, especially not on open circuit and with the limited bottom times you might get with a single stage.

Huskyan and Valhalla are great boats from my experience. Keep in mind that all boats are a shuttle, they drop you in and pick you up, no scuba police, no guides, no divemasters. So you need to travel with a group/dive buddy or you might end up diving solo.

 

[AncientPistol]

Hi Everyone,

I would like, in the coming years, to go and dive Scapa flow and see the ships of the great war.
From the information I have, it looks like just being a recreational diver will not be enough to really enjoy it.
Most ships appear to be between 20 and 40 meters deep so time might be very short at the bottom without Deco.

I have about 50 dives now and am "advanced" under PADI. My buoyancy is good but not perfect. I can do a frog kick and helicopter turn but not yet a backwards kick.
So, the question then becomes... How do I prepare myself the best for these dives?

At the moment, my plan involves something like this:
- Finish my Dry Suit training;
- Tackle the Deep diver & Wreck diver courses (probably on holidays in France in May).
- Do the Rescue course
- Possibly finish the year with Intro to Tech (learn to dive doubles) or Sidemount course.
- Beginning of 2025 do dives on doubles or Sidemount depending on route.
- Mid 2025 do Advanced Nitrox / Deco Procedures courses
- Finish 2025 getting used to doing those procedures by diving and possibly follow the Advanced Wreck course
- Somewhere in 2026 go to Scapa Flow.

As I have no experience doing Wreck diving, does this plan seem reasonable?

What are your thoughts on doubles vs sidemount?

Anything in the plan you would change?

Thanks in advance

You could consider doing the training in Scapa as part of your holiday. I have dived the high seas fleet with Kraken Diving while getting TDI certification. You get the advantage of an experienced guide so you see the best bits of the wrecks. Takes the anxiety out of your first trip.