OUUEG's 2025 Easter Training trip to Portland

As a Ocean Diver trainee who’d never been on an open water dive in the UK before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the Easter Trip to Portland. I was definitely excited to finally get into the sea and experience the British coast from below the water, but had no idea how I’d find managing the somewhat chilly temperatures and variable conditions. However, after the first day of diving, I can safely say I was absolutely loving diving in Portland!

While that’s partly due to Dorset’s wonderful ocean scenery, I think the biggest credit goes to the amazing work of OUUEG’s instructors. They did a tremendous job of guiding us trainees through everything, with considerable patience for our faffing around with kit, surprise ascents, weighting issues, and various other “learning moments”. The fact that at least 4 of us trainees (including myself) finished our courses over the trip (and I’m sure more will finish soon!) is a testament to their fantastic teaching.

We explored various parts of Portland on the trip, and took in a range of conditions. Visibility on dives ranged from a few metres to a few centimetres. The weather ranged from glorious sunshine to horrendously stormy. This gave us a good opportunity to visit Portland Bill and enjoy the sea conditions from the comfort of a café, spend quality bonding time in a sauna, and to go out on our boat Seahorse and experience all of the joys of a rollercoaster! Sites explored included weedy beaches, muddy bottoms, and best of all, several wrecks! My personal favourite dive took place on the Countess of Erne, where I finished my final Ocean Diver lesson and managed to see jewel anemones, cup corals, big sponges, dead man’s fingers, and some very large crabs.

It would be remiss of me to mention the excellent catering we provided to ourselves (and enjoyed!) on ET. Highlights include two BBQs (we now have a club BBQ for future trips!), fajitas, and some very tasty apple cake (and of course many, many Lidl pastries). We also enjoyed several other land- based activities. The wreck appreciation session, the reg appreciation session, finning workshop, and of course the sumo game were all duly appreciated. Annie (our beloved CPR dummy) had a tremendous time on the Basic Life Support and Oxygen Administration courses (and in her various romantic exploits!). I had such a lovely time staying with the Caravan 45 gang that I took the keys home with me (an accident, I promise!).

I’d like to thank all of OUUEG’s exceptional officers, planners, and instructors for making ET 2025 such a resounding success. Thank you so much George, Xianming, Karim, Yuya, Marius, Holger, David, Ben, and Shannon! Your hard work, late nights, early mornings, and ability to put up with trainee-induced shenanigans were immeasurably appreciated by all of us. Special thanks must also go to Becks from BSAC, who did a spectacular job of organising us in spite of our spectacular propensity for faff, and worked hard as shore manager to keep us safe and on time!

To summarise, I had an incredible time, and can’t wait for the next trip!