Andy Torbet shares his amazing UK snorkel adventures

Preparing for hosting duties at the upcoming BSAC Diving Conference, Andy Torbet reflects on his adventures snorkelling around Britain.

In a few weeks’ time it will be BSAC’s 2024 Diving Conference [Nb – Andy will be hosting the main stage]. A time for representatives from clubs across the country, and possibly some from abroad, to get together, swap stories, update and inspire. I hosted the conference back in 2019 – now I’m back this year to compere the Main Stage, and I’ll also be doing a little side-quest as I deliver a talk on snorkelling. 

It seems strange that despite my deep technical dives on television from filming the Britannic at 120m to swimming into Arctic ice caves and plenty of exploratory cave diving expeditions it is, at least within BSAC, something as simple as snorkelling I should be best known for. But then I suppose it is fitting. Since this is where it all began for me at the age of 12 at Aberdeen BSAC.

And so, in preparation for my talk I thought I’d look back at a few of the many highlights of the past 12 years of snorkelling adventures this column has motivated me to undertake. 

Genine Keogh/Snorkel Wild

Cape Wrath 

The original 2011 project which spawned this column, Britain By Snorkel, motivated me to go to the more far flung corners of the UK’s blue spaces. One of the most memorable was Cape Wrath. The wild, north-west corner of the country with the black, 700 foot high Clo Mor cliffs dropping into the Atlantic was a truly unique place to snorkel. A place with a real sense of edge-of-the-map adventure. 

Wildlife

Where to begin? I’ve always said that the dive should inform the equipment, not the other way around. Use the right tool for the job. And I have found that despite the plethora of open and closed circuit kit I own, the best way to encounter wildlife, especially larger species in the UK, has been with a snorkel. Diving with blue sharks in Ireland and Cornwall; basking sharks in Scotland; grey seals in Lundy and even mako sharks off California have all been accomplished between the surface and two metres with nothing more than a plastic tube and a duck-dive. 

Genine Keogh/Snorkel Wild

Kimmeridge Bay  

Possibly the most benign snorkel I’ve done. But an inspiring place to start, where I discovered my first Snorkel Trail. It had been set up by the local Wildlife Trust, who also hired masks to the public. The idea was to follow numbered buoys set in the shallow, sheltered bay, helping visitors to follow the waterproof guide to discover the different habitats of the bay, and the creatures living there. A fantastic concept to inspire more snorkellers and divers.  

Rivers 

Our waterways tend to be shallow and not worth the effort of filling, carrying and donning SCUBA diving kit. So they are often overlooked. But in the right conditions, they can be spectacular sites, well suited to snorkelling. The ability to do short drifts and then wander back up to the start point is a viable option thanks to lightweight snorkel kit. A few highlights include multiple trips to the River Dart, including the time when we snorkelled down river for 10 hours. Then there was the Orchy, with its whiskey-brown waters and deep-carved features. Or The Falls of Lora in the River Dee; safe in the right conditions, but a foamy, flowing rollercoaster at other times.

Kayak snorkelling 

I learned to kayak in the summer of 2011, purely for the ability to reach less accessible snorkel sites. Eventually it would lead to me becoming qualified as a Sea-Kayak Guide, paddling to Lundy, around the Isle of Wight and at the Outer Hebrides. The most memorable kayak trip was a day spent with my friend Dan Bolt, travelling from Salcombe to Thurlestone in South Devon. Along the way we snorkelled six shipwrecks. Not a bad tally for a day out.

Night snorkelling 

I had done little night snorkelling before 2011, but when it was first suggested to me as a way of bagging another dive under Swanage pier before bedtime, I realised that by slipping our timings we had created a different dive site. If you are getting bored of the same, conveniently located dive site don’t find somewhere else. Just dive later. The feeling, aesthetic and marine life all change, allowing for new discoveries and a different perspective.

Andy will be hosting the BSAC Diving Conference at the Vox, NEC Birmingham on Saturday 19 October. For more information, buy your ticket or to book your place on one of the sessions, go to bsac.com/conference

Article 'A tube and a duck dive' by Andy Torbet first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 149 October 2024. Images have been substituted due to licensing rights.