Written by Sophie Kalkowski-Pope
“So what’s the water temperature again?” I ask as we poke around the foreshore. “Err, I think around 3-4 degrees. The coldest water I had dived in before this was around 15C, so that’s a drop of around 12 degrees!
“Alright, ready to go?” asks Edd. I carefully haul the twin tanks onto my back, still getting used to the extra weight. “Yup, let’s do this.” I say and we giant stride off the wooden jetty. The icy Scandinavian water slaps me in the face, but within about 30 seconds my lips are numb and it doesn’t feel quite so cold anymore.
After my time in the UK, Edd Stockdale offered to host me on the West Coast of Sweden, getting some more cold water experience in and practice with twin tanks.
After my flight into Gothenburg, we popped in to visit the team at Reel Diving, to have a tour of the office and warehouse! The had a traditional Swedish welcome with the team, Fika, coffee and cake! I was particularly interested in their historical collection of rebreathers from each decade!
After that it was a few hours drive out to Edd and Tiff’s home, a beautiful modern log cabin in the forest. Here I got kitted up with all the gear I needed to dive twins for the week, backplate, wings, regulators etc. Seeing their dive shed and diving van setup was seriously impressive. An on-site compressor, rebreathers, countless drysuits, two scooters, and a van designed specifically to hold it all. A big shoutout to Edd’s partner Tiff who loaned various pieces of kit during this time.
Our first dive took us up the coast to Lunneviken, where standing on the coast, we looked across the water to Norway. Here a dark brackish layer of water, stained with tannins, darkened the top 5m of so of the water. Underneath its almost pitch black. While we are kitting up, Edd hands me a torch battery the size of a water-bottle to strap to my waistband! “In this kind of environment your light is a life support device” he explained simply. This was certainly a different league of diving!
While I was apprehensive about the cold, the biggest challenge of the dive actually turned out to be managing my buoyancy! Balancing new kit, a camera, and layers upon layers of undergarments actually turned out to be quite a challenge, so I was grateful for the practice before we headed to cooler waters up north. We also managed to spot some beautiful big anemones and a rare species of ray.
We then spent the remaining two days at Smögen. Driving over here felt surreal, as colourful town buildings posed up out of a completely barren landscape of pink granite. Nudibranch season was in full swing, and for our first dive we spent most of our time in the shallows spotting these little gems nestled amongst the seaweed.
The following day we returned, scooters in hand, and had an epic dive along the channel. I also got to try out a heated vest for the first time, which was certainly a game changer in terms of managing the cold! Despite having over an hour in the water, I didn’t want to get out!
My first time using a scooter went a bit like this – I clip on and make sure the strap is the right length. “OK” Edd signals, checking in with me. OK! I sign back. I push the button, and feel myself shoot forward through the water, giggles bubbling through my regulator. I’m pretty sure Edd heard me laughing the whole dive. We spent over an hour in the water, surging past delicate anemones and past granite drop-offs that plunged down into the green depths. It really does just feel like you’re flying through the water column. Edd told me with a dry laugh afterwards that your first Scooter dive is often the most expensive dive of your life… you don’t look back!
A massive thank you to Edd for taking the time to introduce me to cold water diving, and show me around parts of his home in Sweden! It truly opened my eyes up to a whole new world of diving. If you are looking for professional, technical dive training in Scandinavia, or expedition support for I cannot recommend Gradient Technical Diving highly enough.
I am so grateful to OWUSS for making opportunities I would not have dreamed of before and broadening my horizons to a global scale. A special thank you to the countless volunteers behind OWUSS, and the sponsors that make this scholarship possible at ROLEX. I would also like to thank my equipment sponsors at TUSA, Waterproof International, Reef Photo & Video, Mako Eyewear, Penetrator Fins, my camera gear sponsors at Reef Photo & Video, Nauticam, and long time scholarship supporters DAN, and PADI.
To follow along on my adventures, I highly recommend you follow me on social media!
My Instagram @sophie_dives is where I post most regularly.
You can also contact me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Tiktok, and the Australasian Scholar Facebook Page.
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