Three intrepid divers plumbed the not very icy (7°C) depths (2.5m) of Hinksey Lake on New Years Day 2016. Steve Litchfield, Andy Pickering & Howard Thomas completed a 30 minute dive in the fairly gloomy waters of the lake from the entry point next to the pontoons, over to the bridge and back.
For years the good (and sometime bad) people of olde Oxford Towne have been disposing of their ferrous, and non ferrous waste by dumping it into the old reservoir of Hinksey Lake. Here at Oxford BSAC we regard it as a sacred duty to recover all that unique historic trash and save it from piling up so deep that the lake become a swamp. We think we’ve got rather good at recovering old scrap bicycles, motorbikes and the occasional pedalo from our lake and thus our challenge.
First snorkelling open water session of the year will be in Hinksey Lake on Sunday 28th April.
On New Years Day 2009, eight Oxford Branch members had a plunge into the cold waters of Hinksey Lake. It’s a tradition to dive in the lake on New Years Day although this was the first time Jacob and I had been in the water.
This year’s eight divers were Andy Pickering, Graham Bowsher, Vic Warner, John Waterhouse, Nick Allsworth and Bob Chick with Jacob and I snorkelling. A photographer from the Oxford Mail also came along to take some photographs to go into the Oxford Mail and Oxford Times newspapers.
When Jacob and I jumped in we realised that it was absolutely freezing as we only had wetsuits on while the other divers were wearing drysuits. The photographer took pictures of Jacob and I along with Nick dressed up in his Santa costume. Then Jacob and I got out while the other divers went for a dive in the lake.
Other members of Oxford Branch plus friends and family turned up to watch us dive. After the dive we went back to the clubhouse, got changed and had a snack.
Finally it was a freezing New Years Day in the lake but from my point of view I thought it was excellent. Thank you to the people who got the food ready and organised the dive.