Around Iredell Sports

2008 Feb-20

SCUBA enthusiast dives right in

By Larry Sullivan

Mooresville’s Billy Creswell isn’t at liberty to dispose the real reason why he got involved in scuba diving.

It’s classified military information.

If Creswell did reveal it, he’d have to kill those he told (OK, not really).

But now a retired former United States Army Major, Creswell is one of the ones currently singing the praises out loud and to all who will listen of the services and opportunities provided through his current affiliation with the Piedmont Diving Rescue Association.

A veteran of nearly 20 years donning the self-contained underway breathing apparatus – hence “scuba”—gear, Creswell is among a number of dues-paying PDRA members making the most of the organization’s most local facility in order to maintain and even advance underwater diving abilities.

The PDRA is a club consisting of dedicated scuba divers of all walks of life formed for and by individual and family divers predominately from throughout the state as well as upper South Carolina and southern Virginia. The club’s purpose, as stated in its official mission statement, is to promote safe scuba diving at all levels – from providing lessons to novice to extensive underwater rescue operations to the experienced – and to offer its members affordable inland diving.

The PDRA, of which Creswell is an active member and one of the most die-hard as he is one of the ones that usually engages in the regular weekly diving ventures all year regardless of weather conditions, owns and operates three privately-owned quarries, including one – and perhaps considered the best of the bunch – near Lake Norman.

Other facilities are located near Salisbury and in Caswell County in Virginia.

“The one here,’’ assured Creswell, who has been at all three sites, “is definitely the best. The water is clearer, and it provides more opportunities than the other two quarries for whatever a diver has in mind. I’ve been to the others, and I definitely like the one here the best.”

Creswell, who considers himself more of an individual diver than one associated with any other outlet, is among the more than 1,000 PDRA members that make use of the diving chances as often as possible. Included among the members are several rescue personnel using their ties to the group to continue preparation for potential search and recovery missions while also embellishing their own underwater diving skills.

Scuba diving shop owners, diving instructors and those whose professional job it is to engage in underwater rescue operations all also are counted on the PDRA membership list.

All of the outfit’s quarries are open for diving on a year-round basis, not only during what is considered the regular swimming season. The facilities are available 24 hours a day and 365 days a year to all members. In addition to the diving opportunities, land surrounding the watering holes is also available to members and their families for other social gatherings as well as for recreational swimming.

“Some of us,’’ revealed Creswell, “we dive year round. To do that, you really, and I mean you really, have to like it. That’s especially the case when the temperature is so low in the winter and the water is really cold.”

Like most others in the club, Creswell has his equipment up to date in the form of wet suits that protect him from the weather conditions. Even then, he admits, that he often can still feel the water’s temperature. More advanced divers have full dry suit outfits that prevent them from feeling the water completely.

“One of these days,” offered Creswell, preparing to take a quick diving dip on a recent chilly late winter afternoon, “I’m going to get me one of those. Right now, I’ll just grin and bear it for a little bit longer.”

As is the case every time a PDRA member takes a dip, it is required that a diving buddy also tag along for safety’s sake. It’s a rule. Both divers must be equipped with all the necessary and required equipment.

“It’s just like going swimming,’’ noted Creswell. “You just never want to do it just by yourself.”

Each of the quarries, including the one near Lake Norman, is strictly off limits to all but PDRA members. Each has a key to well-locked and protected gates that keep the facilities from being used by unauthorized parties. Just as was the case in the local quarry, the PDRA purchased each facility to be used for their private use.

In addition to a mere diving experience, the Lake Norman area quarry –formed by a natural spring discovered while digging out rock – provides a quality training site for all scuba divers of all experience.

There is a shallow side of the facility for those just getting their feet wet, and then there are more advanced water levels for all looking to add to their experiences. Included in the local facility are a number of items that have been purposely sunk in varying depths in order to provide all divers the knack of rummaging through the articles in practice for recovery and possible rescue missions.

Included among the list of sunken objects are: numerous boats; cars; a school bus; an airplane fuselage, a jet ski; a cabin cruiser; and a crane truck.

The items are all placed at random in water depths that range from the shallowest at around seven feet to the deepest which, at full spring, is in the neighborhood of 100-feet in depth.

Multi-colored buoys dot the surface of the quarry, indicating the various depths and also marking where each of the objects rests on the facility’s bottom. A map also indicating where each of the objects is located is available at the dressing center where all divers don their underwater gear.

At various times, the local facility also conducts treasure hunts. Tokens are placed on the various items and divers locating them are able to exchange the tokens for various and sundry diving equipment accessories provided by a number of shops that also count owners and operators among the PDRA members.

All of the waters are also used on various occasions by groups of divers sharpening their own rescue and recovery routines. It’s not uncommon, according to Creswell, for diving members of surrounding fire departments and police organizations to conduct training sessions at the site.

“Scuba diving,” expressed Creswell, “is the closest thing we have here on earth to feeling like you’re in outer space. It’s a neat experience. It takes the right kind of training, and you can never get too much experience. Being a part of the PDRA and taking advantage of all that it has to offer is a great way to stay involved with something that I really enjoy doing.”

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