Freediving In Wastwater
Slowly I made my way down the gravel beach into the clear, still water. I feel the ice cold of the first trickle between my suit and the boots, making me shiver and curl my toes. The chill nips at my fingers through my ancient gloves, held together with aquasure and sheer stubborness. The painfully cold water reminding me that it is actually only March, and we are indeed utterly unhinged for even contemplating diving in a semidry in a lake.
Tentativley we make our way deeper, until we can put on our specialised long fins and make our way out from the shore. We lower the lead block from the small round smb and reel to the bed of the lake below, the pale green tendrils of weed and small jagged stones marking out the gradual slope into the dark, still depths.
The thin white line our marker and guide, the lead block our target.
I fill my lungs for the last time and duck under the surface. I hear the glug from the snorkel as it floods and suddenly I am at the bottom in 10m. My weighting is perfect, neutral buoyancy allows me to take my time and not fight to stay down. I can feel myself relax. Slowly I glide among the stones, the barren bottom of the lake is perfect for training. Soon I feel the pull of hypoxia and know it is time to leave. Spinning around I see the dark sillouhette of my buddy on the surface and kick upwards, being careful not to kick *too* hard, last time I did this I blacked out a few meters from the surface.
I burst into the air and take a gulp, the heavy feeling in my legs and arms releases and I comprehend what I have just seen - some of the best vis I have ever witnessed in the UK. Waiting on the surface as my buddy breathes up, the volume of air passing through his snorkel increases, each breath increasing the oxygen levels and then suddenly in a single movement he is gone. A fluttering of the dark carbon fibre blades and the yellow of the lead blocks is the only evidence of his presence. Truly bubble free.
All too soon my fingers are agony, the tips feeling as if someone has hit them with a hammer. I know that if something were to go wrong, i would have trouble gripping anything. The time had come to leave the water.
We made our way out and up to the car, my fingers making it impossible for me to even remove my own mask and belt. I had made the right decision.
We drive along the side of the lake to take some photographs. Hopefully i will be able to update with some from the underwater camera later.
This morning we were greeted by drifts of snow and awful driving conditions. Wisely, we decided against diving, as hypothermia is no fun. 
The practicalities.
We stayed at the Travel Inn in Whitehaven. Cheap, clean rooms around a 20 minute drive from the water make this an ideal base. The Inn even has a pub attached which serves excellent food.
Getting in the water.
Wastwater is deep, how deep? Well, once its beyond 50m its a bit academic for me as I’m in no real hurry to be down there without some “squeaky posh wind” aka helium, and I doubt I will ever be that good at freediving (!) but i recall the figure 70m mentioned. If you are wanting to go that deep freediving or on mix, you probably know where is deep enough anyway.
Wast is pretty dead, there is sod all in there. I didnt even see a single fish! However, there were a load of other divers there, further east than us.
Approaching from Whitehaven, around half way along the lake the road splits back on itself and there is a stone built shelter on a small hill close to the water. If you drive past this with the lake on your right you will come to the usual place for divers. However, we didnt want an audience so doubled back on ourselves past the small shelter and got in off the small beach around 10 yards further on. This was ideal as it shelves off gradually and wasnt too far to walk.
Its pretty remote up there, so if you have access to an O2 kit, take it or a stage of 100%.
There are no facilities Ahh the joys of a semidry 
Lastly, be sure to take all your litter home with you. Leave this place as you find it.
