Gozo and Vas Revisit

Posted on April 20, 2025  •  5 minutes  • 892 words

Workshop Day 1 with Vas

After diving on our own for some time we planned a follow up from our sidemount course with Vas Proud from Sidemounting.com . It felt like the right moment for a follow-up workshop. Sometimes you need an experienced set of eyes to spot the details that are difficult to see yourself, and that was exactly the purpose of this day.

We started with almost three hours on land, going through our harness setup and discussing everything around configuration, weighting and trim. It was incredibly valuable to slow down and really look at the details before getting into the water.

Afterwards, we headed to Ras il-Ħobż, carrying our tanks down and staging them at the edge where the water became deep enough. The sea still had some movement in it, but thankfully not as much as the day before.

Once in the water, we swam out onto the reef and began with trim checks. The exercise was simple in theory: completely empty the drysuit, add gas to the wing, relax, and then observe what happened. In practice, that is much harder than it sounds. Staying still and truly relaxing in the water is a skill in itself.

From there, we followed the edge of the reef towards the Middle Finger pinnacle. I was still struggling with my balance and with managing the gas in my drysuit. Every small movement seemed to affect my position in the water.

As we reached the pinnacle, we crossed over and descended to around 20 metres. We then spiralled slowly around it, making our way upwards while trying to maintain good control and trim. By the time we reached around 12 metres, I was down to 120 bar, so we turned the dive and started heading back.

The final part of the dive was spent on the reef at around 7 metres where we focused on skills. We practiced back kicks and worked on managing trapped air in the drysuit, intentionally moving the gas around the suit and venting it by positioning the valve correctly. These are small but important skills that make a big difference underwater.

Before finishing, Vas added an extra kilogram of weight for me to try. Surprisingly, it felt much better and immediately made things a little easier.

Takeaways from the day

The biggest lesson was that I was carrying too much air in my feet for too long, which made buoyancy and balance much harder to control than they needed to be. Not a dramatic problem, but exactly the kind of thing that a workshop helps identify and improve.

Looking back, this wasn’t a dive about seeing something spectacular. It was about understanding what was happening with my body position, trim and buoyancy. Those are the foundations of good sidemount diving, and it felt great to have Vas helping us fine-tune them.

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The best dives aren’t always the ones where you see the most. Sometimes they’re the ones where you learn the most.

Workshop Day 2 with Vas

Today’s dive was simply amazing.

This was our second workshop day with Vas, this time in Gozo. The goal was to work towards our DPV Propulsion certification while also combining it with a dive on the Karwela, a wreck neither of us had visited before.

I always feel a little nervous and slightly stressed before a dive, but today’s plan was straightforward: spend some time in the water with Vas and practice the skills we wanted to improve. His suggestion was to focus on the DPV, getting comfortable with handling it and learning how to manoeuver it properly.

After some practice on the reef, we headed into deeper water before leaving the reef behind and venturing out into the blue. Soon, the Karwela appeared beneath us, standing there as majestic as ever. We dropped to around 28 metres and made our way through a doorway, down a staircase, and along a corridor that opened into a huge room with its beautiful wooden floor still intact.

Using the DPVs inside the wreck was a completely different experience. We zipped through the passages and covered much more ground than we could have swimming alone. Afterwards, we moved above the wreck and followed her from bow to stern, taking in her full size.

Back at the reef, we began a slow ascent along the wall, gradually working our way up through different depth levels until around 12 metres. There we switched back into training mode, practising DPV skills and even towing each other to simulate a DPV failure.

Once the serious practice was done, we drifted closer to the bay and simply enjoyed ourselves. We were zooming around with the scooters like a couple of kids in a playground, laughing and having fun. Sometimes those are the moments that make a great dive truly unforgettable.

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For me, this dive had the perfect combination of training, exploration and pure fun. Learning new skills with the DPV, discovering the Karwela for the first time, and sharing the experience with great company made it a day to remember.

I would like to sincerely thank Vas Proud for guiding us through our journey to becoming sidemount divers. Your support has helped us become more confident, safer, and grounded in our skills, providing a strong foundation to build on.

Vas on Sidemounting.com and Diver by Design