By Katie Broadley 18/05/2021
Leanne Clowes and Clare Dutton (From Dutton Divers) kindly invited me to their trial day of the brand new and one of a kind Scuba Escape at Vivian Quarry.
After hearing so much about this new experience happening in the Scuba world, and seeing lots on social media, the time had eventually come to head over to Wales to see what it was all about.
After a 5am get up and a McDonalds breakfast, we set off to Hafan Marina, Pwllheli, ready for a day of the unexpected.
On arriving, we were shown around Dutton Diver’s new building, complete with shop, classrooms and presentation room, servicing area and a pool! It was great to see how much they have got going on. We made our brews and settled down to the briefings for the day.
Clare and Leanne took us through what we could expect and the story behind Scuba Escape. Fuelled by a lot of imagination and passion, Scuba Escape began back in October over a game of lockdown Monopoly. No spoilers! But it is easy to see the amount of creativity that has gone into creating this, it’s really inspiring to see.
So, what is it? Scuba Escape consists of 6 underwater games. Each with a different theme and a different story. Each of these having several different endings too so no game is quite the same! You can find the treasure from the pirates, be in a video game, solve a murder or even defuse a bomb! Don’t forget to run from the zombies. Or grab the money in for the money heist!
The day takes place with two dives and lunch in between. You have two dives to complete your game or risk losing and doing the photo of shame (we will come to that later!) 
Clare and Leanne have personally written and designed (apart from the zombie one) these unique games, and excitingly they have been approved by PADI as certifications that can be used towards achieving your PADI Master Scuba Diver qualification!
After lunch, we headed to Vivian Quarry. The first thing I was noticed was how pretty Vivian quarry is and as it’s almost hidden, it’s lovely to walk through the big red gates and see. You can see the mining history as you walk in, with a mine cart hanging down and the rocks cascading down into the waters edge. As the quarry is rented out when you are playing the games, it is peaceful and quiet.
Our game was the Legend of Syreni. This focuses on navigation skills and peak performance buoyancy skills. We were given our knowledge reviews to learn previously. On entrance to the quarry, we were greeted by some pirates and mermaids, who introduced us to the game, we split into 2 groups and then it was time to dive in!
I won’t go into details too much as to what happened underwater as I do not want to spoilt the game however the aim was to find so many objects, and I can confirm we did come out of the water with the correct number of objects…apparently… though we did have a nudge from Clare to the location of one object so unfortunately, we did not win the game, officially we lost!
Overall, I must say it was great to be involved in something new and exciting in the dive industry.
I had such a fun day! It was so good to mix up a quarry dive and I found that it was a lovely challenge to take part in. We all came out of the quarry laughing and smiling.
The main thing I want to applaud is Clare and Leanne’s creativity and drive. Details are in the pipe line for a trip from Bolton area divers with these guys for Scuba Escape in the future and also to do some shore/boat diving, so watch out for these future events with the club. If you want something different, good fun and a new diving challenge to add to your trip list, this is an experience I would definitely recommend!
