Does anyone go SCUBA diving?

[sim667]

PADI isn't a 'club' it's a training organisation. Once you're a certified diver you can go dive... all the training organisations work to RSTC Standards. You don't need to be a member of a club. Just phone a dive shop, tell them you're certified and want to go diving. Go dive with seals in the Farne Islands off Northumberland!! 1st on my list if/when I come back to UK.

BSAC are a club and will organise social events as well as training events. They're training is very very good but in my opinion a bit eliteish and geeky

Thanks..... we've already clarified that PADI isn't a club, its a training scheme.

But there are clubs that follow the PADI system, and ones that follow the BSAC system. What I've been finding is that clubs that follow PADI, tend to solely run courses, or run holidays - for example the "club" I trained with, all there forthcoming dive dates are in egypt...... I want some UK diving predominantly, so swapping to BSAC qualification system is probably going to be more suited to me. The one I'm going to see has its own rib, they meet weekly at a pool and they try and get to a dive about once or twice a month, which sounds great to me. I want to join a club so I've got people to dive with regularly and so I can hire equipment.

Ill go and swim with the seals with you

 

[Supine]

Ive dived with the seals in the Farnes. Ace experience

 

[sim667]

Ive dived with the seals in the Farnes. Ace experience

Do they ever get pissed off and go for divers?

One thing I'm worried about is getting attacked by sea animals, although I think this may be pretty irrational.

I really like the look of cave diving, although I bet thats a long way off yet.

 

[Supine]

Seals often have fun playing with divers. They touch their fins to yours and swim around you. I even had one playfully bite my thigh. It got the whole thigh in its mouth but didn't squeeze hard. Was a bit scary but fun.

In the UK you won't get attacked by anything significant.

Advise above doesn't count for Leopard seals which are right cnuts, but you wont see them in UK.

 

[Fuchs66]

PADI isn't a 'club' it's a training organisation. Once you're a certified diver you can go dive... all the training organisations work to RSTC Standards. You don't need to be a member of a club. Just phone a dive shop, tell them you're certified and want to go diving. Go dive with seals in the Farne Islands off Northumberland!! 1st on my list if/when I come back to UK.

BSAC are a club and will organise social events as well as training events. They're training is very very good but in my opinion a bit eliteish and geeky

Yep I've got my Advanced Open Water with PADI. Regarding diving with seals I have my eye on a rather remote colony in the North East that I want to dive at, will take a fair amount of planning and logistics though.

No contact with BASC so can't comment.

PS to OP I agree with those here who are saying to get a dry suit especially if you are looking at diving in temperate waters!

 

[sim667]

So went along to the club today, they invited me to sort out a dive with them just to see how they operate but it all looks good. They can do something called a QRA, which involves a lesson about BSAC and a lesson about tables and then I can have my BSAC ocean diver qualification too, and progress into sports diver, which is the equivalent of PADI rescue diver. So it sounds promising.

No one there was sneary about PADI, the two pieces of advice were "the qualification systems are different, one isn't better than the other, but one tends to work out cheaper" and "buy a dry suit"

 

[Mumbles274]

Apparently seals are attracted to the colour yellow

 

[sim667]

So...... Urban 75 seal meet and greet?

Extend our hands of friendship to our incoming Phocidae overlords?

 

[sim667]

So, I've signed up for BSAC, joined a club, my crossover pack is on order..... now I need to buy some equipment.

I've been chatting with a fella who's got a second hand neoprene dry suit, he said I can go an look at, its been dived in 5 times and he's asking £400, but the shoes are size 10 on it, and I'm an 11 (I can get them changed at a cost).

Or for £500-600 I can get a seaskin one custom made to fit (I've got a fella offering to sell me his undersuit for £40 too)
Dry Suits from Seaskin Custom Drysuits home page - Seaskin Custom Diving Suits

I'd like to get an idea of what you'd all do?

 

[Supine]

If I was you I'd start going to the club and get to know people first.

When you buy a dry suit you have two main choices, membrane or neoprene. Neoprene is thicker and more restrictive but some might say harder wearing. I'd get to know a few people and then ask if you could borrow for a pool session to see which you prefer.

Summer is coming up fast, maybe get your name down on a trip or two and hire or borrow a suit for the first few goes. You will have a better idea of what you want before shelling out on new kit. IMHO a mask, fins are essential to own from day one, followed by the suit and BCD when you decide what suits you best.

 

[sim667]

If I was you I'd start going to the club and get to know people first.

I've been going, got to know them all quite well. I can't dive with them until I've done the crossover course (and the sports diver, so the next level up), and I can't do that until i've got kit to go diving in.

When you buy a dry suit you have two main choices, membrane or neoprene. Neoprene is thicker and more restrictive but some might say harder wearing. I'd get to know a few people and then ask if you could borrow for a pool session to see which you prefer.

Summer is coming up fast, maybe get your name down on a trip or two and hire or borrow a suit for the first few goes. You will have a better idea of what you want before shelling out on new kit. IMHO a mask, fins are essential to own from day one, followed by the suit and BCD when you decide what suits you best.

I've been looking at a decent neoprene one thats ex demo, but I've just seen it for only £10 more new, and they've said I can go to the shop and try it on. So I'm probably going to do that.

I've got mask and fins etc sorted, the only thing they can't lend me from the club is a suit, and they suggested I pick up a semi dry to use over the summer. But it seems pointless to spend 100-150 on a semi dry and then spend money on a drysuit in sept/oct....

 

[Supine]

Sounds like things are going well

Any good club trips planned you can join?

 

[sim667]

Any good club trips planned you can join?

They're going to Skye in september, but I can't socially dive with them until I'm qualified to BSAC sports level. So its a case of whether I manage to get through all of that before September that will dictate if I can go or not. Considering every weekend in august I'm booked up doing something, it doesn't seem that likely.

They do have a boat though which they use most weekends, so I can always jump on a little trip out on that when qualified, and Ill dive all through the winter if there's people to dive with.

That said, I went shopping, bought a new drysuit, as I decided by the time I'd got a second hand one, and potentially replaced the seals, I might as well just go for a new one I went for a budget one that has good reviews.

All I need now is a pair of fins to get going with.

Does anyone know whether something like this is ok for a summer undersuit until it gets colder (I realise its very thin, but I've got a neoprene drysuit rather than a membrane one).

Mens Compression Thermal Base Layer Tights Shirt Under Suit Pant Black

 

[DrRingDing]

Fancy a bit of cave diving?

The cave divers who went back for their friends - BBC News

Nope!

 

[sim667]

Fancy a bit of cave diving?

The cave divers who went back for their friends - BBC News

Nope!

I do actually fancy cave diving, although I think id stick to those places they have ropes laid out and you yank yourself through.

 

[DrRingDing]

I do actually fancy cave diving, although I think id stick to those places they have ropes laid out and you yank yourself through.

Diving the Yucatan caves, the site of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, would be interesting.

A Trip into the Tropical Underworld

 

[sim667]

Diving the Yucatan caves, the site of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, would be interesting.

A Trip into the Tropical Underworld

That does look amazing.

There looks to be some stunning cave dives in the south of france and australia too.

I'm more interested in exploring and wrecks etc rather than looking at coral reef or challenging myself to go as deep as possible (which seems like being dangerous, for the sake of being dangerous to me).....

 

[sim667]

First sea dive on Sunday, wish me luck

 

[sim667]

Didn't go so well, visibility was about a metre.

Go to the bottom of the line diving as a group of four, I was third in line. Turned round to check number 4 was ok, turned back and number 1&2 had dissapeared, turned back to number 4, he'd disappeared.

Got into a little tizwoz, and thought fuck it I know I'm not meant to touch the bottom but I need to sort myself out, so knelt on the bottom and composed myself, then spent a couple of minutes looking for the others or the line up. No joy. So went up to the surface really slowly (as I know I've got a habit of finning up too quick, but forgot to do my safety stop (we didn't do them on PADI training). Got to the top and the boat could barely even see me.

Total dive time - 8 mins.

So I'm definitely going to get myself an SMB and a reel, and I've got a spend a bit more time learning what info the dive computer is telling me. I thought I knew it but it's obvious I've misunderstood.

It may have been a terrible dive, but it was definitely a very quick and abrupt lesson about diving in low vis

 

[squirrelp]

I did some freediving last year as well as scuba, In Thailand - Koh Tao.

scuba was great but the freediving made me feel superhuman. I struggled at first with the equalisation. You don't have time to fuck about with the equalising with freediving. But once I had mastered my frenzel I was off. Well off down a rope anyway and back up again.

It's like a meditation practice, only underwater.

And you get to seriously impress your friends with tales of how far you went down or held your breath for.

Totally recommend it

 

[rubbershoes]

Didn't go so well, visibility was about a metre.

Go to the bottom of the line diving as a group of four, I was third in line. Turned round to check number 4 was ok, turned back and number 1&2 had dissapeared, turned back to number 4, he'd disappeared.

Got into a little tizwoz, and thought fuck it I know I'm not meant to touch the bottom but I need to sort myself out, so knelt on the bottom and composed myself, then spent a couple of minutes looking for the others or the line up. No joy. So went up to the surface really slowly (as I know I've got a habit of finning up too quick, but forgot to do my safety stop (we didn't do them on PADI training). Got to the top and the boat could barely even see me.

Total dive time - 8 mins.

So I'm definitely going to get myself an SMB and a reel, and I've got a spend a bit more time learning what info the dive computer is telling me. I thought I knew it but it's obvious I've misunderstood.

It may have been a terrible dive, but it was definitely a very quick and abrupt lesson about diving in low vis

Nothing wrong with aborting a dive if it's going bad

One year I canned my first dive after about three minutes. it was at Stony Cove which is fucking cold at the best of times . It was Easter weekend and was beyond freezing. i was trying out some new kit and a new drysuit. It was too much new stuff and I was rusty cos I hadn't dived for months. I didn't have the weighting right for the suit and before I knew it and i was disorientated as to which way was up but probably upside down .

I followed the bubbles up and realised that that wasn't my day for diving.

100 mile drive there, 3 minutes in the water, and then 100 mile drive back.

 

[Kanda]

I've left Koh Tao, start new job on St Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean 1st October if anyone fancies coming to dive

 

[sim667]

I should,probably update too.

Got my own kit now, 10 dives down and really enjoying it. Not going to be doing much diving through August, but planning on heading down to Selsey lifeboat pier in September, when mulberry divers are running a day there.

I want to get some more lake time in, so I may consider trying to get over to the NDAC in Chepstow, if I can find a buddy at some point this year, and hopping to get to the one of the sunken harbours just outside littlehampton with my club at some point....

Trying to get into the 12-14 metre depth range before going the whole hog and down to 20 again.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[nick]

Holy thread resurrection.
Planning to treat the 17yr old with a PADI open water qualification, combining with a "get away from it somewhere hot and relaxed for a week".

Any recommendations for a location to

• get one person qualified,
• let me get back up to speed and doing a couple of dives (Qualified 1984, probably only done 20 dives since, last was in 2019 and I was crap)
• Let the partner sit in the sun and read books?

Guessing Sharm? Anywhere else?

 

[sim667]

Holy thread resurrection.
Planning to treat the 17yr old with a PADI open water qualification, combining with a "get away from it somewhere hot and relaxed for a week".

Any recommendations for a location to

• get one person qualified,
• let me get back up to speed and doing a couple of dives (Qualified 1984, probably only done 20 dives since, last was in 2019 and I was crap)
• Let the partner sit in the sun and read books?

Guessing Sharm? Anywhere else?

Sorry I completely missed this. Have you done this yet?

Absolutely do a referral course in the U.K. and do the open water bit abroad, that west you won’t waste two days on holiday in a class room and in a pool. As for diving abroad I don’t really know, I’ve only ever dived in the U.K., Madeira and Spain none of which are known for their diving.

Also to up this thread I’m approaching 100 dives, I’m a member of 2 BSAC clubs, I own more diving kit than I can possibly use, and I have a YouTube channel

Sim SCUBA Dives

SCUBA Diving on the UK South Coast and beyond. I'm a member of 7 Seas BSAC & Brighton 007 BSAC. I predominantly dive along the South Coast out of Littlehampton and Shoreham and very occasionally further afield or abroad on the occasion I can afford it. I'm also a very keen photographer, avid...

youtube.com

I’m interested in doing some apnea and freediver training, has anyone done any?

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Holy thread resurrection.
Planning to treat the 17yr old with a PADI open water qualification, combining with a "get away from it somewhere hot and relaxed for a week".

Any recommendations for a location to

• get one person qualified,
• let me get back up to speed and doing a couple of dives (Qualified 1984, probably only done 20 dives since, last was in 2019 and I was crap)
• Let the partner sit in the sun and read books?

Guessing Sharm? Anywhere else?

I did it in tennerif .

Was OK. Bit dead in the water.

Was relatively cheap from what I remember.

 

[nick]

Sorry I completely missed this. Have you done this yet?

Absolutely do a referral course in the U.K. and do the open water bit abroad, that west you won’t waste two days on holiday in a class room and in a pool. As for diving abroad I don’t really know, I’ve only ever dived in the U.K., Madeira and Spain none of which are known for their diving.

Also to up this thread I’m approaching 100 dives, I’m a member of 2 BSAC clubs, I own more diving kit than I can possibly use, and I have a YouTube channel

Sim SCUBA Dives

SCUBA Diving on the UK South Coast and beyond. I'm a member of 7 Seas BSAC & Brighton 007 BSAC. I predominantly dive along the South Coast out of Littlehampton and Shoreham and very occasionally further afield or abroad on the occasion I can afford it. I'm also a very keen photographer, avid...

youtube.com

I’m interested in doing some apnea and freediver training, has anyone done any?

sim667 from 10 to 100 in the space of 2 posts. Nice

Unfortunately the moment may have passed now with focus on A Level study etc .
There was a move to do it (at least theory / pool dives) for Nick minor at a new scuba club at school, but the club never came to fruition.

I will however keep mentioning it with the hope of a cheeky family holiday in Sinai / Sharm at some point

 

[rubbershoes]

sim667 from 10 to 100 in the space of 2 posts. Nice

Unfortunately the moment may have passed now with focus on A Level study etc .
There was a move to do it (at least theory / pool dives) for Nick minor at a new scuba club at school, but the club never came to fruition.

I will however keep mentioning it with the hope of a cheeky family holiday in Sinai / Sharm at some point

The Thistlegorm awaits. Unless it's been stripped so bare there's just a rusty anchor chain left

 

[nick]

Nice
Or the Blue Hole in Dahab for the suicidal .

I still have a scar on my ankle from walking on the coral there in 1991. Luckily even when young, dumb and stoned I wasn't silly enough to think about going through the arch

 

[sim667]

I’m actually diving the SS Inverclyde on Thursday and then in a couple of weeks on a diving trip in Malta and Gozo, so I suspect I’ll hit 100 out there, if not I plan to try and do the M2 to mark the occasion.