|
 Club eNewsletter
Mid June 2009
Hi All,
... and welcome to another edition of the Diving Club newsletter. Below we have:
o A dive report on last month’s Portsmouth diving
o Upcoming dives
o Info on a guest speaker at next month’s club meet. (Great British Wreck)
o A letter from the Chairman
o An invitation to join us at the next club social. (Marvellous)
Read and enjoy...
Dive Report from Portsmouth 23 May:
What could be better than a Bank Holiday weekend and going down to the coast to dive? All the usual variables lined up very well for a great day - little or no traffic, good weather, great boat, good diving companions –
After a quick pootle out to our first dive site, The Camswan, we jumped in our buddy pairs and descended to the sea bed and the wreck. I hadn't dived The Camswan before so was quite surprised at how large the wreck site was. Loads of Pollack on the wreck and could make out quite a lot of the structure. Vis wasn't brilliant approx 2m but considering the s***ty weather we had recently it was surprisingly good.
Second dive later in the day was drift. Instruction from Skipper was whenever you’re ready jump in and ... drift ! I really enjoyed this as the current was running quite strongly and thus I managed to cover quite a lot of ground. Once I had run out of the rocky sea bed and found just a sandy bottom I decided it was time to finish the dive.
Thanks to Roy for skippering, providing endless supply of tea and donuts (not endless thank goodness). Thanks to Bev for organising and to everybody else for contributing to a very enjoyable day.
Dive report for Portsmouth 24 May:
After 30 dives in all the usual inland locations, kicking up silt and staring at moody pike, I finally got to jump in the sea! Hurrah. And what a blast it was.
The dive was led by the meticulous Bev Collett, on a boat run by Wight Diver which is great fun. Free hot drinks and enough comedy chat to fill a twin-set. The conditions were unimaginably perfect: blue skies and sun tans all round on the trip back. Landing craft, crabs, lots of fish including Dog Fish (apparently) and some cruisy drifting.
Buddied up with Will Tabner whose guidance and supervision made it all the more enjoyable. Thanks Will!
Can't wait for Wittering now.
Upcoming Dives:
OW Dive - Pembrokeshire - 29,30 & 31 Aug - BH Weekend
There are still 6 places for Pembrokeshire, diving with Pembrokeshire Dive Charters, £118 for 3 days diving. Dives include the marine park around Skomer and a couple of wrecks. For further details, please look at the dive calender.
In addition, Malcolm Dubber, membership secretary, and has partner have offered accommodation at their Welsh home Plas-y-Pant (formerly Hippo Hall), an ex B&B which is 30 miles away in the village of Blaenffos, Boncath, Pembrokeshire SA37 0HY for £5 a night per person including breakfast , plus an evening meal on the Friday night on arrival. The accommodation comfortably sleeps 10, but room can always be made for more!
Again there are discounts available for those willing to assist less experienced divers. If divers do not want to dive all 3 days, there may be an option to dive just the Sat and Sun, depending on how many want to take this option. To book send a message to Bev at diveorientation@thedivingclub.co.uk.
AOW diving - August trip to Brighton (Aug. 1 & 2).
Location/Boat: Brighton Diver II
Cost: £40/day
Saturday - City of Brisbane (26m) plus a drift
Sunday - Clodmoor (26m) plus a drift
7 spaces are still available. Contact Bryan at diveclub@thedivingclub.co.uk.
Next Club Night - Monday 6th July 2009
Great British Wreck: A talk by Mark Powell.
Mark Powell of Dive-tech will be guest speaker at the club night on July 6th, 9pm.
Mark is one of the leading UK technical diving instructors, an author and columnist for Sport Diver and other publications. Mark will discuss famous and interesting wrecks of the UK and as such this should be an interesting talk for divers of all levels and aspirations.
As a technical diving instructor and author, Mark is also very knowledgeable of technical diving and the latest decompression theory – so if you have any techie questions I’m sure Mark will be able to answer them over the course of the evening.
Mark has been diving since 1987 and instructing since 1994. He runs Dive-Tech as a full-time business, teaching technical diving for several leading agencies, and all levels up to and including Advanced Trimix. Mark is headquartered in Guildford and conducts diver training in the UK and overseas.
The Thatcher's Tavern
Fairwater Drive,
Woodley
RG5 3EZ
Map: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=rg5+3ez&countryCode=GB
Letter from the Chairman:
Dear Club Members
So here we are well into June and almost half way through 2009 already, incredible.
However, do you know it seems even more unbelievable to me that it is now 17 years since that eventful evening when after an open water course myself, and 4 of the students (Ron & Anna Jacobs, Mark “Stumpy” Charlton and Phil Arnold) decided we would start our own diving club. Whilst Phil was never to be seen again, the other 3 founding members are all still actively diving and still members of the club.
When we started the club we had a list of goals that we wanted to achieve. These included:
· The club was to be a place for all new divers coming off of the DiveStyle courses where they could mix with other beginners while gaining more diving experience.
· An environment where people new to the sport of diving, and with very little experience, would be welcomed by other club members and not be too intimidated by those more experienced.
· A club where those with experience would give back to the newer members who needed their help.
· A club with few assets to keep the membership fees affordable to all.
· An environment where all diver-training agencies would be welcome.
· A club where we would strive to keep club politicking to a minimum and put the energy into diving!
· A club with an active social calendar to encourage members to mix and make new friends
· A club run by the members, for the benefit of the members.
· A club with its own separate identity as a club, so that dives wouldn’t be subjected to commercial HSE regulations.
So, 17 years on how are we doing against those originally identified goals? I think we have kept sight of them and still promote them. But what do you as a newer member think? I’d really like to hear your feedback. What else could we be doing for you the club member, or what could we be doing better? Take a moment and send me an email at chairman@thedivingclub.co.uk
Safe diving.
Peter Wright
Chairman
Club Social Event
Marvellous Festival 09 - Wellington Country Park - Saturday 25th July
If you've never been to a Marvellous event then you don't know what you're missing! Check it out here with video clips from previous years. http://www.marvellousfestivals.com
6 Tribute acts, beer tents, big selection of great food or bring your own picnic.
This year the tribute acts on the Saturday are:
· The Kinx
· Re Take That
· The Great Pretender (Queen)
· FABBA
· T Rextasy
· Bogus Brothers (Blues Brothers)
Tickets are £29 adults and £11 children (which includes the booking/handling fee)
Peter is going, are you? If you fancy a great day out let him know and he'll get some tickets organised. chairman@thedivingclub.co.uk
Thanks
Lee
|