Hi Guys - Are any of you Divers?
 

Hi everyone,
I have just enrolled on the PADI Open Water course with a view to doing some diving when I get to Egypt in September, and I wonder what sort of diving opportunities there are in the UK?

I have done a little digging around the net but its all very confusing and would appreciate the time of anyone from here who has a little advice for me. :)

Loads around the Uk but all very cold and murky compared to Egypt ( where I did my Padi open water course) :D

Just came back from the west of ireland (Kerry) and there is some great diving out there e.g. around the Maharees and Skelligs

Where abouts are you based mate? Plenty of diving opportunities in the UK - the best wreck diving in the world IMO - but it helps being near the sea :)

You being of the well off variety Stu will probably get loads out of it ,for this is what you need in the uk - you need plenty time/cash to get to spots which yield clear water and something to see

I did open water in Canaries and advanced in Egypt , but never bothered to take it up here . Mate did but is trying to sell his drysuit having concluded it just wasnt worth it here

Lot of diving around the south west coast, plenty of wrecks and interesting coast line to look at.

Bit of inspired Googling should tell you about it all.

Les

Did my PADI Open Water course a few years ago in Malta, really enjoyed it, but we could do the course on actual wrecks rather than swimming pools.

There are places to dive in the UK, a lot of them are man made wrecks, but its bloody cold!! Also the limit you can dive to is 60ft, a few of the better ones in the UK are deeper than that.

I only dive when I am abroad now in warmer waters.. Better sea life!

Do it though mate.... if you can handle the cold then i'm sure you'll find some decent spots in the UK.

http://www.ukdiving.co.uk/places

The diving in Britain is exceptional, as its been said, we are abound with wrecks, and believe it or not coral reefs!

Having done both Padi and BSAC, I do have the preferance for BSAC, much more friendly and club orientated rather than money. It takes longer to get qualified, but the training is more indepth.

We had a deal, that if you wanted to learn a new skill eg dry suit diving, then you found a willing instructor and paid their entrance fee to wherever you chose (my case Gildenburgh) and that was it.

Diving may be cold in this country, but most deffiantly worth it. I don't dive any more due to severe lack of time, but most of my old club are either advanced nitrox or trimix divers!

It needn't be murky - once you get away from the river estuaries you can get some fantastic vis in the UK - up round the Western Isles and you could be forgiven for thinking it was the Caribbean with white sand and clear blue water - it's still cold though! Any club worth it's salt will be running trips around the UK.

muff?

I'm a RESCUE diver and have dived in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, South Africa, Australia, Cape Verde, Cyprus and multiple locations in the UK.

The Red Sea is meant to be amazing, diving on coral reefs with hundreds of species of fish, I am jealous lol

Diving in the UK is for lack of a better word, crap. It's also cumbersome involving thick wetsuits or drysuits, booties, gloves and hoods and using torches. Visibility is nearly always shyte and water temperatures very cold. The only sites I would recommend are wrecks but good ones are few and far between and you would need to complete the PADI wreck dive course.

In scuba diving, experience counts for much more than certificates so try not to become too obsessed making progress on the PADI 'scale'!

I once dived with a guy who had logged 1600 dives still on an open water qualification. :eek:

There are however some sites on the south coast (where I live) if you would like to gain some experience :)

Wow, thanks for all the replies guys, I had not expected so many.

I am going to a place in Sharm that has an on site PADI school and they are running various trips every day. Its something I had always wanted to do, so I have taken the plunge and rather than have to learn the basics out there decided to learn therm here before I go. That means I had 2 weeks and 1 day to qualify for my open water license... My first time in water is Thursday, please wish me well. LOL

I must admit, the more I read about diving in the UK, the more I feel a little dissapointed. That said, I live in Blackpool and my local diving quarry is this one , Capernwray, which reviews quite well, so there must be a few hours fun to be had there as its only 40mins from home. There is also this one, called The delph, which is about 20 mins away.

I guess I need to find a buddy and some warm undies. :D

:lol1: I was going to put that, beat me to it.

A matter of opinion mate, if what drives you is burgling ship wrecks there's no better place to be - a maritime nation and two world wars saw to that! Sure there's no coral and fish and fish and coral but as I say - whatever floats (or sinks) your boat!

@Stu can recommend Blackpool BSAC.

I miss the old days when girls had the old welcome mat - now they are all shaved . It was quite a challenge negotiating that bearded oyster. AAAAAH memories

PADI, also known as Pay And Drown Instantly :D

Yeah but getting a pube stuck in your teeth was never great. :lol1:

Or in the back of yout throat :D

Anything after a gravel pit is going to be interesting !

Never heard it called that before :lol1:

I'm confused??? A Lobster asking for advice re diving in the uk?


:D

I live only a mile from Dorothea Quarry. If any of you lot gets invited there, tell them no fooking chance!!! The amount of divers who's died there is unreal!! The place is cursed, and divers still go there year in year out!!!! Google the place :)

9th Post and 11 minutes later this place isnt like it use to be :lol1:

Since we're on topic, if there's anyone around Chorlton in South Manchester that's looking for a decent diving club take a glance Manchester Diving Group. We're one of the oldest clubs in the country, been going since the 50's. We're cheap as it gets (no charge for training) and have our own clubhouse (with a bar), 5.5m RIB available to club members for a nominal fee. Cylinders filled (including Nitrox) on site - quick plug over :)

I'm padi advanced, and i would recommend that you go at least that far as then you can go to 30m instead of just 18m if memory serves me right, as the extra training is worth it and you will also be able to do night dives which are a whole different world and totally amazing once you get over the initial fear, which took me about five mins, too many jaws/obysse type movies :nono:

I did my training in the uk using a dry suite as i could not cope with the cold here, which is not normal for a novice, but after a session at stoney cove when i aborted the dive in a semi dry because i just could not breath for shivering, i had a pool session with the dry suite and off we went and it was soooo much better.

I'v done half a dozen or so dives in the uk but as has been said the cost was prohibitive for me and i would sooner spend all that cash required on a good holiday and warmer water, and for me after i saw a couple of wrecks i got a bit bored, but drift diving was a blast.

If i'm planning on diving these days i just take my own regs, compass,computer, thin gloves, fins,mask,snorkel,knife,bcd and scissors and a few other bits and bobs as the quality of these items abroard can be a little dubious, and then if i feel like taking a boat out i only need weights and a cylinder or 2 to go exploring.

It's great fun and i'm sure you will enjoy your self in sharm iv'e been a few times, get yourself to the go cart track at the top of the hill, and i can also recommend the dirt bike quad bike and horse back desert safari's:thumb:

http://www.emperordivers.com
These guys are the business out in Sharm, if you do go there ask for Pete Walsh, he's an old work friend and he and his boys got me qualified in 3 days flat and that was with a man eating shark in the area at the time!

Seriously, Sharm is the best place for any british diver to go. It's warm, it's beautiful and the place is a nature reserve so it's teaming with fish.

Once you've dived warm waters you'll never want to dive in the UK again!
astraboy.

I am :)

https://www.pbase.com/suzy_walker/im...0/original.jpg

Capernwray is good for training, i've dived there 7 or 8 times. It's not all that deep but it was good to learn in as the water was nearly always clear and there's plenty to look at. Check out the gnome garden if you get chance. Another vote for BSAC from me. It takes longer to learn with them but as has already been said they do take more time teaching you safety drills and the like. And if you do dive there don't try and grab the giant sturgeon, they don't like it :thumb:

In my defence I was hard at work, otherwise my response time would have been improved! :)

It certainly isn't! Using w*rk as an excuse was never acceptable in the good old days.;)

Aren't all wrecks man made?

The depth limit for an entry level Open Water diver or Ocean diver is 60ft. With training and experience (and money!) the depth limit and run times get a lot deeper and longer.

Nonsense.

We have some of the best wrecks and marine life in the world. Who wouldn't want to dive on a U boat or a WWII merchant ship? They attract the sea life too so are generally full of life and covered in anenomes and dead man's fingers. We also have dolphins, basking sharks and seals and where else can you end pretty much any day's diving with a bag full of freshly caught scallops or crabs?
The viz can be poor but it can also be excellent.
If you wear the appropriate exposure protection i.e. a correctly fitting drysuit you will be warm and comfortable.
UK diving has its challenges, such as poor viz during a plankton bloom and strong currents outside of slack water, but this all makes for a more rewarding dive and better diver skills at the end of it.

It ain't cheap though.
Just ignoring the cost of kit, as you can use most of that on your trips abroad, you have travel and accomodation costs plus the space on the dive boat. Unless you are just shore diving.
Then you have the british weather which can mean that you left home with a good forecast but arrived with the diving blown out.
You get a refund on the boat charge but the rest is just tough luck.
It helps here to have a back up plan so that the trip wasn't a total right off.

When it all comes together though it can be as good as anywhere in the world, such as the week I spent diving Scapa Flow in the Orkneys a couple of months ago.

A mate from work goes to Egypt for his diving .He goes on a boat for a week with about 24 others and accomodation and food and the diving from the boat is all in @ about £1100 for the week .He loves it .

Strictly "Clunge" Diving for me though !!