Stoney Cove

First dive of the year. What a great start, weather lousy! no diving today.

National Diving & Activity Centre - Chepstow

Adrian didn't realise that the dive had been cancelled! After a puzzled phone call to Dave,
he explained the situation to Neil Brock (centre manager) who very kindly arranged for a buddy to dive with him. This was Ades' first dive here and he loved it. At least one of us had a good day!

National Diving & Activity Centre - Chepstow

Again a very small turnout. Only one dive as it turned into a complete cock up! The dive generally was very pleasant, the problem arising at the end. Our man (who we won't name here) lost buoyancy control on ascending the slope below the training platforms. On surfacing he decided not to wait for his buddy to surface, instead he swam for the pontoon. He spotted his buddies DSMB as it surfaced, but still headed for the pontoon. His buddy on realising he was alone did a one minute search back along his path, then sent up his DSMB and ascended. On the surface a good look around and some calling didn't produce any result. So he decided to signal for help by waving his DSMB. The buddy once again could see the DSMB being waved and still headed for the pontoon. The centres RIB was now sent to investigate and the situation was explained to the rescue team (lost buddy, low on air, open circuit, missing here about 5 mins). By now our dive leader is convinced he's due a day in the coroners court, while our man has reached the pontoon and climbed out! and is calmly explaining to a group of watching divers that the guy in the water is looking for him! Someone then tells the rescue team who then stand down. Leaving our man to swim back on his own.

After explaining to his errant buddy the error of his ways (apologies to anyone in earshot for the use of language) One very embarrassed dive leader, later explains to the centre manager what happened.

A lesson learnt, and no one injured.

First Aid Night. UWIC pool.

An excellent evening, and very well attended. While we all had fun, Nick quickly brought us up to date with the latest thinking on CPR and even got us through basic care skills. Thanks to everyone who came and special thanks to Nick for organising the evening for us.

Shore diving West Wales. Martins Haven.

Glorious weather and a good turn out. Vis' varied from 6 - 3 metres, but the diving was good. Starfish, wrasse, spider crabs, urchins, lobster lots to see. Finished the day with a pint at the Bellevue and a McDonalds.

A small group also went to the NDC for a warmup dive, which went well.

Shore diving West Wales. Stackpole Quay.

A disappointing dive. From the shore it looked like the vis was going to be really good, but it was generally about 3m. Not much to see, just a few fish and one spider crab, and it was quite shallow so Steve was struggling to stay down the whole time. There were other divers there who went off to the right and saw a few dogfish and loads of crabs so it might have been better that way. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Nice lunch at the cafe afterwards though .... and a very refreshing swim at Barafundle later!

Shore diving West Wales. Stackpole Quay.

Huge improvement on last Stackpole dive. Finned out of the Quay and then dropped down and headed off to the right. Our first encounter was with a very sociable Spotted Dogfish keen for some attention. Next was a less sociable lobster, keen to defend his hole and not end up on a dinner plate. Steve had a closer than anticipated inspection of a one-clawed Spider Crab, much to the amazement of his buddies. Adrian rescued another from a discarded fishing line. We all had a gawp at a monstrous edible crab beneath a ledge covered in dead mans fingers. The swim back was hard going against the rip but we spotted more Dogfish and Lobsters on the way to keep us amused. Finally we saw an Eel swimming beneath us just before getting out of the water. A very pleasurable hours dive - max depth 11.8 m.

National Diving & Activity Centre - Chepstow. Elementary qualifying dives

Lovely day and a reasonable club turnout. Meg & Jake both completed their qualifying dives with flying colours. As Meg put it 'wicked'

Diving - Stackpole Quay.

Leaving Cardiff the weather was awfull, but when we arrived at Stackpole we were greeted by clear skies. With the vis at 4/5m and water temp of 18c this added up to a good days diving. Plenty of fish about, Wrasse, Mullet, Blennies, Bib etc. Two really pleasant dives today finished off with pub grub and a pint (of course).

National Diving & Activity Centre - Chepstow.

Two dives here, vis generally was really bad due to a rescue course kicking up silt in biblical proportions. We did visit the diving bell, cabin cruiser, swim throughs, plane, stalwart and saracen APC. Also spotted pike and perch. Sunny weather helped and we all had a good day out.

AGM

The pool has been cancelled for this evening. Venue for AGM is Splott pool. Please be there at 7:30 for an 8:00 start. (see news).

Diving at Dosthill and the National Dive Show - NEC

An early start at 06:15 got us to Hopwood services with plenty of time for a 'full English'. On to Dosthill and a days diving. Two dives planned, allowing Matt & Mackinder to gain their elementary diver qualification. With a clear bright day and generally excellent vis' the dives were brilliant with thousands of fish to see including Rudd, Perch and Pike. Well done to the boys who passed their tests with flying colours.

Diving finished it was off to the Hotel for a well deserved pint before going to the Snowdome at Tamworth for a tobogganing session, great fun and we have some cracking bruises to prove it.

Sunday we spent at Dive 2005, as usual it was heaving, but we still managed to spend a large amount of money on kit. We attended Leigh Bishops talk 'Lost Liners' WOW! the photography and video just blows you away, and it's all done in his leisure time. We also met Irene Sartorious our SAA Administrator for the first time, great to put a face to the voice.

National Diving & Activity Centre - Chepstow.

The centre was quite quiet today perhaps something to do with a big rugby game or the fact the entrance fee has been hiked to £14 as one diver was heard to say 'the guy on the gate should have a three cornered hat and a flintlock' We will probably now only use the site when absolutely necessary. Anyway because it was quiet we had pretty good vis' and enjoyed two dives. Steve & Lou got some assessments done toward their Dive Leader qualification, well done. As Neil said it is always fun watching others suffer!

Club Christmas Dinner

A really good night was had by all, although a few of us have some major blank spots in our memory of it! Hopefully we will do it again soon.

Stoney Cove - mid week diving

Only a small turnout today. Travelled up early morning and enjoyed a crisp day with not a cloud in sight. First dive was a tour of some attractions including: The Nautilus submarine, Wessex helicopter, the Stanegarth tug, aeroplane cockpit and fish watching on our safety stop.

Second dive was a drop of 19m down to the stern of the Stanegarth, a short wreck penetration exercise and then a swim back to the old road and up to the plateau for an 8 minute deco stop. Passed the time surrounded by hundreds of fish.

Finished the day at Nemo's with a pasty and a pint. Then the long drive home. Great last diving day of 2005,

Another years diving done. Well done to the following on qualifying:

Meg Sumner - Elementary Diver/Open Water Diver
Jake Sumner - Elementary Diver/Open Water Diver
Matt Pritchard - Elementary Diver
Mackinder Dosanjh Singh -Elementary Diver

Also well done to Elise, Owen and Mike who are currently working through their basic assessments. Looking forward to diving with you in 2006.

Finally and very sadly we lost Ray Pasch to cancer, after a very short illness. During the last few years we have had some very strange/scary/amusing moments during our diving. Ray seems to have been responsible for most of them. Whatever the bother he always had a smile and a witty word or two. We will miss him. R.I.P.