Friday 30 July 2010

To dive or not to dive, that is the question...

It seems it's time for the annual debate on where we should be diving. I was flicking through some old minutes from AGMs and commitee meeting's and this seems to be a regular thing. Quite funny really as the comments are almost identical.


Overall I think we've had a good spread of dives and the issue seems to be more along the lines of members not coming but then part of that problem is that with a smaller membership and less active divers its a bit difficult to please enough people in every dive to fill a boat.
 
I completely understand some members prefering certain types of dives but over previous years when plenty of different dives have been available they weren't filled and this just ended up costing the club money which kind of defeats the object.
 
I think the one thing which could make a big difference to both the diving situation and the club as a whole would be to increasee the membership which is what our plan is for the next couple of months and as always any and all suggestions will be gratefully received.
 
At the end of the day this is suppoesed to be a fun club but currently it seems to be an awful lot of work for very little reward.
 
Ok, going to do some work now.
 

Saturday 10 July 2010

My musing on a few of my dives!

I've been trawling through my old red dive logbooks

My 20th dive on the 4th August 1988 was to 35m on the Eddystone Lighthouse. My bottom time was 11 minutes. Add to that a 3 min stop (simulated) at 10m and a 5 min stop (again simulated) at 5m, my comment in my logbook was "DECOMPRESSION IS BORING".

My 22nd dive was the "James Egan Layne". Top dive back then!! The 23rd dive was "Le Poulmic", another good wreck. I also did a compass bearing exercise.

My 34th dive was Hilsea Point, which to date is one of my most memorable dives! Gin clear water, and a fabulous site of deep gullies.

My 50th and 51st dives over the Spring Bank Holiday in 1990, were under Brighton pier with a very good looking Mandy Caitlin (she was husband hunting!!!)

July of 1990, saw my first trip to Scapa Flow, and my first dry suit dive! Dived the Koln without a weight belt (my logbook just says "buoyancy problems")- another diver in our group ended up in the Aberdeen pot!!

May 91, saw my first visit to the Far Mulberry, on an inflateable launched from the beach at Bognor. This is where i saw my first (and so far only) Sea Mouse. If you think i'm pulling your chain, just google it!

May 91 also saw my first visit to Pembrokeshire and Skomer Island

July 91 saw my 2nd trip to Scapa Flow, diving with my girlfriend at the time. My first dive on the block ship "Inverlayne", where the whole dive is inside the wreck.

93 saw a trip over to Normandy where we got raided by French Customs at about 2am in the morning!

93 also saw some fabulous diving to the Manacles off Cornwall's Lizard Point culminating in dive 152. My last until 2004!!

Friday 9 July 2010

When drown doesn't look like drowning...

Dave sent out this great link to Mario Vittone's webpage with this article on what the actual signs of drowning are. http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/ - have a look and you'll see that it's not quite the Baywatch episode you might have thought....okay I know you don't watch Baywatch but you get the idea.

This is something anyone who goes to the sea (all of us I hope) should at least read and understand.

Cheers Dave

Sunday 4 July 2010

Sunny Day in Selsey

Great little dive on Saturday off Selsey Bill on the old Mulberry Harbour.

First time any of us had been on the boat and it was a pretty good one, plenty of room although as it was scheduled for another 2 I'm not sure where they would have sat.

Weather was excellent and on arriving and hitting the water in true Bermondsey style we all did our own thing.  There was a bit of confusion about who was were but in the end we all had a nice little dive, didn't lose and kit and Kim and I managed to get to the landing craft about 200m to the north.  We did manage to upset a couple of photographers though who were on the same line to the craft but found some small creature on the way and while they were photographing we torpedoed past.

Trip back to shore was fast and furious and the tab back to shore from the RHIB was interesting but all in all a good dive.

The only thing I would say about it though was that it was a long way to go for just one dive but it was a very nice day.