Club Committee Meeting - 1st October 2013 - Notes

Apologies

·           Ross.

Annual General Meeting

·           To be held at Cherry Garden School, 8pm, Wednesday 6^th November.

·           Victor to issue notice and details of AGM to the club by the end of the week, and to invite nominations for committee positions and proposals for motions.

·           Elections for Chair, Diving Officer, Treasurer, Training Officer, Secretary and Equipment Officer will be held.

·           Welfare Officer is a co-opted position for which no election is held.

·           Agreed to propose a motion to create a new co-opted position of Publicity/Promotion Officer.

·           Agreed not to propose a motion to create an Expeditions Officer/Trip Organiser position.

·           Agreed that nominations will be received by email, and will close on Saturday 26th October, at which point Victor will check all nominees are happy for their names to be put forward, and a list of nominees will be circulated to the club.

·           Seconding of nominations can happen at the AGM, if any nominees haven't already been seconded.

·           Advance voting will be possible for club members who can't attend the AGM - this will only be done by email, and voting will close 24 hours before the AGM.

·           The AGM agenda will follow the skeletal agenda set out in the club's constitution.

·           Outgoing Treasurer and Training Officer will deliver their reports at the AGM. Instead of the Diving Officer's report, a summary-of-2013 report will be prepared by Lee and others. This will note that there have been no incidents this year, although there have been instances where divers have surfaced low on air. There will also be comments on fitness levels, and 2 cylinders being needed for decompression dives.

·           Noted that the current committee starts and finishes the AGM. The new committee take over immediately after the AGM closes.

·           A 15-month term for the new committee was suggested, so that the club would return to the normal pattern of January/February AGMs, however it will be up to the new committee as to whether they want to see this extended term out.

·           Medical declaration forms will be distributed, signed and collected at the AGM. Victor to attach PDF to AGM announcement email.

·           Noted that any paid-up member can vote, but only members who have been in the club for 1 year can stand in the elections.

Training

·           Lee has drawn up a training plan for the rest of his term as Training Officer. Jobs are being snapped up by instructors, and Lee is waiting to hear from others to fill in the gaps.

Club/pool fees

·           Lars noted that increased charges imposed by Seven Islands over the last few years have been absorbed by the club's growing membership, and club/pool fees charged to members have not been increased. 

·           3 committee members voted to increase club/pool fees to £16.50 a month, 2 voted against.

·           Clive will explain this decision to members at the AGM.

·           Standing orders will need to be amended as of January.

2014 dive list

·           Teresa is looking into a February half term Red Sea trip.

·           Pat, Ken and Victor are making bookings for 2014 trips. 

·           Agreed to add another Weymouth weekend in July.

·           Noted that another day dive could be added on the Saturday before the Lymington day dive.

·           Agreed that advertised minimum qualification requirements should be adhered to (unless circumstances warrant an adaptation/exception).

·           Lars suggested requiring a larger deposit for Scubafest (if the club runs another trip in 2014), as some members have still not paid for the 2013 trip. The committee noted that such arrears excludes members from voting at the AGM.

·           The emerging dive list will be projected on a screen at the AGM. Victor to email Teresa a PDF in advance of the meeting.

Diving terms and conditions

·           Committee agreed that the terms and conditions regarding club dives and cancellations (as set out in Kim's email of 8^th November 2011) still apply, and noted that cancellations made within 2 weeks of the date of a dive mean the cancelling diver is liable to be charged for the dive, unless a replacement diver is found.

·           A reminder of these terms and conditions will be circulated with the 2014 dive list.

·           Agreed that the cost per diver per day remains at £45, despite some boats now charging £50.

Xmas do

·           Jill and Tom have come up with a shortlist of 4 venues. The pros and cons of these were discussed. Jaflong was thought to be a better option than Village East, The Ship & Whale and The Yellow House. Jill and Tom's thoughtfulness regarding location and accessibility was noted.

·           The East Dulwich Tavern (upstairs) and Il Giardino (Peckham) were also suggested.

·           Victor to relay the committee's thoughts to Jill and Tom.

·           The date of the event will be Wednesday 11^th December.

Any other business

·           A discussion regarding kit expenditure was deferred as Ross was not present. To be discussed at a future meeting, hopefully before the AGM.

·           There will be no pool sessions on 11^th December, 25^th December and 1^st January. There will be pool sessions on 18^th December and 8^th January.

·           The forthcoming 2013 BSAC Diving Conference (26^th October) in Birmingham was noted.

Dieppe...a trip too far? 9-13th September 2013

by Brett 

‘Let’s go to Dieppe.’  Oh how we all thought that would be a great idea and to be fair it had all the makings of an entertaining trip.

5 days on Our W with Dave and Sylvie to entertain us, diving some great wrecks from the War Eras and possibly sampling the local produce.

Monday:

Unfortunately a couple of people had to drop out so we were a bit light on the boat but as we loaded in Eastbourne the mood was bright, although the weather didn’t seem to agree.  There were some scheduling problems with the traffic which meant that half the group turned up late but we eventually got into the lock and waved to the seal on our way across the channel.

The weather could have been better and after a couple of hours of dipping, yawing and banging into the next waves everyone was feeling a trifle bruised.  Lars and I grabbed a bunk each and everyone else wedged themselves into whatever position was best for them and offered a chance to get some shut eye.

We finally arrived at the site of the Braga mid-channel and although we were rolling a bit it wasn’t going to stop us taking the plunge.  Once we were down on the wreck viz was actually pretty good, about 6-8 metres and absolutely swarming with fish although there were also a lot of large trawling nets which got in the way a bit.  The wreck was a good size though but at 36 metres we weren’t sticking around for too long and headed up.  There we had a nice surprise as the weather had eased, sea had flattened and from there to Dieppe we had a fairly decent ride in.

The view though, coming into the port gave you some idea of what the Canadian troops must have been facing when they attacked on 19^th August 1942.  Sheer cliffs as far as you could see and they must have felt like they were on a firing range, scary.

We moored and found our accommodation which was two really nice apartments and then decided to grab something quick to eat and then get some kip so we’d be up for the morning.

Tuesday:

Up at 0630 and breakfast on the go so we could be at the boat for 0730 and off.  However, at about 0700 Lee got a call from the boat that the weather was kicking up and we’d have to hold off for the morning and see how it went, in the end that meant we lost the day but considering the conditions it was a good choice.

So once we were all up again we decided on a stroll around Dieppe, visiting the seafront, Canada Square and the castle before heading down to the harbour for lunch and a conflab with the boat to see what the plan was for the next day.

We eventually ate, although we had to split up and decided that a nice home cooked evening meal might be a good plan that evening.

After some shopping and a bit of telly we settled in for a meat feast with some great plum tomatoes, decent wine and beer and an evening of sea stories.

Wednesday:

Unfortunately this ended up going the same way as Tuesday as the weather did not want to play and so we were left to our own devices again.  These ranged from the tourist train around the town with comedy transaltion by Ross and Lee to sitting in various cafes, bars and restaurant and generally taking it easy while still wishing we were diving.

Lars did make a very nice stew though and we followed that by watching Bullitt which rounded the day off nicely.

Thursday:

We had decided after looking at the weather for Friday that it actually made more sense to travel cross-channel on Thursday than leave it to Friday and possibly have a worse trip.

So after loading all our bags back on the boat we headed out to the Chateaux Margaux, a French ocean liner that went down in 1889.  We’d been told a lot about this by the owner of one of the harbour restaurants as he claimed to be the one to have discovered it and we had big expectations. 

It was a bit deeper at 42 metres but we hoped that the wreck and the viz would make the short er bottom time worthwhile and it did.  The wreck sits on heavy coarse sand which meant that the water was quite clear and the wreck itself was impressive.  There were at least half a dozen complete portholes, with glass cracked but still visible and it was actually a really nice thing to see. 

Again lots of life on it but the nets were also in residence so a little caution was needed. After all racking up some deco we surfaced and headed across the shipping lane with the Alaunia as the next wreck.  Although some of us had done that a month or so ago it was still a nice wreck to dive and the visibility, whilst not as good as the Margaux was still fairly good.

Friday:

With some people staying in Eastbourne  overnight and some travelling back home and coming down in the morning we loaded back up for the final day for a wreck called the Nyon which no one had dived before.  We got told that you could get 40 metres on it but you had to look for it and we weren’t that bothered so decided to potter around and see what was about. 

The viz was reasonable again, around 6 metres and although very dark, once the torch was on all was good.  Masses of life again and some great bits of structure made the whole thing very atmospheric. 

Then we spotted a very large lobster and after quite a bit of wiggling to get closer to it also spotted that we’d got to 42 metres! and actually needed to think about heading up.  A bit of deco to do but everyone was soon back on the boat and we started heading back towards Eastbourne for a drift and home.

 
All told, it could have been better but  by the same token it could have been worse and we did some great dives, ate well and everyone came home safe so a good trip and definitely something to think about doing again.

Club Committee Meeting – 2nd September 2013 – Notes

Apologies

• Ross

Diving Officer

• Brett has resigned. A new DO needs to be elected.
• Agreed to bring forward AGM (usually held in February) to Wednesday 6^th November, to be held at Cherry Garden School.
• All of committee will stand down at the AGM, and new committee shall be elected.
• The new committee could do a 15 month stint if they wish.
• Nominations to be opened, and motions invited, a month before AGM (6^th October).
• Lee and Victor to send email to club, announcing Brett’s resignation, the date of the AGM, and interim arrangements.
• Training shouldn’t be affected, although October lake dive will need to be cancelled.
• Chair to stay in post until AGM, as will rest of committee.
• Committee and DMs to carry out DO duties until AGM, Kim to be asked to help.
• Dive list to be maintained by Victor.
• Daniel to be asked to help maintain club website.

Dive list

• Lars thought 2013 has been good, and would like more day dives. Teresa would like a club holiday in 2014, plus possibly Plymouth at the August bank holiday weekend.
• Members seemed generally happy with Eastbourne, Brighton and Shoreham boats, although Shoreham has no lift and may not be so pleasant in bad weather, as it’s a small boat.
• Members have given Victor feedback on Lymington, which he will relay to the skipper. Getting fills was the biggest pain.
• Scubafest was good in many ways, although some members have said they wouldn’t go again in 2014. Scubafest doesn’t need to be booked until the new year, so the new committee can decide on whether to run a trip.
• Better co-ordination of accommodation and sharing of information would be helpful, so we all stay in the same place or close to one another.
• Agreed to carry on using “funded” and “unfunded” terms
• For 2014, agreed to again have a core of day dives and weekend trips (running May to September), which are funded dives. A similar number of trips as last year would be good.
• Agreed to have at least 2 full weekend and 1 day dive a month.
• A once-a-month training dive to be scheduled in between weekend trips and day dives, from April to September.
• Pat has already agreed to plot neaps and contact the Eastbourne skipper.
• Agreed to organise a club holiday, and a long weekend in Plymouth.
• Unfunded trips were discussed – possibilities include Scillies in August, Oban in May/June (possibly half term week), and a November or February trip to somewhere warm, possibly the Red Sea.
• For 2015, Ken is organising a trip to Shetland.

Training

• Training is going well, instructors are volunteering for jobs, training packs are being provided promptly. Training is generally being delivered when it’s needed.
• Ken, Frank, Chris and Victor are close to becoming Dive Leaders.
• The club will continue to fund half the Instructor Foundation Course, as long as the recipient then helps with training.
• The club has a limited number of active Open Water Instructors. More are needed. Lee felt it was unlikely the club would gain any more OWIs soon, but more DLs could complete the IFC.
• Skill Development Courses need working on, perhaps towards the end/beginning of the year.

Finances year-to-date

• Lars reported that finances were looking OK so far. Only 1 dive has had to be subsidised this year.
• The club is currently covering its pool hire fees, which increased from £85/week to £90/week in August.
• The committee discussed raising members’ contributions towards pool fees (i.e., increase the current £15/month). These have not been raised in over 5 years, despite Seven Islands increasing charges. Lars to check figures.
• Lars prefers paying for kit maintenance through training charges, rather than through pool fees.

Next year

• Possible co-opted committee posts were discussed. A trip organiser to organise day dives could be co-opted, as could a PR officer (reporting to the Chair).

Privacy policy

• Rather than wait for all members to sign and return their privacy policy form, an incomplete phone list will be sent out.
• The privacy policy and medical forms list will be added to the updated membership list.

Barry award

• Barry’s dive knife will be bronzed and mounted (£60 cost to be paid for by the club).
• The award will be given annually to the club member (not on the committee) who was gone beyond the call of duty. It will be awarded at the xmas do.

Xmas do

• Wednesday 11^th December was suggested as a good date. Lars will need to have the date confirmed before he makes the next 3 months of pool bookings (the club will definitely have no pool sessions on 25^th December and 1^st January).
• Choosing from the menu in advance could make it cheaper. A buffet was suggested.
• Jaflong was a good choice last year, and many members would be happy to return there.
• Clive won’t organise this year’s do. Jill and Tom to be asked to organise it.

Next meeting

• Tuesday 1^st October at Teresa’s, 7.30pm.

We also do snorkelling – Ireland, 25th June 2013

by Victor

 

Engine problems on the mothership Embarr gave us an unexpected Tuesday morning in the sheltered waters of Holeopen Bay on the east side of the Old Head of Kinsale (An Seancheann). With an inviting coastline not far away from where we had anchored, it was only a matter of time before someone suggested we jump in for a snorkel. Lee, Sue, Victor, Colin, Bjørn and Grant made the swim out to the nearby caves, where we saw spider crabs and edible crabs in the shallow waters, as well as thousands upon thousands of sand eels doing their synchronised dodging of divers’ fins and hungry gulls.

These caves are aesthetically and geologically interesting – the folds of the rocks, and their many different colours, made this a very scenic swim. One cave was open to the sea at its west end, meaning some of us could climb out, doff fins, and walk through to see the rougher waters on that side of the headland. Other rocks provided good resting places from where the scenery could be appreciated.

It was refreshing to be in the water without the burden of huge amounts of kit. Wetsuit snorkelers moved with ease in the water compared with those of us who attempted to snorkel in our cumbersome drysuits. A torch proved useful in the caves, as did an inflated DSMB (for steadying a camera, and for resting one’s head when admiring the avian life and the multi-coloured rocks above).

We resumed our diving that afternoon with a visit to the wreck of the SS City of Chicago.

Taxi! – Divers Cove, 4th August 2013

by Victor

 

With 5 Sports Diver trainees needing to complete open water lesson SO1, another trip to the lake was necessary. Lee was today’s organiser. Maggie and Ed also came along for a short bimble.

Lee demonstrated a tow, de-kit, landing, rescue breaths and the recovery position, with Frank as the pretend casualty and Victor helping with dragging him out of the water. Jill, Colin, Grant, Bjørn and Tom then completed the exercise themselves (beginning each time with a controlled buoyant lift from the 6m deep platform and later hailing a taxi so as not to raise false alarms), thus ticking off SO1. Most of the group then went for a bimble dive, with Lee and Tom doing some DSMB deployment practice.

Divers Cove still suffers from poor visibility, however it remains easy to get to from our part of London, is well equipped with brand spanking new facilities, has friendly and helpful staff, is very scenic, and was – today – nice and quiet, giving us plenty of space to do our exercises and bimbling. Entry to Divers Cove is now £9 per person, fills are £4.

After packing up we went up the road to The Plough in Bletchingley for a drink and a bit of lunch.

I see the sea and the sea sees our big smiles - Shoreham, 2nd June 2013

by Frank

You probably wondered what a ‘perfect day out’ would look like. Very likely that our recent trip to Shoreham in early June (a non-club dive organised by Ken) falls into this category.

After weeks of rather unsteady weather the 2^nd of June looked favorable and it indeed was. Although considering the most unpleasant part is the drive from London down to the coast and back, we were greeted with relatively empty streets, which I can’t say was the case on the way back.

With Shoreham within reach, we saw the sea – and the sea saw us and our big smiles – it was a sunny day, flat sea and within twenty minutes after our arrival at the boat yard we were on Chris West’s boat the ‘Buccaneer’.

Two dives were planned with Victor, Ken and I as a ‘three-some’ and Brett and Jill paired up. Skipper Chris timed the ride over to the Ariel, a twin masted steamer that sank in a collision in 1892, perfectly. Although we experienced strong currents and with initially low visibility within the 1m range, it started to clear up once down at the wreck at 28-30m, especially on the lee-side of the ship’s remains, where there we had plenty of nooks to explore. We even came across a massive lobster hiding away amid broken bit of the cargo hold – unfortunately it hid more than an arm’s length away inside its home and in retrospect the claws were so large, it could have easily caused some damage, so we let the current gently drift us off towards the bow, which looked impressive against the gentle glow coming from the sunlight from above.

Torches were helpful that day to make sense of the broken-up structure of the hull, and shine into even more nooks and crannies in the hope to find something edible. As we found ourselves back at the shotline, I decided to launch my DSMB... well, I should have briefed Ken on my persistence to launch the DSMB regardless to keep those skills up to date  - although the shotline would have been sufficient. With my marker buoy up, we were ‘hanging out’ for a while decompressing and gradually moving up the shotline flying like flags in the current.

We happened to be the first team back on board after just over 30 mins. What did Jill and Brett do? Well, they had an equally good time and considering Jill had only really submerged a couple of times into the treacherous depths that surround Blighty, one could make out a clear sparkle of joy in her eyes after surfacing.

The sunny day continued and it got even sunnier when Skipper Chris dished out coffees and teas, rounded off with loads of Jaffa cakes I bought the day before. None of it was left at the end of the day as you can imagine.

Off to the second dive – drift diving along the so-called Worthing Wall, a collection of rocks with gullies and covered in beautiful anemones. Being a drift dive you've got to be very much awake or you miss most of the critters as you whizz along at speeds of over one knot. At 13m there was sufficient light to appreciate whatever came in to view. Several juvenile and adult catsharks were probably the highlight and if you managed to fin against the current, you were actually able to appreciate these wonderful creatures in a bit more detail, until either the shark had enough of you or the current decided to sweep you along further.

Back on board and after stocking up with more coffee, tea and the remaining Jaffa cakes we were back in Shoreham; slightly sunburned, a bit hungry and dreading the upcoming journey back but hey, it was one of those ‘perfect day dives’, right?

Underwater Theme Park Dive! - 6th July 2013

by Jörn and Ishka

 

We arrived at Diver’s Cove about 10am Saturday morning, slightly delayed due to heavy traffic on the M25. The setting of the recently opened facility, a former sand quarry, was very beautiful and the weather played along nicely. The wooden building on site encompassed a dive shop/equipment rental, a small café and changing rooms. Two porter loos, always appreciated, were also on site. 

After assembling our kit and the pre-dive briefing by Lee we descended to the lake itself via a small gravel path, which had formerly served as the access road to the quarry. The provided trolleys turned out to be extremely useful for transporting our kit down the slope. At the edge of the lake, and under the watchful eyes of a plastic flamingo as well as what appeared to be a logger-head sea turtle, we finished kitting up with the help of Sally who also kindly managed the clip board for the day.

Excited about finally hitting the water (it was rather warm in the wet suits at that point) we followed Clive into the lake, slowly wading into the water backwards and then made our way on the surface to the nearest buoy, which also marked the location of a wooden underwater platform at the depth of about 5m. We descended, in a controlled fashion, down the shot line and finally arrived at the platform where we then commenced with various exercises including; buoyancy, mask clearing and what can only be described as an underwater handstand (the significance of this particular exercise remains enigmatic to these Ocean Diver trainees).   

Following our instructor Clive through the murky water we continued towards the middle of the lake, encountering a number of submersed trees and creepy looking theme park figures. While we were extremely lucky with the water temperature which was said to be 21C at the surface and 17C at the bottom, visibility was at times problematic due to large amounts of silt our fins had disturbed at the bottom. However, we eventually arrived back at our “precise” starting point at the beach thanks to Clive’s superior underwater pilotage skills.

After a surface interval of about 45minutes, during which we enjoyed the warm sun, we started our second dive entering the lake with a giant stride from a wooden platform.

Again, we descended to a platform for further skill practising, which among other things included detaching and re-attaching the direct feed to the BC. Thanks to Clive’s nifty underwater Olympus camera we also had some pictures taken. We then set out towards the other side of the lake descending through the thermo-cline to an impressive 7m (it was freezing!!!). Noticeable underwater features this time included a discarded motor cycle, underwater vegetation of sorts, tad poles of varying sizes and a large number of golf balls (one of which now resides in our living room). Our final exercise of the day was a demonstration of the usefulness of the weight belt, carried out in shallow waters, which entailed taking off the weight belt followed by complete loss of buoyancy control. An Ocean Diver trainee, who shall remain unnamed, accidentally dropped her weight belt into the silt but luckily Clive came to the rescue retrieving the belt.

We ended this fun dive by returning to the beach and de-kitting followed by a de-brief over a well deserved coffee.
 

We would like to thank Lee for organising the trip, Clive for providing our training and Sally for giving us a ride and her help and support throughout the dives.