See below calendar for details
Gildenburgh training: weekend of 2/3rd and 16/17th April
Ocean or Sports Diver open water skill training opportunities. A chance to check out your kit, especially any new equipment, before the main season starts. Contact Luke Mynott or John Davis for details.
Filitheyo, Maldives: 8 - 16th April
Warm, clear water diving with a chance to see manta rays and possibly whale sharks. The trip will be liveaboard/shore based. Flight from Stansted. Approximate cost 1800 pounds. Contact Ron Smith for details.
Portland, Dorset: 22 - 25th April and 29th April - 2nd May
The start of the British diving season: two four-day bank holidays back to back. This should provide the opportunity to visit interesting wreck sites well outside the harbour such as the Black Hawk bow, the A3 submarine, Durdle Door and the Lulworth (scallop) Banks in addition to the adverse-weather options inside the harbour. It will also allow us to take more than just one RIB-ful of divers if members opt for just one of the two long weekends. Accommodation will be in a B+B and the boat will be based at the Castletown marina. Depths will range from 15m to possibly 30m (the A3), with the majority at 20m or less. Contact John Davis for details.
Sea Palling, Norfolk: weekend of 14 - 15th May
A one day trip to explore the potential of this relatively local site. A tractor launches the RIB through a gap in the sand dunes. At least one wreck will be visited at approximately 20m depth.
Plymouth, Devon: 28th May - 5th June
The annual pilgrimage to this classical British diving base. An excellent variety of dives including well-renown wrecks such as the James Egan Layne, the Scylla, the Elk and the Persier, reefs and walls such as Hand Deeps, the Eddystone and Hilsea Point rocks and the local options of Jennycliff Bay, Firestone Bay (Longroom permitting!) and the breakwater. Even the chance of seeing a basking shark or two (or three or four or five . . .).
Seasearch training course, Sheringham, Norfolk: 9 + 10th July
This comprises of one day of lectures about the Seasearch marine habitat survey system and then a day of shore diving to put it into action. Cost of 2 day course is 40 pounds. There are a limited number of places so early booking is strongly recommended; contact John Davis for a copy of the course application form.
Aruba, Caribbean: 26th July - 9th August
Tropical diving on an island near Bonaire. Shore and day boat diving. Cost approximately 1900 pounds. Flight from Stansted. Contact Ron for details.
North west Wales: 20 - 28th August
This expedition will explore dive sites around Anglesey and the north Welsh coast. A trip to the renown Dorothea quarry will also be included. Contact Luke Mynott for details.
Vobster and Chepstow inland sites, Somerset area: 3 - 4th September
These sites have the usual array of "wreckage" distributed around them but are very different in character. We would stay overnight in the area and travel back on Sunday afternoon. Contact John for details.
Malta: 11 - 18th September
Clear warmish water with a vareity of wrecks from the second world war, reefs and caverns. Cost approximately 500 pounds. Contact Ron for details.
Selsey Bill, west Sussex: 24 - 25th September
An expedition to a previously unexplored area. Dive a 30m hole in a 10m deep seabed. Large stone balls and other "rocks" may be ruins from a sunken Roman port. The boat may have be launched a certain distance away as the local beaches are all shingle and have no substantial slipway. Check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaWu5G0vVfs . Contact John for details.
The Rez and Stoney Cove, the Midlands: 8 - 9th October
Two inland sites, the former being a 20m x 40m underground reservoir with 2m depth of water and 1m air space above. Without torches it is pitch black so some interesting exercises have been thought out. Stoney is probably the most famous inland site in England. Contact John for details.
