Author: paul Gorse-Burton

A few brave souls made it down to dive in Hinksey Lake, Oxford (next to our clubhouse) on New Year’s Day. However, no-one from the club was as brave as the two ‘wild swimmers’ who decided to take a plunge in just their swimming costumes (in 7 degree C water!!). The local press was on hand to capture their moment and ours, before we let them use our hot showers and have a cuppa. 

Seven of our divers made it into Oxford’s premier diving location (!) for half an hour or so. They reported seeing lots of crayfish, and the one which was brought back was clearly a signal crayfish, which have taken over the lake from our native species. 

Afterwards we warmed up with soup in the clubhouse.

These photos are from our November (yes really) 2011 weekend diving out of Castletown, Portland, Dorset.

It was the first dive trip using the 7m RIB ‘Perseverance’ which we have overhauled for (and borrow from) from the 1st Standlake & Cokethorpe Sea Scouts. We launched from Castletown slipway and dived in and around the harbour. We also made it out around the Bill to the James Fennel. No underwater photos as the vis wasn’t so great, but it was lovely weather and a good run out for the boat, which was a decent dive platform and pleased us all.

Here are some photos from our September 2011 trip to dive the West Scotland Slate Isles and the Garvellachs.

Although the first two days were blown out by the tail-end of hurricane Katia we did get three good days on an excellent boat with a highly knowledgeable skipper (full report to follow….)

Photo gallery from our trip to snorkel with seals around Lundy Island off the north Devon coast in October 2011.

You can also read the full report from our Lundy Island snorkeling trip.

Here is a gallery of photos from our September 2011 trip to snorkel Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove, Dorset.

You can also read the full Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove trip report.

On a beautiful Easter Saturday we took advantage of the calm sheltered conditions of Lulworth Cove to take some Ocean Diver trainees into the sea for the first time.

Here are some photos from our weekend diving some of the wrecks around Portland. With 10m+ vis and lovely sunny warm weather this was a great weekend. The only downer was that away from Portland the vis was so poor we had to abort a dive on the Sidon before it even got started.

You can start a slideshow by clicking on any picture.

Gallery of photos from our March 2011 weekend diving around Weymouth on club hardboat Gemini. 

Here are some photos from two of our members’ January 2011 trip to Hurghada, Egypt to dive the Red Sea – one of the best places to dive in the World. This particular trip was “Straits of Tiran and the North” organised by Blue O Two – who were very good.