We’re off – Sat 23rd Oxford BSAC Normandy Expedition
We’re all off on holiday to the lovely delights of Normandy. Endeavour will be joining us at Cherbourg and we’re going to be diving for a week. Wrecks, reefs and lots of exploring await. Check back in a week or so for the report.
Here’s the Dive planner filed out with our provisional plans from the meeting on the 29th Jan.
Two Seasearch dives over the weekend. Balaclava Bay and The James Fennel / Boulder maze.
Also did a dive on the wreck of the Alex Van Opstal and a drift over Lulworth banks.
This Easter 2015 we headed down to cornwall to dive the beautiful wrecks and reefs there in clear (but cold) water. Nart, Stuart, Kerrie, Chris, Steve, Alex, Nick and Ritchie dived from the beach in Porthkerris, from the hardboat Celtic Kitten and from OUUEG’s RIB ‘Seahorse’. On one dive on the Volnay we found something a bit strange – Aliens infest our marine heritage !
For years the good (and sometime bad) people of olde Oxford Towne have been disposing of their ferrous, and non ferrous waste by dumping it into the old reservoir of Hinksey Lake. Here at Oxford BSAC we regard it as a sacred duty to recover all that unique historic trash and save it from piling up so deep that the lake become a swamp. We think we’ve got rather good at recovering old scrap bicycles, motorbikes and the occasional pedalo from our lake and thus our challenge.
What is it ? : This year we hope to get everyone who’s currently taking the ocean diver course qualified to dive as early as possible – this way everyone then gets a whole year’s dive season to enjoy the water. We’re planning to spend the whole of the Easter bank holiday working everyone who can make it through their open water exercises and signing them off with a few experience dives to boot.
Where is it ? : The short answer is Weymouth. We’ll use the clubs amazing new boat and run shuttle dives out of Castletown harbour. This is a convenient location next to the aqua sports hotel, its cafe and the scimitar diving air station. Some dives may be run off the beach at Chesil cove but this is weather dependent and not essential.
What will happen ? : The plan is for everyone to assemble there each day and for Endeavour to pick up groups of instructors and their trainees to head out to the classic training dives of the area including the wrecks of the countess of Erne, the Old Dredger and the Blackhawk. If conditions allow we’ll keep diving all day and maybe even try for a night dive a few times. We’ll try to make sure everyone knows what is happening each day , who’s diving with who and what they’re doing, which boat wave they’re on and what they will need.
Where will we stay ? : Weymouth and Portland are holiday destinations and really very well provided with accommodation indeed. I’m going to be caravaning in the east fleet farm campsite. If you want a more luxurious accommodation there are many bed and breakfast places, hotels or at the other end of the spectrum there are a couple of bunk houses. Come see me if you’re wanting to know more or check out the ‘Oxford guide to Weymouth’ on the website.
Want to know more ?
Ask Chris ([email protected]) or Anjali ([email protected])
I’m planning (weather-permitting) to run a survey dive on the Alex on the weekend of the 3rd & 4th December. Plan is to use the ‘new’ RIB out of Casteltown to shuttle to the dive site.
Longer, safer bottom times and optimum decompression using rich mixes
Building on the foundation of Nitrox knowledge contained within Ocean Diver and Sports Diver training, the course develops this knowledge and in particular highlights the benefits that can be gained from using high oxygen mixtures to improve the efficiency of off gassing during decompression stops. This course takes your diving to a higher level.
Entry level is BSAC Sports Diver who has completed the 2007 syllabus (with nitrox content) and has been endorsed as a Nitrox Diver, plus 20 additional dives including depth experience to 30 metres.
Alternatively, applicants must hold an acceptable diving and nitrox qualification with another agency which equates to the above standards. All students must hold gold standard buoyancy from the Buoyancy and Trim BSAC workshop.
The Accelerated Decompression Procedures course has a mix of classroom-based and practical lessons, teaching you:
• Knowledge of safe diving using Nitrox and accelerated decompression techniques
• Use of gas mixes up to 80% oxygen
• New concepts and skills
• Dive planning
Your course pack includes all the learning materials you need for the course. The pack includes: ‘Ox-Stop decompression tables’ (plus ‘Nitrox tables’ unless already BSAC Advanced Nitrox Diver), the ADP course manual and a Qualification Card application.
Diving from Isis out of Dale.A quick weekend’s diving from the Western tip of South Wales. Plan is to dive from Dale just next to Haverfordwest. Trips out with 6 divers and 2 crew.
At time of writing, the B&B at Meadow Rue has 7 spaces for that weekend at £25 per night. They need £30 deposit per person for bookings. Otherwise for the hardy there’s camping. Rose, Kerrie and I will be staying in the Mongolian Yurt !
Their contact details are:
email: [email protected], telephone: 01437 783706, website: www.meadowrue.co.uk
This year the DO is challenging the club to make 1000 dives before the next Dinner Dance (in early 2011).
Things got off to a good start in Weymouth at the beginning of the year with 71 dives and after the Anglesey trip we were over 10% of the way there at 121. Then we had three more great weekends in Weymouth on Gemini II taking us up to 174 thanks to the lots of work by skippers and divers. The week in Weymouth was a bit of a disaster weather wise, but still 83 dives got done and with the Pirate event river clearance a few more took us up once more to 301. After some more Weymouth diving and the Isle of Mann trip we were at 410 – over 1/3 of the way there!Three days later a training weekend in Weymouth added another 16 to the total taking it to 426.
The September training event at Burton Bradstock added 21 to the total and the sports sign off day on Gemini II another 15 taking us up to 462. The Alex project weekend added another 27 dives to raise it to a monster score of 490 – more than 3 of the previous 4 years. But…. this isn’t the end of the season! A dive expedition to Scapa Flow generated 67 more dives Raising the total to 557 – more even than the previous record year and the mass dive at Swanage Pier in October clocked up an impressive 33 dives to a total of 590. A trip to NDAC, a prop recovery dive in Weymouth and a last minute club trip to the Red Sea pushed us up to 616.
Come the New year 3 hardy soles dived in Hinksey lake getting us to 619 and then the Red Sea reef cleanup expedition clocked up 70 more bringing us up to 689. 4 bold souls risked the chilly depths of Vobster Quay to make 8 more taking us to 697 nearly up to 700…..
Finally in March a hardy bunch headed off to Cromhall Quarry to do some dive leader rescue exercises and racked up another 12 dives taking us over the barrier to 709. Not bad at all!
0————————————————709——————–1000
Breakdown so far:
| Date | Place | # dives | Total |
| 11th-12th April | Weymouth, Training | 44 dives | 44 |
| 3rd May | Weymouth | 23 dives | 67 |
| 16th May | Dive Fest (Pentewan) | 4 dives | 71 |
| 23rd-25th May | Anglesey | 50 dives | 121 |
| 31st May | Weymouth | 22 dives | 143 |
| 13th-14th June | Weymouth | 17 dives | 160 |
| 4th-5th July | Weymouth | 14 dives | 174 |
| 11th-12th July | Weymouth, Training | 34 dives | 208 |
| 19th July | NDAC Chepstow | 6 dives | 214 |
| 25th July | Pirate Event | 4 dives | 218 |
| 25th-31st July | Expedition Weymouth | 83 dives | 301 |
| 6th August | Stoney | 16 dives | 317 |
| 9th August | Stoney | 18 dives | 335 |
| 13th-14th August | Isle of Man | 75 dives | 410 |
| 22nd-23rd August | Training weekend | 16 dives | 426 |
| 12th-13th September | Burton Bradstock | 36 dives | 462 |
| 25th-26th September | Alex Project | 28 dives | 490 |
| 3rd-10th October | Scapa Expedition | 67 dives | 557 |
| 18th October | Swanage Pier | 33 dives | 590 |
| 28th November | Sharm el Sheikh | 10 dives | 600 |
| 5th December | NDAC Chepstow | 12 Dives | 612 |
| 12th December | Weymouth prop recovery | 4 dives | 616 |
| 1st January 2010 | New Year’s Day | 3 dives | 619 |
| 8th-15th January 2010 | Redsea Reef cleanup | 70 dives | 689 |
| 18th February 2010 | Vobster Quay | 8 dives | 697 |
| 7th March 2010 | Cromhall quarry | 12 dives | 709 |
