A year ago, Debbie White, who was the current snorkel officer together with John Waterhouse, now the club’s regional snorkel advisor and another couple of members, decided to further develop snorkelling within the branch, for existing and new members by expanding our instructor base and improving our open water snorkelling capabilities.
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FREE Try Dives on 30th April
Have you ever thought about learning to dive but were unsure how or where to start? Now is your chance to take that first step by coming along to Hinksey Outdoor Pool Open Day on Saturday 30th April 2011.
Dive Oxon 2012 – Back to Weymouth
19th-20th May 2012
Once again we have our annual get-together with clubs from across Oxfordshire to dive from Weymouth.
After last years partially successful (despite the weather) weekend, we are at it again! This year we are going back to Weymouth, camping at the popular East Fleet Campsite where we have a great relationship with the owners and we hope to have lots of you attending for some great diving from many different platforms (including our new hard boat) and some excellent socialising.
Diving the Garvellachs and Slate Isles 2011
Scotland, 10th-17th September
**26/8/11: THIS TRIP IS NOW OPEN TO NON-MEMBERS**
4/5 places available for qualified divers (BSAC Sports Diver or equilvalent)
Trip is advertised elsewhere – please contact Chris Stevens ASAP if you would like to come: 07808 774271
Fin the late summer dive season the seas around the west coast of Scotland boast some of the best diving conditions in the UK. Visibility is rarely less than 12m and marine life abounds. Basking sharks, Dolphin, Minke Wales and Seals are visitors at this time of year – spend a surface interval snorkelling with seals and porpoise and the time flies by.
The Garvellachs are a small group of Islands to the SW of Oban and are an area of outstanding natural beauty both above and below the water with exceptional water clarity. They experience some of the strongest tides in the UK making for very exciting drift diving and the wall dives have some amazing jewel anemone beds. They also have several large intact steamship era wrecks within a short distance (the Meldon, the SS Breda, the Shuna, the Benghazi, the Thesis, and even the Hispania may all be dived from here).
Isis
In 2010 we bought a new dive boat. A 17ft dory style hull with 60HP engine.
By midsummer she’d been used on 4 expeditions and we’d done over 120 dives from her. Capable of taking 6 divers with kit, with a top speed of 20 knots and a range of 20nm she’s proving to be an excellent addition to our dive platforms and has already opened up new dive sites for us.
Full information on ISIS is available on the Isis Project page.
The Isis Project
Its always been the aim of the club to provide a broad range of snorkeling and diving opportunities for the members. In 2010 to help with this goal we decided to purchase a second diving boat, to compliment the diving available from Gemini. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend so a new RIB as usually used by BSAC clubs was pretty much out of the question.
Extraordinary General Meeting Report
New General Committee Members plus the future of Gemini & Membership Fees
In the end, there was no vote for the General Committee Member posts, as in the week before the EGM, Dennis Savory submitted his resignation from the second GCM post. So congratulations to both Alex Gibson and Kathy Fletcher who take on the posts of General Committee Members.
The future of Gemini was the main topic of discussion for the evening, with clarification over the sale and moorings being sought by the new Committee.The members unanimously agreed that the committee should continue to find a buyer for Gemini and that if one is found, a further EGM should be called to approve the sale.
Annual Dinner and Dance
– 19th March
Please Return your Booking forms.
Its just under 8 weeks to go, so please return your booking forms to Phil ASAP!
Dive Oxon 2011 – dates
This years big Inter-Branch dive is on.
Following on from last spring’s event with the University branch, Chris Stevens and Andy White are organising another weekend with even more branches from around Oxfordshire. This year we will be going back to Kimmeridge from 19th to the 22nd May.
Dive Fest 2011
We are taking both Isis and Naiad to Pentewan sands for Dive Fest 2011.
Both snorkeling and diving are planned with the reefs and wrecks of this Cornish beauty spot well worth the trip.
Avoid the royal wedding malarky and come diving instead!
Sign up in the clubhouse.We need numbers asap to book static caravans and boat spaces.
More details of the event itself can be found on the Dive Fest 2011 website.
For dive site information click here (the location hasn’t changed since 2009, so this paperwork is still relevant).
For more information contact Chris S.