O/T Scuba Stuff

[rivered]

Hi all, hijacking things a bit, but I wanna buy some diving equipment and can't find any good sites which recommend what to buy (which? style).  Anyone recommend any sites, or for that matter any good BCDs / Regs?

Thx!!

J

[Rod Paradise]

http://www.divebox.co.uk/ was recommended by the diving nuts I work with.

Also http://www.divemagazine.co.uk/

Don't Google it, Blonde it!!! 

[Gilbern74]

This reminds me.... I want to do some Scuba this year. 
Did my Padi last year in Turkey and Hong kong and promised myself I'd do the Advanced Diver this year along with some recreational dives.

Do you know of any good and - importantly - Warmish places in the Uk or Eire worth going to?  Was planning a family holiday to Cornwall, Wales or Ireland so if there's any decent sites in those places I could mix the two.

[rivered]

Thx Rod.

And sorry Gilbern, I'm only a fair-water diver... I always go to Red Sea / Maldives, so not too familiar with the UK, although I know that Stoney Cove is meant to be excellent... however, I think you'll be hard pushed to find anywhere warmish - a friend does a lot of diving in the UK and always wears a drysuit....  Cornwall is the warmest in summer and there are a few dive shops along the front - they organise a number of boat trips to local wrecks which are meant to be fun.... make sure you pack a thick wetsuit tho!!

Cheers.

[Rod Paradise]

This reminds me.... I want to do some Scuba this year. 
Did my Padi last year in Turkey and Hong kong and promised myself I'd do the Advanced Diver this year along with some recreational dives.

Do you know of any good and - importantly - Warmish places in the Uk or Eire worth going to?  Was planning a family holiday to Cornwall, Wales or Ireland so if there's any decent sites in those places I could mix the two.

The nuts I work with dive off the west coast of Scotland  >:?

They made the newspapers a year or so ago when the anchor rope broke on the boat & the guy in it couldn't find them. 3 hours the helicopter was searching for them, they ended up swimming 5 miles & coming ashore at Prestwick.  Still if you like Scallops they're the boys to ask for them.

[Sheriff Fatman]

This reminds me.... I want to do some Scuba this year. 
Did my Padi last year in Turkey and Hong kong and promised myself I'd do the Advanced Diver this year along with some recreational dives.

Do you know of any good and - importantly - Warmish places in the Uk or Eire worth going to?  Was planning a family holiday to Cornwall, Wales or Ireland so if there's any decent sites in those places I could mix the two.

The advanced PADI is well worth doing - it increased my confidence level massively after doing the Open Water course.  I recommend the night dive option as one to choose.

As for sites, I can't help you there.  I haven't done any diving around the UK but plan to do so as soon as the sea temperature gets as high as that in the Caribbean!

Sheriff

[Gilbern74]

The advanced PADI is well worth doing - it increased my confidence level massively after doing the Open Water course.  I recommend the night dive option as one to choose.

As for sites, I can't help you there.  I haven't done any diving around the UK but plan to do so as soon as the sea temperature gets as high as that in the Caribbean!

Apparently Peterborough will be part of the North Sea within 30 years, so I'd better get a move on !

[Longy]

Apparently Peterborough will be part of the North Sea within 30 years, so I'd better get a move on !

Some would say that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I grew up there so im allowed to say that!

[12barblues]

Do you know of any good and - importantly - Warmish places in the Uk or Eire worth going to?

There's no such thing as warm water around the UK!

Save the pennies up and go to the Maldives......it's fabulous, even for an amateur like me.  The Cayman Islands and Mauritius were pretty good too.

[madasahatstand]

i quite fancy scuba diving but have never tried it. does anyone know where i should begin. on holidays? where?

as for diving, if you are tough maybe you should try john o groats or how about orkney?

[Sark79]

ihow about orkney?

Too cold for me, Mad.. lol

[colipoo]

i did my advanced at St davids in Wales, in april and actually wasnt that bad, well compared to doing the open water in february at Brixham. I found doing the training over here and at times not seeing your hand in front of your face was good experience. When you go abroad and can actually see fish its quite the eye opener.
I did some diving in march time in florida and the water was positively warm.The yanks i was diving with were all ' gee its so cold' and i said it was like a bath and some guy from Alabama with the real southern drawl remarked 'AINT LIKE NO F****** BATH I EVER TOOK'

[Gilbern74]

When you go abroad and can actually see fish its quite the eye opener.

Why go abroad? There's loads of 'em on Crypto       

some guy from Alabama with the real southern drawl remarked 'AINT LIKE NO F****** BATH I EVER TOOK'

It wasn't Mr.T by any chance was it? 
Did he then say "AIN'T GETTIN' ON NO PLANE NEITHER!"

i quite fancy scuba diving but have never tried it. does anyone know where i should begin. on holidays? where?

Deffo on holiday. I don't think there is much point starting in the UK as you won't get the full enjoyment with the cold and not so clear water. Turkey was amazing 30 to 40 metres visibility where I went.  But a cheap flight to southern Spain would be a good cheaper place to start.
Look on the Padi website.   http://www.padi.com/    They have a full list of affiliated Scuba clubs.


        Thanks for reminding me about the Scuba. I really want another go now.   But lets see if 'er indoors will let me loose once the baba comes along.   0:-)

[rivered]

Mad,
if you've never been before, then IMO the best place for it is the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.  The red sea is one of the worlds top dive resorts, and it's cheap as well... i'm going in a few weeks time - incl all flights, 5* accom all inclusive it's costing £520 for lastminute.com.  the open water qualifications are cheaper to do out there as well... plus it's warm / hot all year round.  you can't get in the water without seeing loads of fish, it's great.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Mad,
if you've never been before, then IMO the best place for it is the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.  The red sea is one of the worlds top dive resorts, and it's cheap as well... i'm going in a few weeks time - incl all flights, 5* accom all inclusive it's costing £520 for lastminute.com.  the open water qualifications are cheaper to do out there as well... plus it's warm / hot all year round.  you can't get in the water without seeing loads of fish, it's great.

I did my open water course in Sharm El Sheikh so I can endorse the above views about the Red Sea.

The Open Water courses are usually 5 days long and involve 3 days of pool training followed by 2 days of sea dives.  Its quite an intensive 5 days and you'll be expected to do some reading in the evenings so its best to assign that period of your holiday to pretty much a full time commitment.  You can do the pool sessions separately in the UK before you go but personally I think its better to do everything in one go out there.  That way you'll benefit from a consistent teaching approach and you'll go through the same trials and tribulations as the other complete noobs in your class.

Personally, I think you'll find the whole learning experience much more enjoyable in a warm water area where visibility isn't likely to be an issue so the Red Sea, USA or the Caribbean resorts are the ones I'd recommend.

The cost of the PADI course itself won't vary that much from country to country.  The big difference in cost will relate to the travel/accomodation costs for whichever resort you chooose.

Also, for what its worth, try not to let any adverse early experiences affect your determination to see the course through.  During my pool lessons I was the most inept person in the class by far - I swallowed water and panicked when I first took out the regulator, I used up air quicker than the rest of the class, I couldn't stay still underwater (this turned out to be due to the brand new wetsuits which we'd been given, which were too buoyant for two of us in the class to wear).  At one stage I was convinced they weren't going to let me do the open water dives, because I was so far behind.  However, I stuck with it and when I got into the ocean, instead of making things worse, everything seemed to click much more easily.  Turns out I benefitted from having the space around me compared to being sandwiched into a small, fairly shallow pool!

Sheriff