The Great Scottish Diving

This summer in Scotland we've had some spectacular weather with some days hitting over 30 degrees.  Usually the Scottish summers are very hit or miss, sometimes just having a summer of rain.  With the weather being so good it meant I had to benefit from it, that meant getting back into Scottish diving in a wetsuit! 

Portknockie Harbour

North East Dive's Boat

Conger Eel,

I've spent many an evening this summer diving in the North Sea with some great dives.  I think the weekend just past has been my best day of Scottish diving.  I was on a day dive trip with North East Dive out of Portknockie Harbour, which is near Banff in North East Scotland.  It was another stunning day and as we arrived at 10am there was children playing on the beach, this is

Scotland at the start of September!

Standard Lobster

Gearing up into my wetsuit we headed out of the harbour to the Moray Wreck, which is a scattered wreck lying at around 29 metres depending on the tide.  There isn't a huge amount left of the wreck but that didn't stop there being a lot of marine life around the wreck, especially in the boiler room.  As we went down the shot line hardly being able to see a thing I wasn't convinced this was going to be a good dive but at about 20 metres it just open out to about 5-10 metres visibility, a true Scottish dive.  We saw giant lobsters, conger eels, giant crabs and plenty of fish.

Giant Lobster

 During the lunch interval we went back into Portknockie harbour.  It was so warm my wetsuit managed to dry off during the 2 hours we spent back onshore.  Tanks changed over it was time to head out for the second time, this time we were diving Caple Rock.  Gently cruising out the harbour we came across 7 dolphins just playing around in the bay, another example of how vast Scottish wildlife can be! 

Caple Rock is a gentle reef/rock dive with plenty of life about.  The current was up so there was a slight drift which is always good fun.  Overall the day was a great success and I never felt cold in my 5mm wetsuit!  I urge those who are qualified divers who haven't tried cold water diving to give it a shot, it's defiantly worth while!  North East Dive in Banff run weekly diving days from their boat, all excellent value and excellent fun! 

Graham and Koh Tao

Graham recently finished his PADI Open Water Diver and PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with us in Koh Tao.  Read what he had to say below;

"What do you do with week of free time in Thailand?

Having finished my work related business in Bangkok, I had booked some annual leave and was determined to get out of the city. Having heard my friends go on and on about diving had got me interested, and after looking around I gave scubadubadive a call. They arranged everything for me - transfers from Bangkok to Koh Tao,  all my accommodation, as well as two diving courses. 

As a novice diver I really didn't know what to expect, but my big, friendly Mexican instructor Manuel was easy going and a very reassuring presence as he took us through the theory on the first (classroom based) day, before moving into the pool to teach us important basic skills like buoyancy, breathing technique, and mask removal. 

On the third day of our open water course we were finally heading into the sea and the excitement was easy to feel! To me there has always been something inherently uncomfortable about the concept of diving - essentially you are relying on a tiny tank of compressed air to keep you alive while the enormous weight of the water above you steadily squeezes more nitrogen into your blood - but as soon as we started to descend all these fears vanished as the freedom and relaxation involved in literally being part of the ocean life swept over you. 

As the wek progressed and I moved from the Open Water to the advanced open water course, I experienced more and more of my underwater surroundings as I became steadily more at ease during my dives. Huge highlights included a brief glimpse of a black-tipped reef shark, and an amazing night dive. Here our skills were really put to the test by the strong currents, as well as the opportunity to dive on a wreck in deeper water. 

Evenings were spent relaxing at the bar and enjoying the local food at any of the nearby restaurants, as well as fighting off the attention of the local mosquitoes! I also got the chance to explore the island as my holiday had a built in day off from diving to go and use as we wanted. It was a really worthwhile experience and ap ps all group of myself and three Canadians joined forces to ride mopeds to each end of the island and really experience all that was on offer. 

Koh Tao was brilliant and the customer service from scubadubadive was really good - I got quick replies to the one small problem I had and it was sorted the same day. "

Many thanks for the review Graham and we looking forward to seeing you back for more diving!

Speaking with Charlotte about her first time scuba diving

Second in the serious of blog posts which we will be doing speaking with people about their first time scuba diving.  Today we hear from Charlotte who learnt out in Fiji.

Charlotte, First learnt to dive on Yasawa Islands, Fiji in 2007 aged 25;

"In April 2007 I went on holiday to Fiji to meet some friends who had spent a year travelling.  We travelled up and down the Yasawa Islands, stopping at various Backpacker resorts on the way.

We stayed at a beautiful place called Manta Ray Resort.  One night I got asked by one of the dive reps if I'd every dived.  I hadn't and didn't fancy it because of the thought of sharks.  However I found myself signed up for the first dive the next morning!

Beautiful sunshine it was NOT! I went to the dive hut in the pouring rain hoping it would be cancelled…. No such luck!

As I'd not dived before the lady instructor said she would hold my hand the whole time to keep an eye on me, my buoyancy and my depth.  She sorted out all my gear as I had no clue and showed me what was what.

We waded out from the beach in front of the resort, had a couple of tests with the regs and then went under!  To say I was amazed is an understatement! It was beautiful! As the colours and tons of tropical fish, it was such a fantastic experience!

The instructor swam me around pointing out all sorts of weird and wonderful sea creatures.  At one point we stopped in front of what looked to me to be a dead lump of coral.  The instructor started wiggling her fingers in front on a hole in the coral no bigger than a 50 pence piece and all of a sudden an Octopus emerged, one tentacle at a time and then swam off!  It was fascinating!

Before I knew it my 40 minute dive was over and we'd swam back up to the beach.  I didn't see any sharks (phew!) Although I think I was secretly hoping I would!  I had fallen in love with diving after 1 dive and had discovered a whole new world that I wanted to see more of!"

Talking with Ian about his first diving experience in Thailand

Diving is not a very common sport but is becoming more and more popular with it being ranked as the do-to sport in 2013.  We're going to be spending the next couple of days talking with some divers about there first time experiences underwater.  Here's what Ian Roberts had to say;

First learnt to dive in June 2010 on Koh Tao, Thailand aged 21

"I went travelling around Southeast Asia with some friends in 2010 who were all aiming to do some scuba diving as part of the adventure.  Initially I wasn't sure what I thought about the idea of diving, looking at all the equipment required it seemed very obvious to me that humans are very much not designed to go underwater, making the whole idea of it seem very unnatural.

With some convincing from my friends, and not wanting to miss out, I signed myself up but still had my reservations.  After an introduction in the swimming pool under controlled conditions I got used to the idea of breathing underwater, became comfortable with all the diving gear and more confident that I was in good hands.

Feeling more at ease after the pool session I signed up to do my PADI Open Water course on Koh Tao which was an absolutely fantastic experience.  Koh Tao is an interesting, somewhat crazy, place which offered awesome diving facilities.  Completing the Open Water turned out to be the most memorable few days of the entire trip which, if it wasn't for my persistent friends, I would have missed out on.  I enjoyed the diving so much I also completed two adventure dives which count towards my PADI Advanced Open Water qualification, including a night dive which added a totally different dynamic to the experience, which I aim to complete in the future.  Gaining my PADI Open Water Qualification allowed me to easily undertake fun dives when I visited Nah Trang in Vietnam as we continued on our travels.

I urge anybody who finds themselves in my situation, with the opportunity to go scuba diving, to say yes.  Ask friends or family who have been diving before for their opinion, I guarantee it will be a positive one.  You will not regret it!"

Many thanks for your time Ian and hopefully we will see you underwater again very soon!

The Importance of Having Dive Travel Insurance

Today we're going to talk about the importance of having dive insurance while partaking in any scuba diving adventure.  We've teamed up with Westfield Sub Aqua Insurance, who are offering all our customers a discount when booking any holiday or training course with us.  We all think that terrible accident isn't going to happen to us and some of us travel without any travel insurance.  The costs of specialist dive travel insurance in the Red Sea starts of at just £43.91 per person, a very small cost to pay if indeed you need to use a decompression chamber or any other sort of medical attention.

Many people think they can get a cheaper travel insurance policy elsewhere.  Yes, that maybe the case but have you read the small print in terms of what scuba diving cover it provides.  Here is a couple of points from Westfield's website regarding non-related dive insurance travel polices.

• Depth Restriction (as low as 6 metres)
• No Cover for Sea Rescue (this is a bit like selling skiing cover without mountain rescue)
• No hyperbaric chamber treatment cover
• Cover is excluded if the holiday was primarily booked as a diving holiday ( i.e. they're not covering diving holidays)
• Cover for medical cost of a diving accident can be very low
• No cover for Dive Kit, or loss of diving days due to illness
• No Shark Diving, No Wreck Diving, No Night Diving

Westfield have excluded the above points all they ask for is that you're within the current safety recommendations of BSAC &/or SSAC &/or PADI &/or CFT &/or TDI &/or IANTD.

To find out more about what Westfield offer Scuba Duba Dive visit our Dive Insurance page.