Freedom

Blowing Bubbles

I learnt to dive in 2004 on a Blue Ventures volunteer project in Madagascar after wanting to dive for as long as I can remember. I fell utterly in love with diving and carried on during later trips to Tenerife and New Zealand.
Back in the UK I joined the Cardiff University Sub-Aqua Club and crossed over from my PADI AOW to BSAC Ocean Diver and started to learn about the joys of quarry diving! I had a great time on the club summer trip and realised that UK diving actually had great wrecks and interesting wildlife.
Since then I have progessed to the heady heights of BSAC sports diver status and am thinking about doing my IFC in September. I am the proud new owner of lots of shiny kit, my own BC and regs as well as numerous torches, reels etc. And somehow, I have been talked into chairing the university dive club next year, still chairman, that just means I delegate to everyone else right….?

So, photos from the 2005 club summer trip…

Underwater (photos by Jim Davis)

On The Surface (mainly my photos this time)

Well, I am off to Vobster quarry on Saturday to get the new kit wet (it’s about 5 degrees at the moment, why am I doing this?!) and then a weekend hardboat diving in Plymouth the following weekend so expect more pictures, especially if I manage to borrow an underwater camera or pinch someone elses photos!
23/03/06
Sadly, I never made it to Vobster (suffering from a nasty cold) but I got my kit wet in the pool and very nice it is too! I get on very well with all of it.
This was followed by my first sea dives of the year from the Furious off Plymouth on the 11th-12th March. I actually managed to get 4 dives done over the weekend despite the weather - a proper trip report will be posted on the the front page whenever I get time - at this rate it may be a while!
Until then a very silly pic!

Other bits of diving news, I passed my Sports diver theory exam last night and have all my pool assessments done and most of my experience dives so I just need to get my open water asssments done. I also got elected chairman of our dive club last night, I say elected, no-one else was mad enough to volunteer!
10/07/06
Well, it’s time for a bit of an update. I did a couple of dives in west wales (from Dale) at the end of April and passed another Sports Diver assessment (and failed one too Not a chance I will ever forget to check my buddy’s air again though!). Lots of lovely ‘low vis’ exprience too.
I snuck off to Cyprus in May on holiday with my family and crammed in one day to dive the Zenobia - absolutely magic, I loved it. It was strange being back in a semi-dry after so long in a drysuit, I’d forgotten how easy it is, although if your BC packs in as mine did on the surface and our guides did underwater, it’s not so great. The wreck itself is amazing, I loved looking down onto the lorries on the deck and I am assured that the day I did it was poor vis, hmm… maybe I’ll just have to go back when it’s better!
Then we were onto the club summer trip again. As usual I had an amazing time, lots of diving, very little sleep! I managed to spend the first part of the week doing fantastic dives from the hardboat and RIB (The Moheigan is rapidly becoming my favorite UK wreck) - I had forgotten just how much there is to see in UK water, especially as I am a wildlife fan rather than a sunken metal fan. Then we managed to finish my Sports diver assessments in the second part of the week - I passed them all despite my SMB tow being in an area with a number of lobster pots linked together with horizontal ropes, all of which my instructor was cheerfully swimming under!
So, I’ll put a bit more detail and some photos in the blog on the front page but - I’m a Sports Diver! I can now do a lot more fun diving - the club is planning to do some gradual depth increases over the summer) and start thinking about my IFC so I can help the club out in the pool.