A group of Putney divers went up to the Farne Islands for a weekend of diving!
They had an amazing time diving with playful seals in the kelp forests.
Great fun, adventure, and food for everyone!
Farne Islands, UK – September 2019
Medes Islands Trip, Spain – September 2019
We returned to the Medes Islands in Spain for the second year in a row. Last time we were there our skipper said the best time of year at the Medes is in September, the water is warm and peak holiday season is over. So that’s exactly what we did, we came back in September.
The water was indeed warmer, 21C, the first time diving in wetsuits in 2019 for many of us. The warm water also brought with it lots of extra life. Large schools of barracuda and jack hanging around the reef. Moray eels out hunting in the daylight. Plus all the fantastic life we saw last time including massive groupers, scorpion fish and nudibranch.
Once again the dive centre were super organised, making the whole weekend stress free and relaxing. If you’re looking for a long weekend of diving abroad you can’t do much better than the Medes Islands.
Training report
On a sunny day in July a group of instructors, students and those roped in to help went to Vobster for some open water training. As well as teaching ocean and sports diver lessons, we were able to run the ‘rescue management scenarios’ for some of our dive leaders. A good day was had by all; the mock casualties survived, everyone got signed off and Ante has now completed his ocean diver course.
It has been a successful year of training for the club with trips to Wraysbury, Vobster and Stoney Cove. Overall the weather has been good, bacon butties great and visibility variable!! So far this year we have provided: 12 ocean diver, 14 sports diver and 3 dive leader open water sessions to students, we’ve had 3 sports divers and 1 ocean divers qualify while others are very close to finishing their training. With exciting trips still in the pipeline for 2019, there will be opportunities for our newly qualified ocean divers to experience diving in the sea. A huge thank you to all our instructors for their time and effort in making these training trips happen
Brighton – 31st March 2019
Despite the windy weather, 12 keen members of Putney SAC headed out for some diving just off the coast of Brighton on the 31st March 2019. A nice late start for a change and a quick stop off at Newhaven Scuba to pick up some rental cylinders got us to Brighton Marina at about 12:30pm ready to board Channel Diver and head out for the afternoon.
Due to the weather not being quite as bad as anticipated we stuck with the original plan and headed out to the SS Pentyrch, a 103m long cargo ship torpedoed by UB-40 (the German submarine, not the band!) on 18th April 1918 on a voyage from Tyne to Genoa with a cargo of coal. The visibility wasn’t great and the conditions were very choppy, with a bit of swell down on the wreck, butnevertheless a very interesting wreck and definitely one that needs another couple of visits to properly explore it.
O2 Administration course – 23rd February 2019
On 23rd February, 8 students and 6 instructors were joined by Resussi Annie and friends for our annual oxygen administration course. As part of diver first aid training, the course is hugely important and the club encourages all members to keep up to date with these skills.
The day included a mixture of practical and theory lectures with a break for buffet lunch. We covered basic life support, diving incidents, casualty assessment and oxygen administration, as well as role plays, performing chest compressions on our mannequins and setting up the oxygen administration kit. Though we hope we never have to do this for real, what we learnt could make a difference to the outcome of a diving incident. At the end of the course, all Resussi Annies survived and subsequently students were signed off their oxygen administration or corresponding dive leader theory lectures.
Continue reading O2 Administration course – 23rd February 2019
Vobster Quay – 17th February 2019
Keen to get the diving season started early in 2019, six members of Putney Sub Aqua Club, headed up to Vobster Quay bright and early on 17th February for a straightforward (but cold) first dive of the year.
At a brisk 5 degrees Celsius, drysuits were the order of the day for all, except Pradeep who we hope has now defrosted after his first and only dive of the day.
A great day out, with all who attended raring to go for the rest of the year!
Plymouth – October 2018
And now attention all divers, here is the Plymouth dive trip report for Saturday and Sunday 6 and 7 October at 1800 hours GMT.
Visibility: good to extremely good.
Skipper, Red Alert: cheerful; pasties and hot drinks, frequent; cream tea later.
Wind: North easterly, moderate to strong; sea calm, (sheltered).
‘Newish’ divers: super to very super;
Cold: moderate to slight.
Diving: wrecks 3; reefs 1; sea life; colourful.
Rusty metal bits and conger lairs: frequent.
General situation: superb.
Swanage – September 2018
On September 2nd we headed down to Swanage to take some of our Ocean Divers for their first dives in the sea. Luckily we had great diving conditions; calm seas and blue skies. We also lucked out with the diving conditions under water.
Pembrokeshire – August 2018
Pembrokeshire is one of my favourite places in the UK, so to dive there has always been on my wish list. The area hosts some great reefs, thanks to being home to one of Britain’s Marine Conservation Zones, and a load of interesting wrecks thanks to the historic boat traffic associated with Milford Haven being a natural deep harbour. Our group of divers was diverse in its experience – recently qualified Ocean Divers with only a few sea dives, up to Advanced Divers and instructors, but there was something for everyone enjoy.
Scillies – July 2018
We all set off in high spirits from South West London heading for Penzance on Friday afternoon and met up with Brian & Cameron already getting into the holiday spirit trying out the mead at the Penzance Meadery next to the harbour. After a jolly evening in the Admiral Benbow pub, we got up to breakfast and load all our kit onto the ferry for the (hopefully) smooth crossing to St Mary’s. The weather was kind to us, and most people spent the fairly smooth journey sprawled out asleep in the lounge/cafe area.