New to diving in the uk

[reabo]

Hi Guys.
I am just starting out scuba diving at a youthful 60 years old. I live in Kent but am struggling to find any dive groups not connected to a dive shop.
Are there any?
Another question.. is a dry suit necessary for UK diving or will a wet suit be ok? All advice gratefully received. Thanks

 

[Aura]

Unless you have an exceptional cold tolerance and don't mind a short diving season, you will probably enjoy your new hobby considerably more with a drysuit.

You should try to find a BSAC club near you: Find a club or centre

Welcome to diving

 

[TimPB]

Definitely dry suit. Some do dive wet, but they're the exception rather than the rule.

As Aura said, a BSAC club is a great way to further your training and get more opportunities to go diving. Try a few near you. There's a lot of variation in how clubs do things. I tried 4 clubs before joining the one I'm in now. Some are a better fit than others.

 

[MB NZ]

Necessary? No. Sensible? Yes.

I would not see a drysuit as a luxury for diving in the UK. It would be the first piece of kit I would buy because fit is important and rental suits can be a bit "semi-dry". It's also good to get familiar with a drysuit as soon as possible.

 

[Wibble]

Hello and welcome to the sport.

If you really are at the beginning of your diving career, then a club of some description is a really good thing. If nothing else you should have access to a pool, some loan kit and lots of experience.

Diving in the UK is vastly different from diving in some warm water location, e.g. Med, etc. Our waters are cold, tidal, frequent poor visibility and sites tend to be deeper. The good news is we have literally thousands of wrecks along our shorelines with many hundreds off of Kent. If you like wrecks, then the UK's probably second to none around the world.

Sea temperatures are from 7C in March up to 18C in August, dropping to 12C in December. Scotland's about 12C in the summer. Drysuits are pretty much a necessity in the UK. You can dive in a wetsuit in the summer, but it's a short season from July through September.

You've some great boats out of Dover.

You do need to get the skills sorted, so that means getting the hours in and often in the few inland sites such as Wraysbury near Heathrow, Vobster Quays in Summerset and Stoney Cove in Leicester.

A club really is the best way to go.


It IS worth it though. Some fantastic places to go all around the UK.

 

[Searcaigh]

+1 on getting a drysuit, and +1 on joining a club especially at the beginning of your dive life.

I dived wet in the UK about 35 years ago, I wouldn't do it now. Diving dry gives you more options.

Joining a club will get you involved with other divers and learn quicker depending on the club, and you will probably be able to get a regular buddy for local diving too.

 

[plaamook]

When I was still living and working in uk I used to dive a 7mm longjohn from about June to Oct.
Soon as the water hit 15c, out of the dry suit I'd go.
I don't miss a nice hot spring day sitting on a boat in a dry suit drenched in sweat.
If you have to pick...obvs dry. But switching to wet at some point in the year also will extend the life of your drysuit. Which will be expensive.

 

[Edward3c]

Welcome to our fantastic underwater world. UK diving is world class.

I didn't know better and dived 8 years in a wetsuit before switching to dry, should have done it years earlier.

And again, join a BSAC club. There are member discounts from O-Three, 4th Element, etc, see here.

 

[BlueTrin]

+1 for drysuit if you are committed to dive all year round.

Also when choosing a club, make sure to ask them their recent outings, my experience is that not all clubs are equally active and ideally you want a club with a lot of keen members so you can join them on either official club dives or just on a random trip between buddies (when you are a bit more experienced)

If you plan to get trained by the club, ask to meet a few recently certified people at the level you want and ask them how long it took them: it can be an issue at certain clubs to get certs above Ocean Diver at a reasonable pace due to the fact that it’s volunteering from the instructor and the ratio of active instructors vs students.

 

[Edward3c]

Adding to what @BlueTrin said.

My primary club doesn't do elementary course (Ocean Diver) as we don't have a pool. We use a commercial partner who will do the course in three weekends. Higher level training we do in-house as most members are instructors.