Diving in England - what's it like? What would be realistic expectations?

[shamufish]

Hi, I live in England (London)

So I'm gearing up to by my kit after passing my OW in the Philippines. That said, I'm facing an existential choice - buying cold water or warm water gear.
If I buy warm water gear I'll pretty much dive only on holidays. If I buy cold water gear I guess I can dive in the UK if 'britain's secret seas' are anything to go by

Problem is, the choice of environmental suit, BCD, etc is rather different, and the extra expense very real. Furthermore, while diving in 28c waters was most pleasant, I have no idea what to expect in good ol' blighty. I'll have to also learn new skills (drysuits), and that's yet another extra cost.

So I guess my questions are:
- When can I realistically expect to be able to dive in the UK: how many months a year?
- Where am I likely to go diving in the UK if I live in London? I imagine most are limited by distance to the dive site
- Is it reasonable to expect to be able to dive 3 times a day or is the number of dives limited by temperature?
- Anything else I should know?

Thank you in advance!

 

[Outlaw13]

There is some fantastic UK diving but you're correct it is a tad colder so you need the right gear. It's not as big a problem as you may think though. Just make sure your regs are cold water rated (Apeks are a popular choice). And buy a DSMB and reel and learn how to use it. The biggest expense will be a drysuit (£500+). From London I would start down on the South West coast. Then when you get a bit more experience try Dover. All are going to be 2 hours plus driving though so better to try and make weekends out of the trips.

 

[Adrian Kelland]

Hi, I live in England (London)

So I'm gearing up to by my kit after passing my OW in the Philippines. That said, I'm facing an existential choice - buying cold water or warm water gear.
If I buy warm water gear I'll pretty much dive only on holidays. If I buy cold water gear I guess I can dive in the UK if 'britain's secret seas' are anything to go by

Problem is, the choice of environmental suit, BCD, etc is rather different, and the extra expense very real. Furthermore, while diving in 28c waters was most pleasant, I have no idea what to expect in good ol' blighty. I'll have to also learn new skills (drysuits), and that's yet another extra cost.

So I guess my questions are:
- When can I realistically expect to be able to dive in the UK: how many months a year?

Potentially all year round (some of us do), but for many a season of April to November is more common. Shorter than than if you use a semi-dry suit.

- Where am I likely to go diving in the UK if I live in London? I imagine most are limited by distance to the dive site

Wraysbury, Heathrow way is a common training site, but most diving will occur on the South Coast.

- Is it reasonable to expect to be able to dive 3 times a day or is the number of dives limited by temperature?

Usually two if going out on a boat trip. The constraint is not so much the temperature, but the type of dive. The profile is usually rectangular - most of the dive is at or around the deepest depth. Decompression stops are common.

- Anything else I should know?

Big question! To be honest, I'd recommend finding a club to dive with. Some are shop based clubs, but the majority are made up of divers organising their own diving and training designed for UK diving. The British Sub-Aqua Club is the largest, with many clubs in London. There are looser forum based groups such as Yorkshire Divers (its not just for divers from Yorkshire). Diving in the UK covers a large range, photography in 15-20 metres, to recovery of items form 150 metres. Although the latter is done by a small number of people.

If you get 'cold water' kit, you can use it anywhere. It does not have to be an expensive purchase, we're too tight for that. Usually the most expensive piece of kit is a good drysuit and undersuit - essential for all year round UK diving and decompression stops.

Thank you in advance!

Don't let the above sound imposing. UK diving can be challenging, but it can set you up well for diving anywhere in the world.

Give it a go. I gave similar advice to someone here a few years ago. I met them on a dive trip this week and he's still diving, so maybe there's some truth in what I said.

Edit; I see Andy Davis certified you. If you trust his judgement, ask him about UK diving too. I dived with him once from a local site a few years ago.

Edit edit; Vis will be very different. It can be very good, 10m+, it can be very bad <1m! If you've dived around Philippine pearl farms, that might give you some idea. Search youtube for some dive videos, start here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r02e931j7g The M2 is in about 32m, usually dived from Weymouth or Portland. The vis you see here is about the best I've seen it, it was like this this week.

Edit x3. Where in London are you based? I may be able to recommend a club.

Adrian

 

[dbulmer]

To the OP,
You can trust Adrian's advice.
I met Adrian last week on a trip to the M2 and his advice is spot on. I got similar advice from Adrian when I first joined Scubaboard.
UK diving when good is fantastic.

 

[Ste Wart]

While this thread is running.

Any advice on diving out of Bristol?

 

[Adrian Kelland]

While this thread is running.

Any advice on diving out of Bristol?

Don't bother, the vis will be terrible. Guildy on a good day perhaps.

I've seen Bristol clubs doing training shore dives in the Torbay area, although some might use the inland sites of Vobster and NDAC.

I think you are going to have to travel to Plymouth, Lyme Regis/Bridport, Portland/Weymouth, West Wales or Ilfracombe to get diving you'll have a good chance of enjoying. Most boats are full charter for the w/e, but some take single bookings. Could be Hobsons choice of a buddy then though.

Your kit setup should be fine for any of that, although you might want to swap the ali backplate for stainless steel. You'll probably want the extra weight to offset drysuit & undersuit.

If you have a look at the UK forum I mentioned above, you could probably find the dives you want and buddies to go with you.

Adrian

 

[sylpha]

i tend to agree with you, but you haven't mentioned the interesting tides out brizzol way!

a friend used to dive (25 years ago +) out of Swansea and i just can't find anyone else who knows anything about it. She lived there, but no longer does (neither does she dive).

 

[Ste Wart]

Don't bother, the vis will be terrible. Guildy on a good day perhaps.

I've seen Bristol clubs doing training shore dives in the Torbay area, although some might use the inland sites of Vobster and NDAC.

I think you are going to have to travel to Plymouth, Lyme Regis/Bridport, Portland/Weymouth, West Wales or Ilfracombe to get diving you'll have a good chance of enjoying. Most boats are full charter for the w/e, but some take single bookings. Could be Hobsons choice of a buddy then though.

Your kit setup should be fine for any of that, although you might want to swap the ali backplate for stainless steel. You'll probably want the extra weight to offset drysuit & undersuit.

If you have a look at the UK forum I mentioned above, you could probably find the dives you want and buddies to go with you.

Adrian

Great thanks for the info.

Problem is I'm gonna be a car-less student. So I was hoping for something close to Bristol

Unfortunately the Ali has to stay. Just ordered new drysuit so can't afford to buy a new BP (only just got the ali after selling the SS last year) plus Malta next week and need to keep weight down with tech kit.

Any advice on whose doing tech around the areas you mentioned?

 

[scoobydrew]

To the OP -

Diving in England... get stuck in! I did my first hundred or so dives in the UK and yes there were some fairly terrible conditions in places but when it comes off it is well worth it. ones that stand out straight off the bat are Lundy Island - get there from Ilfracombe, find out when the cuttlefish are in Babbacombe and try that for some easy shore dives provided you can rent equipment and have personal transport.

The big gem of UK diving (IMO) is wrecks, there is a guy called Doug Lanfear who runs a charter out of Lyme Regis called Blue Turtle and he'll get you out to all the decent wrecks in his area, 2 dives on the day is the norm but he used to be open to suggestions.

My advise to you however is this.... I now currently teach SCUBA full time in South Korea, it is actually very similar to the UK in many ways certainly as far as vis and temp goes. Many of my customers were certified in tropical paradises like Thailand or the Philippines and it can be very hard to prepare these people for the difference, sometimes leading to bad experiences as their expectations have been set in different ways. It is not the norm to have a DM in the UK. why dont you contact a dive shop near you and pay for an advanced open water course as a kind of local orientation training to UK diving, you could probably hire kit off the same people, this would be a good safe way to dip your toe in so to speak.

Further to that if you are wanting to get out diving with any kind of regularity in the UK you might want to look in to finding your nearest BSAC club.

To the wart - easiest option is Vobster quarry, good for testing kit and keeping on top of skills but you will still need to find someone with transport. Personally from Bristol I would recommend finding a buddy with a car and then looking at the info above, Lyme regis, ilfracombe etc.

I believe subaquaholics run trips from Bristol, also a guy I used to dive with called Paul Dowding (google it) now has a set up and runs a dive club called Dive Monkeys, I used to be a member of their club and it got me out diving all the time, there was always someone there with spaces in a car willing to split travel costs

 

[Adrian Kelland]

To the OP -

Diving in England... get stuck in! I did my first hundred or so dives in the UK and yes there were some fairly terrible conditions in places but when it comes off it is well worth it. ones that stand out straight off the bat are Lundy Island - get there from Ilfracombe, find out when the cuttlefish are in Babbacombe and try that for some easy shore dives provided you can rent equipment and have personal transport.

The big gem of UK diving (IMO) is wrecks, there is a guy called Doug Lanfear who runs a charter out of Lyme Regis called Blue Turtle and he'll get you out to all the decent wrecks in his area, 2 dives on the day is the norm but he used to be open to suggestions.

My advise to you however is this.... I now currently teach SCUBA full time in South Korea, it is actually very similar to the UK in many ways certainly as far as vis and temp goes. Many of my customers were certified in tropical paradises like Thailand or the Philippines and it can be very hard to prepare these people for the difference, sometimes leading to bad experiences as their expectations have been set in different ways. It is not the norm to have a DM in the UK. why dont you contact a dive shop near you and pay for an advanced open water course as a kind of local orientation training to UK diving, you could probably hire kit off the same people, this would be a good safe way to dip your toe in so to speak.

Further to that if you are wanting to get out diving with any kind of regularity in the UK you might want to look in to finding your nearest BSAC club.

To the wart - easiest option is Vobster quarry, good for testing kit and keeping on top of skills but you will still need to find someone with transport. Personally from Bristol I would recommend finding a buddy with a car and then looking at the info above, Lyme regis, ilfracombe etc.

I believe subaquaholics run trips from Bristol, also a guy I used to dive with called Paul Dowding (google it) now has a set up and runs a dive club called Dive Monkeys, I used to be a member of their club and it got me out diving all the time, there was always someone there with spaces in a car willing to split travel costs

Doug has sold up the business now, Rob King now owns Blue Turtle. I've not dived with him in charge,, but I did when he was learning the ropes from Doug. A shame really, Doug could be a bit of a moaning minnie, but he ran a tidy boat.

To The Wart; definitely join Yorkshire Divers, I know several divers from the Bristol area on YD into the deeper longer stuff. I'm sure a bit of car sharing could be possible..