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Not in America the continent---still have the Us up here.In America it is humor. We dropped U in 1776.
Scuba in Britain & the weather
- Thread starter Anthony Appleyard
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UFOrb
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UFOrb
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In America it is humor. We dropped U in 1776.
Ah yes, but you still love the royal family, eh
Yes, good win for Wolves
Probably need to take this out of Basic Scuba - I watched you guys squeak past the Lions. Good luck against Shltty - I hope you destroy them. But would infinitely prefer that they win the premiership rather than the Scouse.
OP
Anthony Appleyard
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But how have you divers in Britain been coping with the weather recently?
chrisch
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The UK is becoming a poor destination for diving for a whole lot of reasons of which one is the weather. There are still a lot of divers here and some of the lucky ones belong to busy clubs or facebook groups that dive a lot. Our geographical location relative to the jet stream means that current climate change issues are making the weather unpredictable and pushing extremes of weather we are not used to. For the commercial boat operators that pushes profits down and the numbers of boats still running is getting smaller.
Traditionally Easter is the start of the "new season". I am sure that things will start by then and probably the weather will have settled a bit - the snow and cold of last year has already gone, just the wind problems persist.
There is always a lot of debate as to why diving is declining in the UK and a huge number of theories. My own view is that many of the theories have some validity and the truth is probably a combination of all the factors. We still have great wrecks and good scenic dives and they will still be there on the day the weather clears up, it will just be hard to find a boat to get you to them.
Sad but true. When it's good, it's very good; when it's bad, it's.... well you get the point.
UK divers have to be a resilient bunch and need to accept the fact that their best laid plans may very well be binned in favour of one of the inland sites. Fortunately we have some pretty good quarries if all else fails. Good atmosphere as well.
Sometimes it's an uphill battle to convince new divers to give UK diving a try, but for the hardy it's worth the effort. As I often tell students, they're likely to see more sea life under Swanage Pier than in large parts of the Mediterranean.
UFOrb
Contributor
Yes, it can be frustrating planning a dive, even locally (apart from a lake dive, I haven't yet dived outside of the Brighton area). I've had several planned days out cancelled last minute due to a change in conditions. As I'm mainly a holiday diver and not a member of a club it can be difficult to arrange a dive anyway. I will certainly continue to dive here occasionally, but I'm more keen to dive further west in Devon and Cornwall when I get a chance, where the conditions tend to be better.
Perhaps also cheap flights and the lure of warmer, clearer waters is keeping people away from UK diving. This is certainly the case with my nephew and his girlfriend who are going to Malta later this year to learn to dive, rather than brave the conditions here.
Mostly inland sites as opposed to the sea. Winter is always an iffy time to get out into the sea, especially south coast.
There is a lot of good diving in the UK - you just need to be flexible and be prepared for the weather and conditions.
Up here we are blessed in that most Scottish sea lochs are dive-able and not too badly affected by conditions. There are also a number of inland dive sites down south which cater for diving when the weather is not so good.
Coastal diving on the other hand can be badly affected by the weather with poor vis, sea state, etc. When you get good conditions, the amount and variety of marine life can be amazing as can the number of wrecks.
A lot of the time divers will have a plan for the weekend but have a back up plan as well. Most UK divers will use a drysuit (with varying amounts of insulation under the suit) which minimises the effects of cold/heat. A good fire and/or hot soup (or tea/coffee) make a huge difference between dives as well
Up here we are blessed in that most Scottish sea lochs are dive-able and not too badly affected by conditions. There are also a number of inland dive sites down south which cater for diving when the weather is not so good.
Coastal diving on the other hand can be badly affected by the weather with poor vis, sea state, etc. When you get good conditions, the amount and variety of marine life can be amazing as can the number of wrecks.
A lot of the time divers will have a plan for the weekend but have a back up plan as well. Most UK divers will use a drysuit (with varying amounts of insulation under the suit) which minimises the effects of cold/heat. A good fire and/or hot soup (or tea/coffee) make a huge difference between dives as well
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