Can anyone recommend first costal dives for the UK

Can people help me out,

Trained in Stoney, and done about 15 dives so far mainly overseas, warm
water, max depth 30m. Completed drysuit training.

Looking to get some experience in UK coast diving, what would be a good
place to start? Which sites? Which diveshops?

I have found http://www.dive-pembrokeshire.com/gainbreaks.html or
http://www.dive-pembrokeshire.com/wreckbreaks.html which looks like the
thing, but maybe 3 days is a bit much to start with?

Any other suggestions?

"Gaz" <noemail@spam.net> wrote in message
news:ryYNb.1443$Kz.14187793@news-text.cableinet.net...
> Can people help me out,
>
> Looking to get some experience in UK coast diving, what would be a good
> place to start? Which sites? Which diveshops?

Where do you live?

R.

Gaz wrote:
> Trained in Stoney, and done about 15 dives so far mainly overseas,
> warm water, max depth 30m. Completed drysuit training.
>
> Any other suggestions?

One of the favorites is Portland but that's on the South Coast
and may be a bit far away. The main trick is diving within the
old Naval Base there means you don't get blown out and
even if you can't dive HMS Hood at the moment the old
Countess is a dive that everybody is obliged to have in
their log. Normally as a zero vis wreck penetration.

There are a couple of operators but for anything in the
Portland/Weymouth area take a pocket full of pound
coins for the parking.

nigelH

> Trained in Stoney, and done about 15 dives so far mainly overseas, warm
> water, max depth 30m. Completed drysuit training.
>
my first dive in the uk was in St brides west wales
http://www.dive-in2-pembrokeshire.com/location.htm

we per booked BB with west wales divers 18 ish each night including
beakfast. We did one dive each day both
in ST brides bay first day we left the shore and swam around to the left
Great dive two weeks later someone found a sea horse in the bay. second day
we swam around to right not so nice a bit un intresting. we then spent the
afternoon sight seeing. not the most hard core diving ive ever done but I
will remember my first uk dive because there seem to thousands of spider
crabs matting.


so I would recomened wales as a first dive if its not too far from you.

Regards David

"Nigel Hewitt" <nigelh@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.net> wrote in message
news:bu9p5u$t18$1@titan.btinternet.com...
> Gaz wrote:
> Normally as a zero vis wreck penetration.
>
> nigelH
>
>

Your recommending that someone with 15 dives in warm water make a zero viz
wreck penetration?!!!

Wait for the spring, and dive chesil cove as a first, then wander out to
Newton's cove,a dn then along to the other side of Weymouth beach.
Can't remember the name of the site, but it's below the white cliffs and
there are loads of lobster pots roped together across the reef.

If you fancy making a long weekend of it then head down to Plymouth. There
are a lot of experienced skippers who'll take you out into Plymouth sound to
dive some very nice sites.

HTH

Tricky wrote:
> "Nigel Hewitt" wrote
>> Normally as a zero vis wreck penetration.
>
> Your recommending that someone with 15 dives in warm water make a
> zero viz wreck penetration?!!!

It does read a bit like that... Not quite what I meant.

The Countess is an ideal wreck for that as it has huge
holds (full of sand now) and more open hatch than deck.
I remember as a bright new AOW in my new drysuit going
in one hatch, through the hold and out of another hatch. I
had really had been 'inside' a wreck. Even in zero vis
there is a 'light' direction and a 'dark' direction.

> Wait for the spring, and dive chesil cove as a first, then wander out
> to Newton's cove,a dn then along to the other side of Weymouth beach.
> Can't remember the name of the site, but it's below the white cliffs
> and there are loads of lobster pots roped together across the reef.

I tend to avoid beach diving without being part of a group and I avoid
shingle banks. As a beginner having a boat to put you on the site and
pick you up removes unnecessary complications and doesn't add much
to the cost of the day.

> If you fancy making a long weekend of it then head down to Plymouth.
> There are a lot of experienced skippers who'll take you out into
> Plymouth sound to dive some very nice sites.

But book in advance or they will all shrug and say, full, maybe next month.

nigelH

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 09:52:15 +0000 (UTC), "Nigel Hewitt"
<nigelh@REMOVETHISnigelhewitt.net> wrote:


>But book in advance or they will all shrug and say, full, maybe next month.
>
>nigelH
>

Which reminds me... What kind of advance notice do I need to give the
Portland operators (eg Fathom and Blues) if I want a couple of spaces
on a RIB to dive the harbour?

Cheers

Greg

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:14:24 -0000, "Tricky"
<scubatricky@nospam.yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>If you fancy making a long weekend of it then head down to Plymouth. There
>are a lot of experienced skippers who'll take you out into Plymouth sound to
>dive some very nice sites.

If you're in Plymouth, I would highly recommend the James Eagan Layne.
It is a wide open wreck that is a max depth of 21m and it can be dived
at any state of the tide. Viz is usually no worse than 4-6m and it is
often much better.


Laz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A foolproof method for sculpting an Elephant:
First, get a huge block of marble. Then, chip away
everything that doesn't look like an Elephant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Change "nospam" to "ntlworld" to reply.

Treardur ??? Bay in North Wales was one of my first ocean dives and still
one of my fav's some 20 years later.
all sites could be safe as long as local knowledge and good buddies are
around.
If you wait till easter I would also love to go to Treardur by the way it is
in Anglesea North Wales.

http://www.ukdivers.net/hgsac/sites/trearrdur.htm

for more info

My club often dives here (Well, we will when it warms up a bit) and we often
have some boat space....


"Mark" <scubadoguk3@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:LudOb.73540$sv6.156470@attbi_s52...
>
> Treardur ??? Bay in North Wales was one of my first ocean dives and still
> one of my fav's some 20 years later.
> all sites could be safe as long as local knowledge and good buddies are
> around.
> If you wait till easter I would also love to go to Treardur by the way it
is
> in Anglesea North Wales.
>
>


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