30 December 2006

British Diving Safety Group ~ Useful website


BDSG is a independent group formed from all the major players in the recreational diving industry including PADI and related government organisations. They have very useful reference website for divers :-
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SAFETY ADVICE FOR DIVERS USING
CHARTER BOATS & CLUB BOATS :-
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Upgraded Blog!

At long last I have been tempted by the Blogger spiel and I have now upgraded the blog , pretty painless after all! The main difference is the 'Dashboard' layout but I've experimented with the other options - step by step!

I THINK I'm right in saying that access to the blog for everyone else remains unchanged , unless you / they want to upgrade as well !

Best wishes for 2007!


Best wishes to all for 2007, let's hope for a good year of diving and get togethers! Must admit I'm already suffering withdrawal symptoms so have just booked another Red Sea week , this time in Taba. It will be a good reason to start working off the Christmas excesses! A mate of mine gave me an office stamp for a Christmas , I'll attach its handiwork in recognition of all those who haven't time to keep up with this blog!

23 December 2006

What's the weather like?

Good question! Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club can give you a clue areound their area :-

http://www.shyc.co.uk/weather/

21 December 2006

Scapa Flow Dive Trip

I have been asked to circulate an opportunity . There are four spaces on a dive trip to Scapa Flow (Scotland). The trip is planned from 25th May to 2nd June 2007. If you are interested drop me an email or add a comment. The trip is not being organised by the Group but some of you may be interested.

20 December 2006

Meridian Divers Christmas Dinner ~ 20th Dec 2006


The Meridian Divers Christmas Dinner was well attended with 29 guests at the Berwick Inn.

Two prize draws were held :-

1). A weekend for two at an Eldridge Pope hostelry which was won by Deborah & Alan.

2). The Newhaven Divers Limited prize draw had three prizes:-
First Prize - Two Free RIB dives on board - was won by Debbie M
Second Prize - A Free RIB dive - was won by Alex P
Third Prize
- A bottle of wine - was won by Sue T

An excellent time was had by all and the group arranged a further meeting for 7.30pm Wednesday 1oth January to be held at the Berwick Inn to discuss plans for diving in 2007.

2007 is looking very promising with plans to use a private swimming pool, a PADI Dive Boat and a whole load of committed diving enthusiasts!

19 December 2006

PADI Members Forum 2007

The annual PADI members forum will take place at Fairfield Halls, Croydon at :

7pm on Thursday 22nd February 2007.

Now without trying to be all exclusive a lot of people misunderstand the meaning of the word "member" in the context of PADI. Member means 'professional member' ie holding a PADI Pro certification (ie Divemaster or above), that is someone who pays an annual membership to PADI.

Countless thousands of divers will have PADI certification cards and each of those has a "Diver Number" on it , this is NOT the same as a membership number.

Usually a handful of local PADI members attend the Members Forum (free of charge), it usually consists of a hour and half presention with powerpoint and a few quizzes on PADI standards. Attendance at the Forum is recorded and if you ever want to progress to Master Instructor or above your attendance record at these and other events is taken into account! PADI normally 'showcase' any new standards / equipment / courses at these events. They are low key and as no expense is spared PADI even provide tea & coffee!!

If you are interested in going add a comment, I will probably go!

1. Chris
2. Tad
3. Diving Diva
4.

Christmas Greetings from the NAS

Dear All

Tis the time of year, season for rejoicing and all that, so may I take this opportunity on behalf of all of us at the office to wish all of you, andyour group members, a very merry Xmas and a happy (and safe) New Year.

Ian Barefoot
Project Officer'Diving Into History'
NAS

17 December 2006

For the hardier at Christmas ...

Saw this and thought some of you might be interested!

Spaces Diving over the holiday if this wind ever stops blowing 24th december :-

Ikeda 28m 1130 away 27th december
Pentrych 24m 0900 away 29th december
Ramsgarth 27m 1030 away All inc 2nd dive

Call skipper Paul to book on 07901822375 or email paul@brightondiver.com am on holiday from the 12th to the 20th december if you wish to book on please email or leave a message.

If you wish to book on for the 27th Derek Marshall Is on board and will take names 07703065302


Useful booking site :- http://www.diverforum.co.uk/talkforums/latestoffers/index.shtml

16 December 2006

SE Diving Conference ~18th February 2007

From DIVE Magzine:
Divers from all over the southeast of England will be gathering for the second DiverSE diving conference. The full day of events, sponsored by DIVE and Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel includes presentations on from British wreck-diving experts Leigh Bishop and Rod Macdonald, Metropolitan Police diver Phil Marsh and blind deep-dive record holder Mark Threadgold.

'After a sell-out on tickets a month before the event last year, a bigger venue has been found; there will be more stands, a dive shop, a prize draw and even a bar on site,' said BSAC's southeast regional coach Dave Tresidder, who is once again organising the event. 'I hope that as many divers as possible from all organisations attend the event and that it will inspire them to broaden the kind of diving they do in the future.'

The conference takes place at Surrey University's campus in Guildford on 18 February 2007. Tickets cost £5. For more information or to buy tickets phone 0976 749607 or see the DiverSE website www.bsac-se.org.uk.

(Jimbob went to this event last year and said it was good!)

14 December 2006

New Blogger Version

You may have seen that a NEW version of Blogger is now available, at present it's in 'Beta' (ie testing) status but very soon that will have been done and the we will HAVE to switch to the new system. Why do I hate switching IT things ....'cos my limited experience is that there are often problems!! So I intend to wait until the 'Beta' stage is complete before making the switch!

More info on:-

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=55062&topic=&type=f

www.padi.com


If you were to visit www.padi.com and then go to the search for a dive centre icon, then click it and then enter "Newhaven" and "United Kingdom" the above entry is the very next thing you'll see on your screen! So that was pretty quick going by the PADI webmaster!

Click on the image above to enlarge.

13 December 2006

TR Thompson Xmas Dinner ~ 20th December

There are now 28 names on the attendance list, the list has been sent to all those attending. There is still a chance for others to join-in if they so wish!

11 December 2006

Recompression Chamber Visit ~ 4th February 2007

I have organised two previous trips to a recompression chamber in London for divers to undertake a 'dry' dive (or a ‘pot’ dive as some call it)!

Everyone who has taken part has said they found it a good day out, and for those wanting an unusual PADI Specialty certification this is a super opportunity.

I'm making preliminary enquiries about a trip on Sunday 4th February. If you are interested let me know / add a comment.

Group Identity


Hi

Some of you may have received this by email but as the group seems to be growing some of you may not.

Me not being the most computer literate person has had a go at designing a potential logo for T shirts etc. As the image is a composite it wouldn't upload so I took a digital photo of it, so sorry if the quality is not that good. This is only an idea. If you decide on a design like this then a better diving helmet logo could probably be found and used.

Please give me your thoughts ideas etc. Once we have all agreed I will check out the printing people for costs etc.

What are peoples preferences Tshirts or polo shirts, what colours and does anything else need to be added?

For the sake of democracy I will go with the largest choice on colours and type, so long as it isnt pink (sorry Sarah)

Tad

10 December 2006

London Festival of Diving.

Last weekend I went up to the London Festival of Diving.

This was a day of talks and workshops arranged by a London BSAC club but was open to anyone

There were stands from The NAS, the MCA, the BSOUP, Cameras underwater, Andark diving, Kent tooling, Xerotherm and some others.

The talks

Tim Ecott, author of the dive book Neutral Buoyancy talked about diving in Mozambique and the reasons people dive.

Martyn Farr talked about the history of cave diving.

Dr. Jules Eden talked about DCS and decompression chambers.

Mark Powell, spoke about the theory behind bubble models.

Mark Ellyatt, General chat about decompression theory and later gave a talk on diving the HMS Victoria off the coast of Lebanon.

Teresa Telus and Mark Pickering gave a talk on the shipwrecks of Shetland and later tips and advice on filming wrecks.

Cameras underwater talked about compact digital cameras.

There was a sneak preview of a new television series called Deep wreck detectives about diving U-boats off Padstow and hospital ships in the Bristol channel.

It was an excellent day, informal and chatty and unlike the dive shows you could concentrate on the talks and not be distracted by the shiny expensive stuff, also there was no need to queue up to chat to any of the speakers.

Definitely worth the trip.

Jim

09 December 2006

Scapa Flow Dive Trip ~ May/June 2007

The trip is taking place from 25th May to 2nd June inclusive and the itinerary is as follows:

Friday 25th May
- Depart from Eastbourne. Arrive at B&B in Scotland for overnight stay

Saturday 26th May - Depart for Orkney's via ferry.

Sunday 27th May to Friday 1st June inclusive, 6 days diving, 2 dives per day on MS Adlegrund, a 65ft dive boat.

Saturday 2nd June - Depart for Eastbourne.

The cost will be £550 per person and includes the following:

Travel, including transportation of diving equipment, to and from the Dive Site, including Ferry.
Overnight stay en route,Bed, breakfast, evening meal and lunch during stay on Orkneys

Air : Free use of 12lt or 15lt cylinders and weights (not weightbelt) if required.

The only extra will be the evening meal on Friday 25th May and Nitrox if required.

This trip is being organised by an Eastbourne group. Let me know / add a comment of you are interested!

07 December 2006

Invitations & Welcomes

Any member of Merdian Divers wishing to be able to post to this blog will need to be sent an email invitation. To get an invitation just let me know and I'll send you one! You can email me or if add a 'comment' to this post . Adding a comment will trigger a message to me! Easy!

Welcome so far to:-

Tad
Tracey
Alan
Jim
Shiela
Ernie
Debs
Diving Diva

Link to the T R Thompson Project Blog

Follow this link to the birth place of Merdian Divers the "Wreck of the SS T R Thompson (Steamship)" blog.

http://trthompson.blogspot.com/