hello

[kermit]

Hi to everyone. I'm new to diving within the last 4 months and have enjoyed around 20 ish dives to date and am enjoying each one more than the last. i have to admit that im PADI though.....hope im still aloud to join in here?

[NickBCotswold]

Hi to everyone. I'm new to diving within the last 4 months and have enjoyed around 20 ish dives to date and am enjoying each one more than the last. i have to admit that im PADI though.....hope im still aloud to join in here?


welcome! where abouts are you? do you intend to dive uk if you're not already?!

dont worry about being PADI - its not like its a confession or anything!!!

lol

Nick

[Maria CM]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum:)

best wishes,

Maria

[purdy]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum:)

best wishes,

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. -- Sigmund Freud

A witty saying proves nothing. -- Voltaire

Maria

Maria

A cigar is never JUST a cigar!:)

[kermit]

cheers guys. im in warickshire on the midlands edge. so far all my diving has been UK but i do plan to change that as soon as possible although it looks like it might be next year before that happens :(

[NickBCotswold]

cheers guys. im in warickshire on the midlands edge. so far all my diving has been UK but i do plan to change that as soon as possible although it looks like it might be next year before that happens :(


WOW! Excellent - most on here usually have to convince a PADI diver who's learnt abroad to try UK diving.......you've already got a head start and know how good* the UK can be!


*disclaimer: expectations (and viz) for uk diving, can go up as well as down!

[Maria CM]

Maria

A cigar is never JUST a cigar!:)

:p :D

best wishes,

Maria

[kermit]

well i learnt here in the uk. when i moved to here from surrey i needed to make friends and so when i saw a scuba shop in the highstreet i found my solution. since dec when i passed i have learnt soooo much. i now have more equipment than i can shake a stick at most of which is because i brought the wrong things to start with hindsight.....gotta love it. ive started dreaming about diving and cant sleep the night before a dive, such a kid lol.

so do you guys and girls run arange dive on the forum or through your bsac clubs?

[Maria CM]

Hi there,

:) It varies... I'm SSI trained and am a member of the club I trained with - I often do holidays with them, and puddle diving with them, and occasional sea dives. I'm also a BSAC member and recently joined a BSAC club who I have dived with a couple of times. I frequent about 6 dive shops and sometimes go on things organised by them. Sometimes I book direct with skippers in the UK or go on holidays by myself. I haven't as yet gone on one organised on the forum, but that is only because I usually work Friday and Saturdays and most trips on the forum involve those days.

So, you could say I'm a complete floozy really :eek:

best wishes,

Maria

[northern_diver]

organise dives how you want mate, i just set one out that turned out to be a bit of fun with a otherwise complete stranger. as long as grades and relatevent experience is made clear its fine.

welcome to the forum, anyone gives you stick for been PADI, beat them with said stick...stays me, the staunch BSAC member lol (its the club spirit).

enjoy

john

[NickBCotswold]

well i learnt here in the uk. when i moved to here from surrey i needed to make friends and so when i saw a scuba shop in the highstreet i found my solution. since dec when i passed i have learnt soooo much. i now have more equipment than i can shake a stick at most of which is because i brought the wrong things to start with hindsight.....gotta love it. ive started dreaming about diving and cant sleep the night before a dive, such a kid lol.

so do you guys and girls run arange dive on the forum or through your bsac clubs?

hi mate,

as maria and ND suggest, the beauty of joining a BSAC club is just that - you're part of a club!! I'm a member of two BSAC clubs as when i moved upto worcestershire from Glos last year I didnt know anyone, so joined a local BSAC dive club that met on weds nights (that suited me) - i use it as much for socialising and getting to know local people as much as the diving ( excellent couple of social do's involving non diving partners, weekends away for the family etc) - plus I find that its easier to plan dive trips/days/weekends with a club rather than individuals.....

I'm still a member of my original club, tho as its further away only occassionaly turn up to the pool, but still very pro-active with weekend and day dives (plus did a week in sharm with them in feb!)

From reading what you've put, this sounds right up your street rather than relying on making friends in a dive shop.

To look for local clubs click here.....

http://www.bsac.com/findit.asp?section=1420

worth contacting a few to discuss what nights they meet, what kind of club they are with what facilities and what training they can do... being PADI is fine to dive with a BSAC club and cross-converting is made easy too if indeed you want to!

HTH

Nick

[kermit]

Nice one. I have had a quick look through the web site and there is a very local club that ticks all the boxes. I am a member of a club not a BSAC one but its nothing like they said it would be, slightly deluded i think. I will take a look in more detail over the next week and contact the ******** branch of BSAC.

Cheers.

[NickBCotswold]

Nice one. I have had a quick look through the web site and there is a very local club that ticks all the boxes. I am a member of a club not a BSAC one but its nothing like they said it would be, slightly deluded i think. I will take a look in more detail over the next week and contact the ******** branch of BSAC.

Cheers.

cool, sounds like a plan, good luck!!!

why not join a BSAC club once you've spoken to a couple but still s tay a memeber of your current one - can always let membership lapse on the one you wish to leave eventually - or like i say, could be like me you enjoy being a member of two clubs!

[northern_diver]

member of NSSAC (newcastle staffs sub aqua club) during term time and hartlepool BSAC during none term time/any holidays/weekends i give myself.

its handy and while both clubs are great, they are different and have different uses for me as a diver.

join as many as you wish and dive with who ever you want, be it BSAC saturday, PADI sunday, mixed the next weekend the you go do a SAA course the weekend after.

personally i find the comparison and added experience of diving with so many useful for introducing you to a great number of new methods and people...so clubs i swear lie through their collective back teeth :rolleyes: regular diver-yes, you talk about it regularly...active social life-well you meet for a club meet every over week i suppose ;)

enjoy the diving,
john

[Gareth]

Kermit

I am a great advocate for the branch system & BSAC.

However, no two branches are the same, there is no standard BSAC branch.

I would strongly suggest you vist all your local branches, if at all possible, see if you can talk yourself onto a trip with the branch(es) that interest you most.

Decide what you are looking for, what type of diving do you want to do (or think you want to do), wreck, scenic, shore, small boat (branch), charter boat, deep/shallow technical etc. Do you want to continue your training with BSAC, if so make sure they have a good instructor base, what the training schedule is, fi they run SDC's in branch.

Basically you want to be interviewing the branches, if they don't provide the diving you want, or the training you want you will be disapointed, similarly, make sure the people are your type, people you will want to spend time with.

Gareth

[northern_diver]

make sure the people are your type, people you will want to spend time with.

...people you could consider risking your life with....
...people that you might wish to try to save you if it goes wrong....

some people are just dangerous, been picky for that as well as the fun side i would consider prudent.

john

[kermit]

Those last few posts contain some of the best adive i have had so far from every body I have spoken too along the way (And i have had tonne's). some that I hadnt even considered but should have so thanks. I will take all this on board while im looking, i feel enlightened lol.



Cheers Guys n girls