[Closed] Scuba Diving

Diving in the sea is a much more difficult for beginners, and even experienced divers in some cases although there is nothing to stop you diving wherever you fancy. Most open water training (and recreational diving) is done in flooded quarries. I'm PADI open water qualified and I'd think twice about sea diving in the UK!
Reservoirs - privately owned (by the water companies) so no diving there.

Used to, and my biking mate used to fill all his spare time instructing and leading groups. We both just bike these days.

UK is a lot of getting people qualified, or refreshed and kit tested before they go on holiday in clearer/warmer waters (there's a few inland quarries with fairly clearl water that are popular for that), and some who dive in the sea, mainly to look at wrecks or sometimes the wildlife. So the popular spots have one or other of those - Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, Farne Islands.

Not sure how popular it all is now, when I last went regularly lots of the boat skippers were moaning about the price of fuel (amongst other things) and not making enough money from diving.

There's usually a good few dive boats operating on the Scottish West coast. A lot of the water on the east coast particularly is pretty murky and cannot be enjoyable when you can't see owt. At least in the hebrides the sea is fairly clear...

I’ve done a few hundred dives around the world but UK diving has never appealed. Cold, dark, rough seas.

There are UK dive shops (theres a few in London, another i know in Surrey) and they dont just sell tropical kit. I used to have some good friends who were keen UK club divers and did regular trips to Scapa Flow amongst other places - theres impressive diving here if you want it.

Worked and lived on a live aboard dive boat for 3 years based between West Coast of Scotland and Norway. Was very busy boat and still is. Lots of divers just ran their own ribs and did their own thing on the quiet mainly wrecks for the folks I know. I doubt you’d notice them from the shore. Dry suits, dark, strong currents, big seas to deal with. I’d imagine a PADI qualified holiday Red Sea diver would have a very limited life span in those conditions. No idea about Wales though.

My sister did her PADI in the UK (Capernwray Diving School) but tha's the only time she's ever dived here, everywhere else has been on holiday. Pretty much the sole reason for her learning over here was to go to the Red Sea and be able to go straight out on the dive boats.

I was in the Azores last month, diving is big business over there and they run PADI courses out there which sounds very appealing. And warmer!

Gave up diving a few years ago, various reasons. Not usually allowed to dive in ressys but they are a few inland quarry’s. Stoney Cove near Leicester, Dorothea and Vivian in North Wales.
Diving in the sea around the Uk is more challenging than the Maldives, cancun and such but there is still plenty of marine life and soft corals.
St Abbs is good being underwater while the Gullimots dive down into the water above you.
Scapa Flow for the wrecks from WW1.
St Kilda is stunning.
Plenty of Diving around if you know where to look.
If you’re interested join a local club as they will probably have plenty of trips going.

You wouldn't see many around Cardiff. I was in a Cardiff dive club and we would head to Pembrokeshire (usually tow the rib there, sit in the pub staring at the rough seas, then tow the rib home). Training dives tend to be in the pool or a quarry. The national dive centre quarry is in Chepstow so not too far. I'd say its a fair bit less popular Wales from my own experience. Along the south coast of England there are loads of divers out. Some of the hot spots like Swanage will see a constant stream of divers. I'd say when out and about in south Devon I pretty much always see divers out. Its a bit of a faff to go diving in the UK so its usually worth making extra effort going somewhere nice or somewhere easy. Cardiff Bay would be neither with not much to see and a pain to park up, hence trips to the official quarries with access and facilities or Pembrokeshire and the like

St Kilda is an amazing place I made it out there 3 times. Oh the huge swells. Last time we were diving there a fishing boat called us up on the radio with the simple statement
“Weather...were running”
We ran and got the crap knocked out of us....happy days.

Cold, currents, low vis.
Yup, UK diving has it all.
But when it goes right ive had a few of Chesil that were amazing and Scarpa was 'interesting'.

Most open water training (and recreational diving) is done in flooded quarries. I’m PADI open water qualified and I’d think twice about sea diving in the UK!

I'd disagree with this - AOW, BSAC SD and a handful of other tickets, have never dived in a quarry and don't know anyone who has.

One thing you don't see much of is shore diving - St Abbs, Scapa Flow, my training in the Forth all used RIBs and the 2 dive clubs I've been a member of (one PADI affiliated, the other BSAC) both had their own RIBs so shore based people wouldn't be aware of them. Also, nost of the shore dives I've done have been in remote areas like Loch Fyne not in places where there might be a possibility of having your car broken into

I qualified as a PADI divemaster in Sydney about 16 years ago, never went on to instructor as whilst the lifestyle is appealing, you're always going to be poor until you own your own shop.

When I first came back, I did a few UK dives but never really got into the machismo that came with my local BSAC dominated club.

Diving in the UK is definitely more challenging - few things add up to there being more task loading. It's colder so you need a dry suit (you need to control the buoyancy in the suit as well as your BCD). It's (generally) darker / worse vis so it's harder to navigate. The tides are a lot stronger than where most people learn, which means you'll probably need a surface marker buoy.

All little things, but definitely barriers to entry.

I rarely dive these days - I do own some lightweight kit that I can take if we're going somewhere warm, but it's never the focus of the holiday.

WRT to the law, there are very few prohibited sites in the UK for diving - mostly related to explosives danger or marine preservation if I recall correctly. As above, inland sites are restricted access.

My friend was diving off Hastings  . His buddy came up too quick and they suspected the bends.

They were both helicoptered off the boat to go to a chamber. Portsmouth was busy so they ended up in Plymouth.

Can you imagine trying to get from Plymouth to Hastings in a dry suit with no money?

I’d disagree with this – AOW, BSAC SD and a handful of other tickets, have never dived in a quarry and don’t know anyone who has.

Head to Stoney Cove on any weekend and it'll be rammed with dive schools doing their open water bit. Mostly PADI to be fair. There were ten of us when I did mine and we weren't the only training people there.

I was replying to a post that said

Most open water training (and recreational diving) is done in flooded quarries

and I still don't personally know anyone who has dived in a quarry so I would still disagree with that statement. Granted, I live in Scotland and most of us live not too far from the sea so even urban clubs/schools like Edinburgh or Glasgow are still only an hour or so from excellent open water dive sites but a lot further from an accessible quarry

or put another way

There were ten of us when I did mine and we weren’t the only training people there.

How many people were training that weekend who weren't at Stoney Cove?

Got to PADI Rescue level through diving here. Mostly in the mouth of the Clyde (Largs) or Farnes. All the diving we did was off a boat with the exception of one weekend in Anglesey

It’s cold, dark and as others have said, you need a lot more kit, which is essentially what put me off doing it more. But it was very very good diving a lot of the time - especially around some of the wrecks in the Clyde

Loch Fyne in January was impossible to see anything until about 25m down, due to the rain washing the peat into the water. That was possibly the hardest dive I did in the UK - the attraction of warm water, less kit and better wildlife elsewhere suns up why I think a lot less people do it here

..and access at Loch Fyne was a nightmare over those boulder. To be fair though, poor viz didn't hide much. I did see a cuckoo wrasse once but apart from that it was exactly what most people think of when they think of UK diving

We had boat access - took us about 2hrs to get there from Largs

Nearly saw a few congers tho 🤣

Mrs Gti is an experienced BSAC diver with hundreds and hundreds of dives in her logbook. The majority were in Scotland and most of those western Scotland. She used to dive with a small group of trusted friends who had pals in Ullapool who owned boats, which seemed like the ideal arrangement. I've also heard her talking about St Abb's and of course she had a holiday diving in the Red Sea but got diarrhoea. They also used to dive at Stoney Cove and Dorothea, the latter was considered pretty dangerous IIRC.

Crickey...it's not that bad diving off the UK - some of the best diving in the world depending what you're after. If you just want to frolick in and around tropical reefs a few metres below the surface looking for small Nemo's then clearly UK diving is not for you. Sea temps lag seasons and up on the west coast of Scotland the water temps can be relatively barmy due to the gulf stream. Certainly no colder than Canada. Sometimes its warmer in the water than it is out on the boat. Visibility, in terms of water clarity, isn't a big issue either...sure you're not able to see for tens of meters, but you can see for 5 or 6 meters. the biggest issue is depth and lack of light...depending on the type of diving you do you might be diving deeper around the UK than you would in more tropical climes where you tend to do reef diving that is relatively shallow. But if you're exploring a wreck at 30+m then it's going to be dark and you need a decent torch. I've done shallow reef diving off the UK several times (upto 10m ish) and taken some great shots with a normal camera in a waterproof housing with no flash - bright colourful flora and fauna, so visibility is pretty good. Obviously if the weather is bad then visibiltiy will be affected due to water movement kicking up silt and sand and wash from the shore, but that's not a UK only issue.

I've done some dives where whilst descending the visibility was not great due to dense plankton blooms (well non existent really), but once you're through that layer the visibility was excellent. It's quite a sensation falling into the darkness then to see the bow of a sunken ship emerge from the darkness.

I've not dived for about 12 years now, and miss it. would love to get back into it. Still got a few diving adventures on my bucket list - both around the UK and abroad.

I used to dive in Belfast Lough and Strangford lough on the wrecks of the SS Chirripo and in Strangford on them MY Alastair two great wrecks to dive on if you come over here. Visibility was always an issue in Strangford though. I had my BSAC Sport diver qualification.

Paddi qualified too, I regularly dive off the coast of Kerry. It's not cold.
https://www.waterworld.ie

I qualified PADI in the Red Sea and then worked on a live aboard for a while. I did one dive on the south coast on my return and my dive buddy got excited about a dead crab shell emerging from the dank gloom. Didn't bother again.

“Bubble watching” ??

Well

I can’t remember ever seeing a diving party.

Cardiff Bay is shifting sand and sediment, so it’s murky most of the year.

You need to go somewhere where the water is clearer, that’s where you’ll find divers.

Even down by me the divers scoot off to the many wreaks offshore of the IoW where the waters a bit clearer.

There are loads of shore divers along the Northumberland and Borders coast.

St Abbs, is rammed every weekend from about April to September.

Don't underestimate UK diving, yes it generally needs a dry suit and a higher level of competence but it's some of the best diving in the World. The Farne Islands and Scapa Flow are 2 places that spring to mind.

No real qualifications, but grew up with a dad who was a Naval diver then worked on the rigs, used to love diving off Dorset coast when i lived that way, and now i live in Norfolk, i have third share in a rib, and we mostly dive for bass spearfishing off the rib or off sit-on top kayaks, there is some good diving to be had here, i suppose it is like cycling, you tend to find a club or a group of friends that you gel with and enjoy it with.

I really wish I had time to do more.

There's masses to see around the Scottish coast, including a few wrecks that can be dived from the shore with a bit of effort. I trained with BSAC & ScotSAC years ago and have spent most of my working life as a commercial diver. I've ditched the scuba gear in favour of snorkeling, swimming in some really lovely highland freshwater rock pools and a bit of freediving whilst on holiday.

Great hobby if you get in with a good bunch.

Used to live in Devon, and joined up with the BSAC club in Brixham for a few years.
They taught me to dive - initially in a deep pool in a hotel in Paignton, but my first open water dive was in February.

I never got round to diving in freshwater - only ever dived in the sea. Used to dive 3 or 4 times a week, a couple of night dives a week - sometimes only along the breakwater down to 10m - which meant that a dive could last up to about 75minutes on a 15l cylinder. Occasionally dived off Plymouth to the likes of the James Egan Layne

I went on a dive trip to Tenerife once - liked the rays, liked the turtles, but didn't like the wreck diving. UK Wreck diving was such a buzz -- swimming through a carcass of a boat knowing that you had no way out except through the wreck was scary at the time.

I retired once I moved to Scotland - Brixham used to be £7 for a boat dive, £2 for a tank fill - it was affordable.

I dive in a quarry!
I'm living right in the centre of England at the moment - it's along way to get to the coast.
Truth is I don't dive that much these days. I'm a PADI instructor, but I worked in Thailand and Australia mostly. It never seems so appealing when it takes ages to get dry, the visibility isn't great, you're meeting the same few people, and there's no chance of seeing a whale-shark.
The quarry is ok for training but not much else.