There was a good turnout to the End Of Summer Barbeque - in particular it was good to see some old friends of the club. 

Although everyone seemed to enjoy themselves it was called End Of Summer for a good reason when the sun went down. Brrrr, cold but at least it stayed dry all afternoon.  Don't worry - the next big social on our calendar will be indoors! (Xmas dinner)

See the 2008 gallery for more pictures.

Over the last couple of weekends a number of Club Diver trainees have been practicing and being assess on the open water surface rescue that due to its importance is the one skill on the Club Diver syllabus that requires the most time and effort to get done.

Making best use of the relatively warm water of Cromhall Quay, for the next few weeks at least, the trainees and some dedicated instructors have been blitzing the training on Sunday mornings to try and get this done before the waters get too cold. (After Xmas it will be pretty darn cold until Spring time.)

We hope that all the Club Diver trainees will be able to at least practice the skills before the winter draws in, even if not all are finally assessed.

 

So, you've probably noticed the overhaul to the club's website.

Not only does this give a fresh new look, it provides a number of other features that will become apparent over the next couple of weeks / months which aim to make it easier for club members to add their own news items, post their own club event notices and upload their own gallery photos.

In short it removes the content of the site from the club's webmaster to being provided directly by its members, which means that things should appear more frequently and represent everyone's interests better.

We hope you like it, even if you don't end up posting you own articles, events or photos.  Comments and suggestions welcome!

Last year's great trip to do some hard hat diving was repeated due to popular demand with the guys from the Sal Diving Company in Mevagissey, Cornwall.

Donning original old navy Standard Dress equipment including Siebe Gorman 6-bolt helmet is no mean feat - altogether it weighs around 80kg for the diver to lug in and out of the water!

Check out some pictures of the hard hat diving and also conventional SCUBA dives from the weekend in the gallery.

In the past there was always a little confusion about which spreadsheet event organisers should use when tracking the accounts for expeditions away.

Well, to bring things up to date and to remove this ambiguity, the template spreadsheet has been revamped and posted to the Downloads section.

New features include a reference number and change history, so that everyone can see which version of the accounts sheet is being used and what the diffeences are between revisions.

Whichever revision is on the Downloads page will be the most recent and should be used for working out expedition accounts.

If anyone spots a problem or wants something changed then drop an e-mail to someone on the CSAC Committee to action it.

Well, if the weather forecasters were to be believed we would probably have headed off to a local quarry or lake rather than take the boat down to the south Devon coast.

Despite a fairly strong NE wind at the start of the weekend, the diving conditions were good because of shelter from the coastline and the Sunday was even nice and sunny.

Trips out to the Persier and the Maine were possible, plus a couple of shallower boat dives close to Hope Cove and even a shore dive on the venerable Louis Shied.

This was the boat's first outing since being serviced earlier in May and it performed as reliably as expected.

In fact, the only downside to the weekend appears to have been the wind and rain of Friday and Saturday night keeping some of the club awake at night who were camping nearby!

See photos in the gallery.

 

Easter was very early this year, and unfortunately coincided with some particularly nasty weather which was a shame because BlueHotel was just back from being serviced and looking forward to an outing at sea.

With just about everywhere around the coast being blown out for the holiday weekend, a couple of club members braved the flurries of snow at Cromhall Diving Centre to get in some open water rescue practices.

One diver experienced a major free-flow during a surface rescue drill. The 15litre cylinder attached to the frozen regulator was virtually drained in the short time it took to stop the flow.

Fortunately this occurred at the surface and there was no more diving planned after this, otherwise it would mean another trip to the air filling station!

The lesson learned is familar to most experienced divers, but often not really thought about until it happens for real.

When the air temperature is very cold (likewise if the water temperature is close to freezing), remember to take extra care not to draw too much air through the regulator when at the surface (ie avoid heavy breathing or purging of second stage when doing buddy checks) and be careful not to let the regulators drop into the water on entry in such a way that the purge is triggered.

Fingers crossed for some better weather over the coming weekends and don't forget to keep checking the calendar page for dates of expeditions. (Some dates only get posted a couple of days in advance, especially day-trips, so check regularly and make sure you refresh the page in your browser when you do).

 

For those who haven't returned a completed self-certification of the Annual Medical Declaration Form, please do so ASAP as it is a requirement for your SAA insurance.

You can get the form from the SAA website or else speak to a Committee member to get a copy. Keep a copy of the completed form for yourself and hand in the original to the club secretary.

Taking advantage of a particularly sunny February weekend, the club ventured off for its first sea dives of the year down at Fort Bovisand, Plymouth.

The fish were surprised to see us there so early, watching as some of the club's newer members completed a few training dives.

The somewhat late 2007 AGM was held on 10th January at the Cheeserollers pub in Shurdington.

A few details will be added here soon, but if you missed anything contact one of the club's committee members for a summary.
 

Hope you've all had a good Christmas and New Year.

Thanks to Amy for organising the 2007 Christmas party. Everyone had a great time - have a look at the photos in the 2007 Gallery.

It may relatively cold in the water right now (especially inland quarries etc), but as long as it's been calm for a few days the sea can have some of the best visibility that you'll get all year.

So with that in mind, it's high time to get that gear down the pool for a checkup if it hasn't been used in a couple of months and then buddy up with someone to organise a trip down the coast to give the boat a run out too.