Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
|
Castaways Sub-Aqua Club |
|
A Branch (Branch No 2071) of The British Sub-Aqua Club |
The newsletter of Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
No: 10 - Spring 2000
Voice from the POT
(Editors comments)
Happy New Year! I am determined to write this editorial without using the 'M' word so straight to the diving…
As always the committee are determined to make this year's diving as safe as previous years, and have some plans to help this happen. It is really pleasing to see the response to the Warm Up weekend. This is a chance to blow out those cobwebs on some gentle diving before the major trips of the year. Recently two of the Castaways' instructors assisted in running "O2 Administration" and "First Aid for Divers" SDCs for the club. The club is also in the process of purchasing a "resui-annie" resuscitation training manikin. This now means that we are able to run these courses completely in house, and we would like all active members to keep these skills up to date regularly. As well as these initiatives there is a short piece in this newsletter about personal safety equipment. All this talk of safety and training can make us sound too serious, but the aim is to ensure that we can all enjoy our diving - "Prevention is better than cure".
The club really needs more people who are ready to take on the task of organising trips. At the moment most trips are being organised by a small number of people. If we are able to spread the load, then more opportunities for diving will be available for everybody.
Castaways' membership is now overdue! Many thanks to those that have paid on time, for the rest (we know who you are and where you liveJ) please send cheques to the Treasurer (made payable to "Castaways Sub-Aqua Club").
As always, I would like to thank those that have provided contributions for this issue. If you have any ideas for articles you would like to see in the newsletter let me know. Please send me any pictures, stories, trip reports, humour, gossip or rumours for the next issue.
Safe diving
Anthony
17 February 2000
Castaways' membership is £10.00, due 1st January every year. Please send cheques to the Treasurer, all cheques should be made payable to "Castaways Sub-Aqua Club".
When you get your BS-AC reminder can you reply as promptly as possible. Anyone wanting to change his or her BS-AC renewal month should contact the Secretary.
If your medical is due, let the secretary know and a medical form can be sent to you. Please allow a couple of weeks.
The Diving Officer (Jake) can now be contacted by email, his address is jakemonkfish@hotmail.com.
The club now has a replacement BSAC Neptune stamp. If you have any qualifications that have not yet been stamped contact the DO. He will need to see your blue Qualification Record Book (QRB), your medical certificate and your diving log book.
A little bit of fun, but can you guess who these people are?
Who is ...
Thanks to Jake for this contribution. Can you think of any others?
Answers to the Summer 1999 issue's competition:
The Castaways' Web site has been updated. It now contains all trip reports and all back issues of the Castaways' newsletter.
URL: http://www.chime.ucl.ac.uk/castaways/
Despite high hopes, nominations for this award have been sparse so far. Due to this we will hold open entries for a little longer. If you feel you can better these two entries please send them to the editor.
The nominees are...
Suzanne Easton for this exchange…
Suzanne: "The Obilisk"
Jake: "Which one?"
Suzanne: "The obilisky obilisk."
Kevin Lea for this statement during a discussion about AV & CC practice sessions…
Kevin: "Can Suzanne do it on a horse?"
Jake Easton for this statement during a discussion about sinuses…
Jake: "The Euston Station Tubes are well and truly blocked"
Anthony Peacock for his description of the pastime we all enjoy…
Anthony: "This 'ere SCUBA thingy"
The nominees are...
Nigel Thompson for this outstanding grasp of the situation...
On hearing that he had technically missed 2 minutes of stops according to the
tables (buddy's computer had cleared)…
Nigel: "But I feel fine!"
The judges are looking for nominations detailing any gaffes, spoonerisms or just plain daftness that have happened in the last year. An example would be the near legendary "sea-sick daffodils" contributed by Suzanne. The nominations will be printed in the Spring issue of the newsletter and the results will be announced at the AGM.
Nominations are open in 2 categories "Heinekan" and "Heinekan Export", these categories are described below:
This category is awarded to the member who has made an outstanding contribution to the use of the English language in a diving context within the last year. The candidate must have been a member at the time of the goof.
This category is awarded to any non-member who has made an outstanding contribution to the use of the English language in a diving context within the last year. Subsequently joining the Club will not exclude nominations.
All nominations should be sent to Anthony Peacock, with the name of the nominee, the category, the actual phrase or saying and a short description of the context. The deadline for receipt of nominations is the end of January 2000.
As the years slip by and diving gets easier, trendier and much less fun, I thought it was time to counter the wreckie, teckie top 10's with one of my own. Real men dive inland, in all weather though preferably rain, all year though usually February, and at any time, vitally early morning. This list is the distilled and fermented wisdom of the boys at the rancid Shorty pub, our best sites for a quick dip and a bin to change behind.
So what is else is there? The zimmer frames can't take the walk to Dorothea. The cave snorkelling lads talk of Whoopey Hole and Cheddar but the top 10 have no clear surface in the rain. The M4 gravel pits have jetski-itis and Barrow tanks are too close to a psychiatric hospital for comfort. Any takers for a trip to the near mythical north coast of Dorset?
Next time - Cream Teas in Devon - Diving as a spectator sport.
Kendal Mintcake (aka Jake Easton)
When you first start learning to dive the equipment all looks very complicated, confusing and expensive. In fact with the availability of good quality hire kit, there could be an argument for never having to buy your own equipment. There are good reasons for owning your own equipment, but that is not what I want to talk about here. Even if you don't go out and buy the full set, there are some small and relatively cheap items of kit that if used properly can add greatly to your personal safety. Once you have finished your training you should be thinking about obtaining and using these following items, I have put these in order of importance.
Once you have finished your training it is essential that you start to take responsibility for your own decompression obligations. It is no longer good enough to rely on someone else having a set of tables. It is certainly not acceptable to record your max depth and dive time by using your buddy's computer. A set of tables cost about £15, a suitable watch needn't cost more than £40 and a good diver timer about £100.
For me this is an essential item of my dive kit. I carry it on every dive that I do. It is basically a bright day-glo flag on a folding plastic pole. The pole folds up neatly to less than the length of a diving cylinder, but extends easily to about 1.5m in length. When folded it can be strapped to your cylinder out of the way, the flag can be easily deployed without help while on the surface. Once extended any surface cover or searchers can easily spot the flag. Flags can be bought in any dive shops for about £15-20.
The reason I have put the reel next is that a good reel can be used with both of the following items. These need to carry about 50m of lightweight line and have an easy winding action. There are many different varieties to choose from, ask someone for advice before buying. Prices vary but at the cheaper end they can cost between £15 - £50.
You have all seen and used these. Inflatable buoys that you connect to the line from your reel. The surface cover can then see exactly where you are during the course of your dive. These range in design and price in the range £25-£40.
This is a surface marker buoy that is carried deflated and rolled up. Its design enables it to be inflated underwater using your octopus. When connected to the line from your reel, the buoy can be inflated and released to the surface. This indicates to your surface cover where you are at the end of a dive. Again these range in design and are priced between £20-£40.
There are many other sorts of safety equipment that you may eventually want to consider, but the items that I have mentioned here are what I would consider the "basic" minimum that any diver should personally own as part of their standard kit. These items do need training and practice to use, if you haven't used any before please ask for advice and help from an experienced diver first.
Anthony Peacock
| Tobermory, Isle of Mull | |
| Date | 1 - 8 April 2000 |
| Minimum Grade | Sports Diver (Club Divers may be allowed at the Diving Officer’s discretion) |
| Estimated cost | See "Trip Details" newsletter section |
| Description | See "Trip Details" newsletter section |
| Contact | Suzanne Easton |
| Isle of Wight | |
| Date | 27 – 29 May 2000 |
| Minimum Grade | Sports Diver (Club Divers may be allowed at the Diving Officer’s discretion) |
| Estimated cost | Not known yet |
| Description | This is a chance for those of us who don’t live in the south west to do some diving without having to drive for half a day to get there. Again, full details will be decided when we know how many people are interested. Provisional plans are to charter a hard boat to dive the wrecks and reef around the Isle of Wight, and to use B&B accommodation. |
| Contact | Anthony Peacock |
| 15 year of diving the James Eagan-Layne | |
| Date | June or July |
| Minimum Grade | Club Diver |
| Estimated cost | TBA |
| Description | This year will mark 15 years of diving the James Egan-Layne for Jake, and he is planning to celebrate this with some diving around June or July in the Plymouth area. Ideally there will be at least one dive on the James Eagan-Layne, but this will be weather dependant. Full details are to be decided, but if you are interested in the general idea please contact Jake. |
| Contact | Jake Easton |
As you can see the final details of some of these trips can only be determined once we know how many people are interested, please contact the trip organiser as soon as possible if your are interested.
If anybody has ideas for dive trips, please can they let the Diving Officer know. You do not have to be an Advanced Diver to organise trips, providing the trip has the approval of the Diving Officer and an Advanced Diver agrees to marshal the diving activities.
Pembrokeshire
25th & 26th September 1999
Aqaba, Jordan
27th December 1999 - 3rd January 2000
| Most recent modification: 19 April, 2001 15:43 |
Maintained by: Castaways
WebMaster
|
|
Copyright © 1996 - 2001 Castaways
Sub-Aqua Club. All Rights Reserved.
|
|