Darren’s ‘Gone Diving’ Day success

The start of the Dive Season went off with a bang yesterday with the success of Sub-Mission’s ‘Gone Diving’ day. Darren had organised for the club to dive at Stoney Cove, as a gentle introduction to the new season, in anticipation of some coastal diving to come. We had a phenomenal turnout with over 30 divers attending. Although we’d all lost an hour’s sleep due to the changing of the clocks, everyone was in high spirits and excited about the days diving ahead of them.

Darren was on hand to help several of the group plan dives and arrange buddy teams. He was even spotted making several club members tea and chocolate.

There was a variety of diver experience levels in attendance and whilst some members carefully planned dives to the deepest parts of Stoney Cove, others were happy to get used to their kit again along the shallower parts of the shelf. The Stanegarth was by far the most popular feature that club members were excited to explore.

Due to the poor visibility at Stoney Cove, the highlight of the day was probably the unlimited amount of cake, biscuits and yummy food available between dives.

We are really pleased with how many divers turned up and are excited that this year's ‘Gone Diving’ calendar will be a great success. So make sure you keep an eye on the blog to avoid missing the next event.

Sub-Mission Dive Club Spring Bash - Saturday 8th May

It’s the start of the dive season so what better reason do we need to get together, let our hair down and party? Sub-Mission Dive Club will be holding a Spring Bash to kick the Dive season off and you’re all invited.


The party will be held at the Tollgate Hotel on Saturday 8th May, from 8.00pm until Midnight. We have hired a disco and a function room with a bar for the evening. Due to the success of the Christmas Party, we’ll make fancy dress optional for those that dare. You can be sure that there will be more unusual outfits to match last years Sheikh, rattle and roll as well as blobby and the hotdog.

The cost will be £5 per person and will need to be paid to Katy at the Dive Centre prior to the Party. Please confirm your attendance as soon as possible.

Competition to design new Fourth Element Dive Club T-shirt

Sub-Mission Dive club has been expanding rapidly for a while and we think it’s about time that the club members had a sense of belonging and identity. So, we’ve decided to design our very own Sub-Mission Dive Club t-shirt, which will then be printed and branded by Fourth Element.

We’ve decided to open this up as a competition for Sub-Mission Dive Club Members. After all, it will be you wearing them.

What do you need to do?

Either sketch, create an image or even just think of a concept or slogan, to encompass what Sub-Mission Dive club is all about. Don’t worry if your drawing is terrible, the team at Fourth Element will actually create the graphics, we’re just looking for the idea. Whether the design is wreck orientated or fish themed, we’re interested in your thoughts.

Entries must be in by April 30th. The winner will have their design brought to life by the team at Fourth Element, who will create a T-shirt completely unique to Sub-Mission Dive Club. Not only will the winner receive a free T-shirt, they will also be able to boast that the Dive Club will be wearing their design during this year’s dive season.

Congratulations - PADI Rescue Divers

What a busy weekend it was. As well as the PADI Open Water Course and PADI Assistant Instructor Course, we also managed to squeeze in a PADI Rescue Diver Course. Congratulations to Mike, Colin, Keeley, Garry, Phil, Gavin, and Tom who have worked extremely hard over the past 5 weeks to gain the PADI Rescue Diver certification. They were challenged on Sunday with several different scenarios from missing diver to unconscious diver on the surface. Working in groups, they managed to effectively put the skills that have been practiced in the pool into a realistic Open Water situation. We are confident that each of them has gone away with some vital skills that could save themselves or someone else if an incident ever occurred. Well Done.

Congratulations - new PADI Open Water Students!

Massive congratulations have to be awarded to the PADI Open Water Students who completed their course over the weekend. Glynn, Lauren, Rob, Andy and Paul all achieved what is possibly one of the most difficult PADI certifications during the winter months. Although the water was still a cool 4 degrees, these five students persevered and completed all of the skills with ease and few nerves. Not only that, but they also completed the PADI Drysuit Specialty on Sunday, setting them well on their way to achieve the PADI Master Scuba Diver rating. They have been a brilliant group to teach with a great attitude and spirit, making our job to instruct even more pleasurable. From all at Sub-Mission, thank you and well done.

Fourth Element Launch Pelagic and Amphibian Wetsuit Boots

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Fourth Element’s latest products; the Pelagic and Amphibian wetsuit boots. You might wonder why we’re so excited about a simple boot but in respect to comfort, performance and design these new products are second to none. As with the whole range, Fourth Element has considered all aspects of diver need to come up with two ergonomically constructed boots with some incredible features.

Both boots are 6.5mm neoprene and offer optimum warmth and comfort. Other features include a cut away on the back of the heel to minimise stress of the Achilles tendon during finning, a heavy duty zip and zip stopper to ensure your boot zip doesn’t come undone during a dive, as well as fin strap retainer. The best feature of both boots though is the Footbed insole which is fully removable and easily cleaned. This insole offers a stiff ‘chassis’ to provide stability and comfort when walking along a rocky beach, climbing fin ladders etc. The underside of the insole has a heel strike pad to offer impact protection and the whole thing is lined to support the heel and arch of the foot. This is a revolution in dive boot and is the first fully supportive and ergonomically designed footbed.

The Pelagic boot, priced at £39.95 is the lightweight version of a wetsuit boot with a fairly soft, flexible sole. The Amphibian boot, priced at £49.95 is a harder soled boot more suitable for rockier entry methods. It is also physically larger so will be easily worn with the same fins as a diver wears with their drysuit.

Sub-Mission Dive Centre is expecting delivery of these boots by the end of April but get 15% discount if you pre-order now!

Sub-Mission has a new PADI Master Instructor

Sub-Mission would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Katy who has managed to achieve the prestigious status of PADI Master Instructor. This professional rating demonstrates commitment to PADI diver training of all certification levels as well as to Project AWARE. Katy has worked hard over the past few years to train hundreds of divers from Discover Scuba all the way through to PADI Assistant Instructor, which has given her masses of experience and a wealth of knowledge. She has been key in mentoring new PADI Divemasters and PADI Instructors and has assisted Sub-Mission’s Platinum Course Director, Clive during IDC’s. We’re really proud of her achievement but hope she doesn’t start bossing us around now.

April's Gone Diving Day - Saturday 10th

Richard is organising Sub-Mission Dive Club's April's 'Gone Diving' Day and on Saturday 10th April he is heading up to Hodge Close Quarry, and you're invited! Located near Consiton in the Lake District, this dive site offers a pretty unique experience. Even getting to the water is a little different, involving walking through a 100m long tunnel, and climbing down a ladder at the end.

Set in stunning scenery the quarry is well known as mine diving location, but we'll be sticking to the main body of the quarry (unless of course you have the training and kit for caving, in which case feel free). Most of the quarry is around 30m deep, with a maximum of 32m, so a minimum certification level of PADI Advanced Open Water is sensible.

Often blessed with vis of up to 10m, and in such a unique setting this diving day offers and opportunity to do some diving somewhere a little different and still be home for tea.

We'll be meeting up at Hodge Close at 9.30am, the site is approx 2hrs 30 from the dive centre.

Kit and fills:
If you need to hire any kit please speak to Katy as soon a possible.

You will need to ensure that all air fills are done prior to going to the site as there are no facilities on site.

Similarly take food and drinks with you.

How to get there:

Hodge Close is signposted from the A593, North out of Consiton.Follow the signed route for about two miles until it opens out into a huge car park. Hodge Close quarry is on your right however the tunnel entrance is on your left, down a steep slope. It runs the length of the car park).

Carry on through the car park and the road starts to go down hill, A few hundred yards further and you will see some cottages. From these cottages you will see a fence with a gate on your left leading to a rough track which bends round to the left and takes you to the tunnel entrance.To get through the gate you have to pay the landowner a fiver per car.

The nearest sat nav postcode is LA21 8DJ. This postcode is for the houses by the final gate before the tunnel.

Date and Time: Sat 10th April. Meeting at 9.30am

Cost of Entry: £5.00 per car

Min Qualification: PADI Advanced Open Water, with deep experience. Also be confident in fitness for the walk to the water

This is a dive day out rather than guided diving. You need to ensure you have a buddy and anything else you may need ahead of time.

St Abbs Diving Weekend - July 9th - 12th

Don't Miss Out - Places Will Go Fast

Due to popular demand Sub-Mission Dive Club have had to schedule further dates for a fantastic coastal diving weekend. We will be heading 'up north' to dive from the fantastic harbour village of St Abbs. Diving from the hard boat 'Topline', expertly skippered by Paul Crowe, the trip includes 2 dives per day, for 2 days plus any additional shore diving that you would like to do.

The diving in the area is spectacular with amazing and varied topography, from caves and craggy rock faces to sandy bottom and masses of kelp. Most of the dives will be 20m or shallower so perfect for those divers who have never dived the UK coast before.

Lobsters and crabs are in abundance in the area with dogfish, cod and wrasse regular sightings too. Those of you, like Katy who get excited over slugs, will relish the profusion of nudibranchs.

The accommodation will be self catering in a nearby farmhouse, which is perfectly setup for groups of divers. We have booked this for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings to give you flexibility in what time you want to head home. We will be looking to leave early Friday afternoon to get to the Farmhouse early evening.

The price of the weekend is approx £120 which includes the 4 boat dives, accommodation for 3 nights and food. This does not include air/nitrox fills or transportation.

Spaces are limited so please book early and pay the £60 non-refundable deposit as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. If you missed out last time, don't miss out again.

• Depart: Friday 9th July 2010
• Price: £120 Per Person
• Boat: Topline
• Included: Accommodation, Food & Diving
• Excludes: Air/Nitrox Fills and Transport, Equipment Hire
• Min Qual: PADI Advanced Open Water Diver (or equivalent)
• Minimun Age: 16
• Spaces: 12
• Deposit: £60 (Non-Refundable)

PADI Master Scuba Diver Challenge - 2010

There are plenty of divers out there who have completed a couple of PADI Specialty Courses. In fact, loads of you who took us up on the Free PADI Coral Reef Conservation Specialty last year will have at least one. Why not consider taking the Master Scuba Diver Challenge? Make 2010 the year that you become one of only a few divers in Sub-Mission Dive Club that holds the prestigious PADI Master Scuba Diver qualification. This certification demonstrates your scuba experience, your specialisation in several areas of diving and is the highest rating that you can achieve without becoming a PADI Professional.

To earn the rating you must complete 5 PADI Specialty Courses, you must complete the PADI Rescue Diver Course and have 50 logged dives. So, if you’ve already got a Specialty or two then you’re already on your way.

To reward such achievement you will be entered into the PADI Master Scuba Diver Challenge competition with the chance to win a monthly prize draw as well as a yearly prize draw to win £500 of diving courtesy of PADI as well as Master Scuba Diver of the Year. Every new Master Scuba Diver will also have their name appear in the Sport Diver magazine and we will add their story to the blog. So take up the Master Scuba Diver challenge this year and contact Katy to let her know which PADI Specialties you want to get involved.

Happy Diving.

Sub-Mission Dive On Now On Flickr

Sub-Mission Dive Club Red Sea Trip 2009
Originally uploaded by Sub-Mission Dive Centre

Sub-Mission are very excited about the launch of the new Flickr account. This is sure to be a fanatastic way of sharing all of our diving photos and videos. What's more it's easy to follow and maybe set up your very own Flickr page to share your diving experiences with others.

How many social networking sites is Katy going to set up!!! I guess she'll have to priortise her time between facebook & flickr now.

Next PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider Specialty - Saturday 10th April

During your PADI Courses so far, you will have learnt that should a dive incident arise the use of Oxygen is heavily encouraged. Have you ever thought about how you would actually do this? Statistics show that within the dive community, fewer than 50 percent of injured divers receive emergency oxygen on site. Of those, fewer still receive any where near the recommended 100 percent.

Sub-Mission is running the next PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider Specialty on Saturday 10th April at 10.00 am. This course provides training for divers and non divers who may need to administer emergency oxygen first aid to a scuba diver who needs it. It's also a great addition to the PADI Rescue Diver Course.

The Course will teach you to recognise symptoms of diving emergencies such as near drowning, lung overexpansion injuries and decompression sickness enabling you to diagnose whether emergency oxygen is required. You will get hands on experience of different types of oxygen delivery systems and learn situations in which each different type is more or less effective.

Make sure that on your next dive trip, you’re ready to help a fellow diver should the need arise. Sign up for the PADI Emergency Oxygen Provider Specialty today.

Will the Bluefin Tuna be extinct by the end of 2010?

As you are all more than aware, I am an ardent non fish eater. I also rant a lot about eating only sustainable fish and shellfish but I want to draw to your attention the desperate state of a species that is believed to be extinct by the end of the year. Yes, that’s correct – completely wiped out. The Atlantic Bluefin tuna is so close to extinction that Mitsubishi (yes the car manufacturer) have actually started stock piling this species ready for when they are extinct. The blue fin tuna is so rare that several months ago, one fish sold for £111,000. So imagine when they are actually extinct what Mitsubishi will be able to command for each fish. Unfortunately, this is the politics and economics of extinction.

2010 is a crucial year for the blue fin and our actions could have a positive effect. Firstly, please continue to ensure that when you buy fish you choose those species sourced from sustainable stock. This will increase the scale of the fisheries that do adhere to the rules and manage their by catch. It also continues to support their businesses and will hopefully in turn encourage more fishermen to get involved. More importantly, please just be aware of the plight of the Bluefin Tuna. Get involved, sign petitions and boycott restaurants that are serving this dish. I'll try and get a petition on here for you all to sign. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Sub-Mission offers Rebreather ‘Try Dives’

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to scuba dive with no bubbles and no noise? Do you like the idea of staying underwater for longer? Would you love the opportunity to try out a rebreather? If you answered ‘Yes’ then sign up for one of our Rebreather ‘Try Dive’ nights.

Sub-Mission will have the Poseidon Cis-Lunar rebreather available for you to trial. As you may be aware, this is the world’s first truly recreational rebreather so you’ll find it easy and fun to use.

If you’re interested in something a little different, then you could trial the Inspiration, the Evolution or the Megalodon. Sub-Mission has teamed up with M-R Diving in order to be able to offer you these great experiences.

These sessions will include a full briefing and debriefing, all rebreather equipment provided, 20 minutes in the pool on the unit with an Instructor.

We are offering the rebreather ‘Try Dives’ for a special price of £15 per person and initially they will be conducted on a Wednesday evening at our Blythe Bridge pool. Please contact Katy to put your name down.

Introducing Sub-Mission Dive Club's 'Gone Diving Program 2010'

Sub-Mission ‘Gone Diving ‘

Introducing Sub-Mission’s ‘Gone Diving Activities’ – The staff at Sub-Mission Dive Centre have been tasked with organising a monthly ‘Gone Diving’ activity to ensure we have an action packed diving calendar this year. Each month a different member of staff will be organizing a different club activity, from paintballing to bowling, inland dives to coastal trips, chamber dives to rebreather try dives.



Sub-Mission will be adding in additional activities to ensure every club member has an adventure to excite them. If you want to get more out of diving this year, be sure to keep an eye on the monthly events calendar.


To kick start the dive season, Darren is organising a “Gone Diving” day at Stoney Cove on Sunday 28th March. This is a great opportunity to dust off the winter cobwebs and ease yourself into 2010’s diving calendar. March’s “Gone Diving” is open to all divers regardless of certification level and experience, as there will be a great mixture of different dive profiles to choose from. The staff of Sub-Mission will be on hand to offer advice and dive planning for those wishing to do their own thing. If you’re less confident or feel that you need a little more assistance, why not join us for a guided dive? What’s more, this service is FREE to all dive club members. You only need pay site entrance and kit hire fees if required. If you have been out of the water for a while make sure you get in touch to arrange a PADI Scuba Review to ensure your skills and knowledge are fresh!! If you are interested in joining us on what will be a action-packed, exciting & fun day out, please get in touch.

PADI Enriched Air Specialty Success

There’s going to be some longer dive profiles this dive season for 6 more recently certified PADI Enriched Air Specialty Divers. Kelly, James, John D, John P, Bill and Del all qualified yesterday to use and dive with Enriched Air. They were able to witness enriched air blending from using gas blending software, partial pressure filling and hands on experience of analysing Enriched Air mixes. They also got to grips with the Enriched Air dive tables and dive planning.
It was a great day and the students were a pleasure to teach. So now they’re all just waiting for the water to warm up a little so that they can make the most of their extended bottom times. Congratulations to you all, PADI Enriched Air Specialty Divers.

A great day out at the Hyperbaric Facility at Murrayfield

Sub-Mission Dive Club visited the Hyperbaric Chamber at the Wirral yesterday (as a club trip out, not as a result of an unfortunate diving accident). Katy took the club to the Chamber for what was a really informative day out. The ever-charismatic Dave gave a great presentation, which covered topics such as the hyperbaric facility and its role, the treatment process for Decompression Illness as well as a discussions regarding Insurance and hyperbaric facilities at Open Water sites.

This was followed by a dry dive in the chamber to 50m. The club got to experience the hilarious effects of nitrogen narcosis, whilst sounding like smurfs. There were several comments that Katy didn’t sound any different. It was a fantastic day out and we would like to thank the hyperbaric facility for putting up with us all, especially Katy.

Next Deep Diver Specialty - March 27th & 28th

Are you looking for some really deep adventure? Are you hoping to kick the Dive season off with a few exciting and adrenaline filled dives? Then why not join Sub-Mission for the next PADI Deep Diver Specialty?
This course will take place at Stoney Cove on the 27th and 28th March and is your ticket to deeper diving this Dive Season. Upon completion of the Course you will have learnt techniques to plan, set-up and dive to a maximum depth of 40 metres. The PADI Deep Diver Specialty also covers additional considerations such as increased air consumption, exposure protection changes, nitrogen narcosis and shorter no-decompression limits.



This is an exhilarating and challenging specialty so sign up today. To book onto the PADI Deep Diver Specialty, please contact Katy on 01782 207474.