Katy's Gone Mid Week Diving - Thursday 5th August

It's Summer, the water is warm and we're going Mid Week Diving! If anyone would like to join Katy for some mid week pleasure diving at Capernwray on Thursday 5th August you're more than welcome. It'll be lovely and quiet and very relaxed! The idea is that we're having a diving day for parents and their children to go diving during the summer holidays with a little extra guidance and supervision from Katy. This will enable parents to get in a really good dive without too much anxiety about diving alone with their children and both will have a day of fun and adventure in Capernwray.


As there are a number of Sub-Mission Dive Club members available for mid week diving, Sub-Mission are opening this up to any one who would like to dive mid week and we'll arrange a buddy for you. If you need equipment hire this can be arranged prior to the Dive Day.


Hopefully the fish will be as friendly as ever and if you haven't seen the new feature at Capernwray, the plane, this is the perfect opportunity for you to dive in without the weekend crowds!

We'll be getting to Capernwray for 10.00am so let Katy know if you're interested in getting your feet wet whilst it's still warm!

Beach and Underwater Clean Up for Project AWARE at Trefor Pier, Saturday 4th September

Darren is organising an Underwater and Beach Clean Up at Trefor Pier in Wales on Saturday 4th September. This will be an effort to clean up the beach and under the pier itself. All of the rubbish will be disposed of but more importantly the data collected will be given to Project AWARE. We'll meet and start at 10.00am on the beach.

We know it's not the ideal way to spend your saturday but look at it this way, you get to help the environment, get in the water for a pretty d...ecent dive, have a laugh on the beach and finish up with a BBQ to congratulate all of your hard work!

There is also the option and possibility to camp or stay over on the Saturday night at the nearby Aberafon campsite.

There will also be some more diving organised for the Sunday at another local diving spot to be confirmed.

Directions to Trefor pier:

How to get there

•Get onto the A487 southwards from Caernarfon.

•A few miles further on at Llanwnda take the A449 towards Aberdesach.

•Follow the road through Aberdesach and through Gyrn Goch.

•Then look out for the signs for Trefor and head for Beach Road and the sea front.

So, bring your rubber gloves, any friends and family that want to get involved and your enthusiasm to do some good for the environment and I'm sure that the Sub-Mission staff will provide plenty of entertainment as usual!

Another great weekend of diving with fantastic students

PADI Advanced Open Water Divers Congratulations

Sub-Mission had a really good group of students this weekend taking part in the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course at Stoney Cove. Nathan, Nigel, Mark, Paul E, Paul H, Sam, Carl, Laura and Andy kept the staff busy over the 2 days with lots of different dives going on including Drysuit, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigation, Wreck, Deep, Enriched Air, Search and Recovery and Underwater Photography.

The students were spoiled by the good weather but worked hard in the water to compensate for the poor visibility. There were some significant improvements over the weekend such as Mark’s air consumption, Andy’s buoyancy and each divers general confidence increased as the dives went on. By the last dive (the Wreck Dive) each student had improved enough to enjoy the dive without worrying too much about buoyancy, air consumption, orientation and they were keen to explore the Stanegarth and its features. It was a brilliant dive and a fantastic end to a great PADI Advanced Open Water Course.

Nigel and Andy also completed the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty during the weekend. They worked with Richard on their weighting, trim, positioning in the water and breath control to give them extra confidence in their own buoyancy. As a result their dive was one of the most comfortable and relaxed either had experienced and improved their following dives over the weekend.

Congratulations everyone, make sure you put those skills to good use soon!

Deep, Dark and Delightful – PADI Deep Diver Specialty

Did we mention that we are going on holiday soon on a super duper liveaboard? It is certainly exciting for those preparing for the liveaboard and to make the most of the dives on holiday; Jenny, Ian, Debbie and Pete enrolled onto the PADI Deep Diver Specialty. This ensures that should they want to make the most of their dives on the Thistlegorm, Rosalie Muller and the Reefs of Ras Mohammed, that they can!

They completed the PADI Deep Diver Specialty at Stoney Cove over the weekend, which encompassed a wide range of requirements such as completing skills at depth, taking increased air consumption into consideration, diving with additional equipment such as torches as well as accounting for the physiological effects of increased depth. The students didn’t really show signs of nitrogen narcosis except for Ian, but this had already been demonstrable on the 7m shelf during the dives!

Each student got the chance to carry an additional cylinder as a backup redundant air source and also to breathe from this during a simulated extended safety stop. They were all confident in the water which made it a really easy and enjoyable course to teach. So thank you and congratulations!

PADI Search and Recovery students tie Darren up in knots

David and Jonathan were busy this weekend trying to recover items that Sub-Mission Instructor Darren had lost on the bottom of Capernwray. The PADI Search and Recovery Specialty is an action packed course that really challenges students in a very practical way underwater. David and Jonathan learnt to apply previously practiced compass navigation into search patterns to find objects underwater. As well as compass patterns they also learnt rope searches, including the circular search and jackstay search.

David and Jonathan were also tasked on being able to tie knots underwater whilst wearing gloves, which was more than a little tricky. The knot skills were utilised to tie an object to a lift bag in order to bring it to the surface. The lifting of heavier objects was completed several times during the Search and Recovery dives ensuring that David and Jonathan truly got to grips with the technique.

They both did a fantastic job of recovering Darren’s missing objects on each and every dive so well done! The PADI Rescue Diver Course will certainly be a breeze to them both now.

PADI Open Water Success this weekend

Sub-Mission would like to congratulate the PADI Open Water Diver students that completed their course over the weekend at Capernwray. After 5 weeks of classroom based lessons and swimming pool confined sessions which went swimmingly, the students were excited to finally be completing their Open Water Dives.

Although the visibility wasn’t brilliant at Capernwray since the recent hike in water temperature the students coped fantastically. They were enthusiastic before each dive although sometimes slightly nervous about the skills, although they didn’t need to be as they sailed through each and every skill.

Karl was ‘Mr Popular’ with his gorgeous Rocky Road that he had bought along with him. We’d definitely like to mention how well Janet did to overcome her nerves and complete all of the dives. We knew you could do it! Congratulations to Karl, Phill, Lauren, Sam, Amy, Janet, Mark and Becky. And congratulations to all of you for getting back in to complete the Drysuit dive to become PADI Drysuit Specialty Divers.

Congratulations on the Arrival of Baby Ellie!

Another congratulations needs to be extended to Liz and Ian on the arrival of their new baby girl, Elodie. Baby Ellie was born on the 5th July at 2.00am. Ian was relieved that his Divemaster Course had been completed just in time but has already booked Ellie in for her Bubblemaker Course in 8 years time. I’m sure that she will be a natural scuba diver as soon as she is old enough.

Liz and Ellie are doing well and we managed to persuade Ian to let us have a picture of their gorgeous baby girl.

We wish the three of them best wishes and hope that Liz will be back in the water before long to make up for the diving that she has been missing out on for a while.

We can't wait to meet the new arrival and the latest member of Sub-Mission Dive Club!

Congratulations to the future Mr & Mrs Statham!

We would like to congratulate our Instructor Martin and his girlfriend Michelle on their recent engagement. Martin finally took the plunge and proposed to Michelle after 2 and a half years together. He even picked the perfect ring that Michelle had hinted at and then waited until their holiday to Egypt for the perfect romantic moment. Martin took the opportunity to pop the question whilst under the stars in the Sinai Desert.

The two of them are getting married next March and have arranged the wedding in Jamaica. We would like to wish them the best success for the future and many happy years as Mr and Mrs Statham!

St Abbs – Brilliant trip, great diving, fantastic group of divers

What a fantastic weekend! Friday afternoon 15 of Sub-Mission Dive Club headed up to St Abbs for a weekend of diving, laughter and meeting new buddies. Staying in 2 big farm houses, the group had fantastic accommodation for the weekend with sea views and in a peaceful, secluded location.

 

Saturday morning the group made their way to the harbour at St Abbs and were met by our expert skipper, Peter Gibson. The combination of Peter and his boat Selkie, was the perfect combination for our group of novice coastal divers on their first dive of the weekend. After the first dive, expressions of apprehension and anticipation were replaced with relief and excitement. Everyone chattering about how good the dive was and the life that they spotted underwater.

Marine life was in abundance once again with plenty to see from anemones, dead men’s fingers, brittle stars and sun stars. Pollock, wrasse, lobster, crabs, flat fish, scorpion fish, blennies and of course Katy was on the look out for those ‘not so illusive’ nudibranchs. Even a seal was spotted on the surface and couldn’t be dissuaded from following the group even by Stefan’s squeals about cramp!

The water temperature varied between 11 and 13 degrees with good visibility. Peter managed to avoid currents for the majority of the weekend and we got to see some great sites with plenty of variety from kelp gardens, rock gullies to an astounding wreck.

We had some great food and were impressed by the culinary skills of the group, especially Ant who made a cracking Jamaican curry.

So Sunday afternoon arrived all too soon and people began to start their journeys home, rich in memories of fantastic diving, a great weekend and with a new group of friends and diving buddies.

PADI Enriched Air Success

Sub-Mission would like to congratulate the PADI Enriched Air Specialty students for their success on Saturday. In preparation for their holiday in August; Jenny, Ian, Debbie and Pete completed the course to make the most out of their dive time. Jonathan is also looking forward to taking advantage of the longer no-decompression limits on his next trip.

Each of the students learnt the theory behind enriched air, the benefits and the disadvantages as well as the procedures to obtain and analyse fills. They also learnt how to plan enriched air dives and calculate maximum depth limits.

The use of enriched air will benefit each of them by increasing the time that they will be able to spend underwater enjoying the coral reefs, wrecks and amazing marine life! Well done all of you, PADI Enriched Air Divers. 

Congratulations Sub-Mission’s latest Divemasters

The past few months have been a busy time for Sub-Mission Divemaster candidates, especially for Ian, who was constrained time wise by the imminent arrival of baby Ellie. Ian, Shaun, Paul and Tim have all completed each element of the PADI Divemaster Course to earn them the first of their professional PADI certifications.

The PADI Divemaster course is one of the most challenging courses that PADI have created and so it is certainly no small achievement. Completing the PADI Divemaster course involves theory exams, practical assessments including rescue skills and demonstration quality skills and assisting with students during their training.

Each of the candidates found different aspects of the course challenging and rewarding but overall they excelled in the Divemaster Program. We are incredibly proud of their hard work and commitment and wish them the very best in their professional career.

Sub-Mission’s multilingual Open Water weekend!

Last weekend for a success for our three international PADI Open Water students. Rui, Nuno and Radek were apprehensive about their 4 open water dives after weeks of pool skills and theory. Upon seeing Capernwray from the surface, each of them got very excited, especially upon the realisation that there were big fish for them to look at underwater.

Each of them completed the skills easily and confidently and so we had plenty of time to swim around and explore Capernwray. They were even luck enough to see the sturgeon on every dive! After they had certified as PADI Open Water Divers they also completed the PADI Drysuit Specialty course. Great weekend and in Radek’s words; “Beautiful!” Well done.

Well Done PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Students

With an impending holiday to Oz and an opportunity to get some great photographs whilst travelling, Jamie and Paul were keen to work on their buoyancy last weekend. Their aim at the start of the weekend was to be able to make the most of their time underwater but by the end of the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Course they were also able to position themselves for some great underwater photography shots.

Jamie and Paul were assisted with weights, positioning and trim to enable them to gain greater control underwater and to help with their air consumption, which improved dramatically. Joanne also helped them with their general diving technique by ensuring that they were using breathe control rather than constantly adjusting the air in the BCD.

Both students learnt a lot from the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy Course and were great students for Joanne to teach! Well done and have a great trip down under…