Who am I and what diving do I do?

[Dave Abraham]

Name
Dave

Location
Lancashire

First Qualified
PADI OW May 2004 Capernwray

Club Member
Trip Organiser for Bolton area Divers


Highest Diving Qualification
PADI Divemaster


Instructor Yes/No
DSD instuctor does that count?

What other training have you found most rewarding
The PADI EFR course
DM Internship
A 4 day stint in the pot not for training purposes

What’s your standard Kit
Single 15L + 7L stage

Where do you usually Dive
Mostly Capernwray coz its local but prefer the sea anywhere

Number of Dives
400 +

Deepest Dive
70M UK
65M abroad

Longest Dive
Just over 6 hours Capernwray 2 hours EANx40 + 2 Hours EANx32 + 2 Hours air (a nappy is not enough).

Favourite Dive
I have loads but here are a few
Gran Canaria PO12 & Bluebird
Red Sea Gianis D
Scapa Tabarka
Capernwray Underwater Christmas dinner inc. trout wrestling

Worst Dive
Plymouth Barn pool at 27m dragging an SMB against a 3 knot tide for 30 mins.

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Titanic but will have to wait for scuba technology to catch up with my dreams

[access]

Name
Morgan

Location
Co Down

First Qualified
1991

Club Member
South Down SAC


Highest Diving Qualification
Advanced Diver BSAC

Instructor Yes/No
Yes Advanced Instructor

What other training have you found most rewarding
Diver Cox'n

What’s your standard Kit
Twin 12's

Where do you usually Dive
Irish waters

Number of Dives
Lots

Deepest Dive
53M

Longest Dive
95mins

Favourite Dive
Loughgarry Rathlin Island

Worst Dive
Can't think of any

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Lusitania

[dsharp]

Name
D Sharp

Location
Scottish Borders

First Qualified
2004

Club Member
ScotSAC

Highest Diving Qualification
Sport Diver SSAC

Instructor Yes/No
Yes, Branch Instructor

What’s your standard Kit
single 12

Where do you usually Dive
Berwickshire/East Lothian/Loch Fyne

Number of Dives
190+

Deepest Dive
don't have details just now - but the shallower ones were better anyway

Longest Dive
under an hour

Favourite Dive
Green End, Eyemouth

Worst Dive
nothing too bad

[Bobbie Jo]

I am living in Costa Rica for the last 10 years with my husband and two daughters. We own Diving Safaris in Playa Hermosa Guanacaste. I am a divemaster and plan to become an instructer this year. I have over 1000 dives here and still not bored, get to go with some clients tomorrow. I also love studying Parelli Natural Horsemanship with my my horse Cherokee and my daughter with her 3 horses. My daughter just redid our website and she is trying to teach me. I am very new at this chat room stuff...so please have patience with me, this is my first one

[Whoji]

Name
James

Location
England / Wales Border

First Qualified
2000

Club Member
None, although Im at the NDAC all the time

Highest Diving Qualification
AOW - Doing Rescue and TDI Adv Nitrox and Deco as we speak

Instructor Yes/No
No

What’s your standard Kit
Twin 12s with Long hose set up

Where do you usually Dive
NDAC / Plymouth / Abroad

Number of Dives
Around 50

Deepest Dive
44m

Longest Dive
66 mins

Favourite Dive
Angelita Cenote, Mexico

Worst Dive
Its All Gravy

[Sixsquid]

Originally Posted by Whoji

Favourite Dive
Angelita Cenote, Mexico

Me too

[sheepless]

Name
Ev

Location
London, just arrived from Sydney

First Qualified
December 2002

Club Member
Nope

Highest Diving Qualification
PADI AOW and SSI Nitrox. Will hopefully be doing my AN+DP soon!

Instructor Yes/No
No - doesn't pay enough to support my lifestyle I think...hahaaa

What other training have you found most rewarding
Not formal training as such, but I found that being a support diver for a group of exploration divers in Sydney very rewarding. Started learning a more about dive planning, rebreathers, the logistics of planning dive expeditions, decompression diving, etc.

What’s your standard kit
Single steel 10 or 12 with SP Ladyhawk

Where do you usually Dive
Sydney; yet to try UK diving

Number of Dives
149

Deepest Dive
50m, once on a single tank with 3 min bottom time, and once in a chamber dive with 12 other people - cosy!

Longest Dive
100min from memory, shallow shore dive off Shelly Beach

Favourite Dive
SS Yongala

Worst Dive
Night dive at Balmoral nets on a cold winter day where the vis was about 30cm. Just really wasn't in the mood!

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Scapa Flow...after I buy a drysuit perhaps!

What ONE other question should I have included?
Include an interesting tidbit about yourself!

[Monk]

Name
Steve (Monk is nasty nickname, by so called mate, due to thining hair!!!)
Location
York UK
First Qualified
Erm...1998 - BSAC Novice diver (they had proper names for qualifications back then!)

Club Member
Yes, Hartlepool and York BSAC (Excalibur)
DO of Excalibur

Highest Diving Qualification
MOD3 CCR
BSAC Advanced diver

Instructor Yes/No
Yes BSAC OWI, try to avoid it when I can, but its difficult

What other training have you found most rewarding
Once I got into tech courses I thought the first couple, tech nitrox and normoxic were great, after that the courses were the same info just more expensive.

What’s your standard kit
Inspiration vision

Where do you usually Dive
North East coast

Number of Dives
stopped counting in 05 at 306

Deepest Dive
74m

Longest Dive
100minutes ish

Favourite Dive
Brummer

Worst Dive
NE coast (no idea what wreck was called), 43m dive, lost buddy, ended up tied to the wreck with fishing line one knife with no lanyard and I was on twins. Now always carry two knives and use CCR so plenty of in water time...

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Truk lagoon - or an expedition to undived wrecks

What ONE other question should I have included?
Include an interesting tidbit about yourself!

- 1st time on this forum - New member.

[John63]

Name
John

Location
Bahrain & Saudi Arabia

First Qualified
1979 - BSAC 3rd Class Diver
Club Member
Does YD count?

Highest Diving Qualification
Normoxic Trimix
BSAC Advanced diver

Instructor Yes/No
BSAC OWI, Nitrox Inst.


What’s your standard kit
Aly 80 + Halcyon eclipse
twins + OMS45

Where do you usually Dive
Err, the sea

Number of Dives
didn't keep a log til yr2000, but just under 700 since then

Deepest Dive
67m

Longest Dive
2hrs plus

Favourite Dive
Too many good dives to pick just one, but Canyons nr Sabang in the Philippine can be exceptional.

Worst Dive
SS Breda in 1980-ish. Torch died inside a hold and got silted out; only lasted couple minutes but felt like ages.. Got agonising cramp in my calf on ascent and had to be towed back to the rib. Felt like a real berk.

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Truk lagoon -(hoping for 2010 trip) or maybe Galapogos.

What ONE other question should I have included?
What started you diving?

[Bobbie Jo]

Name
Bobbie Jo

Location
Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

First Qualified
1995 NASE OW

Highest Diving Qualification
PADI Divemaster 2004

Instructor Yes/No
No, but plan to take the course this year


What’s your standard kit
Sherwood Luna BCD, Aqua Lung Titan Regs, Pink blade open heel fins and prescription mask.

Where do you usually Dive
Gulf of Papagayo, Costa Rica

Number of Dives
1100+

Deepest Dive
158ft (San Andreas, Columbia)

Longest Dive
1.5 hrs

Favourite Dive
I have had many great experiences here in Costa Rica but the one out at Bat Islands was the best. We saw lots of bull sharks, two harliquin clown shripm scurrying along the bottom, watched an octopus as a huge manta ray glided up beside us and a whale shark on the safety stop...

Worst Dive
Surpresa Costa Rica / Feb 2008. Low vis and dark. Realized I need to upgrade my prescription mask to one with bi-focals. But it was not all that bad, was diving with friends and they had a light, better than sitting in the office.

What dive/trip would you most like to do
Galapagos AND I want to dive somwhere there are iceburgs

What ONE other question should I have included?
Why do you love diving? When I dive I feel at peace with life. Pura Vida!