Here’s a handy sheet to print out February 24, 2006
Posted by chris in : Uncategorized , add a commentThis should help you on your next trip.
A quick backtrack!! February 22, 2006
Posted by chris in : Uncategorized , add a commentWell the saga of the proposed legislation continues. It seems that the government is bogged down in all manner of correspondence from indignant divers worried about the future of the sport.
It must have done some good because the pdf on the English heritage website has changed! Divers will now, it appears be consulted and the proposals are “under review”. All things equal the hard edge has been taken away. Miscommunication is blamed.
I think there is a general principle that if no-one shouts then the government can take it for granted there will be no opposition. My experience with the Motorcycle Action Group suggests that you can change things if you try. In this instance the diving community includes a number of MPs and Parliamentary advisers so we have a head start.
The battle is not over but it looks as if the first exchange of fire has seen the government retreating to a safer position. You know what will annoy me now? All those folks that say “see - told you it was nothing….” grrr….
February 15, 2006
Posted by chris in : Uncategorized , add a commentHello February 6, 2006
Posted by chris in : Uncategorized , add a commentHello - this page to tell you about me. (Why you would be interested I don’t know but that is for you to ponder about yourself…)
I started diving in 1990 a few years after I had first decided to get qualified. I had intended to take my Open Water when I worked in Sheffield, but the chap in the dive shop put me off with tales of cold water and 7mm wetsuits….. In the end I learned in Gildenburgh which is near where my parents lived. Despite it being August the water was still cold so I decided to get a drysuit. I bought a secondhand one from Gildy and they threw in a free drysuit course.
This ended up with me getting “the bug” and spending a lot of time either talking about diving or reading about it and wanting to do more. I befriended a few people at Gildy and spent a bit of time helping out there. In the end I worked there in return for some more free courses. Around this time my Mum was in the last stages of lung cancer, so I spent more time in Peterborough and helped out with students and spent Sundays in the compressor shed. The site’s owner Ian Forster wanted me to qualify as an instructor, but that looked like a lot of hard work and not much money!! Besides I had just finished my MA in Marketing.
My Mum died that year and I moved back to London for work. My Dad lived in Peterborough up until his death in January this year so we still dived Gildy from time to time. It hasn’t improved.
In 94 I got a job in Cheltenham and moved there. I joined the local PADI club - Dive 90 which was part of the shop of the same name. I met a whole group of new people and being new to the area they soon became my main friends and diving my main activity. I began to dive regularly with one friend and she and I found we shared a similar view to diving and ended up as buddies for just about all the diving we did.
The job in Cheltenham was crap and after a year I went back freelance. I moved to Bristol as it was on the main rail link to London and near to Cheltenham where I still had a contract with my old employer. I had promised my buddy a trip to Oban and she and I took a weeks holiday there to dive with Puffin. At some point we got a bit pissed and well… err… like.. well now we live together.
We moved to London in 96 as Bristol was not working for me at all. London might be good for work but it isn’t for diving. We managed to get a few trips, but the old crowd from Dive 90 were beginning to thin out. People leave or move and lose touch. My partner Kelly and me were diving less and mountainbiking more. Like many other folks we decided to do a course to get us back into the swing of things and so in 97 we took our Nitrox course at Bovisand.
At the time Kelly had not done her Rescue diver so we booked a trip to Gran Canaria with a couple of friends and she took the course there. My friends and I went mountainbiking so I never got to dive there although Kelly assures me there was nothing to see.
In 2001 we bought a small sailboat which we kept at Brighton marina. It was just big enough to sleep on and became our weekend retreat. As we had a base there we decided to join Brighton BSAC and spent a wonderful summer diving with our new friends at the club. I had never really liked BSAC and my time at Gildy taught me they were generally not safe divers. However, once we had joined up I realised that divers are just like any group of people and a mixture of good, bad and stupid alike, our “branch” as they call themselves were no different. Kelly’s job took us to Italy in 2003 and we had to leave but I still miss those days and some of the very good friends we made. I am a BSAC convert of sorts.
In Italy I got to develop a longstanding passion of mine for mixed gasses. We took our IANTD Trimix course. It was a huge leap for us with unfamiliar gear and the entry into what many folks call “technical” diving. It was a humbling experience for someone that had worked in the industry and had been a diver so long. Finally I realised I was a crap diver.
Kelly’s boss opened a new office in Luxembourg and we moved here last year, 2005. There is no sea, but we have a large lake to dive in. We have also taken our crossover from PADI Rescue to CMAS 3* to make it easier to dive in nearby France.
Since there is no sea we have started cave diving and have done our first level qualifications so far. We are hoping to do full cave over the next 18 months or so. We have also decided to do our BSAC instructor course and recently completed the foundation course. Its a bit difficult to get to courses from here so I guess we will finish that off in 2008.
I hope you enjoy my site.
Chris
The death of the UK Wrecker? February 6, 2006
Posted by chris in : Uncategorized , add a commentThere’s a lot of noise right now about the proposals to reclassify all UK wrecks over 50 years old as “historic”. What does that mean? Well as best I understand it the definition of an historic wreck is one that cannot be dived without permission from the relevant UK government body. At the moment that body is, I believe, English Heritage, but these things change and it is by no means certain that this is a permanent situation.
At first this may seem like an unimportant thing. It is only when one considers the true meaning of this that the reality dawns. For a start most UK wrecks were sunk during the second World War. That means they are now all over 50 years old and will be covered by these proposals. Perhaps one of the best known wrecks in the UK is the James Egan Layne, a liberty ship. Known affectionately by UK divers as “the Layne” it sits just off Plymouth in the clear waters of the Devon and Cornwall borders. It is rumoured that on one bank holiday weekend there were over 200 divers on this wreck at the same time, the outpouring of some 20 dive boats!
Image then if you can that this volume of traffic would need permission from the government. Furthermore try to envisage a situation where the government department, in its market-driven, free enterprise, privatise everything manner decides that the permissions will be granted in return for a fee….
While the commercial charter skippers may well be able to cope and obtain permits it is most likely the club divers that will lose out. The UK is unusual in that much diving activity is within a club environment. The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) is the world’s biggest diving club.
These proposals are a threat to the sport of diving in the UK. To describe them as anything less is foolish. At this stage we in the diving community must work together to make our views heard and to reach a compromise between the legitimate need to preserve the maritime history of the UK and the right of the UK’s citizens to visit, view and enjoy that history.
So, how do we gain this consultation? Well here’s the bit that should make you angry. The UK government has decided that we, the diving community, cannot take part in the process. The consultation will exclude the BSAC and the representatives of the commercial diving bodies such as PADI, the world’s largest diver training body or representatives from the charter boat business.
This is nothing short of dictatorship. It is not how a democracy is supposed to work.
If you are a UK citizen and a diver you should write to your MP and ask why your views are not welcome on this subject. Don’t rant and rave about the detail - that hasn’t been decided yet. Demand that you should be heard and that there should be representation by the diving groups.
The Blair government has proven to be one of the most power-hungry in many years. Blair and the people around him have developed a habit of ignoring popular opinion and pushing through whatever measures they see fit. We have had an illegal war with Iraq and we are now headed towards UK ID cards at unknown cost. Those that opposed these are silenced and even respected sources rubbished when they voice different opinion.
This “democratic deficit” must stop. It cannot be allowed to spoil our sport, or our country. Blair must be stopped before “New Labour” turn our country into an Orwellian nightmare state where everything is controlled to the very last degree. Some folks will have a different view to me about Iraq or ID cards or speed cameras or CCTV. That’s just fine. I cannot be right about everything and you are entitled to your opinion as am I. Lets enjoy that, but enjoy too the freedom to live without government interference in every aspect of everyday life.
Even if you agree with the government’s proposals for our shipwrecks how do you feel about the fact you have no right to voice your views?
Write to your MP now.
