PADI Scuba Diving club. Learn to scuba dive in Herts, Beds and Cambs.

19thJanuary

Dive trip for 2021

Although we didn’t get to do has much scuba diving in 2020 as we all would have liked we are normal in 2021, with loads more scuba diving on the horizon and so with that in mind below is some information about the dive trips the underwater adventures dive club have planned for this year. Some of these are a little vague as some of the details still need to be ironed out but we will update it as soon as possible but this is to give you an idea of what to expect from the underwater adventures dive club trips in 2021. You can also link our Google calendar so you can stay up to date by following this link HERE

24th/25th April Vobster/Swanage

We start off a little later in the year than normal just so the current restrictions have a chance to slacken and we can travel a little easier. This is mostly a qualifying weekend but divers not on courses are welcome to just come down and have a splash to wash the cobwebs off if you like. You can even hire dive equipment from us and you can find out more about this by following this link HERE.
The plan for this trip is to run courses, first at the inland dive site of Vobster Quay where we will complete most of the training dives, and then on Sunday, we will head down to Swanage to complete any courses and this gives the chance for a few fun dives after the course have ended or even as part of a course so if you are looking for maybe a drift diver course this is the perfect opportunity.

29th/30th May Vobster/Swanage

Similar to April’s trip, this is mostly about courses, but divers not on a course are most welcome to join us, and even if you don’t have a buddy, we should be able to help you out. Again, we will be diving at Vobster Quay on the Saturday and then staying overnight in Swanage before diving Swanage pier and taking advantage of the two dive boat charter services available from the pier to some of the really cool wrecks you can find in and around the area such as the Kyarra or the M2 submarine.

19th/20th June Wraysbury

An inland site a little closer to home for this qualifying weekend, as above this trip is open to divers not on courses, and being a bit closer it might be a little easier for some of you to come down for a dive just for a day.

25th-28th June Gibraltar

Our first foreign trip of the year, a nice long weekend in Gibraltar. At the mouth of the Mediterranean, you will find a great mix of sea life as the waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean mix. Due to the geography and location, it is a diver dream with caves and wrecks for the more adventurous and a purpose-built reef just offshore for those wanting a nice relaxing dive. The plan for this trip is to fly out Friday, dive Saturday and Sunday and then use Monday while we off gas to explore the more tourist side of Gibraltar. Find out more about scuba diving in Gibraltar by clicking HERE

Early July North Wales

Although we don’t yet have a date for this one of our instructors is organizing this having just moved to this lovely part of the world from London. North Wales is not only home to some amazing scenery above the water but also below the water with loads of life to see and reefs to explore and if you are lucky you might get a visit from a few seals, check out this video from our last trip to North Wales.

24th/25th July Wraysbury

As we have a few trips in July already we will be back at Wraysbury for this month’s qualifying weekend to finish off courses. If you are interested in doing any course be it a core course like advanced or rescue diver or one of the many specialty courses (click here for the list) we offer or as with another weekend if you just fancy a fun dive with fun people, you are most welcome.

End of July Plymouth

Plymouth has some of the best wreck diving in the world with literally hundreds of wrecks to choose from. You can dive wrecks from the 1800s through to more modern wrecks like the purpose sunk HMS Scylla and the great thing about Wreck diving in the UK is that most Wrecks are surrounded by marine life so there is something for everyone. The plan for this trip is to head down on Friday evening, do two dives a day on Saturday and Sunday, and then drive home on Sunday so you don’t even have to book a day off work. Although the details are yet to be confirmed you are normally looking at around £300 for this trip including diving and accommodation which if you think about it, you would often be paying that amount for a weekend away anyway without the scuba diving, so it is actually a great deal.

14th/15 August Chepstow

The National Diving and Activities Centre (NDAC) is on the board between England and Wales and as well as some really cool scuba diving offers other water sports and adventure activities from Zip lining to a giant Swing over the water so there is something for everyone. The plan is to drive down Friday night and stay in the wooden wigwams they have onsite. This is just like camping but warmer, more comfortable, and you don’t have to put up a tent. We will have the option to stay on until Monday but if you don’t want to take the day off work you can leave Sunday after we have finished exploring all the cool stuff NDAC has to offer underwater we would be looking at around £200 for this weekend away which includes the accommodation and diving.

21st/22nd August Vobster/Swanage

Another qualifying weekend on the south coast and this will probably be our last of this year as the end of the year is looking rather busy and this might be your last chance to visit one of Swanage’s many wrecks or check out Vobster’s great facilities.

28th/29th August Capernwray

Capenwary is an inland dive site on the edge of the lake district and is one of the best places to see brown trout while scuba diving. Although this dive site does get busy, every time we have been the viz has been good even at the entry point where you can stand on the edge and just put your face in the water and see a load of fish.
We will travel up on a Friday night and spend the weekend driving back Monday so giving us the whole weekend to enjoy the great dive this site offers. The accommodation is not yet booked but we would be looking at staying in a nice B&B so it should be around the £40 a night price range with the entry to the dive site costing £20 so with food, air fills and the like you would be looking at just over £200 for the weekend although if you would prefer to drive back Sunday night this will drop the price down a bit, but, it is a long drive which is much more relaxing after a good night’s sleep.

18th/19th September Wraysbury

Second to last Qualifying of the year and we are back at Wraysbury dive centre. We will be using this site as it is just a couple of days before we head off on our first big trip of the year to Egypt, so this is a great opportunity if you are joining us on the Egypt trip to wash the cobwebs off and brush up on those scuba diving skills so that you can make the most of the lovely scuba diving Sharm has to offer.

22nd-29th Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

This trip has been carried over from 2020 due to Covid so we are really looking forward to getting back over there and enjoy a trip that is 18 months late. The good thing about this though is that it does give the chance for others to join us for just £499 plus flights. We will be staying and scuba diving with Camel, one of the oldest and most respected dive operators out there. The dive operator’s also run the Hotel we will be staying in so everything is well connected and runs smoothly giving you the most relaxing trip to go with the awesome scuba diving. We do still have spaces on this trip so please get in contact (click here) if you would like to know more and just to whet your appetite here are a couple of links to YouTube videos from our earlier trips to the Red Sea.
Dyson the Dougong
Diving the wreck of the Thistlegorm

2nd/3rd October Wraysbury

Our last qualifying weekend of the year and our last planned UK dives. The water should still be warm and hopefully, the weather will be OK, so this is a nice chance to get in the water before the winter sets in.

7th-22nd October Bali/Komodo national park

This once in a lifetime trip is an opportunity not to be missed and we only have a couple of spaces left on the boat out of the 18-max capacity. This is a chance to not only enjoy some of the best scuba diving in the world but also to walk with actual dragons in Komodo national park. This 10-day trip also has the option to extend so you can spend more time on Bali itself should you wish. All of the details from the itinerary to the flight detail can be found here.

12th-15th November, Deepspot, Poland

This is a new one for us as we have never been here before but seeing as it only opened last year but this is now the world's deepest scuba diving pool at 45 metres and lovely and warm at between 32 and 34 degrees Celsius. The plan is to fly over on Friday and spend 3 nights there which will give us a days diving (two dives) at the site on Saturday leaving us the Sunday to off gas while exploring the beautiful city of Warsaw before fly back Monday afternoon. We are currently looking at around £400 for the long weekend away which includes flights from London Heathrow, B&B accommodation, and the two dives at Deepspot.

10th December Todi, Belgium

TODI is a scuba divers aquarium so its full of fish and there is no window so unlike a normal aquarium you don’t have to put up with wired non-divers staring at you as you swim with the fish. This site only opened a couple of years ago and is already extremely popular which is why we are going on the Friday. Here is a video from our last trip there to give you an idea of just how cool it is. We will catch the early Eurostar over and then a train to the dive site so that we can dive there on Friday afternoon before heading back to Brussels Saturday Morning. You can then either catch the Eurostar home or join us on the next trip?
With the Eurostar, diving and accommodation we would be looking at around £200 for this trip but if you add it to the next trip to Nemo 33 it works out much more reasonable as you are spreading the travel costs over two trips and a long weekend.

11th/12th December Nemo 33, Belgium.

Nemo 33 used to be the deepest diving pool in the world until it was overtaken by first Y-40 in Italy and then by Deepsot in Poland (see above) but it is still a good dive trip. It is easy for us to get to being just a Eurostar and one tram away from London, has a good set up for the scuba diving in lovely 33c water and has a bonus, has a really good Thai restaurant attached to the pool. The normal plan is to do a dive late morning once you get in from the Eurostar, normally around 11 am, have lunch in the restaurant and then follow it up with an afternoon dive. It is a really good way to spend the day and builds up your appetite from a nice meal and a couple of drinks in the Belgium capital on Saturday evening. On the Sunday we have the opportunity to check out the Brussels Christmas markets and pick up a couple of Christmas gifts before catching the Eurostar home that evening.
This trip normally comes in at just under £200 for the Eurostar, one night’s accommodation and the two dives at Nemo 33 and if you added the Todi trip into this trip you can save yourself a bit on the EuroStar tickets bring both trips down to around the £300 mark.

There are a number of diving gaps during the year which I have purposely left blank which we can fill with day trips to another dive site in the area as and when we like, as there are day trips they take a little less planning so we can do them closer to the time.
If you would like to be kept informed of spaces on these trips please feel free to contact Steve at info@underwateradventures.co.uk or by checking out our contact us page.
Please be aware that spaces on these trips are offered to club members first but if you would like to know about dive club membership please follow this link HERE.

13thJanuary

How much does it cost to learn to scuba dive?

This is a question I get asked a lot and the short answer is that here in the UK the average cost of the full PADI open water course, according to PADI EMEA’s pre-Christmas webinar, is around the £600 mark and this normally does not include and extra training that might be needed or any extras like dive site entry which vary depending on where you are based. So, if you consider any extras and things like travel expenses, food, and a nice cup of tea you are probably looking at closer to the £700 mark for everything you need to pass your PADI open water course.

Obviously, this price will vary depending on which country you are in. The UK tends to be on the higher end of the price list due to the environmental conditions, governmental rules, and the Health and Safety standard we must adhere to but that also does mean that the class sizes are smaller, and all dives have at least one safety diver with the group and at least one person as shore support to help deal with any problems either on the boat or onshore but within visual range of all the divers.
Countries, where there is less legislation and regulation in place, will tend to have cheaper courses so areas like South East Asia tend, overall, to have the cheaper courses, not including getting or staying there, and although these courses will be to all PADI standards and will still be safe for you to learn to dive in, you will on average be in a much larger class with less time with the instructor.

The cheapest course I’ve been able to find was in Koh Tao, Thailand where the average was 11,000 baht (£259.87 or $366.06 at today's prices) with the most expensive is a little more difficult to find as the more expensive places tend not to brag about that, but I have found open water courses in Singapore for 1200 Singaporean dollars (£666.81 or $905.03) and the Maldives for around 20,000 Rufiyaa (£956.30 or $1298.20) these prices do include the hidden extra’s I have been able to find but obviously don’t include any travel or accommodation costs incurred with going to these countries to learn to scuba dives.
Ultimately, you will get what you pay for. If you go to South East Asia, you will get a cheap but busy course with little time with the Instructor. If you learn to scuba dive in the Maldives, you will learn in a small group, be well looked after, and have some excellent scuba diving to enjoy. You will also find the better instructors will be where the pay is better so where you will be paying more for the course thus the more you pay the better the scuba diving instructor will be and the better the learning experience will be.
There is also another option open to you call the PADI Open water referral system where you buy the first part of your course, Dive theory and pool sessions, at home and then you will be given certificates to show what you have completed, and you can take them with you to any dive centre in the world and complete your course with them. Although this does tend to work out more expensive in the long run it does allow you a lot of flexibility and means you don’t eat up any of your precious holidays without being stuck in a classroom or practicing skills in a pool, you can just finish your course with the open water dives and then use the rest of your holiday enjoying yourself which is actually what we all want to do with our holidays. This option also works well if you live in cooler climbs and would like to learn during the winter months as you can get all the training done over winter and finish it with a nice little trip to somewhere warm to finish your course thus being ready and fully qualified to make the most of the scuba diving season in your home country.

A number of the dive centres in cooler climates will offer not only a referral but also dive trips where you can get the benefits of a referral by completing your dive theory and pool sessions at home but then join the dive centre on a dive trip to a nice holiday destination where you can complete your PADI open water course in warm water and with the instructor who took you through the earlier parts of your course giving you the added benefit of familiarity with the dive team you are learning with.
All in all, there are a number of options for you to learn to scuba dive and the cost can vary a lot by where you choose to do your course and it really is a case of you get what you pay for but the most important thing is for you to speak to the dive centre beforehand and also speak to the instructor you will be using as your instructor will have the job of making sure you are comfortable and relaxed in the water and that way making it easier for you to learn the skills needed to become a safe scuba diver and enjoy the amazing things we can find underwater.

21stDecember

11 Christmas gift ideas for scuba divers (that will arrive before Christmas)

Christmas is close and I bet a lot of you out there are like me and still have not got all your Christmas shopping done so with that in mind I have gone through Amazon and found 15 great Christmas gift ideas for the scuba diver in your life that are, at the time of writing this, still in stock and will be delivered before Christmas.

Dryrobe £130