BUDDY DIVERS NEWSLETTER
www.skiptondivers.co.uk

Firstly apologies from Chas and Bev and Dan and then a warm welcome to Michelle who joined us for the night to see if she liked the look of us. I dont think Chairman Frederick made a bad job of his first club meeting, apart from the fact that he forgot his gavel.

Sadly as you know Chris decided to stand down as chairman, and as a thank you for his efforts over the past years we presented him with a bottle of booze for his sterling service. Although we had glasses in hand, Chris wisely decided to take it home and enjoy it.

Dive Trip Vouchers As we said before as part of the good will floating about and a bit of cash in the bank, we have managed to prise JT’s wallet open and everyone who was a paid up member as of 31st Dec 2010 will receive 3 x £5 vouchers the next time they come to a club meeting. Of course there are conditions:-

These can be used for any SBD boat dive in 2011 but not valid for accommodation or for any Pennine Divers trip.
Vouchers will be named and can be used once only.
A maximum of £10 can be used on each trip.
The vouchers will also be available to any new members joining the club (not the Forum) in 2011.
They cannot be carried over into 2012.

Dive trips for 2011 were decided by vote on the forum and we took the four most popular destinations. Please note these have now been booked and the deposits paid. A list is now available on the forum (Under Local and Short Trips) for each weekend so get your names down. Please remember to add any significant others for the accommodation as partners are most welcome and there is lots to do even if you dont dive. Please let me know if you want more details of accommodation available or maps etc.

Shakedown dive-  will be at Capernwray 19th March 2011, come and test your equipment before the season starts. Bacon butties for breakfast then into the water!

Ullapool – 29th/30th April and 1st /2nd May to stay with Richard and family, travel up Royal Wedding holiday Friday, dive Saturday and Sunday and travel home Bank Hol Monday. Accommodation needs to be booked so let me know where you want to stay. B & B with Mrs Ross, self catering cottage, caravan or camping on lawn. I have said that we will go to pub on Friday night, then eat at Ishbels on Saturday and Sunday as we have before. Hearty packed lunches are available each day on request. Costs are £45 per day diving, then between £25 - £30 depending on your choice of accommodation.

St Abbs – 18th and 19th June trip with Paul Crane on Tiger Lily, 10 places booked on boat with tail lift, but we can have more as his brother now has a similar boat we can use. The cottage is free at the moment. Accommodation should be booked yourselves. £30 per person for 2 dives per day

Farnes – 6th and 7th August trip with William Sheil to see the seals as last year. Accommodation should be booked by yourselves. Cost £40 per day for two dives. We have booked 10 places but more are available.

Oban – this was the fourth choice for diving in 2011, but the costs of the diving are very high and we do not have much interest in this at the moment. I have not booked anything as yet.

Stu has suggested a trip to Malta and we await the details from the trip with Pennine Divers at the end March.

The other alternative is to just shore dive on the West Coast somewhere or something completely different. We need to make our minds up about this.

We will share these trips with Pennine divers and details of any trips they have planned will be posted soon.  We are going to their meeting on Mon 7th March and we have said they are more than welcome to come to the next meeting to discuss details with us. If you want to go on a Pennine trip then please let them know either by pm or on the forum when the details are posted. You wont be able to use your vouchers on any Pennine Trip.

We also had a good discussion about the O2 kit. Divers Warehouse pointed out last time we filled it that they cannot put 230bar into the cylinder we have. As we have discussed before, we rent the cylinder from BOC at £3.11 per month and it would give about 20mins O2. DW suggested a 5 lt tank, O2 cleaned and filled to 230bar. This would give us about 40 mins O2. This would cost £200 for cylinder and adaptor, and we would have to maintain it as a normal tank. If we did want more O2 then the next size of tank from BOC would be twice the size of the one we have and this could be difficult to carry about, but it would cost about the same price per month. We could get two smaller cylinders and a bigger box to carry them as another alternative. Lots to think about, can we have your views please?

Despite the cold weather, some people are still diving and looking for buddies so please check the forum regularly for requests.

Nick has now tweaked the Forum Quiz and got rid of a few gremlins. I have noticed some of you having a go at this. Try it, its quick and easy to play.

Forum Highlights
Don’t forget to post some of your pictures or short video clips onto the media page on the forum. Please add any photos from your trips and a few details of what you got up to.

Please say hello to the new divers on the Forum. There have been several recently and hopefully they will be able to come to the meeting, be gentle with them.

Please tell everyone if and when you are planning a trip, someone may want a buddy and would like to join you. There are lots of mid week divers now, so just ask.

Come to the meeting Thursday  3rd March 2011