Want to go diving this weekend..

case_sensitive

I'm a recently qualified PADI OW diver, and I'm keen to get a few more dives under my belt. I haven't got any gear of my own yet (bar the mask), so I'm looking for a place that does gear rental and trips, ideally in Dublin Bay area.

I'm hoping to go sat or sun, anybody got solid recommendations? The UC sub-aqua club seems to be very active, but I'm a night-student in TCD, so I reckon they'll smell it off me :-)

gibo_ie

www.diveinnscuba.com

Website is under construction but meet up in Trinity Sports and Leisure center Tuesday nights, do courses, can provide equipment and usually have trips most weekends. Give the number a ring and talk to Audrey and tell her Martin sent ya.
Will be away myself so no diving this weekend
Best of luck

Peace

case_sensitive wrote:

I'm a recently qualified PADI OW diver, and I'm keen to get a few more dives under my belt. I haven't got any gear of my own yet (bar the mask), so I'm looking for a place that does gear rental and trips, ideally in Dublin Bay area.

I'm hoping to go sat or sun, anybody got solid recommendations? The UC sub-aqua club seems to be very active, but I'm a night-student in TCD, so I reckon they'll smell it off me :-)

You could be elligible for Trinity BSAC club.

Flagship scuba do weekend diving & rental.

Also first stage diving do rental and weekend diving.

case_sensitive

Thanks a million for the quick response, just what I was looking for. Left a message with Audrey there, and called Flag Ship Scuba.
Flag Ship are down for a while, boat is out of commission, something to do with new marine regulations.

First Stage meanwhile are in Achill this weekend, €150 for 5 dives over 3 days, sounds sweet, and they have a special rate in a hotel. I can't out there this weekend (or even to pick up the gear in Dunsaughlin) due to a lack of car, which sucks. Call Kevin on 087 241 6753 if you want to join them, they're already out there..

case_sensitive

What I really want is a straight guided dive, two dives, ideally in Dublin, with gear rental. Honestly, I just want the practice, two of the open water dives you do are skills sessions, so I have a grand total of 2 'fun' dives under my belt.
Any ideas?

What about this BSAC Trinity club? I've got a student card, are they active? Any contact details?

Borzoi

case_sensitive wrote:

What I really want is a straight guided dive, two dives, ideally in Dublin, with gear rental. Honestly, I just want the practice, two of the open water dives you do are skills sessions, so I have a grand total of 2 'fun' dives under my belt.
Any ideas?

What about this BSAC Trinity club? I've got a student card, are they active? Any contact details?

Try http://www.oceandivers.ie/ as well, they're out of Dun Laoghaire

I don't think you'll get diving with a CFT on BSAC club without further instruction

case_sensitive

I got a dive booked for Monday down in Wexford with this crowd:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~pierhousedivecentre/About.htm
Recommended by a friend with 150 dives all over the world, so I'm confident it'll be fun. It's 15-20m dives with wrecks, though what sounds like very average viz. Can't wait, and it's cheap, €50 including air, gear, and soup :-)

Peace

case_sensitive wrote:

What I really want is a straight guided dive, two dives, ideally in Dublin, with gear rental. Honestly, I just want the practice, two of the open water dives you do are skills sessions, so I have a grand total of 2 'fun' dives under my belt.
Any ideas?

What about this BSAC Trinity club? I've got a student card, are they active? Any contact details?

They are indeed active. You've have to check out the details yourself ont he trinity website somewhere. I'm not a trinners head so i don't really know.

I've met some of them and they seem like a reasonable bunch, other than the fact that they are BSAC.

gibo_ie

case_sensitive wrote:

I got a dive booked for Monday down in Wexford with this crowd:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~pierhousedivecentre/About.htm
Recommended by a friend with 150 dives all over the world, so I'm confident it'll be fun. It's 15-20m dives with wrecks, though what sounds like very average viz. Can't wait, and it's cheap, €50 including air, gear, and soup :-)

Ive dived in Kilmore with Matt and the gang. He is great and the place is great too. Private hostel type accomodation out the back and a small training pool there too. Walk acrosss the road to the pier (in constant use by fishing boats) and matt has his RIB there for easy access.
Should be a great weekend!

case_sensitive

I'm such an addict.. booked two dives (incl. one compulsory cold water orientation) with Ocean Divers in Dun Laoghaire for tomorrow morning too. Turns out it's much easier than I thought to dive in Dublin!

Evil Phil

Let us know how you get on in Wexford. Sounds a lot handier than the west coast.

case_sensitive

So, my weekend's diving in summary:

Ocean Divers/Dalkey Island:
Very poor viz, maybe 2.5m, didn't see much; a shrimp, a few sea urchins and a small lobster. Very cold, oh, and my BCD LP inflator hose came free, cutting my dive very short. Luckily it had the presence of mind to inflate itself, though the I'd over-estimated how much weight I'd need in a double-7, so I still bobbed just under the surface until I dumped the weight belt. Bit of a bummer, and I put off my second dive until another day.

Pierhouse diving/Bagabun Bay:
Finally got down to Wexford after a long drive, my buddy had to have a refresher course, so I was left messing around in the pool while he learned to dive all over again. Matt's rib's steering was broken, so it was shore diving, and because of the wind, he drove us all the way over to Bagabun bay. Viz was lovely, probably 6m, and the sun was still up. Had a great dive, loads of great channels and little caves to explore, didn't see a huge amount of life, though we did pester one of the biggest crabs I've ever seen.
Incidentally, what's the policy on picking one of those guys up and having him for dinner later?
Ended up having to actually *use* some of my PADI training, we were out for 80mins, and my buddy got cramp, ran out of air and freaked out a bit, so I had to buddy breathe him and tow him back to shore. Not easily done, felt like I'd had a proper workout by the time we hit sand!
Good craic, and €50 for gear, a lift and the dive wasn't too shabby at all, and mate paid €50 for the refresher too. Of course, Mary hooked us up with soup and brilliant local soda bread afterwards to warm the blood!

Peace

case_sensitive wrote:

So, my weekend's diving in summary:

Ocean Divers/Dalkey Island:
Very poor viz, maybe 2.5m, didn't see much; a shrimp, a few sea urchins and a small lobster. Very cold, oh, and my BCD LP inflator hose came free, cutting my dive very short. Luckily it had the presence of mind to inflate itself, though the I'd over-estimated how much weight I'd need in a double-7, so I still bobbed just under the surface until I dumped the weight belt. Bit of a bummer, and I put off my second dive until another day.

Pierhouse diving/Bagabun Bay:
Finally got down to Wexford after a long drive, my buddy had to have a refresher course, so I was left messing around in the pool while he learned to dive all over again. Matt's rib's steering was broken, so it was shore diving, and because of the wind, he drove us all the way over to Bagabun bay. Viz was lovely, probably 6m, and the sun was still up. Had a great dive, loads of great channels and little caves to explore, didn't see a huge amount of life, though we did pester one of the biggest crabs I've ever seen.
Incidentally, what's the policy on picking one of those guys up and having him for dinner later?
Ended up having to actually *use* some of my PADI training, we were out for 80mins, and my buddy got cramp, ran out of air and freaked out a bit, so I had to buddy breathe him and tow him back to shore. Not easily done, felt like I'd had a proper workout by the time we hit sand!
Good craic, and €50 for gear, a lift and the dive wasn't too shabby at all, and mate paid €50 for the refresher too. Of course, Mary hooked us up with soup and brilliant local soda bread afterwards to warm the blood!

A bit of a mixed bag there really. Glad you had a good dive in Wexford. Matt is an ok bloke. He took me in a showed me his selection of brass shells that he has... impressive.

case_sensitive

Yeah, he's a character alright! Used to do commerical salvage, has some very impressive finds, including one bit of rock with 4 solid silver coins dated 1870 in it and matching x-ray. Loved his story of diving the Leinster for portholes (I'd no idea people nicked these), he'd gotten 3 of the 4 bolts off when he ran out of air, surfaced, refilled, and by the time he got back to it found a note next the missing porthole that said 'Thanks mate!".

Extract from a mail to a diving friend who recommended Pierhouse:

Didn’t get into the van until past 4.30, and Matt’s boat was ****ed, so we had to find somewhere to shore dive, which turned out to be 25 miles around the coast, going at 40mph and getting the guided tour (full on Norman history, down to the families involved, Matt’s missed his calling). While the very tired Rob slept, I listened to Matt’s accomplished story telling, which his unnerving, because he does the actions with the van, for instance, when there’s a moment of suspense, he slows down almost to a stop, and he stomps on the accelerator when he hits the punchline.

Benny-c

case_sensitive wrote:

So, my weekend's diving in summary:

Ocean Divers/Dalkey Island:
Very poor viz, maybe 2.5m, didn't see much; a shrimp, a few sea urchins and a small lobster. Very cold, oh, and my BCD LP inflator hose came free, cutting my dive very short. Luckily it had the presence of mind to inflate itself, though the I'd over-estimated how much weight I'd need in a double-7, so I still bobbed just under the surface until I dumped the weight belt. Bit of a bummer, and I put off my second dive until another day.

Pierhouse diving/Bagabun Bay:
Finally got down to Wexford after a long drive, my buddy had to have a refresher course, so I was left messing around in the pool while he learned to dive all over again. Matt's rib's steering was broken, so it was shore diving, and because of the wind, he drove us all the way over to Bagabun bay. Viz was lovely, probably 6m, and the sun was still up. Had a great dive, loads of great channels and little caves to explore, didn't see a huge amount of life, though we did pester one of the biggest crabs I've ever seen.
Incidentally, what's the policy on picking one of those guys up and having him for dinner later?
Ended up having to actually *use* some of my PADI training, we were out for 80mins, and my buddy got cramp, ran out of air and freaked out a bit, so I had to buddy breathe him and tow him back to shore. Not easily done, felt like I'd had a proper workout by the time we hit sand!
Good craic, and €50 for gear, a lift and the dive wasn't too shabby at all, and mate paid €50 for the refresher too. Of course, Mary hooked us up with soup and brilliant local soda bread afterwards to warm the blood!

80mins, what depth were you at

case_sensitive

Yeah, and that's not including the 2 x 5 min breaks my buddy took to sit on the rocks and look around for stuff on the surface. Over an hour and a half from beach to sea to beach. Mind you, the deepest we went was about 7m, and most of it was 3-5m, so very little oxygen use.

case_sensitive

Ok, Matt 'n' Mary's stock went up even more. I left my dive mask on their line on Mon, and he *dropped it back up to Dublin* himself yesterday. And all I did was a €50 dive/rental.

Top bloke.