A tour of the atlantic coast.

gjim · 06-05-2005 2:11am #1

I'd like some new experiences this season instead of always going for the easy option of revisiting the old favourites. The old favourites include Achill, SDW, Waterworld and (last year) Dingle. On my to-do list this year are Kilkee and the Skelligs. Any other suggestions? Myself and the other three are not into (or qualified for) deep or technical diving but between us have been diving regularly for a couple of years mostly in Ireland or Scotland.

Peace · 06-05-2005 8:17am

Max depth?

Couple of suggestions off hand would be aquaholics. Few good sites there in varying depth. In and around 18-32m.

Another suggestion would be the laurentic, off malin head. 39m at low, 42m at high water.

donny · 06-05-2005 9:57am

I highly recommend Inis Meain (Aran Islands). Let me know if you want any contact details. The diving there can be spectacular.

bigfeller · 06-05-2005 10:15am

Inis Meain is supposed to be lovely, heading there for a week in July. Can also reccomend Valentia ( linky ). Was there this weekend. Not a lot of life but some crystal clear waters and some great caves/rocks to swim around/in. Plus the night life there is great. The only bad thing is the distance from Dublin. About 6 hours at best. (Must buy helicopter).

johnnyc · 06-05-2005 10:41am

did any of yeah see the national geographic about the scuba diving off valentia...i have never done scuba diving so was wondering about it for beginners

Evil Phil · 06-05-2005 10:50am

There's a few ways to check out scuba diving for the complete newbie. I'd recommend doing the Discover Scuba course in a PADI dive center to see if it suits you. If it does then you can either continue with PADI or join a club and follow the CFT route. Both will qualify you to dive by giving you a license. Some people do PADI and CFT to get the best of both worlds.

gjim · 06-05-2005 11:02am

Thanks folks.

Max depth would be around 30m or 35m but ideally we prefer staying in the 20s range. We're all on single tanks breathing air so, in addition to safety concerns, we'd would be prefer longer bottom times than depth. It's impossible to get a gang together more than once a month, so when we do get underwater, I'd prefer to have more than 5 minutes bottom time.

Yes the drive from Dublin (for two of us) to many of these places is a killer but I guess you have to make some sacrifices for the pleasure of diving.

I should have mentioned Valentia on the wish list too. A friend passed on the National Geographic with that article; it looks awesome. I'd definitely be interested in contact details for Inis Meain and I'll look into Aquaholics. If we got these five places done this season, I'd be happy.

donny · 06-05-2005 2:02pm

That National Geographic wasn't just around Valentia. The picture of the dolphin is a dolphin I've dived with myself off Clare and quite a few pictures were taken around Inis Meain I think as well.

When we were diving in Inis Meain last year or the year before we met the photographers who were working on that piece. You should have seen the amount of kit they had with them.. I'll send you the email address via PM... don't want to make it too easy for spammers by putting it here

A tour of the atlantic coast.

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