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.........................................................................................................................................................................The next Fandance is Sat 18th May 2024....................................................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................................................................... Lloyds Bank Sort code: 30-90-09 a\c No: 30516068........................................................................................................................................
Having taken into account the current COVID restrictions that currently apply in the different parts of the UK, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 reunion.
The Chairman Nick Butler will be heading up the Fan at 0930 hrs on Saturday the 15th May and he will lay a BAFC wreath on behalf of the Club at the summit.
He will also toast The Fallen.
If other members wish to make their own pilgrimage up the Fan at their own risk please follow the relevant COVID restrictions that will be in place.
As a Club we are not able to accept liability for members safety and well being over the weekend of 14/15 May. Our Clubs insurance that normally covers Fandance will not operate this year.
Update to follow reference Aldershot 10 Miler on the 20th November 2021.
...........................................................................................................................................................The 10 Miler will be held on w/e Saturday 23rd November 2024..................................................................................................................................
Dived up at The Great Barrier Reef once....unbelievable
I have heard its incredible around Oz....but ain't that where divers and surfers get put on the menu quite often.
See thats what you have to dive, Reefs and rock formations. I thought I was going to get that here. I was dead disappointed. Sandy bottom and petty well lifeless inshore. No rock formations or very few. There are kelp beds.... but all you can do is fin around the outside unless you wanna go in and get cocooned in the stuff. Which is what dumb fook me did. I went in one time only, I followed a small shark, and was immediately in trouble. Tried not to panic but checked me contents gauge and did not have much left so got a bit worried, as in heart beat went right up which as Don well tell you makes you suck in more.
Every time I tried to get to the edge of this stuff more and more wrapped me and I was only about twelve feet in. So after about ten minutes, quelling the panic, wrapped up like a mummy and scared to move more, it dawned on me that the way out was ^ in a straight line. So after working me knife loose and working up me wet suit cutting it all off, I just finned about fifty feet straight up to the surface and across the top until I was out.
The Yank I was diving with was blissfully pottering around still. Nothing like checking your buddy every fifteen seconds. Not that he could have helped, or that would have been two of us stuck in there. Then the bloke in the local dive shop sez "Kelp ? Oh yeah Limey I meant to warn you about that stuff. You don't go in it" Well I did and you would have thought I would have known better.
Last edited by trubrit2411; 23 October 2016, 18:34.
"If they control your speech.....they control your life" Me
learned to dive when i was living in belfast 1975 did my BSAC at antrim cold dark 4 ft visibilityDSC06140.jpg.... glad i learned there. dived a lot in queensland barrier reef, moreton bay and numerous beaches around the gold coast. my best dive site so far is st.croix in the virgin islands awesome two dives for 6o bucks. and the particular site is called ALIEN NATION well named follow the anchor rope 70 ft or so you hit the bottom look around you it is like being in a auditorium surrounded by giant sea ferns and multi coloured coral and numerous species of fish..... awesome place to dive.....would love to live there, and may still do. and the shark was following us but no probs
Just a Nurse shark by the look of it Bill,give you a nasty suck,but that's about it.As you say diving over here prepares you for anywhere else in the world,with cold waters and short on vis,unless you go up to the north coast,where the vis is like the Caribbean.I've lost count of the people who've gone out to The Maldives,or other exotic locations,and learned to dive,then come home,bought all the gear,and done a dive in Strangford Lough or similar.That one dive is usually enough,and they quickly sell the gear,at a loss,or it sits in the garage for years,with the intention of going out again,before selling it,at an even bigger loss!
The north coast of Northern Ireland,where the water is gin clear,and there are many WW11 wrecks,sunk by the wolf packs.One in particular is a large tanker with dozens of Shermans as deck cargo.Keep meaning to go up there,but never got round to it yet,apart from a small shore dive halfway up the east coast on a small wreck,sunk in a storm in 1915,a left over Victorian sailing sloop in RN use still,which was a good clear vis dive,compared to the blackout conditions here!
learned to dive in Thumrait in Oman, about 80 k from the Indian Ocean we used to do all the training in the pool or classrooms then visit the coast at w/e's.
Indian Ocean was great to dive and after that never really wanted to dive in the uk. As you all say the vis and temperature plus the varied dive sights made it brilliant.My first open water dive Oman 87-1.jpg my first ever dive, grin from ear to ear. This was at Mirbat.
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