News & Events in Clydebank Sub Aqua Club What is happening right now in the diving world? Find out - click below
Pool Closure over Christmas The last session before Christmas was 21st December. The Pool will re-open for normal activities on 11th January 2012
A GREAT New British Marine Life Book
Great British Marine Animals 3rd Edition by Paul Naylor
This book is a "must have" for any diver who wants to learn about marine life and recognise the extraordinary animals in our seas. And let's face it, if you don't want to know what you are looking at - why dive?
Paul Naylor has produced a masterpiece. 320 pages packed full with all kinds of detail about the life in our seas. Every page contains excellent colour photographs. There is an explanatory chapter at the beginning of the book and a comprehensive index at the back.
All any diver really needs is a good Diving Manual and this book!
The book is a real bargain at £19 from Aquatron Dive Centre or £13.19 (post free) from www.amazon.co.uk (at 18th December2011)
CONGRATULATIONS to our Treasurer Michelle Morgan. She has won a Suunto Award for her considerable work and driving force in Clydebank Sub Aqua Club over many years, culminating in organising our 50th Anniversary celebrations this year. Suunto Diving Equipment manufacturers very generously donate 6 top of the range diving computers each year to recognise the work done by the recipients in the world of Sport Diving in Scotsac.
Well Done Michelle!!! and keep up the good work!
Sunday 20th November was quite mild at 140c though it was a bit misty and gloomy as we rose to 1000ft over "the Rest". Nevertheless the mild conditions brought 10 Clydebank divers out of their preparations for winter hibernation to the shores of the Loch Fyne Riviera. Sea conditions looked quite good as well, with a light South to South-easterly breeze, a fairly calm sea and Low water due at 14:21.
Brian set to the business of organising the group consisting of Michelle & John, Allan, Keith, Craig, Conor, Jim, John D, Andrew and of course himself, in to teams of highly motivated keen divers clammering to get to the water. The only place that 5 cars could park reasonably well on the east side of Loch Fyne was at North Gortein. Unfortunately the access at this site is slippery and you must proceed very cautiously. It is a marathon in itself just getting to the water. Still, with the water a balmy 100c, it was worth all the effort of sliding down the rocks in to the water!!!
Most of us headed down to the old communications cable at around 18-20metres then struck right to meet the anemone reef at about the same depth. This reef can be quite spectacular when the Plumose anemones have their tentacles extended to feed in the currents. However today was not one of those days and very few anemones were feeding. There weren't that many fish around either apart from a few Sand Gobies and Leopard Spotted Gobies. Craig spotted a nice Pipefish on his dive and I photographed a few Feather starfish (above) and Dogwhelks (right) laying eggs.
On the 2nd dive my team headed initially to the left to eventually locate the small cliff face where the cable rises on to the top of it. We overshot slightly as I had made a little too much correction for the flood current which seemed a little on the strong side. The cable is covered in small anemones, sponges, Feather Stars and the like. Sometimes you may spot a small Butterfish hiding amongst the still life. Allan, John D and I then moved up loch, back to the main reef and within a very short time, lying snug in a small crevice, I spotted a lovely Cuttlefish (above & below right). After some gentle encouragement it came out on to the sand and sat there watching me as I fired off a number of photographs. After a while it became a little alarmed, or perhaps annoyed, by the bright strobe and turned white. Perhaps it was time to leave it alone.
In all the years I have been divingI have only seen Cuttlefish about 3 or 4 times, so this was a real treat and made my day.
Some of the trainee divers completed a few open water exercises so all in all a successful day.
Clydebank 50th Anniversary Dinner Dance a GREAT Success! See "50th Anniversay" page for a full report.
PADI Goes Solo Controversy has surrounded the idea of solo diving for many years. Currently, Scotsac does not permit solo diving except in an emergency. But are we seeing the first small sparks of change? Will divers come around to the idea of diving alone? Already many divers, particularly underwater photographers, do sometimes dive alone though they would not openly admit to it. There are many good reasons why you should NOT dive alone. Conversely, there are reasons why you might wish to dive alone. As always, there are many arguments on both sides, but read the interesting article in Diver Magazine. Is this part of the future?
Kayak Diving- extend your shore diving opportunities without the expense of a large RHIB and engine. Take a look at this website. http://www.kayakdivers.co.uk/index.htm
On Line Diving Logbook If you would like to upload your computer based Diving Logbook, try the site below. You might ask why you would want to do this? Well, it could be useful if you dive abroad. Rather than take your Logbook with you, you can just login to your OnLine Logbook. Or, if you accidentally delete your computer logbook or your computer blows up, you still have your OnLine Logbook. In any case, it might be worth a look.
On the right is an image from my own On Line Diving Logbook to give an impression of what it looks like.
This was a dive at St Abbs on 6th November. We surfaced once during the dive whilst searching underwater for the Cathedral Rock. We found it and had a most enjoyable dive.
You can add photographs and information regarding personal diving qualifications + you can analyse different aspects of your dives. Your logbook can be public or private. It could be very useful when diving abroad instead of taking logbooks, or as a backup in case your computer fails.
The Branch Caithness Diving Holiday Read the full story of our Dive trip to Caithness. The Diving was good, has great potential, but the weather could have been a bit more kind. Click on the "Dive Caithness" page.
Find out all the latest on the Scottish Diving Scene and catch up on articles in back issues from the dim and distant past Diver Magazine An independant UK Diving magazine http://www.divernet.com/ Sign Up for Divernet Xtra ! Get the very latest information in the Diving World Keep up to date with what is happening throughout the diving world, not just Scotland! Click this link to sign up: http://www.divernetxtra.com/xtra/newsletterlatest.htm
but please remember to swim back to Clydebank Sub Aqua Club
An excellent and very comprehensive source of Diving knowledge is the US Navy Diving Manual (Revision 6) http://www.supsalv.org/00c3_publications.asp This is a large File and will take 2-3 minutes to download but well worth having. No diver should be without this FREE Manual.
If any member has difficulty downloading the Manual please contact the Webmaster.
The Royal Navy had a Diving Manual: BR2806, but it is not now available in print or on line. A great deal of the information in the RN Manual BR2806 is more or less the same as the US Navy Manual.
Clydebank Sub Aqua Club Race Night 4th June 2011 (report by Michelle Morgan)
On Saturday 4th June 2011 Clydebank Sub Aqua club held their race night to raise funds for their 50th dinner dance in October.
With all the horses sold, sponsors in place for all the races, 54 tickets sold for the night and lots of raffles prizes we were off to a good start.
The compere (Andy) had turned up in plenty of time and was all set up to go at the required time.......the only problem was the punters, by 8pm only 30 people had turned up. We gave it another half hour and all the slow coaches arrived to give a turnout of 47. We got under starters orders and the betting began.
Andy was great and really worked with the crowd. The money was flowing in and everyone was enjoying their wee flutters. After the first 5 races, we stopped and had a buffet, sold raffle tickets and had nearest the bottle (this is where you throw 50p’s at the bottle and nearest wins the bottle). Once everyone had had a belly full of food it was back to the GG’s and the betting resumed.
Another 3 races were run and then it was time for the auction race. With spirits rising high the bidding got underway for owning the horses. This was very entertaining as some of the tables got pipped at the post on a few occasions, so they had to try for the next horse. Eventually all the owners were established and the horses named. With Allan Reader chosen to read the names of the horses and owners, this in itself proved entertaining.
The race started and the horses were underway with everyone shouting for their horse. In the end it was a close call and number 8 was the winner. A cheer from Michelle let everyone know that she was the winner.
With all the racing over it was time for the raffle. With some great prizes and plenty of them (24 in total) everyone made sure that they had bought some tickets. Once the raffle was over the night came to a close and the tidying up began.
Everyone was complimentary about how good a night it had been and how they had thoroughly enjoyed it. We did a quick tally of the money and discovered that we had raised just over £500 which was fantastic.
On the night Thanks:
Andy our compere
Brian, Gerry & John Morgan for taking the bets and handing out the winning stakes.
Brian & Gordon for helping with the buffet.
I don’t want to be modest and thank myself for the buffet; your compliments said it all.
For those who didn’t make it, but have, or are, giving a donation:
John Devlin, Jack Morrison & Tom Burke
I would also like to say a BIG THANKS to everyone who attended and made it a worthwhile night: it was a great night.
Scottish Sub Aqua Club Annual Conference will be in Oban on the 19th November. See Scotsac Website for details at www.scotsac.com
Sunday 20th November
Brian set to the business of organising the group consisting of Michelle & John, Allan, Keith, Craig, Conor, Jim, John D, Andrew and of course himself, in to teams of highly motivated keen divers clammering to get to the water. The only place that 5 cars could park reasonably well on the east side of Loch Fyne was at North Gortein. Unfortunately the access at this site is slippery and you must proceed very cautiously. It is a marathon in itself just getting to the water. Still, with the water a balmy 100c, it was worth all the effort of sliding down the rocks in to the water!!!
struck right to meet the anemone reef at about the same depth. This reef can be quite spectacular when the Plumose anemones have their tentacles extended to feed in the currents. However today was not one of those days and very few anemones were feeding. There weren't that many fish around either apart from a few Sand Gobies and Leopard Spotted Gobies. Craig spotted a nice Pipefish on his dive and I photographed a few Feather starfish (above) and Dogwhelks (right) laying eggs.
On the 2nd dive my team headed initially to the left to eventually locate the small cliff face where the cable rises on to the top of it. We overshot slightly as I had made a little too much correction for the flood current which seemed a little on the strong side. The cable is covered in small anemones, sponges, Feather Stars and the like. Sometimes you may spot a small Butterfish hiding amongst the still life. Allan, John D and I then moved up loch, back to the main reef and within a very short time, lying snug in a small crevice, I spotted a lovely Cuttlefish (above & below right). After some gentle encouragement it came out on to the sand and sat there watching me as I fired off a number of photographs.
After a while it became a little alarmed, or perhaps annoyed, by the bright strobe and turned white. Perhaps it was time to leave it alone.
On Line Diving Logbook 
