Autumn 2001
Autumn 2001
Contents
Editorial (AJB)
Membership Report (Dick Spilsbury)
Dive Reports (Scapa and 'East of Java')
Training (Simon Yates)
Social Side
Annual General Meeting
National BSAC events
Fish Tails (AJB)
Editorial, by Allan Bretherton
It's now close to the end of the diving season and we are still short of some good stories. YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOUR STORIES IF THE NEWSLETTER IS TO SURVIVE! So come on, get pen to paper; lets hear something, even if it embellishes the truth! After all, what else can you do with a good rumour except spread it? For those of you that don't already know it, my email address is: allanbretherton@netscapeonline.co.uk.
We've had a fantastic season with stunning dives to the Red Sea, Scapa Flow, real diving on the Murree as well as all the usual diving to Plymouth, Scotland and Wales that make the branch the great club that it is. But what are you going to do for the club? It's coming up to the AGM (see notice below) and a number of officers and committee members will be standing down. Some because of other commitments, some because they have been in office for 3-years - the maximum under current constitution. So don't be shy, put your name forward and help build on the work done by others to keep Worcester Divers the fantastic club that it is.
Allan Bretherton
- by Dick Spilsbury
We currently have 92 members in the branch, which is about the level of membership throughout the year. Our average age is 38.53 years, which has dropped quite considerably since Dave Heavey left us to run another branch! (He was a founder member and is very old, well, almost as old as me!)
WELCOME TO FOUR NEW MEMBERS
Bryony Waggett, who joined us in July and is well into her training.
Steve Butts, who originally trained with PADI and now wants to go diving with a club.
John and Freda Riley., who have joined, but won't start their Club Diver training until mid October, when they return from business and holiday commitments.
Proof of fitness to dive in the form of a SCF or Doctor's Medical Form, is one of the requirements under the 3rd party insurance cover provided automatically to all BSAC members. It is also a must for you to dive with Worcester Sub Aqua Club.
If you have a Doctor's medical certificate still in date and which doesn't expire before your next renewal date, then all is ok. If your medical is out of date, or will not last until next renewal, you should already have received a letter/email from me.
I shall be sending out SCF forms with all renewal invitations, for those of you whose medicals expire in less than 12 months. If you need the Doctor's version of the form, please see me, I have a supply of them.
You may be interested to learn that there are still 13 members in the branch with out of date medicals, or have not shown us their medicals, we will be monitoring this!
Shall I publish the names? (Beachcomber returns - Ed)
EMERGENCY CONTACTS
The Club tries to keep phone numbers and names of your spouses/relatives/friends for use in an emergency. Not trying to tempt providence, but for prudence, just like making a will! I shall be asking for your updated info. shortly, but if you know you haven't given me a contact, or you wish to change any of the info, please contact me.
Happy diving, 
Dick Spilsbury.PS my email is:- dspilsbury@onetel.net.uk
Scapa Flow 2001
- Some notes from participants after their return:
from David Heavey
... and from Carol Copson
I was also fortunate enough to be on the Scapa trip. At the outset I was unsure if it would be my kind of diving, but am I glad I went, it was fantastic to see the Scapa wrecks whilst some are still whole, MC (MC who? - Ed) says that when he first went years and years ago they have deteriorated a lot, and am delighted I went.
The week was fantastic, with bril weather, flat sea, great viz, and very, very good fellow divers. I would like to congratulate Matthew, a new sports diver on the trip: he did tremendously well the whole week with air consumption improving daily. He was the new diver having to learn fast the ways of his fellow divers, who, although they took care of him, constantly teased the new batman. He probably thinks we are all mad!!
Unfortunately Charles could not join us, but I would like to extend my thanks to him for setting it up it was a great trip and to Jim who organised us throughout the week.
Castaway for a weekend...
- by John KingsleyIt's 4 a.m. I lie in bed in the warm moist darkness and reach for the can of mozzie killer. The tide is back in now, so the small waves are rhythmically breaking on the sandy beach five feet below the hut. A quick burst of 'Baygon' in the air above the bed should be enough discouragement for now. Damage control reports are coming in from the nether regions - it seems one of my knees must have escaped the roll of counterpane since there's definitely new bites down there. I re-wrap myself and pull the counterpane off one of the other beds over my chest and head, tucking in around my shoulders so I am in an impenetrable cocoon. I lie and wait for another fitful 2-hour sleep, hoping not to suffocate. Oh s--t! I hate equatorial nights!
Today, daybreak is at 6.08. Not 'around 6' or '6-ish'. One minute its dark, the next its not. Thank heavens. The mozzies vanish as if by magic and I unwrap my mummy outfit. I stand on the veranda and breathe a huge breath of sea air. The sky is overcast - maybe we'll have an early shower today.
Yesterday, after a beautifully warm and sunny day, the rain came in the evening, preceded by a sudden gust of cooler wind from the direction of Borneo - visible as a line of hills to the northwest. When it arrived I'd just finished my 4th dive of the day, which was also my first experience of the famous "Drop Off", diving with Alex and his buddies from Bologna, Italy. A great dive, and so nice to be diving with group who knew what 'buddy diving' was supposed to be about - I had given up chasing my Japanese 'official' buddy by the end of dive 2, and did the 3rd one virtually solo!
Looking for a wall dive? Think the 40m wall at Tobermory is good? Try this one! 600m top to bottom, and the top is just 10 yards from the waters edge and another 10 from the dive centre. Yes, I think this must be the best one yet! The famous 'turtle caverns' are in this wall, but the management forbids unguided entry due to tourist deaths in the labyrinth of caves in the past. So we cruised in the top 30m band past the beautiful gorgonian fans and huge barrel sponges that manage to cling on the non-overhanging bits. Having seen loads of big stuff earlier in the day, by now I'd regressed to looking for nudibranchs and shrimp, tiny domino clownfish and gobies - yes, I could find just about anything I had read about at Sipadan!
And it was back to the wall again for the night dive, making 5 in the day! I was already up to 20 hours no-fly time and was beginning to get worried as to how high it would go! The big game was back at nighttime. Huge bumphead parrotfish, the size and weight of a large motorbike, were there by the half-dozen, hanging along the wall like pictures at an exhibition. Monster turtles were asleep on ledges, while a few glided past on the seaward side of us. Orange eyes glinted back from every nook and cranny and sparks of phosphorescence flashed from the fins of the guy in front. Lionfish were out hunting, though not in abundance, while the morays, though advertised, seemed to be on vacation. Back at the very edge of the drop, the larger shrimp (the ones with red & white striped legs and arms, and long white antennae) seemed to be more numerous, with several to a hole. A large flounder tried to hide in the fine white sand as we swam slowly back to the beach - he would have been good with some chips - good job neither Mark Sheedy nor Malcolm Copson was with me!
Time for a large bottle of Tiger beer - voted best lager in the world, apparently, in London last year - and some somewhat difficult conversation with my Japanese buddies. One was a water purity analyst from Osaka, one of the girls made a living selling paintings of underwater scenes, while the little 4'10" dumpy one with the pink wetsuit with "Taeko" on the side had done over 1,000 dives and was a nurse in Kyoto. The one I had buddied with was a young looking 54, I discovered, no visible means of support, had started diving 8 months ago and had already done the Red Sea, Palau in the Pacific and now Sipadan. Next was to be the Galapagos in May! And I thought I got around! One of his little habits was to take off his aqualung and fins at the end of the dive and pass them up to the boatman with his expensive camera, while his weight belt was still firmly round his waist. I wondered how much longer that habit would last!
Well, the morning rain did come today, by the bucketful. Visibility above the water was not much more than that below it at times! At least it knocked the waves back a bit, which had been building since breakfast. We did Barracuda point for the second time - a nice drift along the wall and then up to a coral garden ridge with bright green and bright blue anemones, with a surprising variety of anemone fish species. The barracuda vortex was absent again today, but once again I got within spitting distance of the 5-foot white tip sharks that lie up on the sand by the ridge. Remembering Greg and the dogfish incident at the Eddystone last year, I didn't grab them by the tail, but I could have! All the camera brigade were busy photographing some ugly but rare leaf-fish - like miniature scorpion fish but white, or green or yellow with white tatty bits, according to the species - that were not hiding quite well enough on a large coral head. I was loving the many colonies of garden eels and the cleaning stations where the beautiful streamlined surgeonfish, 18" of velvety beauty, were changing from their normal dusky hue to pure white as they queued up for the free 5000-yard service, and then changed back to their darker colours as soon as it was done. 'Squark squark' went Ken's squarker - time to go up.
Now it's time to get ready for the second dive today, then a quick lunch, and back on the slim high-speed launch - 2 x 200hp Yamahas give it about 35kn - to Semporna, a stilted water-village back on Borneo. Then a 2-hour bus trip to Tawau, a 30-minute flight (tomorrow morning) to Kota Kinabalu (yes, that's where the famous Low's Gully is - where the SAS got stuck below 9,000 ft of vertical rock), and then 2 hours to Singapore. Eight hours to 'do' Singapore and then its champagne and brandy all the way to Manchester. It's a tough life, but you've got to stick at it! Remember - this is not a rehearsal!
P.S. The last dive, a drift at South Point, was amazing! The lovely wall along which we drifted below 25m gave way to shallow coral gardens (lime yellow anemones this afternoon) where we were greeted by turtles and reef sharks, and then, as the current switched to ahead of us, it suddenly seemed to go quite dark. Looking up I saw the cause: an enormous school of large Jacks at about 2-6m depth. Finning steadily against the current, I closed with the shoal and soon I was engulfed - tails 9" in front of my mask and chrome-plated fish all around my body, easily within arm's reach. I couldn't see outside the shoal. I could have stayed with them for ages, but the 45 minutes were soon up....squark squark..... back to being human!
Footnote: My visit to Sipadan took place in March 1999 - a year later, almost to the day, 25 diver-tourists were kidnapped on Sipadan and taken hostage. For once, I was there at the right time!
John Kingsley.
He does go on but thank goodness someone does! - Ed
- by Simon Yates
CLUB DIVER TRAINING Lectures for Club diver trainees will be starting on Wednesday 10th Oct 7.30 Kings School Geography block.
SPORTS DIVER TRAINING Sports diver lectures will be held on a Saturday morning at Kings School, date to be arranged. If you wish to take part in Sports Diver Training please contact me as soon as possible so that a suitable date can be arranged. It is intended that the Open water skills dives will be conducted at Stoney Cove over the same and subsequent weekends.
DIVE LEADER TRAINING Dive Leader Lectures will be starting at Kings School on Wednesday 10th Oct at 7.30. Open water training and assessments will be held at Stoney, with the rescue management scenarios being done at Gullet Quarry (an experience not to be missed!)
BSAC SKILLS DEVELOPMENT COURSES Don't forget, we have the instructors within the branch to teach basically every BSAC SDC, all you have to do is ask!
No report from Charles for the newsletter. Partly due to the fact he has a new woman in his life, but also because he's probably keeping the best bits for the AGM.
Remember, almost any member can organise a dive trip, as long as you have the right mix of divers. Look at the club web site for more information, or have a chat with Charles.
pp - Charles Erb
Due to my lassitude, I missed the chance to put publicity for the Ceilidh on this part of the website - sorry!
However, I know Carol Copson (01905-355973) is hoping to sell you a ticket to the Christmas Dinner and Disco, which is at the Diglis Hotel on Friday December 14th. Give her a call!
- by Dunstan Power
I apologise for the late posting of the newsletter on the website. By now the deadlines stated in Duncan's piece have passed. - John Kingsley
The Worcester Divers AGM is on Tuesday 30th October at the Saracen's Head. This is still a long way off but the committee needs new volunteers to help run the club, and there may be motions that you wish raised at the meeting. It is very important that the club gets a good attendance, as there was last year.
AGM agenda and nomination forms are available from me, or in Adobe Acrobat format from the web site. Please fill in one of the nomination forms and post it to me if you wish to stand for a post on the committee. Motions for the agenda may be emailed or posted to me. They must all be received by 16th October, that is, two weeks prior to the meeting.
I apologise for the late posting of the newsletter on the website. By now the Dive Show has been and gone - John Kingsley
DIVE 2001 will be held at the Birmingham NEC 13th & 14th October '01. In addition to the usual holiday and equipment stands there will be the BSAC re-breather try-dive pool where you can get your hands on a Draeger Dolphin or the AP Inspiration and try it for yourself.
For the newcomers in the branch, this is the ideal place to buy all that new kit that you've been longing for.
DELEGATES - Every BSAC Branch is invited to send its Diving Officer and ONE Representative.
Also invited to attend are all nationally qualified Instructors (NI, AI, OWI, and CI), Assistant Club Instructors, Snorkel Instructors and First Class Divers. Application Forms can be obtained from BSAC HQ by quoting their Instructor/FCD number. ACIs will need to give the date/location of their ITC. Application Forms will be distributed via the NDC Bulletin Distribution from HQ.
COST - Because the Organisers have been so successful in attracting sponsorship, the cost for attending the 1 -day DOC2001 will be £20.00 - the SAME AS DOC99 and DOC2000! It is essential to BOOK IN ADVANCE. The organisers cannot guarantee that applications "at-the-door" will be accepted.
PROGRAMME - The programme is currently being finalised but will include a Report from the National Diving Officer, the Incidents Report, Report on BSAC Diver Grades for 2002, Report on Instructor Training Scheme for 2002, Diving Medical Topic, a Video about the Marine Environment and Open Forum. There should be something for everyone and the National Diving Committee hopes that all that are qualified to attend will try to do so.
AWARDS - The BSAC/NDC traditionally has a number of awards to make each year - Jacques Cousteau Award, Colin McLeod Award, Heinke Trophy, Wilkinson Sword, Expedition Trophy, Safety Awards, National Instructor Certificates, First Class Diver Certificates, etc. These will be awarded during the Conference.
FURTHER DETAILS can be obtained from -
Conference Office
British Sub-Aqua Club,
Telfords Quay,
South Pier Road,
Ellesmere Port,
Cheshire, CH65 4FL
Tel. 0151 350 6221, Fax 0151 350 6215/53, E-mail sandrar@bsac.com
I have my sources!
We were all new to diving and new members at one time or another. Lets show a little empathy and remember what it was like for us and help new members integrate into our club - it doesn't take much!
That's all for this issue folks!
Keep bubbling - Allan J Bretherton - Editor
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