UK diving

[UFOrb]

There are three dive shops close to Brighton.

Oyster Diving are based in Shoreham and offer local dive trips from April-Sept, as well as trips further afield in the UK.
UK Expeditions | Join us to some of the best UK dive sites | Oyster Diving

Newhaven Scuba offer rib dives throughout the year. You should be able to rent most gear but talk to the owner Glenn for more info.
Rib Dives | Scuba diving courses, Brighton, Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven Scuba Centre, Divemaster, PADI, SSI, open water

Ocean View in Lancing do local charters on Thursday evenings.
http://www.oceanviewdiving.co.uk/local-charters/

Further along the coast Mulberry Divers in Selsey offer regular local trips from April...
Boat Schedule 2020

Obviously its all weather dependent so you may not be able to plan very far in advance!

 

[STIDVC]

There are three dive shops close to Brighton.

Oyster Diving are based in Shoreham and offer local dive trips from April-Sept, as well as trips further afield in the UK.
UK Expeditions | Join us to some of the best UK dive sites | Oyster Diving

Newhaven Scuba offer rib dives throughout the year. You should be able to rent most gear but talk to the owner Glenn for more info.
Rib Dives | Scuba diving courses, Brighton, Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven Scuba Centre, Divemaster, PADI, SSI, open water

Ocean View in Lancing do local charters on Thursday evenings.
Local Charters - Ocean View Diving Services | Sussex

Further along the coast Mulberry Divers in Selsey offer regular local trips from April...
Boat Schedule 2020

Obviously its all weather dependent so you may not be able to plan very far in advance!

Cool cool many thanks, more of my planning is in terms of cost at this moment. I’ll start contacting dive ops soon for a rough estimate on costs. Obviously factoring in visits to the pub would significantly increase expenditure

 

[UFOrb]

Also, I'm not sure what type of diving you're used to, but be prepared for some poor viz. I've only done two local dives. The first was a drift dive out of Newhaven and we had around 1m viz (a bit of a shock to my system!). The next time was a wreck out of Shoreham near the new wind farm which was better with around 3-4m.
I've been told the visibility increases the further off-shore you go and you can get 10-15m during periods of settled weather on some of the wrecks further off the Sussex coast. I've also been told that conditions tend to be better the further west you go, ie Dorset, Devon & Cornwall and I think Scotland can be great too.

I wouldnt bother with lakes either. I dived Wraysbury to check out some new gear but wouldnt bother again, unless it was for a course...but even then I'd choose somewhere else (preferably warm with good viz! ).
I've heard NDAC is good for a quarry but I havent dived there yet.

 

[STIDVC]

Also, I'm not sure what type of diving you're used to, but be prepared for some poor viz. I've only done two local dives. The first was a drift dive out of Newhaven and we had around 1m viz (a bit of a shock to my system!). The next time was a wreck out of Shoreham near the new wind farm which was better with around 3-4m.
I've been told the visibility increases the further off-shore you go and you can get 10-15m during periods of settled weather on some of the wrecks further off the Sussex coast. I've also been told that conditions tend to be better the further west you go, ie Dorset, Devon & Cornwall and I think Scotland can be great too.

I wouldnt bother with lakes either. I dived Wraysbury to check out some new gear but wouldnt bother again, unless it was for a course...but even then I'd choose somewhere else (preferably warm with good viz! ).
I've heard NDAC is good for a quarry but I havent dived there yet.

I'm used to pretty shyte viz myself so it's more of experiencing what the UK has to offer and new experiences (cold water diving and quarries). just to add, i am used only to warm water diving and ok'ish viz.

I can only assume that offshore diving requires a minimum number of participants, my question is how likely are there to be enough divers during the colder season? I am not prepared to charter a whole boat just for myself

 

[Vitesse2l]

Lots of cold weather divers over here - I wouldn't worry about numbers and you'd obviously make contact with a dive op well in advance to find out. From their Facebook or whatever you'd get an idea how busy they are.

 

[STIDVC]

Lots of cold weather divers over here - I wouldn't worry about numbers and you'd obviously make contact with a dive op well in advance to find out. From their Facebook or whatever you'd get an idea how busy they are.

Yeah, just hope that they're busy enough to meet the numbers and not too busy to fit me in ey haha

 

[Vitesse2l]

Bank holiday weekends here might get booked out, especially Easter but I reckon there's always a few masochists wanting to get wet any weekend. It's the weather that's the real unknown.

This weekend for instance Saturday might be ok but Sunday not a chance. I'm going to be in a quarry and driving two hours for the chance. Rescue drills and hypothermia!

 

[STIDVC]

Bank holiday weekends here might get booked out, especially Easter but I reckon there's always a few masochists wanting to get wet any weekend. It's the weather that's the real unknown.

This weekend for instance Saturday might be ok but Sunday not a chance. I'm going to be in a quarry and driving two hours for the chance. Rescue drills and hypothermia!

im thinking more towards September. So hopefully a few other masochists will join me then

 

[Vitesse2l]

September should be good. Warmer water and settled but the last couple of years the weather has put a stop to diving around the end of the month. I'm sure you'll be fine though. There's always a pub somewhere close by if it all goes TU.

 

[STIDVC]

September should be good. Warmer water and settled but the last couple of years the weather has put a stop to diving around the end of the month. I'm sure you'll be fine though. There's always a pub somewhere close by if it all goes TU.

i'd be properly PO if it does but the pub sounds lovely eitherway