Scuba in Britain & the weather

[BlueTrin]

Yes, it can be frustrating planning a dive, even locally (apart from a lake dive, I haven't yet dived outside of the Brighton area). I've had several planned days out cancelled last minute due to a change in conditions. As I'm mainly a holiday diver and not a member of a club it can be difficult to arrange a dive anyway. I will certainly continue to dive here occasionally, but I'm more keen to dive further west in Devon and Cornwall when I get a chance, where the conditions tend to be better.
Perhaps also cheap flights and the lure of warmer, clearer waters is keeping people away from UK diving. This is certainly the case with my nephew and his girlfriend who are going to Malta later this year to learn to dive, rather than brave the conditions here.

Malta has a few wrecks and the Blue Hole is a fun dive

It doesn’t help when it takes, for example, 5 hours to drive from London to Plymouth and the dive gets cancelled a few days before once you have booked accommodation for the weekend.

Surprisingly, the train to Plymouth isn’t much faster than driving and costs a fortune too.

 

[Marie13]

Malta has a few wrecks and the Blue Hole is a fun dive

It doesn’t help when it takes, for example, 5 hours to drive to Plymouth and the dive gets cancelled a few days before once you have booked accommodation for the weekend.

You know, you Brits aren’t the only ones experiencing this. Not uncommon here on the Great Lakes. Two years ago marine forecast was so bad for a 3 day trip that it was cancelled the afternoon before we left (8 hour drive). Had a week off work and at least we weren’t out any money as hotel rooms were able to be cancelled without penalty.

 

[BlueTrin]

You know, you Brits aren’t the only ones experiencing this. Not uncommon here on the Great Lakes. Two years ago marine forecast was so bad for a 3 day trip that it was cancelled the afternoon before we left (8 hour drive). Had a week off work and at least we weren’t out any money as hotel rooms were able to be cancelled without penalty.

In the UK the weather just changes really fast, it’s an island after all. It is obviously not the only place where dives get cancelled but it is just a not so uncommon occurrence to be told that this weekend dive is not gonna happen.

I am glad that you got your money back

I just realised that my flight to Tenerife was faster than the train to Plymouth !

 

[UFOrb]

Malta has a few wrecks and the Blue Hole is a fun dive

It doesn’t help when it takes, for example, 5 hours to drive from London to Plymouth and the dive gets cancelled a few days before once you have booked accommodation for the weekend.

Surprisingly, the train to Plymouth isn’t much faster than driving and costs a fortune too.

This is the thing. From SE England it can almost be quicker and possibly cheaper to go south to the Med or Canary Islands than to get down to Devon / Cornwall or up to Scotland for example. And you're pretty much guaranteed good diving conditions.

However, as mentioned on a previous post we found the marine life to be almost non-existant in Malta. The landforms were fascinating though, particularly, as you said, the Blue Hole, and Inland Sea on Gozo.
Only did one wreck in Malta which I wasn't blown away by to be honest (I think it was the Rozi), but I'm sure there are better wrecks around the island.

When we next head down to the west country on a family break I'll most likely take my dive gear with a view to getting a couple of dives in but with the knowledge it may not happen.

 

[chrisch]

This is the thing. From SE England it can almost be quicker and possibly cheaper to go south to the Med or Canary Islands than to get down to Devon / Cornwall or up to Scotland for example. And you're pretty much guaranteed good diving conditions....

it is certainly cheaper to have a package deal in the Red Sea than a long weekend in the West Country. The advantage of the UK based trip is that you can drive there (which is better for the planet) and take whatever gear you like. There is no 24hr wait to fly back and no baggage limits.

Personally I like Plymouth as a dive venue and enjoy the wrecks there. In the summer the traffic can be a problem and the better accommodation gets booked up so you either pay a lot for somewhere nice or have a grubby B&B and a bad night's sleep. Sadly a lot of the dive operators have gone and the ones that are left tend to be booked up well in advance. Perhaps we need to accept that the price needs to go up in order that more people are prepared to run a boat for us?

 

[BlueTrin]

it is certainly cheaper to have a package deal in the Red Sea than a long weekend in the West Country. The advantage of the UK based trip is that you can drive there (which is better for the planet) and take whatever gear you like. There is no 24hr wait to fly back and no baggage limits.

Personally I like Plymouth as a dive venue and enjoy the wrecks there. In the summer the traffic can be a problem and the better accommodation gets booked up so you either pay a lot for somewhere nice or have a grubby B&B and a bad night's sleep. Sadly a lot of the dive operators have gone and the ones that are left tend to be booked up well in advance. Perhaps we need to accept that the price needs to go up in order that more people are prepared to run a boat for us?

I like Plymouth alot, it was my first open water dive as well so it is a bit of a special place for me.

I just wish I was living either locally or closer.

Like you said running an operation in the UK will always be more expensive than in some other countries, so we have to accept that.

The reason I went to Plymouth for my first open water dive is an accident: I am French and I had mistaken Plymouth and Portsmouth. Since I already booked the dive I thought I’ll find some cheap transport to go there anyway.

I then discovered that the train to Plymouth is horribly expensive: I booked an overnight bus and arrived exhausted. But I really enjoyed my dives there.

 

[UFOrb]

The reason I went to Plymouth for my first open water dive is an accident: I am French and I had mistaken Plymouth and Portsmouth. Since I already booked the dive I thought I’ll find some cheap transport to go there anyway.

Haha, I love this! I think it was possibly a fortuitous accident. I'm guessing the diving around Plymouth is better than Portsmouth, both in relation to visibility and points of interest.

 

[KenGordon]

If I fly to dive it takes an extra day off work, that is expensive.

The whole experience in the U.K. is better. You can drink the water, flush loo paper, eat food which probably isn’t designed just for British tourists, go outside in the sun, know how the parking works, have rescue services that work, know that safety regulations might actually be applied and if you hurt yourself you will get treated without a credit card.

And you will not find yourself diving with numpties unless you brought your own. Darwinian pressure and all that

It used to be that you were not supporting some evil authoritarian regime either

And you are not trashing the planet to get there for a week.

These days you can book a B&B through the like of booking.com which allows for last minute cancellation if the weather is obviously hopeless. Or you can go anyway and just enjoy the place with a bit of wind. Cornwall, Permbokeshire, Orkney, the West Coast, Shetland, Portland, Swanage - these are places full of people on holiday anyway. Not so bad really.

Traffic in the South West is tedious. Our club usually does bank holiday weekends and it can be very bad. However when I came back from St. Kilda last year the only problem I had was someone having an off on a narrow road which was then impassable due to ambulances etc and so there was a 50 mile detour. The bit between Glasgow and London I averaged 68 mph (excluding wee breaks).

While it might only take 4 hours to fly to a warm place, you still have to get to the airport, check in and hang about for a couple of hours, pack all your kit into airline resistant bags, haul it about airports, in and out of cabs or buses and generally hope it arrives safe. It takes all day or worse.

Unless you are going to the islands you get anywhere in a day in the UK.

And all that before you get onto the various achievements of U boats in two wars, a long coastline facing the Atlantic and the odd bit where the mega fishing boats are kept out. Oh, and the results of letting alcohol near boats.

For localish stuff I try to overbook. Some day she will be blown out. You can guess a few days ahead but usually only really know the night before. So on average you get the diving you want, just with a few spare days left. Brighton Marina is an hour and a half for me, so an early morning start and a relaxed afternoon. At the wrong time of year the vis might be poor and you have to concentrate on the small stuff. But there is small stuff to see, unlike some places.

Did I mention St Kilda? It is absolutely brilliant. But like U.K. diving in general it is an effort. You can’t just ring a travel agent.

 

[chrisch]

...
The whole experience in the U.K. is better. ...

I live in the UK and would prefer to dive in the UK. It certainly can be a fantastic venue and really it is only the uncertainty about weather and visibility that detract from diving here. People go to the Red Sea because they are more or less guaranteed good weather and vis. People go from the UK to Benidorm on holiday because they are more or less guaranteed to get enough sunshine for a melanoma.

I hear a lot of people complain about the cold water, the expense of a drysuit and other factors. I also hear a lot of people say what fantastic diving they have enjoyed and how surprised they were about the things we can enjoy here. It does take a little bit more effort but when it is good it is world class.

 

[Neilwood]

I live in the UK and would prefer to dive in the UK. It certainly can be a fantastic venue and really it is only the uncertainty about weather and visibility that detract from diving here. People go to the Red Sea because they are more or less guaranteed good weather and vis. People go from the UK to Benidorm on holiday because they are more or less guaranteed to get enough sunshine for a melanoma.

I hear a lot of people complain about the cold water, the expense of a drysuit and other factors. I also hear a lot of people say what fantastic diving they have enjoyed and how surprised they were about the things we can enjoy here. It does take a little bit more effort but when it is good it is world class.

Thing is that you get the hurt of the high cost items once and then it can be pretty cheap. I have bought my suit/computer/regs etc so all I need to do to dive is find a willing buddy and drive to a site (of which there are a lot within 1-2 hrs).

I love diving in warm waters on holiday but I am still pretty happy in 8-10C even in a wetsuit (before I bought my drysuit). Even diving on a liveaboard doesn't guarantee the dives - last time I was away on one they had to cancel all the dives on Elphinstone due to conditions (we ended up on another site though).