Why should warm water divers consider the UK?

[kaerius]

Swedish cocktail diver here, and diving with the playful grey seals at the Farne Isles, Northumberland, is definitely on my bucketlist.

 

[Scubatarget]

Just buying some skins. Great post

 

[gizmo1972]

you snorkel with basking sharks not scuba !!! lol

 

[Kieran Byrne]

Me and the misses have just experienced our 1st dive in the sea, in the waters of Mabul, Kapali and Sipadan all in Borneo im sure you've all heard of them.
We learnt how to dive in the waters of Gildenburgh, we left with all of 7 dives under our belt. We come back from Borneo with 30 something dives in our log books.
What we had experienced in the lake of Gildenburgh, 10-16c water temp, 0-5m vis really helped when we started to dive in Borneo, people thought we had more experience than we actually did, we put this down to uk diving and our excellent instuctors, and as mentioned previously in the earlier posts that uk diving is good for keeping skills sharp.

All this rambling leads me to...... having just got back from our holiday which was actually our honeymoon (just to chuck that one in there) we cant wait to dive again, now we cant afford to just pop off to these exotic destinations nor do we have the time. So we would love to start diving uk, so people where should we be heading too and what we will see at these places when we get there?

 

[rivers]

Me and the misses have just experienced our 1st dive in the sea, in the waters of Mabul, Kapali and Sipadan all in Borneo im sure you've all heard of them.
We learnt how to dive in the waters of Gildenburgh, we left with all of 7 dives under our belt. We come back from Borneo with 30 something dives in our log books.
What we had experienced in the lake of Gildenburgh, 10-16c water temp, 0-5m vis really helped when we started to dive in Borneo, people thought we had more experience than we actually did, we put this down to uk diving and our excellent instuctors, and as mentioned previously in the earlier posts that uk diving is good for keeping skills sharp.

All this rambling leads me to...... having just got back from our holiday which was actually our honeymoon (just to chuck that one in there) we cant wait to dive again, now we cant afford to just pop off to these exotic destinations nor do we have the time. So we would love to start diving uk, so people where should we be heading too and what we will see at these places when we get there?

Depends what you want to see! There's tons of wrecks from shallow, recreational to deeper technical, seals, drifts, scenic, etc. My preference is for wrecks over anything else.
The key with the UK is to take it slow at the beginning. Don't rush towards the deeper sites, and spend a good chunk of time in the shallows. The conditions here can vary greatly. A site that's an easy dive one day can be extremely challenging the next. Vis, currents, surge, etc all play a factor. One thing to learn to do before getting into the sea is to deploy a dsmb.
Join a local club.
Places to dive: Cornwall, Plymouth, Swanage, Portland, Weymouth, Selsey, Brighton, Newhaven, Eastbourne, the Farnes, Scotland, etc. Pretty much the entire coastline of the UK really. The further west you go, the better chance you have of half-way decent vis. I've done dives in the sea where vis was 1 foot if you were lucky and dark at 5m, but other dives where i had 10+m vis and ambient light at 30+m.
Either way, I prefer UK diving

 

[Jean R]

Well.... Go to Lochaline on the sound of mull and dive the historic wrecks-or heck just dive any of the wrecks there-you can hardly fall of a boat there and not hit a shipwreck (boats leave from Oban too and then you get to stay in a lovely town and do great dives) My favs are the Hispania, Thesis, Breda to name a few. Sound of Mull has Great Wall dives and killer drift dives-really, you have to have you're crap together the currents can be ripping but of course the viz is spectacular. There are 2 sizeable sea lochs on the west coast I also love-loch Fyne and loch long. Both have abundant fish life. Loch long has conger alley-a lovely dive but a great night dive when you're likely to see the conger'a out and about. Across the Loch is "the caves" Not really caves but series of rocky outcrops full of fish and many playful seals. head out from Largs which is south of Glasgow and dive the firth of Clyde-more wrecks-and lovely wall dives around the various islands there. Add to that the history and culture of Scotland's west coast-I have no idea why people are not flocking here. Who cares if you have to wear a dry suit when the dives will take your breath away..,

 

[Tigerman]

Why should warm water divers consider UK diving?

What is there to see? Crap vis, wrecks at 40 metres and deeper?
What 'cute' fishes are there?

Why go to the expense of getting kit in cold water?

PS this is a deliberately provocative question and equally provocative replies are welcome!

Question really is "why would anyone dive exclusively warm water"?

aren't basking sharks cute?

No, they are fugly - but damn cool.. Hope I find one while diving one day..

 

[ESharp]

Well.... Go to Lochaline on the sound of mull and dive the historic wrecks-or heck just dive any of the wrecks there-you can hardly fall of a boat there and not hit a shipwreck (boats leave from Oban too and then you get to stay in a lovely town and do great dives) My favs are the Hispania, Thesis, Breda to name a few. Sound of Mull has Great Wall dives and killer drift dives-really, you have to have you're crap together the currents can be ripping but of course the viz is spectacular. There are 2 sizeable sea lochs on the west coast I also love-loch Fyne and loch long. Both have abundant fish life. Loch long has conger alley-a lovely dive but a great night dive when you're likely to see the conger'a out and about. Across the Loch is "the caves" Not really caves but series of rocky outcrops full of fish and many playful seals. head out from Largs which is south of Glasgow and dive the firth of Clyde-more wrecks-and lovely wall dives around the various islands there. Add to that the history and culture of Scotland's west coast-I have no idea why people are not flocking here. Who cares if you have to wear a dry suit when the dives will take your breath away..,

I second that, just dived the caves last week bit of an abseil to get in but had an absolute blast!

 

[FionaH]

Well.... Go to Lochaline on the sound of mull and dive the historic wrecks-or heck just dive any of the wrecks there-you can hardly fall of a boat there and not hit a shipwreck (boats leave from Oban too and then you get to stay in a lovely town and do great dives) My favs are the Hispania, Thesis, Breda to name a few. Sound of Mull has Great Wall dives and killer drift dives-really, you have to have you're crap together the currents can be ripping but of course the viz is spectacular. There are 2 sizeable sea lochs on the west coast I also love-loch Fyne and loch long. Both have abundant fish life. Loch long has conger alley-a lovely dive but a great night dive when you're likely to see the conger'a out and about. Across the Loch is "the caves" Not really caves but series of rocky outcrops full of fish and many playful seals. head out from Largs which is south of Glasgow and dive the firth of Clyde-more wrecks-and lovely wall dives around the various islands there. Add to that the history and culture of Scotland's west coast-I have no idea why people are not flocking here. Who cares if you have to wear a dry suit when the dives will take your breath away..,

Sssshhh!!! - It's our secret - big thumbs up to all those sites - plus KLB, Scourie, Scapa, Caithness, Moray Firth - seals are common enough on the north coast/Orkney/Shetland to be a pest at times - basking sharks not uncommon in the summer - we live in a huge grown up play park, the Uk's best kept secret

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Alexander Mustard