Scuba Diving in Manchester

Sunday 6th of May, 2018. Such a beautiful Sunday!! Blue sky, air temperature 24C. This sooooo rare for this area. It was too gorgeous to miss diving! We had 4 Open Water Diver Course students. How lucky they are!! When the weather is so good, everything seems so easy. We normally come to Capernwray Diving Quarry for our training diving and some local pleasure divings. This quarry has good facilities; diver friendly cafe, good changing rooms, showers, meeting room, easy entry/exit, training platforms under water, etc.  Visibility can be quite good as well. This Sunday could be more crowded; however, thanks to the Bank Holiday Monday. It was not too bad. We had plenty of rooms in training platform area, so we didn't have to squeeze ourselves too much for skill sessions. When we organise courses, each instructor has maximum 3 students to look after. This Sunday, the instructor & students ration was 1:2, so it was quite good. When teaching in Malta, rather ...

Spring has come! All the sudden, shop became busy with divers coming in to sort out their equipment and cylinders. It seems every diver is awake now.  When addicted to scuba diving like us, season does not matter. We go diving all year around. For most of sensible divers, when the spring weather arrives, that is the sign of Diving Season to start. We had a Club Dive Trip to Eyemouth last weekend. Beautiful Blue Sky. Calm water. Nice day out. Visibility...well...we may not want to talk about it just for now. ;) Anyway, no matter how experienced diver they are, they all start from 1st diving experience. All adventure start from here. We conduct "Discover Scuba Diving" (try dive) every week in local swimming pool. It is one evening experience to see how Scuba Diving is. We start with briefing; basic knowledge of Scuba Diving, how to use equipment, basic skills in water, etc. Then you try Scuba diving in the swimming pool for an hour. If you enjoy, that is the st...

If you are divers, Red Sea Liveaboard must be one of your bucket lists. It is one of the most popular diving trips for all ages and levels for all year round. Dive Manchester like to choose winter season when UK diving is becoming a bit like torture, so we can get away from cold weather and get a bit of sun. " Northern Wreck & Reef " is probably the most popular itinerary; no minimum logged dives required covering major ship wrecks in Red Sea. Our team; however, has done that itinerary. Last year, we also did " Straight of Tiran & North ", covering beautiful reef in Tiran and major ship wrecks in North. When we inquired for the trip for February 2019, originally the boat was booked for "Northern Wrecks and Reef" Thanks to the agent. They have allowed us to take the boat to different route! " North & Brothers "! North, as I've said repeatedly, for the ship wrecks. Brothers, this northernmost part of Egypt's offsh...

When diving in cold water, one of the most important equipment is "Drysuits". In my case, if the water temperature hit 23C degree, I do not want to dive in wetsuits. I will take my drysuits out. For most of divers, probably somewhere about 16-18C degree water temperature is the reference to change their suits. In Wetsuits, as you may already know, you will be "wet"; water gets trapped between the suit and your skin and works as insulation. Drysuits, on the other hand, you do not get wet. You stay dry. The suit traps air or another gas, acting as an insulator. While Wetsuits are made from neoprene, various materials are used to make Drysuits; neoprene, coated fabric, crushed neoprene, trilaminate, etc. Each material has different insulation and flexibility. It will be your choice to make to pick what drysuits you like to use. Let's see how much air it can hold. Now, let me talk about Aqualung Fusion Suits. This suits have been in the market for so...

Scuba Dive in Manchester, DM Club local diving Some of you may have noticed that our DM Club Members are very much addicted to Scuba Diving. We are out for diving every weekend even when snowing! When sensible people are staying home keeping themselves warm and cozy, DM Club Members are torturing themselves by jumping into the deadly cold water, having "ice-cream" headache and nearly having "frostbites" on fingers.  Why? Because there's water available for Scuba Diving! This Sunday was special for our Club Members. Our active member Steve had his 300th dive!! Hooray!! 300th dive!! This is an amazing number! Congratulations, Steve!! We were so happy to share this special dive with Steve. Many times, we dive in the same diving quarry. Some people may think "it's not interesting if always the same place" Well, that is not true. Even if same location, every dive is different. I'm a Tech Diving instructor and Trimix Diver myself. Si...

Going for Scuba Diving in this weather...MAD!!😂 Spring this year seems still sleeping somewhere and making its arrival very late and slow. 1st of April 2017 had wonderful sunny day, brilliant for diving weekend. This year? We had SNOW!!! I could not believe my eyes!! Did it stop us from going for diving? Nahhhh! Nothing could stop us from Scuba Diving. We have serious addiction problem with Scuba Diving. 😂 When diving in cold water, equipping yourself well with thermal items is crucial. As long as you keep yourself warm during the dive, it is, in fact, quite pleasant; crystal clear water, quiet dive site, slow movement of fish (they must feel cold as well!). Of course selecting good thermal inner wear is very important; however, the most important item for me is a HOOD. Body heat escape from your head much more than anything. When having a good hood, you can feel amazingly warm. Dive Manchester - DM Club / Addicted to Scuba Diving When "mild" winter, 5mm H...

Here is the view in the morning. If this view does not stop you going for diving, CONGRATULATIONS. You are officially proved as addicted to Scuba Diving. 😆 Well, we were questioning to ourselves "a bit" on the way. At least, we were sensible enough to call our students who were going to have their Dive 1 & 2 for Open Water Diver Course. After a little chat, we postponed their dives. 😊 First Open Dives are very important I believe. If it is not FUN, divers do not want to continue diving in UK.  We found a student a few weeks back in the dive site. It was one of the coldest week this year. He was walking down the cafe in BARE FEET!!! 😱 In WETSUITS!!!! Unbelievable!!! 😱 That was not right. That was not safe. I saw him with an instructor in a new nice drysuits on table together, having briefing about Open Water Diver Course Dives. I was in SHOCK!!! When I was feeling cold in Drysuits, those basic wetsuits is obviously not enough. Water temperature was 5C degree. In ...