Continue reading »]]> Torrevieja, Alicante, Spain, 2013

Date: 2nd – 9th, November 2013
Cost: £650 all in (excludes gas and flights)
Deposit: £250
Spaces: 12
This trip to Alicante is boat based diving for five days providing technical wreck diving around the Alicante region of The Mediterranean Sea. We will be looked after by some experienced locals. This trip is suitable for all levels of technical diver, both Open and Closed Circuit. If you are not suitability qualified yet, let us know as this will be an awesome trip to do you qualifying Technical dives!

For more details download the trip sheet SouthernSpainWreckDivingMatrix

The diving in Southern Spain has been described as amongst the best wreck diving in the world. We will be diving some classic wrecks which include:
SS Mardinian, she was a British steamer of 3322 tons. On May 19th, 1917, Mardinian, on a voyage from Calicut to London with general cargo, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine. She is upright and intact and sits in 55m with the bridge starting at about 35m and she has a gun on her stern and is one of the most popular dives.
SS Ville De Verdun was a 4500 ton French steamer sunk by u34 on the 6 Feb. 1918. She lies in 55m of water on her starboard side. She has 3 guns and is fairly in-tact. Entering her can be done but caution is required due to the levels of silt on the seabed. The massive con-rods can be seen clearly within in the wreck. The large 4-bladed propeller can be seen resting on the seabed.
SS Lilla was a 2300 ton steamer that was sunk in 1917 and sits upright in 45m se is a very pretty and popular dive and is a great ship to swim right through with good access to her engines and boilers.
SS Doris was a 3900 ton Italian steamer sunk in 1917, she lies upside down and broken in 47m and has an abundance of fish life and is a very enjoyable dive with holes for penetration.

For more details contact ian@divingmatrix.co.uk 07970 748990

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Don’t forget …… the next club social night is 9th May at the Norbiton Dragon. Join us for the usual dive banter, gossip, advice on where what how who, and everything dive related!

We will be there from about 7.30pm, so if you are trying to spot us, look out for anyone in a dive T’shirt or hoodie!!

Continue reading »]]> We still have spaces on a few of our UK trips this year. With the sun now out, and the season just beginning, don’t miss out on getting the chance to dive some of the UK most awesome destinations. Dives are varied and include wrecks, wildlife and scenery, and all our dives are open to qualified divers with UK experience ….. you don’t have to be a club member to dive!!

The full list of trips appear on our dive calendar but here are some of the highlights:

14th – 16th June  – St Abbs / Eyemouth

This has got to be one of my most favourite ever destinations. Who needs tropical waters when you can go and play with these beautiful seals. Grey seals can be seen almost anywhere along the coast at just about any time of year.  Whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans), can also be seen throughout the year but the summer is the time when there are most sightings.  The harbour porpoise is the species most commonly seen, but it’s also worth looking out for bottle-nosed and white beaked dolphins and minke whales.  See if you can spot the Wolf fish and Lumpsuckers or some of the amazing varieties of Nudibanchia!

This trip is a 3 day trip which costs £235, it includes eight dives across three days and two nights accommodation on Friday, 14 & Saturday 15 June 2013 and a cooked breakfast!

We are diving on Wavedancer, with one of the area’s most experienced skippers.

5th – 9th August – Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is located off the north west coast of England in the middle of the Irish Sea, it offers some of the most spectacular and varied diving in the British Isles.  Mann has a tidal range of up to eight metres, this vast movement of water sweeps the island twice a day, bringing rich feeding for a vast array of marine life, the underwater visibility is generally superb and the dive sites outstanding.

This is a five day recreational wrecks & reefs trip for 8 divers, departing from Menai Bridge on Monday, 5 August, returning back to Anglesey on Friday, 9 August 2013.  The sea crossing takes approximately 4 hrs.  We’ll be stopping off for one dive on both the outward and return journey, and there’s a minimum of two dives a day (subject to weather conditions), around the Isle of Man on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from our base in Port St Mary.

Diving on Scott Waterman’s boat Protector, a 38′ halmatic rib with all the diver comforts you would expect to find on a hard boat, including an hydraulic diver lift and enclosed heated cabin and covered area.

10th – 11th August – Anglesey

We are again diving on Protector which is moored at St George’s Pier near the Menai Bridge, providing easy access to the fabulous dive sites around Anglesey and further out into the Irish Sea.  Anglesey wrecks include the Derbent, Albanian, Delfina, Kincorth, Dakota, Liverpool, Kimyalying, Segontium and Minerva to name a few.

This trip costs £180, it includes two days diving with two dives per day and two nights accommodation including a fine Welsh cooked breakfast.

So, what more could you ask?? Contact the shop for more details.

Continue reading »]]> Lighthouse Events is excited to announce the launch of its inaugural Dive Night event in London’s only lighthouse, taking place on Tuesday 14th May 2013, from 6 – 11pm at The Chainstore, Trinity Buoy Wharf. A limited number of tickets is available to purchase online now. Headlining the event are three of the UK dive scene’s most inspirational speakers: Britain’s go-to shark expert, Richard Peirce; underwater photography guru Paul ‘Duxy’ Duxfield; and Broadcaster and Explorer extraordinaire, Paul Rose. Add to the mix a buzzy bar and DJ spinning chilled out records guaranteeing the ultimate dive night for underwater enthusiasts everywhere.

Several of the Aquanaut Crew are going so why not join us. To buy your tickets or for maore information check out http://lighthouse-events.com/

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Bite-Back has launched an exciting fundraising event that will challenge divers to walk a mile in their fins. The event — One F’in Mile — will take place on Saturday 17 August at Kempton Park Racecourse in Surrey.

The charity is hoping to raise more than £10,000 through participant sponsorship to help fund its campaign to make Britain the first country in the world to ban shark fin soup.

Campaign director for Bite-Back, Graham Buckingham, said: “This is the perfect excuse for divers and families to get together for a fun, top-side challenge. It’s going to be a terrific day full of laughter and, who knows, we may even set a World Record.”

Fundraisers can either choose to complete a single mile or opt for a full lap of the circuit at 1.4 miles.

So who’s up to join the Aquanaut Team??

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Ever fancied diving with a difference? On April 5th and 26th at Putney Leisure Centre, 7.45pm we are running a Full Face Mask ‘try dive’ session. We will be using the Ocean Reef Neptune units including Comms. This is a great chance to come along and try something a bit different  and find out what it is like to communicate under water.

The cost for the evening is £45 (10% discount club members). Spaces are limited, but if the session is popular we will arrange more in the future.

If you are interested, contact Lynne in the Shop

Continue reading »]]> This is an ideal chance to dust off the Winter cobwebs and warm up for the 2013 dive season with some nice, easy, but beautifully sceinic dives

Lyme Bay is located on the Jurassic coastline which stretches from Exmouth in the West to Old Harry Rocks in the East. Geographically, it offers easy access to some of the excellent wreck diving you’d usually reach from harbours like Weymouth or Portland. This is a weekend trip on Saturday 23 & Sunday 24 March 2013 (it’s a neaps weekend), two dives both days from the Ruby J, a 10.5m Vigilante 33 hard boat built in 2007 and skippered by Keith Ferris & Neil Birdsall aka ‘Slim’ of West Bay Diving based in the picturesque seaside town of West Bay.

This is a recreational wreck & reef trip in the 12M to 33M range for 10 divers. It’s the first sea trip of the year, so lets take it nice and easy. Dive sites TBC but are likely to include: the Baygitano 15-21m followed by a scenic dive on the Seatown Reef 12-15m, St Dunstan 25-30m, Moidart 27-33m

This trip costs £167, it includes two days hard boat diving with two dives per day and two nights accommodation on Friday, 22 & Saturday, 23 March 2013, and a cooked breakfast.

To book a place or for more information:
Contact Ken Powell on 07989 387792 or email ken@diversonline.co.uk

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At our club night on March 14th, Ian France from Diving Matrix will be running a short talk on Open Circuit Strategies for diving for longer utilizing limited decompression and equipment configurations.

He will be discussing single tank, twinset and the “in vogue” sidemount setups. The content will be aimed at recreational divers, but there will also be some interesting info for Tec divers too! 8pm start at the Norbiton and Dragon.

Ian’s knowledge and diving background is diverse to say the least and should lead to a very interesting, if unusual evening! Initially motivated by his desire to pursue underwater archaeology, Ian spent every spare moment diving the fantastic wrecks around the UK. Ian soon realised that to grow and develop his passion – technical diving was the way forward. It was during this period, and hampered by the British coastal weather, that cave diving came to the forefront. Eventually, Ian managed to cross his love for the overhead environment and human history, and started to explore flooded mines.

Ian became a Technical Instructor in 2005, teaching open circuit programs up to Trimix and in 2008 he ran his first program using side mount equipment. Joining the ranks of IANTD instructors in 2009, Ian then achieved his target of becoming a full cave diving instructor. What really motivates Ian is the desire to pass on his experience and knowledge to students so that they too can discover the intrigue and delights of the underwater world and believes that the wrecks, caves, mines and unexplored areas of the world are accessible to all divers with the correct training, equipment and knowledge.

He now teaches as a partner at Diving Matrix and runs open circuit technical courses both here in the UK, France, Malta, Azores, Spain and Mexico.

We hope to see you there!

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Aquanaut’s Expedition Galapagos just gets better and better!

GREAT NEWS … the Galapagos National Park Authorities have just changed the rules for divers and are now allowing 4 dives a day at Darwin & Wolf plus night diving at Wolf. This means that guests on Deep Blue will get even more fabulous dives at these spectacular islands … we do still have a couple of spaces if you are tempted! These are acknowledged as just about the best big fish dive sites on Earth!

This is an Exclusive charter on board Deep Blue diving Darwin and Wolf Islands

Extended 10nt itinerary!

The enchanted islands of the Galapagos offer a unique above and below water wildlife experience. These 19 or so isolated volcanic islands stretch across the equator in the Pacific Ocean 1000km from the Ecuadorian coastline and are the meeting place of two great oceanic currents, the cold water Humboldt from Antarctica and a warm equatorial current from the north. As a result, the nutrient rich waters support an amazing diversity of life, from the sea lions of Isabella to the whalesharks and hammerheads of Darwin and Wolf Islands. This is a unique environment where cold and warm water species are found together with the peak whale shark and hammerhead months being from May through to November.

Deep Blue is a 32 metre modern, purpose-built steel dive boat launched in 2004 with comfortable accommodation for 16 guests in 8 air conditioned cabins, all with private bathrooms. She is operated by a family owned local company with considerable experience and knowledge of the region and, over the years Scuba Tours have established a close working relationship with this vessel.

Deep Blue has a large aft dive deck with individual stations for each diver, with plenty of under seat storage for dive equipment. There are fresh water showers, two camera work tables and a rinse tank for photographers.

All dives are preceded by a thorough dive briefing and accompanied by a Divemaster and a National Park guide. Diving takes place from two Zodiac inflatable support boats which are easily accessed from the dive deck.

This is truly an epic trip. The diving in Galapagos is excellent all year round with opportunities to see large schools of sharks, sea lions, iguanas, turtles and rays of various types.

During the Galapagos winter, which is May to November, there is a concentration of nutrients in the water being driven to the northern island by the currents and your chance of seeing whalesharks is almost guaranteed if you travel to Darwin and Wolf Islands, an overnight passage from the Central islands. This has to be some of the best and most exciting diving in the world with huge schools of hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, dolphins and rays. At this time of year, the water in the Central Islands can be as low as 12 to 15 deg. C but in Darwin and Wolf Islands the water temperature may be 22 deg C. This is exciting and adventurous big fish diving at its best and currents can be strong, so you do need to be an experienced diver

ITINERARY

Thu 03Jul 1 Night Grand Hotel Guayaquil

Fri 04Jul Fly from Guayaquil to San Cristobal

Fri 04Jul 10 Nights on-board Deep Blue

Mon 14Jul Fly from San Cristobal to Quito

Mon 14Jul 1 Night Rio Amazonas Hotel Quito

Sample Itinerary

Thu Depart UK – Arrive Guayaquil or Quito and overnight in Hotel

Fri Flight to Galapagos and board Deep Blue. Afternoon check out dive at Isla Lobos and land visit to the Interpretation Centre

Sat AM North Seymour (2 Dives) | PM North Seymour (Land Visit)

Sun AM Wolf (2 Dives) | PM Wolf (1 Dive)

Mon AM Darwin (2 Dives) | PM Darwin (1 Dive)

Tue AM Darwin (2 Dives) | PM Darwin (1 Dive)

Wed AM Wolf (2 Dives) | PM Wolf (1 Dive)

Thu AM Roca Redonda (Isabela Island)| PM Punta Vicente Roca (Isabela Island)

Fri AM Cabo Marshall (Isabela Island) | PM Cabo Marshall (Isabela island)

Sat AM Cousin Rocks (Santiago Island) | PM Bartolome (snorkel with penguins)

Sun AM Gordon Rocks (Santa Cruz)| PM Isla Plazas (Santa Cruz)

Mon AM Galapaguera Cerro Colorado – (Land visit to see tortoises) – Disembark liveaboard for flight to Quito, arrive PM, transfer to hotel.

Tue AM homeward bound for UK.

Above itinerary is a planned itinerary dependent on weather conditions, captain’s discretion and approval by the Galapagos National Park authority and may be subject to change.

** It looks like the number of dives will be increased to 4 a day for 2013 but am waiting for notification from the National Parks…

COSTINGS – GUIDELINE

(Costs are not yet 100% confirmed for internal flights, transfers and hotels and are based on 2012/13)

This will cost from £4695 per person and includes 10 nights’ accommodation in a shared Lower Cabin, all meals and diving (as per the itinerary shown), internal flights from Ecuador to the Galapagos and 2 nights in Ecuador in a twin shared room on a bed and breakfast basis and all transfers.

Upgrade to an Upper Cabin is from £185 per person.

Not included:

International flights (2013 price with KLM £675 plus £400 taxes), Galapagos National Park Fee $100, Ingala Tax $10, Nitrox $100, Recompression Chamber Fee $35, Ecuador departure tax of approx US$31.50, gratuities and other expenses. (All subject to change).

There are 9 cabins on the boat but they are only licensed for 16 divers …

Upper Deck

– 4 Cabins (3 Twins + 1 Double)

Mid Deck

– 1 Cabin (Double)

Lower Deck

– 4 Cabins (Twins)

** Please note that this is our exclusive charter and whilst we will do our best to ‘room’ you with another single male/female on the trip this may not be possible. (but there is a ‘spare’ cabin’ which may be able to be used in these circumstances)

The usual deposit is £850 per person for this trip but with 2014 still being a long way off we are offering the following deposit arrangements:-

Initial Low Deposit

£350pp – due now to secure the place

Balance of Low Deposit

£500pp due 03rd July 2013

Interim Payment

£1000pp due 20th December 2013

Balance Due

20th March 2014

If you would like to discuss any aspect of this trip or would like to book on, please contact nick.dann@sky.com

Tel: 07847 893236

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Once you confirm your booking please note any subsequent change to names, or itinerary can only be done subject to the availability in the same class, fare code or room type. Changes may incur cancellation and administration fees or higher fares, any such increases will be passed on to the customer and are not covered under our general “price guarantee” as per our booking terms and conditions.

Please note that the cost of this holiday is subject to exchange rates and prices vary according to the Sterling/US Dollar exchange rate. We have calculated this using a rate of 1.6 and you have the choice of paying in full at any time before the balance payment and securing the rate of the day or if you wish to wait until the balance due date the rate will be re calculated at this time.