Seriously SCUBA

Lovely chilly winter morning. Water temp was 7 degrees while the air never rose above freezing point, brr

Had a pleasent dive on the Alastor, but was very glad for the cup of tea at the end!

The weekend of November 15/16th saw the inaugural Eurotek conference and banquet.

The weekend was a resounding success with top technical divers from all over the world flying in to attend & give talks on all aspects of technical diving.

Dr Simon Mitchell gave a number of talks on medical aspects of diving which were delivered in a unique manner with many interesting slides & videos. Other speakers included Kevin Gurr from VR Technologies, Evan Kovacs the acclaimed underwater videographer, Pete Mesley from New Zeland gave a very interesting talk on the Mikhail Lermontov. The wreck of the HMS Victoria was presented in fantasic Hi Def  by Eduardo Pavia & Danny Huyge.

It was a great chance to hear a new presentation from Jeff Cornish & Mark Dixon on the wrecks of the North Channel especially as yours truely featured in one of the slide

Our tablemate for the banquet & someone who's work I have had admired for many years, TeresaTelus, gave a talk on the wrecks of Truk Lagoon.

The black tie banquet was a fantastic event, the "Irish table" was joined by Helen Rider, a very lovely cave diver and  partner of Martyn Farr, as mentioned, Teresa Telus also provided us with great company and conversation.

Richie Kohler, star of Deep Sea Detectives was also in attendence at the conference & was an incredibly nice guy and was kind enough to stop for a photo

This past week found Stephen based in Kinsale after been asked to work on a documentary on the Lusitania. The brief was that Stephen & 2 other divers would be on standby incase the ROV which was surveying the wreck got entangled in the many nets which festoon the wreck.  It was an interesting week based on the 42' Interceptor  "Seahunter" & working with cameramen Dan Stevenson + Steve Brown.

Stephen joined the "Darkstar" team of deep technical divers from England on a week long expedition around the Irish North Channel on board the Loyal Watcher. They only got a couple of dives in on the Irish coast before the summer weather brought some horrendous gales forcing the expedition to the West coast of Scotland in search of some new marks. It wasn't a bad week, a bit disapointing that the weather didn't hold out but that's the risk you run with Irish summers. Wrecks dived included HMS Boniface, The Flavia & Lairds Castle.

Monday 17th March found us in Ballycastle boarding the boat to take us to HMS Drake & SS Lochgary. We were running late because Jonny couldn't get out of bed, but no matter we were still in time to catch the tides. It was a flat calm & sunny trip over to our 1st dive, the HMS Drake. This wreck resembles a scrap yard much more than a battleship now but it still has many interesting features not least of which are the 13" guns or the many shells still on the wreck.

A stop on Rathlin Island for tea & sanwhiches was followed by a dive to the SS Lochgarry. Always an impressive dive it didn't dissapoint this time either. Visibility was a wee bit down but with the weather we have had this year it is hardly surprising.

We had a nice relaxing swim around it before heading back to the shot line for our ascent. It seems to have suffered a bit more damage over the winter, but further dives will tell the tale.