Introduction

STOP PRESS... Training at Capernwray Saturday 2nd August 2008
STOP PRESS... TRY DIVE EVENT September 2008

If you are interested in SCUBA diving in York (no, not New York or York Road) and on the Yorkshire and North East coasts of England, then you have come to the right place! Scuba Diving, Sub Aqua, SCUBA or just plain diving what ever you wish to call it. This is the website of York Sub-Aqua Club (YSAC) We are branch number 50 of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), we are the original and oldest BSAC SCUBA diving club in York, and most of our diving takes place off the east coast, especially around the Farne Islands, Whitby and Bridlington Bay. However we love Scotland too! The one trip we do every year is Mull.

York Sub Aqua Club is 50 years old. Yes we have been training SCUBA divers for 50 years now. That is a lot longer than most of the SCUBA training establishments near us.

Recent trips have seen York BSAC diving at the Lake District, St Abbs, the Clyde, Red Sea, Gibraltar, French Riviera, Truk Lagoon, Palau, Mull, Plymouth, Weymouth, Scapa Flow, Anglesey, Gozo, Normandy and the Channel Islands.

The first York Sub Aqua Club SCUBA trip in 2008 took place in Palau. This is the third time the club have been to Palau. We have the Palau images on the Website now. The Palau team have collected 3000 plus pictures, don't know how they had time to dive??? The Palau pictures will certainly be worth a peek. The Palau dive team provided a slide show at the curry night. See the Curry night pictures.

The first UK trip took place at North Wales early in March, the plan was to dive Trefor Pier, Vivian and Dorothea, but the severe Gale force winds, stopped us diving the pier. We did dive Dorothea and Vivian.

Then early in April the club made our annual visit to the Lake District (you really ought to try the Lake District in March/April as there are no tourists, and its fab, and we have mostly had good weather) we always dive Wastwater on the Sunday and have Sunday lunch in the Screes pub, log fires and all that... This year we did Crummock Water, Buttermere and Wastwater. The weather was sunny but cold. There was snow on the mountain tops at Wasdale Head. The Lakes are certainly worth the effort. Lets hope the weather keeps up.

As the year goes on, more dive trips will be added. Most of July and August will see York Sub Aqua Club members diving at the Farne Islands or Bridlington. The scenic diving and wrecks in these areas are exceptional and we are exploring sites new to us in 2008. SCUBA diving is a passion within the club and we welcome any one from other agencies, be you from PADI (and York Sub Aqua Club has been training 10 years longer than PADI) SAA, NAUI, SSAC or anyone else who wishes to cross over and join us. We train all year round, in inland sites, mainly Capernwray and Blue Lagoon and at the pool at Archbishop Holgate School. Pool nights are on Tuesday, and members come along to swim and socialise afterwards at the club as well as train.

We usually have an exciting programme of dives, training and social events, unequaled by any other Dive Club in Yorkshire! (probably!) We are happy for new members to organise dives and if they don't have the experience then we will allocate a mentor.

The dismal summer last year, was not the best for diving, but as you will see from our trip reports we still got into the water as much as we could and we had decent weather for the annual Mull trip. The weather next year can only (surely) be better, so now is the time to start training for this years dive season. The winter months (October through March) are when we do much of our inland training in lakes and inland dive centres, giving new divers and trainees the chance to build on pool training started in September (York BSAC provides training throughout the year) before the main diving season begins. It's also an opportunity to get to know more of the existing club members. Yes, we do still go to Capernwray!

The club provides a lot of SCUBA diving training opportunities and new divers can qualify very quickly. But we make SCUBA diving the priority. If you make the time and have the enthusiasm, you will have plenty of chances for diving with York Sub Aqua Club! Look through these pages, give us a call and arrange to come down to the club house for a chat. Click the Try Dive tab on the left hand side.

Oh and did we mention that York BSAC training runs throughout the year. We have a pool (excuse the pun) of BSAC qualified Instructors waiting to take on new recruits for pool training and then on to Open Water training, even in the summer season.

Just a note on the main areas that we dive in, The Farne Islands are getting better and better, not only do we dive the main islands, but we are moving further a field. About 6 miles south of the Farne Islands, are a group of wrecks, Acclivity, Nideleven, Buka and Lefonia (which may also be known as the Stone Wreck). These are excellent wrecks and worth an annual visit. The Lefonia provided us with near 30 metres visibity on a couple of seasons. There is also a wreck called the Gaelic (Gallic) but we have yet to find it. Last year at the Farne Islands we dived the Coryton, only 9 metres deep and with 3 big boilers, one of which is a swim through and it has a toilet cubicle all intact. And theres plenty of brass and copper on it. (Dont worry it will stay there). It is ideal for trainees. The Somali also is different on just about every dive due to the salvaging that is going on.

Bridlington is just got to be one of the best areas in the UK for wreck diving. Due to the fairly flat bottom in the bay, the limit is normally how far out your boat will take you. There are 4 submarines in the bay alone, UC39, UC75, UB107 and UC47. We start our new wreck divers on the Longbenton, which still has the propeller on a fairly intact rear section, that still includes the emergency steering gear and guard rails. Then the engine is laid flat for perfect inspection, all that in under 20 metres. Last year the HMS Falmouth was good too. The list of dive able wrecks in the bay is impressive, just from memory you have, Cadmus, Biesbosch, Seistan, Chloris, Picador SNA-111, Tredegar Hall, Tugston, Dryade, Feltre, Staxton Wyke, Diana, Norfolk Coast, Big Stack, and to cap it all you have the LV83 or Lightvessel. The tower rises 14 metres from the seabed. Its a long way out but and impressive dive.

And finally... Divers come in all shapes and sizes, and from diverse backgrounds. We found this handy guide to the varieties of diver you may encounter on this link.... read and be educated!

The club RIB and club members ready for a days diving on the wrecks out in Bridlington Bay:

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Website Updated 4th July 2008