York
Sub-Aqua Club is currently planning Try Dive 2012 sessions. If you are interested
then please click the link to find out more.
YSAC
Background
Want to learn to SCUBA dive 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.
We have been teaching people who want
to learn to SCUBA dive in York for the last 50 years.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 onthis
link.... read and be educated!
The
club RIB and club members ready for an afternoons diving at Seahouses:
