May
15
2012
Beautiful views
This beautiful uninhabited Island marks the end of an ancient pilgrimage trail. The view back to the Mayo shoreline is dominated by Croagh Patrick, where it was believed that the ’Saints Road’ ran along the seabed from that holy summit to Caher Island. This was the final stage of a 60 mile trail from Ballintubber, through Aghagower Croagh Partick, Kilgeever and a church site on the shore before the often treacherous trip offshore to Caher Island.
This small small slip of land 6 miles off the coast of Mayo holds many fascinating treasures including the simple beauty of a tiny, ancient church in ruins with untouched early christian crosses dotted around, forming an inner and then an outer enclosure.
Approaching Caher Island
We had fantastic weather conditions for our first Adventure Day Trip to Caher Island. Two stunning dives on Inishturk Island with a lunchtime exporation of Caher Island.
the 7th Century Church
Exploring the engraved early Chrisitian crosses against the stunning backdrop of Connemara’s rugged mountains and golden beaches …. a nice way to spend your surface intrerval!
Ancient artefacts
Connemara’s resident field archaeologist was with us to give a fascinating and informative talk.
The island is littered with artefacts…… and we were reminded of the local belief that ”the sea itself guards the tiny island and “will rise up against anyone foolish enough to take anything away.”
Hanging lamp, white quartz boulders and a cursing stone!
Our 2012 Adventure day trip season is off to a great start! …. with new ground being visited, stunning dive sites, lunchtime Archaeology exploration and beautiful scenery!
We have added more dates and new locations:
in addition to the rarely visited High Island, Friar Island Crump Island and Inishdeigl we plan to visit Inishshark this season and our first trip Caher Island was so popular that we have now scheduled more trips.
Call or email us now for further information
095 43922
May
1
2012
Time out!
John Carlin PADI Regional manager and Sven Kolczak SUUNTO UK, taking time out to sample the super diving at Scubadive West’s first SUUUNTO Fourth Element test weekend.
Our inaugral SUUNTO Fourth Element Test weekend was a great success with divers travelling from all over the country to try out the great diving gear available. All present enjoyed the shore diving with abundant marine life and great visibility. Many explored the 60 footer wreck, with it’s purpose built, cool Suunto deco station. There were great boat dives on offer all weekend, with reports of great viz, congers and a huge thornback ray sighted at Doonee Beacon.
There were great giveaways too, with Suunto rucksacks, hats and water bottles for plenty of lucky divers, and a PADI on tour t-shirt and pair of Fourth Element hot foot socks for everybody that attended!… The chicken curry was popular too!
Great Weather on the West coast
"Abundant marine life on the shore dive".....
……And out on the boat dives too!
Matt from SUUNTO found a novel way to keep warm in the breeze, the count was actually 60 PADI t-shirts! Well done. The Fourth Element Halo 3D are much better way to stay warm though!
Soo many to try out!
Well done Sebastian
Sebastian Jurek sucessfully completed his PADI Divemaster training on Sunday. pictured here (right) being congratulated by Instructor Breffni Gray (middle) and PADI International’s Regional manager John Carlin (left).
Sebastian is well known to divers as he spent many days assisting with Instructors on training dives
and helping out in the centre, he is also a very helpfull as a Polish – English translator.
Gratulacje!
The new cool place to hang out
Anemones at the wreck
Sponges, Anemones, Urchins and plenty of fish life on the boat dives
Happy shore divers!
New Open Water Divers
Well done also to Christopher and Patrick who qualified as PADI Open Water divers on Friday.
We hope to see you again soon for some more great dives!
A huge thank you to Sven, Matt and Craig from SUUNTO, Jim Standing from Fourth Element, and John Carlin from PADI. The event was a huge success with a great attendance of divers from all over the country, for some it was their first time diving with us but all agreed with Arnie’s quote… ’I'll be back!’
Apr
27
2012
How to do some great diving, try new equipment and win prizes THIS weekend!
This weekend you have the chance to try lots of shiny diving equipment for free plus meet the manufacturers and ask them all sorts of questions. We have someone from PADI who will be able to answer all of your training related questions and will even give you a FREE PADI t-shirt.
Suunto are going to let you test dive any model of their diving computers, explain exactly how they work and you could take part with them in some underwater demonstrations!
Fourth Element will make sure you have an amazingly cool dive without feeling the cold by test diving their state of the art under suits. Not only that, we have a limited number of Fourth Element Hotfoot Socks to give away on the day to make sure your toes are warm and toasty!
There is a daily raffle prize giveaway of some cool Suunto prizes and to enter you simply need to dive on the day with a Suunto computer. If you ‘check in’ using Facebook on the day and show us we will give you an extra raffle ticket and double your chances of winning!
We are running a fun photography competition for this event. To be in with a chance of winning some Fourth Element, PADI and Suunto prizes you need to take and submit your best picture at this event (above or below the surface). The pictures will be uploaded to an online gallery and a team of judges will pick the best picture and announce the winner on Facebook.
Great dives, shiny equipment, raffles, competitions and prizes. What are you waiting for? Contact us to book a place and/or to find out more.
Apr
23
2012
Scubadive West, Idyllic location
Our first ever Test Weekend with SUUNTO and Fourth Element is just a few days away now! Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th April. They will have all their latest and greatest dive equipment available for YOU to try out in a FREE SCUBA dive with the option to purchase the preferred items for a very generous discount off normal retail price. There will be a full range of popular items such as the SUUNTO Hel O2 dive computers, Fourth Element HALO 3D undersuits and many more items!
John Carlin PADI International’s Regional Manager will be onsite all weekend, to meet and greet, organise free competitions and hand out free stuff! Hopefully we’ll get him in diving again too!
Feargus Callaghy from Free Dive Ireland, (Ireland’s only Apnea Academy Instructor) will also be attending. Feargus is an acomplished free diver and an enthusistic Instructor. We are very fortunate to have him attending on Saturday to give tips, a free diving demonstration and a talk on this exciting sport. Who better to help you put SUUNTO’s ’free dive’ mode to the test? Maybe you fancy a leisurely snorkel with silent underwater swims through the beatiful kelp forests, or would you like the challenge of a free dive down a shot line to the deck of the ’60 footer’ ? Depths of 10 metres plus.
Boat dives departing at 10am and 2pm each day
Call us now at 09543922, or email to info@scubadivewest.com for further information and to secure your place!
Also visit our facebook SUUNTO Test Event page
https://www.facebook.com/events/264721926941526/
and click ‘going’ !
Apr
14
2012
Click on the hyperlink Diving The Julia T for a spectacular video tour, filmed and edited by Andrew Stuart while diving with Scubadive West.
Apr
2
2012
Devin Proposing to Olivia
It may be due to the exceptionally warm Spring weather or the great diving conditions at the moment.. but love is definitely in the air, and underwater too!
While on an Orientation dive with us recently Devin proposed to his girlfriend Olivia!
Congratulations to both of you, wishing you the best from all at Scubadive West!
Apr
1
2012
Gail enjoying the wreck dive
Big congratulations to Gail, Fergus, Sean & Rayne who completed their Advanced Open Water Course over the weekend. Conditions were ideal with 20 to 30 meters visibility on the Deep & Wreck dives today.
Rayne at the wall at Thany Beag during the deep dive
Sean & Fergus
Rayne, Fergus & Sean
Safety stop at Thany Beag
Group on Julia T
Wreck Dive
Mar
30
2012
Divers exploring the Julia T
Diving conditions are excellent here in Connemara, divers enjoyed crystal clear 20 metres visibility on the Julia T wreck yesterday.
Mar
29
2012
Some photos of the beautiful conditions we are still enjoying. The forecast is giving slightly lower air temperatures but still no sign of rain and very light winds so we are expecting the crystal clear conditions to continue through the weekend.
Boat and shore diving is available at 10am and 2pm. Call or email to book now!
Heading out for a night dive
- Sunset over Glassillaun
Crystal clear viz
Calm out to sea
Mar
26
2012
Weekend Warriors
The weekend past saw many divers take advantage of the excellent diving conditions and our great value 4 boat dives and 3 air fills, including optional free shore night dive, for just €130.