While the weather may have turned less than ideal on Sunday, Saturday’s Day Trippers managed to squeeze in a great day of diving at the north side of Inis Boffin. Breffni brought divers to Ooghnastripeach and Dun na hIonaine. These two sites offer a mix of wall and pinnacle dives, and the prolific marine life our divers have come to expect. Divers lunched in the Galley Cafe on the east end of Inis Boffin. Unfortunately, strong south westerlies meant the cancellation of Sunday’s intended Day Trip to Crump Island. However, our sheltered location afforded divers an excellent day on Sunday at our inshore boat diving sites. Our next Adventure Day Trip will depart from Cleggan on Saturday 10th July. Those looking to make a weekend of it can follow up on Sunday 11th July with our always epic, Streamstown Drift Dive. Call us on 095 43922 with your booking.
Snorkelling is a fantastic way of introducing the wonders of our ocean to non divers, many of whom will go on to undertake a Discover Scubadiving with us.
If you and yours; or non diving friends; visit Connemara in the summer, do have them explore the possibility of undertaking a Discover Snorkelling or Discover Scubadiving with us.
Drum roll please…. Congratulations to our newest PADI Divemaster, John Joe Daly (JJ). JJ completed his Divemaster course with us full time over the past six weeks, and was an absolute pleasure to have in the dive centre. We have no doubt that he will go on to become a fantastic PADI Instructor, as he is an exceptional role model for our divers. Many of you will meet JJ over the coming months as he will be working for us in the dive centre on weekends. Well done again JJ! Scubadive West’s Divemaster Internships can be started at any stage during the year, with participants choosing their rate of progression; some opt to undertake this course full time, while others attend on weekends. Interested candidates should contact us here for information.
The fine weather is set to continue and as always Scubadive West intends making the most of it. Boat diving is available this Friday at 10am and of course throughout the weekend. Saturday will see another very popular Adventure Day trip departing from Cleggan, and visiting wonderful sites off Friar Island and perhaps Inis Boffin. While Sunday’s Adventure Day Trip will depart from the dive centre and visit our newest dive sites near Crump Island. With the weather as it is, an island stop for lunch is almost a guarantee. These dive day trips are priced as per our daily boat dives, and spaces do remain. Call us on 095 43922 with your booking.
Sometimes everything just goes your way…The weekend past was a perfect example of this, and was excellent timing for our SCUBAPRO Diving Days. Our marquee stood proudly all weekend, unhindered by rain or wind. The sun shone brightly and warmly enough to permit picnics and much sunbathing. Oh, and of course the sea conditions were excellent affording those attending some excellent dives. Lest we forget it, truckloads of gleaming SCUBAPRO UWATEC gear available for FREE in a dive helped too. Scubadive West welcomed more than eighty divers on Saturday, and similar on Sunday, all eager to ‘try before a buy’ of brand new dive gear. SCUBAPRO happily obliged with their latest and greatest equipment. Particularly popular over the weekend were SCUBAPRO’s brand new X Force BCD, the super slick Seawing Nova fins and the always perfect Nova Scotia semi-dry wetsuit. These took up pride of place in the marquee, along with a huge selection of other items. All in attendance had the option to purchase the equipment for a very generous discount off the normal retail price. And, boy was this offer taken up! Many happy divers departed the dive centre on Sunday evening, with their latest equipment safely stowed in the boot. A real festival atmosphere prevailed throughout the weekend, with a busy schedule of boat diving, hot food on site and a massive BBQ on Saturday evening. PADI’s Educational Consultant, Vikki Batten was on hand throughout the weekend to answers all your relevant dive questions, and Sport Diver magazine regaled us with tales of their global dive adventures. Those interested got to find out more about PADI’s newest range of Tec Diving courses in an information forum on Saturday evening. Then took it one step further on Sunday, as Cillian Gray took them for a FREE Discover Tec dive in our cove. All in all, a wonderful weekend was had and we expect it to be a case of ‘same bat time, same bat place’, this time again next year! So here’s to another fantastic SCUBAPRO Diving Days.
We are opening up this weekend’s Island Dive Safari (19 & 20th June) to Day Trippers. Diving will take place from the Brazen Hussy, with Saturday’s diving taking place around Inis Boffin and Sunday’s around Inis Turk. The cost for each Day Trip is €98, this includes two dives and airfills (tanks provided if required). The weather forecast for the coming weekend is excellent so well worth a trip down to us. Minimum Advanced Openwater certification with recent Irish diving experience is required.
Our first Advanced Openwater Course for June kicked off on Friday afternoon. A filling tide and excellent viz made for an enjoyable Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure dive for the students. Saturday saw them hone their Boat Diving and Underwater Navigation skills in preparation for Sunday’s big day of diving. However, a change in the weather on Sunday limited our Adventure Dives to the Killary Fjord. Students undertook a very enjoyable Deep Dive to almost 30 metres on Inis Barna and got their first ‘taste’ of Enriched Air Nitrox on their afternoon Adventure Dive. Typically, when weather permits it, our Sunday afternoon dive for the Advanced Openwater Course is a Wreck Adventure Dive on the Julia T. But nobody was complaining as they got to hear, and experience the benefits of diving on Enriched Air Nitrox instead. Well done to John Kelly, Mark Mc Lean and Adam Bawer, our newly certified Advanced Openwater Divers.
It was also a busy weekend for Discover Scubadiving, with our private training cove continuing to amaze newcomers with its variety of marine life.
We will have boat diving next Monday and Tuesday, 14th & 15th June, for anyone available to dive. Dives will take place at 10am and 2pm. Call us on 095 43922 or info@scubadivewest.com to book.
The last bits of plankton have cleared from our cove, and conditions are really beautiful. All our dive computers read a consistent 13 oC throughout our weekend shore dives, and the reef is once again teeming with life. Cillian has been busy with his camera, and snapped some wonderful shots over the past few days. All of these photos were taken in our cove.
Don’t forget we are open daily, and offer shore and boat diving. So contact us with your booking: 095 43922 or email info@scubadivewest.com
Once upon a time in a land far, far west, there passed a weekend of great Adventure Day Trips. Divers travelled from far and wide to join in the excitement. The weather gods smiled upon our merry band of divers throughout the weekend and all was well. Plans had been hatched for two adventurous voyages aboard Scubadive West’s vessels; Saturday’s voyage departing from Cleggan Pier and Sunday’s leaving from the dive centre.
Saturday dawned warm but slightly dull. However, this would in no way deter our eager divers as they followed Breffni to Cleggan Pier, where their ‘chariot’ (namely, the ‘Marlin’) awaited.
Their first dive was at Friar Island, on a site called Malthoa. Friar Island offers spectacular wall dives, dramatic drop offs and a myriad marine species. Divers returned to the boat to be greeted by some welcome news; the sea was sufficiently calm to permit a lunchtime landing on High Island, an island that remains notoriously inaccessible for much of the year. Not only this, but those present were to enjoy a talk on the island’s extraordinary history. Local archaeologist, Michael Gibbons was amongst our divers and happy to share his wealth of knowledge. High Island is famed for its 7th century monastic settlement, which remains very much intact on the island’s south west side. Michael also guided our group on a cliff top walk. Gannets, guillemots and a peregrine falcon soared overhead, crisscrossing the island’s 80 acres. After an extended surface interval on High Island, divers returned to Friar Island for their second dive. This extensive wall dive was at the very western tip of the island.
Many of Saturday’s divers stayed on for Sunday’s Day Trip. Sunday’s Adventure Day Trip departed from the dive centre, and centred around the equally historic Crump Island. Our recently discovered dive site near Crump Island is proving one of our most popular so far. This site offers something for everyone, with an extremely lengthy wall pulsating with marine life. Sunday’s divers reported on curious male cuckoo wrasse accompanying them for the entire dive! The surface interval between Sunday’s dives took place on Crump Island. Breffni safely landed divers on the island before informing them of the island’s early Christian heritage. Their second dive of the day completed, our divers settled into the five mile journey back to the dive centre. However, this journey was not without excitement, as a pod of dolphins provided an enthusiastic escort!
The immense popularity of our Adventure Day Trips means we will continue to run them throughout the summer months. Our next Adventure Day Trips will take place on the weekend of June 26th & June 27th. Saturday’s trip will depart from Cleggan, while Sunday’s will depart from Scubadive West. Both trips are charged as per our local boat diving; so €70 for the day’s diving, with airfills and gear rental as per our 2010 Price List. Please note that a minimum of Advanced Openwater (or equivalent) certification is required for these trips. Our usual, local boat diving schedule will continue to run over these weekends; with departures at 10am and 2pm from the dive centre. These dives are suitable for anyone from Openwater Diver and upwards.
Dive Trips, Upcoming Events | admin June 28, 2010 | 
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