Jul
4
2010
Friday last saw a group of excited children arrive at Scubadive West, all eagerly anticipating the impending Snorkelling Camp. An introduction to the fish they could expect to see, was followed by a dash to the water; these guys and gals could not get in fast enough. Younger members of the group splashed around in the shallows, getting acquainted with the gear and being in the sea. The older children snorkelled over our house reef, before moving onto a ’snorkel relay’. We intend running further Snorkelling Camps this summer.
Dates are as follows: Mon 12th July; Mon 26th July; Mon 9th Aug; Fri 27th Aug
Cost per child is €30, with each session taking place from 12pm – 3pm. Contact us should you wish to book someone in.
Jul
2
2010
We have two spaces remaining on our 17 & 18th July Island Dive Safari. Divers spend two days diving off the islands of Inis Turk and Inis Boffin, with an overnight stay on Inis Turk. These islands offer the cream of cool water diving, with excellent visibility and myriad marine life. Steep walls, swim throughs, and stunning underwater vistas make for huge adventures. Cost per diver is €249 and includes: four offshore island dives, airfills (tanks if required), dinner and B&B on Inis Turk. Minimum Advanced Openwater certification with recent cold water diving experience is required. Call us on 095 43922 with deposit details of €125 to secure your place.
Jul
1
2010
Cillian Gray, Scubadive West’s PADI Tec Instructor, will run Discover Tec on Sunday 11th July, starting @ 10am. This half day experience will provide interested divers with the opportunity to experience Tec Diving before commiting to a full course. The experience will start with a briefing, and introduce divers to the fundamentals of tec diving and the opportunities for further training. This complete, Cillian will explain tec equipment configuration and principles of tec diving. Upon entering the water, participants will have the chance to become familiar with the gear, learn some valuable positioning skills, before proceeding to an openwater dive to a maximum depth of 10 metres. All the dives will take place in our private, seawater training cove.
All the tec equipment will be provided; including a twin set , stage bottle, regulators; and backplate, wing and harness. Divers will need their own drysuit/wetsuit, mask, fins etc…Cost per diver is €80. Prior booking is required. Call us on 095 43922 or email: info@scubadivewest.com
Jun
28
2010
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.
Jun
28
2010
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.
Jun
28
2010
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.
Jun
22
2010
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.
Jun
22
2010
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.
Jun
14
2010
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.
Jun
14
2010
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.
