Monday to Saturday - 10:00 to 17:30
Sunday - closed

There will be no late opening on Fridays.

We will resume our usual opening hours from early April 2009.

Scubapro Glide 1000 BCD - size small - only used about 6 times - £150

12 litre dumpy cylinder - out of test but good condition - £75

15 litre nitrox cylinder - tested until Sept. 09 but out of O2 cleaning - £100

Typhoon Nexus Membrane drysuit - size XL 11 boot - new neck seal - £100

Seac Membrane drysuit - size L 9 boot - new neck seal £120

Seac Membrane drysuit - size M 8 boot - £120

- 232 bar 3 litre pony cylinder - no test - £30

- Scubapro Glide 1000 BCD - size small and only used about 6 times -
excellent condition - £150

If you are interested in either of these items, then get in touch with us in the shop.

If you missed Tony's informal chat and audience on Tuesday 26th August, you missed a treat.

Tony is a man with some tales to tell, and he did just that, keeping his audience of over 40 Adventure Club members and guests rapt for over an hour and a half.

As a fresh young man in the Royal Navy, Tony decided he wanted to be a diver - in his words "Nothing else will do. Non-negotiable."

Following tales of early his Royal Navy training as a diver and bomb-disposal man, Tony went on to detail how he managed to be strung up for a "near mutiny" and as a punishment, was sent to a far-flung Indian Ocean island archipelago for three months to help clear mines left over from the second world war.

The island held a strategic airstrip and was therefore mined to prevent the enemy taking the islands.

Tony fondly reminisces about his time is a tropical paradise, which was meant to be a punishment duty.

Less fond are his memories of flying down there in an RAF Hercules transport aircraft - hardly club class!

The locals were also pleased to see the British bomb-disposal teams due to the fact that once the controlled
explosions had taken place in the sea, the immediate area was littered with thousands of dead fish, an unfortunate consequence of the blast, but one warmly received by the local fisherman who had an easy time scooping up boatloads of fish in the easiest catches they ever had.

Not every tale was as sun-filled though as Tony recounted tales of his time in the Falklands War of the early eighties.

Sent to the conflict as part of the Royal Navy's Fleet Clearance Diving Team, Tony's job with that of his colleagues, was to defuse and dispose of enemy ordinance that had failed to explode.

One such bomb was a 1,000lb British Mk17 bomb (yes British - we sold them to the Argentinians years before and then they dropped them on us).

The bomb had smashed through the magazine on HMS Argonaut and was lying amongst Sea Cat missiles. It took seven days to properly dispose of the bomb after defusing it, all the while, the war continuing unabated.

Tony gave graphic accounts of the loss of HMS Antelope, and also the RFAs Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram.

Some of Tony's photos form the time are truly amazing - fighter aircraft just feet above British ships with small arms fire trying to bring them down.

There was some humour though, with the return of the team to the UK. The "top brass" all received medals and gongs for largely doing nothing, while the men "at the sharp end" received little recognition.

The CO, not unsurprisingly, was not amused.

Beyond the navy, Tony recounted his time as a commercial diver in the North Sea, spending months in saturation with daily shifts of six hours at the bottom of the sea working on oil rigs.

Tony explained what it is like to spend months enclosed in a small bell with seven other blokes and some of the idiosyncrasies of life under the sea.

For those that were there to hear Tony's tales, they may never look at a loo in quite the same way again …

Not for the faint-hearted!

I'm sure that there's far more for Tony to tell and we'd love to have him back to tell more tales of his life as a diver.

If you can't wait for that or missed the evening, Tony has a book "Diver" where he tells of life both as a Royal Navy diver and also afterwards in the commercial world.

The book is just £9.95 as is the accompanying DVD, but if you buy them together, the pair comes in at only £14.95.

Each of the books are signed by Tony himself, but we only have a few left.

Thanks to Tony Groom for spending the evening with us.

For details of more Adventure Club events, check the club forum at www.seriousaboutadventure.co.uk.

Well, we all know the scenario, don't we?

Sat in the shop, minding our own business, when the front door "bing-bongs" and a couple of likely looking lads come up the stairs.

"Any vans you want to sell mate?" they ask. Or,

"Any scrap metal you wanna get rid of?"

I'm sure you know where we are coming from.

Well, just lately, we have had quite a lot of stuff "requisitioned" and "purloined" in our efforts to build new structures and platforms and the downstairs kit room has been awash with metalwork, fenders, buoys and all manner of useful stuff.

Thanks to Mike, Claire, Jezz and Brian to name but a few who have really excelled themselves in obtaining useful stuff for us recently.

We hate to think what your garages and garden sheds must look like, never mind the attic!

Ellen Powell completed her Open Water Diver course with instructor Colin McAdams and becomes a landmark student!

To mark the occasion of being the 1000th student to complete a dive course with us, Ellen receives a shop voucher for £50.

Congratulations to Ellen and we hope the £50 voucher comes in handy!

It is hoped that the next issue of Sportdiver magazine will have a response from the military - the magazine's editor Mark Evans is actively pursuing the Royal Navy for a response from them, so look out for next month's issue for any further developments.

The course lasts one day and involves classroom theory and then a practical session mixing different nitrox mixes varying from the common 32% and 36% mixes up to 70% and 80% deco. mixes.

The course costs £140 for non-club members or £126 for Adventure Club members.

The course cost includes the DSAT Gas Blender manual, nitrox mix CD and certification.

The pre-requisite for this course is nitrox diver.

The course will run over the following dates:-

13th/14th September

4 open water dives at NDAC Chepstow

The PADI Deep Diver course consists of four open water dives where you will learn all about the theory and techniques which will equip you to dive up to 40 deep.

The course covers equipment considerations, deep diving theory and gas consumption considerations as well as dive techniques and practices required for diving beyond 30m.

The Deep Diver course costs £175 for non-club members or £157.50 for Adventure Club members.

Don't forget that this course counts towards the prestigious PADI Master Scuba Diver rating - known as "the black belt in scuba diving."

Earn this rating by being a PADI Rescue Diver (with EFR), 5 PADI Specialty ratings and 50 logged dives.

If you need a Rescue or EFR qualification, then we also have these courses running in October.

If you would like to sign up for the Deep Diver course, then just call us or pop into the shop to collect your course materials and pay £100 deposit.

Please also bear in mind that there will be £15 entry fee per day into Chepstow and also B&B costs (approximately £40 per person).

Both are now available in the shop if you want to see what's been printed.

Effectively, there's almost half a page about reaction to the closure of Horsea Island Dive Centre, so it's worth a look.

But that's no reason to just go home or go shopping is it?

We can now offer a range of great activities that don't depend on the weather quite so much.

Here's a few ideas to get you going …

Boat dive cancelled?

Get your dive kit and go for a dive at our new inland dive site. Check with us for details of where it is and also to get your entry ticket. At least you can get a dive in year-round!

Or, how about a kayak or canoe taster session? Lasting either a half or full day, Adventure College Kayak can take you for some serious fun on the water.

Call them on 02392 691414 for details of what's on offer. Short notice sessions may also be available too.

Alternatively, Chichester Watersports, at the site of our new open water site, can offer waterskiing, wakeboarding, windsurfing and much more "on-water" activities.

Check out their website at www.chichesterwatersports.co.uk for more details.

With Open Water Courses, Advanced Courses, Rescue Courses, new dive sites to prepare, NAS pools, regular diving off Wightdiver and more still, we also saw two new PADI IDC Staff Instructors join the TDC ranks in July.

Congratulations to Hellen Armstrong and Tim Baker who pored over evaluation videos and compared scores with our Course Director Vernon Vas to successfully pass their IDC Staff course.

They will now be looking for victims, er, sorry, volunteers for IDCs later this year and early next, so if you are at DM level now and are thinking of maybe turning your hobby into a career, then Tim and Hellen may well be helping you achieve that aim!

Here are the current benefits:-

- free air fills
- 10% discount off nitrox fills
- 10% discount in the shop, TDC and Kayak
- £5 off TDC organised Wightdiver trips
- 10% discount on Dive, Kayak, Canoe, Powerboat and Sailing courses
- £25 max full kit hire cost per day -dive or kayak
- Free use of Sunday night pool session
- Club Night - Last Tuesday of every month @ Compass Rose pub, Anchorage Park
- Regular guest speakers at Club nights
- Regular diving and non diving social events
- Club Member discount on all events/ trips
- Regular Member only events
- Club only forum

Membership of the club is just £10 per month for individuals or £20 per month for families.

The guest speaker for August (26th) is Tony Groom, an ex navy diver who will be telling stories and reminiscing about his days as both a military and commercial diver.

Tony has loads of great stories to tell, so this will be a fascinating and funny evening.

For more details about the club and to receive an application form, just call in to the shop or e-mail at club@seriousaboutadventure.co.uk

Well, we have been in contact with the Royal Navy to try and get more information, and this is what they tell us.

Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of 2nd July on the Royal Navy’s decision concerning the closure of HorseaIsland to civilian divers.

The Horsea Island Diving Centre (HIDC) was formed by Andark Diving & Watersports (Andark) out of a partnership with Flagship 10 years ago. The aim of the HIDC was to utilise spare capacity at the Royal Navy’s HorseaIsland diving facility. An increase in the requirement for Service diver training and a Security Assessment resulted in decision not to allow regular civilian access to the site.

You may wish to be aware that Andark Diving & Watersports have been kept informed of the review process. They were made aware, verbally, in October 2007 that there was a possibility that their contract with Flagship may not be renewed. On the 5 March 2008 Andark were formally informed that the contract would not be renewed, but they were also made aware that a three month extension beyond 31 March 2008 could be agreed. They were informed by letter on 23 June 2008 that the contract extension, which restricted their usage of the site, has now expired.

I am not at liberty to discuss the specifics of any security reviews undertaken by the Royal Navy, but as you will understand the Royal Navy primary consideration is the security of its personnel and this is reflected in this decision.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Kelsall
Navy Command HQ Pol Sec
MP 1-4, Leach Bldg,
WhaleIsland,
Portsmouth PO2 8BY

So, that’s what the Royal Navy say about it.

Sadly, we are not able to get any more detail on what exactly the security issue is.

In the meantime, we are lobbying via the local press, diving magazines (see this and next month’s “Sportdiver” magazine), local MPs and other interested parties as well as the Royal Navy to get this decision reversed.

You can help with this.

We have a template letter which you can download and then send off to anyone and everyone who you think will be able to help open up Horsea to civilian divers again.

You can download it by clicking here.

Your local MPs in the area are shown below, so please feel free to download the letter and send it to them:-

Portsmouth South
Mike Hancock

Portsmouth North
Sarah McCarthy-Fry

Havant
David Willetts

Fareham
Mark Hoban

East Hampshire
Michael Mates

Winchester
Mark Oaten

Chichester
Andrew Tyrie

The good news is that we have located and secured the use of an alternative open water dive site at Westhampnett Lake, Chichester, only about 20 minutes drive from the dive centre.

This is the location where our sister company Adventure College Kayak conduct their canoeing and kayaking sessions, so we are pleased to co-locate with them to conduct parts of our open water training.

We are currently constructing and installing training platforms in the lake for our sole and exclusive use, so we will have a first class facility much closer to home than most other local dive centres, some of whom are going as far as Swanage, Portland or even Vobster Quay for their open water diver courses.

In the next few weeks, we hope to have two platforms in place, one of which will be some 5m x 4m with ascent lines and at just the right depth too – perfect for training!

What about those of you who just want a dip to get wet or practice skills/try equipment out?

Watch this space as we will shortly be introducing a voucher/ticket system so regular TDC customers will be able to exclusively use the facilities we have put in place. Only TDC ticket holders will be able to use the lake’s underwater facilities for diving.

More news on this in next month’s newsletter.

The weekend sees a range of interesting and stimulating exhibits, displays and attractions all of which open up the world of marine archaeology.

TDC will be there with a Try Dive pool, giving budding divers a chance to experience the underwater world.

There will also be an Adventure College stand with kayaking and canoeing opportunities.

Admission to the event is completely free and opening times are from 10:00am to 4:30pm.

For more information - click here.

You all put in a lot of hard work and all your efforts deserved the result yesterday.

Good luck wherever you end up teaching diving!

Nick

We have some great reductions and deals to mark the occasion as well as a prize draw which will all run from Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th May.

Here's what's on offer:-

FREE prize draw - answer three dive-related questions and submit your entry.
1st prize - pair of Atomic Split Fins (worth £100)
2nd prize - South Coast Shipwrecks book - signed by the author, Dave Wendes (worth £25)

Divezilla - we have cleared out the kit store, old stock boxes and everywhere else we have been hoarding stuff and it's all up for grabs. No prices, just make us an offer and it's yours! There's regulator bits, mask bits, fin bits, bits of stuff, boxes, baskets and loads more. Come and have a root around and you never know what you might find ...

Reductions - everything in stock is reduced:-

Wetsuits - selected suits are half price
BCDs - up to £70 off
Crocs shoes - 30% off
Fins - 25% off
Masks - 25% off
Everything else not previously reduced - 10% off

Courses - all courses booked during the above period are reduced by 5%

Birthday Cake! - We will have some birthday cake and some drinkies for everyone who calls in over the 10th and 11th May, so please come and celebrate with us and mark the occasion.

We hope to see you this weekend.

Nick and Hellen

Monday to Thursday - 09:30 to 17:30
Friday - 09:30 to 19:00
Saturday - 09:30 to 17:30
Sunday - 10:00 to 16:00

John, along with other local divers made a significant contibution to the British Sub Aqua Club and Southsea Branch achievements over many years. John is very happy to share his recollections of events spanning many years of diving here on the south coast.

SOME LOCAL DIVING HISTORY

By E John Towse

- An outline of personal, local and Southsea BSAC connections over the years;
- A 1st & 2nd World War Hero;
- The early links between, Scapa Flow and Portsmouth ;
- A touch of the first MARY ROSE involvement;
- The Royal Naval Physiological Laboratory - Deep Saturation Diving experiments;
- A retirement safari, “MARY GLOAG” - Portchester to the Scillies;
- The late 19th century fast Torpedo Boat Destroyer wrecks.

Date - Wednesday 2nd April 2008

Venue - Southsea Sub-Aqua Club, Fort Widley, Portsdown Hill Road, Portsmouth, PO6 3LS

Doors open 8.00pm - please get yourself a drink and be seated by 8.30pm.

Please call the shop if you would like to attend so that I can get an idea of numbers (and make sure the bar is well stocked!).

If you know of anyone else who would like to attend please also let them know.

Peak Performance Buoyancy - £99

19th April
31st May

Fine-tune your buoyancy, reduce the amount of weight you dive with and adjust your position in the water all helping to reduce your air consumption and make your dive more comfortable and pleasant.

Enriched Air Nitrox - £89

7th April

Extend your dive times by increasing the amount of oxygen in the air your breathe whilst diving. A classroom based course that takes only an evening to complete. certifies you to use Nitriox mixes up to 40%.

Dry Suit - £125

20th April

Learn how to use a dry suit safely so that you can dive in cooler waters, thus extending your dive season.

Navigation - £125 - new date

19th April

Unlock the secrets of underwater navigation using both natural navigation techniques and also using compasses.

Search and Recovery Diver - £175 - new date

31st May/1st June

During the course of four open water dives, learn how to locate and recover lost items on the sea bed. Covers the use of search patterns and underwater lifting devices, such as lift bags.

With the new dive season rapidly approaching, now is the time to enhance your dive skills in readiness.

Just call the shop to book - a £100 deposit (or the course cost if less) secures your space.

We have arranged for Dave Wendes to give us an insight into Wreck Hunting on Wednesday 27th February - 7.00pm.

Dave Wendes is one of the most respected wreck hunters and divers in the UK and most of his exploits have been around the South Coast and in particular around the Isle of Wight.

He is responsible for finding and exploring a lot of the wrecks we dive and he is coming to talk about his experiences and techniques.

He also has a book on sale at the moment and there will be an opportunity to purchase the book and have it signed on the night. It is a fantastic book, full of lots of photos of the wrecks and details on how he found them, what they had as cargo and where you can find them now as a diver.

It is free so pop along for what will be an interesting chat.

Due to the number of you expressing an interest in attending this, the talk will be held at Southsea BSAC at Fort Widley (on top of Portsdown Hill).

The talk will start at 7pm and there will also be a bar available for a drink or two afterwards.

Many thanks to Southsea BSAC for making their excellent facility available.

Monday to Saturday - 10:00 to 17:30
Sunday - closed

There will be no late opening on Fridays.

We will resume our usual opening hours from early April 2008.

We have a number of trips lined up for 2008, ranging from Dahab, to Norway and then a fantastic liveaboard over the Christmas period.

We will be off to Dahab on 14th September for a week's relaxation and diving with our friends at Club Dahab. During the week we will be visiting all the best dive sites in dahab, including The Canyon, El Bells, Blue Hole, Lighthouse, Gabr el Bint, Golden Blocks and The Caves to name but a few.

All the diving is included in the cost of the trip, which starts at £589 staying at the Ganet Sinai (club member rate).

For more details, click here.

If you are looking for something a little more challenging, then how about Norway?

We will be running a liveaboard trip there in early October and will be diving some superb, large and intact wrecks, with depths from 10m to 40m+.

This will be a great opportunity to dive some spectacular wrecks and also enjoy the stunning scenery that the Norwegian Fjords can offer.

The trips costs £975 all inclusive. For more details, click here.

Our final trip of 2008 will be a superb Christmas liveaboard on the Whirlwind out of Sharm El Sheikh.

We will be following a Northern Red Sea itinerary and will be diving both wrecks and reefs, with sites such as Thistlegorm, Dunraven, Carnatic, Abu Nuhas, Ras Mohammed and Shark & Yolanda on the menu.

The trip includes all flights, transfers, 6 nights aboard Whirlwind with all diving on tanks and weights basis (air) and including up to 5 dives a day and all meals and soft drinks. The last night will be spent in a 4 or 5 star hotel on B&B basis and is included in the package price.

Departing on 20th December, we will return on 27th December, so we will be spending Christmas on the high seas!

The all inclusive cost of this trip is £1,050 per person based on two sharing a twin bedded en-suite cabin.

For more details, click here.

It has taken us some time, but we are now able to unveil what we have been working on during the latter part of last year.

A new company has been formed called Adventure College Ltd.

This new company will operate a number of wholly owned subsidiary companies, and these are:-

• The Dive Connection Ltd
• Wightdiver Ltd
• Adventure College (Kayak) Ltd
• 1st Responder Ltd

In case you are wondering who will be doing what and what changes (if any) you can expect, here's the rundown on the new setup:-

The Dive Connection Ltd

www.tdc-dive.co.uk

Scuba Diving courses, trips and equipment sales and service.

"OK, but will TDC be changing from the setup that we're used to" you may ask.

The answer is "no".

Business will carry on exactly as usual with Nick and Steve in the dive centre and with all our instructors and Divemasters carrying on exactly as before.

TDC will continue to operate as it has always done and you will notice nothing different to what you are used to.

Wightdiver Ltd

www.wightdiver.co.uk

Boat charter, diving trips and non-diving excursions.
RYA powerboat and sailing courses. Associated RYA theory courses.

Wightdiver will operate exactly as it has done since we took ownership of the boat and company in 2005.

The boat will be available for whole-boat charter and will also offer single place dives through TDC as it has always done.

Wightdiver will continue to be skippered primarily by Steve Dimmer, with the assistance of other skippers such as Steve Nash throughout the season.

One change that is that Wightdiver is now an RYA Training Centre, which means that we will be able to offer RYA Powerboat courses, Sailing courses, Navigation courses and VHF radio courses.

1st Responder Ltd

www.1stresponder.co.uk

First aid courses, including HSE First Aid at
Work and Care for Children courses.

1st Responder has always been in our portfolio of companies, but now we are able to expand what we can offer due to having a full time first aid instructor to head-up the business.

A warm welcome then to Angela St Clair who comes to 1st Responder with a wealth of first aid instruction experience.

In addition to offering the standard one day "appointed person" first aid course through Emergency First Response, Angela is able to teach the HSE First Aid at Work four day course and two day refreshers.

In addition, 1st Responder will now also be able to offer EFR Care for Children courses, AED Training and other associated first aid courses.

Courses can be delivered in our two new dedicated classrooms (of which more later) or in the workplace, which makes first aid training very flexible and convenient.

You can e-mail Angela at : mail@1stresponder.co.uk

Adventure College Ltd

www.adventurecollege.co.uk

Kayak and canoe courses, trips, excursions and sales and service.

This is the "new kid on the block" and is an exciting venture into the world of kayak and canoe.

Adventure College can be found in Unit 19 - just across the estate from TDC, so next time you visit the dive centre, pop across and have a look round the new unit.

Adventure College will be headed up by Chris Perks, who has extensive experience in teaching both kayaking and canoeing.

Chris and his team will be able to offer a range of approved BCU (British Canoe Union) courses from one star through to three star and beyond.

In addition, various kayaks, canoes and equipment will also be available for sale in the spacious retail area.

When you next visit us in the dive centre, take a walk across the road and have a look round Adventure College - we think you'll be impressed!

You'll also find lots of exciting new activities and adventures waiting for you, so why not try something new?

Exciting times! So watch this space for more news or check the various websites.

Want to get more out of your diving and meet like-minded people?

Then join our new Adventure Club!

Just have a look at the massive benefits for club members:-

• free air fills
• 20% discount off nitrox fills
• 10% discount off equipment in the shop
• £5 off TDC organized Wightdiver trips
• 10% discount off courses*
• £25 for full daily kit hire
• free use of Sunday pool session**
• club night - last Thursday of every month
• regular guest speakers
• regular diving and non-diving social events
• club member discount on all events
• regular club member only events

* course discount not available on professional level courses (Divemaster and above)
** free use of pool available when in use by us, which may not be every Sunday

Membership is £10 per month payable either annually or monthly.

Easy payment methods:-

• Pay by monthly Standing Order,
• Pay annually in full,
• Pay via monthly Paypal Standing Order to club@tdc-dive.co.uk

With all the pool skills learned, polished and perfected, it was off to Horsea in a howling gale to complete the final two open water dives to enabled the youngsters to be certified as PADI Scuba Divers.

Despite the appalling weather, the group persevered and got stuck in.

Over 80 of you came along and ate, drank and made merry to the sounds of the live band "Special Guest" and also the disco.

From the feedback we've received, you all had a great time.

There are some images from the night in the "Special Events" album of the website gallery.

If anyone else has some pictures, then e-mail them through to mail@tdc-dive.co.uk and we'll put them in the photo gallery for everyone else to see.