Halloween Party Photos in the Gallery

It was another epic party with some great costumes, excellent food, atrocious dance moves (except from Kevan of course!) and sore heads the following morning! Photos from the night have been published in the gallery.

Well Done to All the Runners ...

Well done to all the dive club members who ran the Great South Run this morning. 2 members had to drop out at late notice but it was a still a good showing. Conditions for the race were pretty appalling with strong Southerly winds and lashing rain - the last mile was a real treat! So if you have sponsored myself, Catriona, Kim, Chris, Andrea or Wyndham now is the time to get in touch and let them have your pledges so that we can get all the money to the Lifeboats. We will let you know how much we raised in due course. Thanks as well to all those club members who stood in the rain to cheer the runners on - it was much appreciated.

New First Aid Instructors

Many congratulations to Tina, Jenny, Alex, Ian, and Paul, who passed their EFR Instructors course on 18 October.

Gozo refreshes parts other holidays cannot reach

Touch me ..... I' is chilled right down to the core. And Gozo is just the place to do it. Hard working Neal relaxed so much that his hair saw some remarkable growth in just a short period of 7 days. We even have the photographic evidence to prove it as you can see in the before and after shots above. Whilst Neal is quite proud of his new flowing locks he intends to have a cut straight away as the dog didn't recognize him when he got home!

Gozo Report Published

I have published a eport from the Gozo trip onto the website (click here for link) for all of those who want to know what they missed. Photos just being resized for the Gallery.

The BIG October Sale - 14/15 October

Once again we are having a big sale during dive show weekend on 14/15 October. So why bother spending time and money going to Birmingham, paying £6 to park, paying to get in, paying a fortune for a coffee and a sandwich and then realizing that the deal was not such a good one in the first place. Instead, just pop along to the Dive Centre on either day and pick up a bargain. At least 20% discount across the board and over 50% on some items. The sale only lasts over the weekend so make sure you get in early. As usual they are a bit of a a social event and food and drink will inevitably be available. We look forward to seeing you.

......and they're off

......on the right day this time

18 club members left for Gozo this morning. All a bit deja vu for Ben and Emma. Internet cafe willing, we'll post some details of what we're getting up to from Gozo.

Gozo Trip Gets off to an "Early" Start

The conversation went a bit like this ...... "morning Ben and Emma. What are you doing at the centre today? Morning David, going to Gozo. Not until tomorrow you're not. Oops!" Promised I would get it on the blog before you got back to Gosport! See you both tommorow morning.

A Clean Sweep at the PADI Instructors Exam

All the hard work during the IDC finally paid off at the weekend for our 4 candidates at the IE all of whom passed with flying colours. There was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth though ..... having successfully managed not to get the hover (not his fave!) Paul was mortified to find it appeared as one of the 5 skills required in the skills assessment. And who decided to put that question about Spencer wash outs into the presentations! Doh! However, so well prepared were the candidates that they even managed a classy night out in Staines on Saturday evening! Well done to all 4 new instructors. We look forward to seeing some of you working in the dive centre soon.

Beach Clean - 17 September

Many thanks to everyone who turned up on Sunday for the anual Beach Clean. There were about 25 club members and members of the public who turned up on the day and there was plenty of rubbish to collect. The results of the clean up have been passed on to MCS and Project AWARE. Thanks to Katie for her hard work in coordinating the event.

Sheep Running Scared in Hereford

Our West country reporter informs us that sheep are running scared in the wake of the latest human population increase to the area. Our cameraman snapped this intelligent looking chappie who is apparently taking over a farmersootikal research team in Hereford! eek time to stay off the drugs then!

Stop Press another Ian Brown Story

After Ian's nasty swimwear scandal, it has now turned out that he also fanices himself as a bit of a model. Now we know you are moving on to a new job Ian but I must admit maybe modelling isn't the way forward.....

Successful IDC Candidates (Written in PADI Instructor Speak)

Congratulations to Alex, Neil, Paul and Ian on the successful completion of their Instructor Development course yesterday. Good job guys (in an irritating american accent with high fives all round). The last 9 days have been quite a test of stamina but we particularly liked the way they maintained a good sense of humour throughout. There were a few problems; one of the candidates had a heavy night mid way through the programme, and there were several shocking attempts at trying to blag some non-diving training aids into the presentations. They all now know how to teach in accordance with the PADI system and they will be using this in the near future on the completion of the Instructors Exam next weekend.

Fire Station Open Day

Fun was had by all at the Fire Station Open Day..... and more importantly money was raised for the Fire Services Charities. We thought it might have been a quiet day but how wrong we were. We were taken by surprise by about 40 kids and adults who all enjoyed a splash in the pool and a taste of what scuba diving is all about. Thanks to everyone that came along and a special thanks to the club members that helped out.

Full House at the Club Meeting

It was a full house at the September monthly club meeting. Not sure whether it was the promise of cow and ale pie (which went down very well), the scubapro presentation or just the prospect of another great night of socializing, but well over 80 turned up. The raffle raised £110 for charity and once again thanks to everyone who donated prizes and bought tickets. Many thanks as well to Matt Armstrong from Scubapro for his presentation and bringing along the latest computers and torches from the range. It added that little bit extra to what was a brilliant evening and was much appreciated.

Beach Clean Up Blog

We have a blog set up for the beach clean up to keep everyone up to date with the project. You can view it here. All the information you need is there, so point friends, family, next door neighbours in the right direction if they would like to help out.

Fire Station Open Day

We are putting up our try dive pool at the Southsea Fire Station (Sommers town) open day on 9th September. Try dives and photo certificates will be run and all proceeds will be going to the fire service charities. Please come along and support the event! (Club Members: if you want to come along and help out we'd love to see you)

Another good month on the website

August did not break the record number of unique visitors that we had in July (infact it was about 150 short at 1250), however, it was good to see that some familiar visitors had returned. One visitor in particular who only managed about 25 pages in July surpassed themselves by looking at a staggering 120 pages in total over the month. Now that's dedication. Keep clicking guys!

Ian in Nasty Swimwear Scandal........

After weeks of interrogation Ian has today confessed to having a tight red Speedo fetish. We've discovered that once wet they are completely see through. The offending article has been confiscated and will be destroyed in due course........That's after we've all had a good laugh at them.

Mange tout Rodders, fabrique en Belgique ...

Nous avons retourne from Francais, mais oui, mais oui. Nous avons eu de bonne vacances plongee sur la WWII wrecks. A report from le visite sur la bateau de pique Whitehorse est published dans la trip report section dans la website. And mon dieu, the franglais was appalling! Zinadan Zidan and Zout allors! Click ici for plus d'information!