Going Diving

Club Diving

There is diving throughout the year, even in January!! In general, the club’s diving arrangements are advertised through email.

Sunday is the normal ‘club-day’ where members meet in an adhoc fashion at the club hut at 9:30 to decide on an appropriate divesite. Dives are usually from the shore at locations on the north or east coasts.

Formally organised dives occur as and when a club member organises a specific event or location. These dives are usually boat dives and require formal organisation to ensure appropriate numbers for the club RIB. Such events are usually further afield e.g Kinlochbervie, Ullapool or Balintore.

Weekday diving occurs as and when sea and weather permit. These dives usually involve small numbers of divers and are generally advertised through emails.

All dives are open to all members unless the specifics of a dive exclude lesser qualified members due to depth, training or experience.

Diving abroad and diving holidays are organised by individual club members and are publicised at the monthly meetings and via email. Past trips have been to the Red Sea , Tenerife and Gozo.

back to top

Dive Sites

A major benefit of where we are located is that we have easy access to both the north and east coasts around the northeastern top corner of Scotland. This means that whatever the wind, sea or swell direction, there is generally a dive site available to us.

We have a good variation of easy and more challenging sites as well as shore, boat, wall, drift and wreck dives. A number of the shore dives sites are ideally suited to night diving.

The club makes regular trips to Scapa Flow, it is only 6 miles away across the Pentland Firth and makes a sensible day trip from John o Groats harbour.

Use the linked map on the Dive Sites page to read about some of the more popular locations.

back to top

Diving Costs

Diving related charges for members are :

back to top

Equipment Costs

The choice of equipment and its configuration vary vastly depending on personal choice. Depending on whereabouts you are in your scuba life, you will need to have varying levels of equipment of your own. The following is an outline guide to equipment and what you will need for each stage of your diving.

These are not exhaustive lists, they are intended as a guide. You are encouraged to talk to any of the club instructors or members before making any final choices. Scuba gear is specialised and therefore can be expensive. It is best to collect views from several divers before parting with your hard earned cash.

• Basic Equipment : mask, fins, snorkel

• Scuba Equipment : BCD, cylinder, regulator set

• Sheltered Water Equipment : Drysuit, undersuit, weights, hood, gloves, compass, computer

• Safety Equipment : Delayed SMB, knife, flag, EPIRB

• Other goodies : torch, camera

At the start of the formal pool training, you can use club equipment, all you need are swimming trunks and an old T-shirt. The club has sufficient Basic and Scuba equipment to get your training to a point where you are ready to go into the sea. During the pool training, you will probably decide to start buying your own equipment, starting with the Basic and Scuba lists above.

Once you progress from the pool to the sea, you will need to have a drysuit, undersuit, hood and gloves to keep you warm.

Having decided that scuba diving in the UK is for you, whilst you are free to use the club’s Scuba gear while you are training, it is recommended that you purchase your own. You can then learn with a constant equipment configuration, you know where it’s been and how it’s been cleaned etc.

A lot of equipment can be sourced secondhand giving a substantial saving over new kit. However it is important that used equipment is professionally checked and serviced before use to be sure that it is functioning correctly.

The lists below are indicative of the ranges of costs you could expect to pay for ‘new’ equipment.

Basic equipment £30 - £50

Scuba equipment £400 - £800

Sheltered water equipment £600 upwards (depends on drysuit, see section below )

Safety and other equipment £100 upwards

Other equipment £200 - £300 upwards

Drysuits
There are hundreds of drysuit models available, falling into 2 main categories :- membrane and neoprene suits. The cost of a drysuit varies massively from a couple of hundred pounds to over a thousand. Before spending that kind of money, talk to several members of the club to get the pros and cons of both types and all makes. The club membership has massive experience of drysuits and are all happy to advise.

back to top