Hellfins September NewletterIn this Issue:
CONGRATULATIONS SOPHIE!BSAC must be delighted to have Sophie Rennie as a National Instructor. Well done Sophie, we are proud of you! What is it like to qualify as a National Instructor? Sophie has written about the experience for us - you can find it in features. WELCOME NEW MEMBERSWelcome to Hellfins: Clare, Louise, James, All the Steves, Graham, Clive and Heidi. We're glad to have you diving with us and happy that we've attracted such intelligent, good looking, fantastic people! Oh, by the way... Do any of you have a tow bar on your car? If you do (or anyone else out there for that matter) Nigel would love to hear from you! Sometimes the boat needs a tow from "here" to "there" and we're always looking for help. E-mail Nigel.G.Catterall@stasco.com if you can help out. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGHas the last year flown by or what? It's time for Hellfins next Annual General Meeting. The AGM will take place on 30th October in the basement bar of Bar Med. All members are more than welcome and (to tempt you all along) snacks will be served as well as our own barman serving drinks. We'll be electing the committee for next year. Please send nominations to Alan (allan.hesse@ukpia.com). The Committee posts are:
You can see the current incumbents at In the "Club" section We'll also be handing out the awards - more about those later! THE T-SHIRTS ARE HERE!The fantastic new T-Shirts are now available. If you've ordered one already it will be with you soon. If you haven't ordered yet you can get them from the Online shop. High quality Fruit-of-the-Loom clothes, they feature a hard wearing embroidered club logo. Be quick though - there are limited stocks of some designs. EXOTIC DIVE EXTRAVIGANZAIan (ian@bigblueapple.com) has be researching some of the worlds best dive locations for our mega-trip next year. Expect to see something in your mailboxes really soon- and get saving! PAINTBALLING FUNAs the dive season comes to an end Nicky thought it might be time to put some "out of water" social events into the calendar! Sunday, 3rd November 2002. 10pm-4.30pm. £22.00pp. Includes: Free refreshments all day /8-10 Paint ball games Full Paint ball equipment hire Substantial Hot snack lunch/Vegetarian option. 300 free rounds. Extra Round @ 6p per ball The Combat Games Venue is situated 5 - 10 minutes drive, South of Junction (9) M25, on the A24 Please let Nicky (nicky@hellfins.com) know by w/c 7th October if you would like to come along. Sending a deposit of £10.00pp - Cheques made payable to London Hellfins BSAC. Sent to the following address - Nicky Deeley, 59 Glenbuck Court, Glenbuck Rd, Surbiton, KT6 6BZ. Or pass over on a Wednesday night. Non dive club members are more than welcome to join in the fun. During your day you will experience the most thrilling scenarios. Using the latest semiautomatic guns and an awesome array of authentic equipment your team will play a minimum of 10 games each lasting 25 minutes. 300 free paint ball rounds are included in this package. There are 15 minute breaks in between games to buy more ammunition (@ 6p per ball), visit the canteen or discuss tactics for the next mission. Marshals are at hand all day to assist you with game tactics and to give mission briefings and objectives. For more information on location, equipment (girls get special body protectors!), and the games you will play - visit - http://www.paintball-games.co.uk
SKI 2003: HELLFINS WITH ALTITUDEPaul is interested in finding out interest/ rough numbers for the 2003 snow pilgrimage. After a very successful Courchevel in 2002 plans this year are to the ski (and snowboard!) Mecca that is St Anton, Austria. The resort is renowned for its nightlife, off piste, and fantastic ski area, it is arguably one of the best areas in the world. There is a busy town centre with lots of cafe's, shops and boutiques, and at night there are many bars (e.g. the Krazy Kangaroo) and nightclubs, discretely littered across the town and up the mountains. The St Anton lift pass covers the neighbouring resorts of Stuben, Zurs, St Christoph and the exclusive Lech. Details of the area are below on this link: http://www.stantonamarlberg.com Early March 2003 is the plan, preferably the first week, but perhaps the 2nd depending upon availability.... Accommodation would be a catered Chalet, similar to last year. Usually flights are direct to Innsbruck, and then there's only a 1 hour transfer to St Anton. Prices depend very much on group size, but as a ball park number I would expect it to cost £500 (plus lift pass), since the resort does (and deservedly) command a premium over many other destinations. If you are interested could you email paulanton@hotmail.com and he will begin telephoning around to see what is available once we have rough numbers.
SWANAGE HAS A NEW WRECKA perfect training dive, she sank in 2001 and lies in 13m. She's intact (apart from the bows - we never found them) with a few holes to poke about in but nothing serious to get lost in. The location is on the GPS (SWANAGE TRAWLER), but she's easy to find: Set out from Swanage Pier towards Old Harry. As you leave the beach on the left and get closer to the cliffs look out for a small white bouy. That's her. A word of caution though: You are right at the point where the big motor cruisers see Swanage, get excited and forget what those little blue and white "A" flags mean. Surface slowly. If you're on the RIB be ready to wave both arms in the air and get between them and the divers. Even more exciting! It was Shona's first RIB trip with the club. You can read about it in the features section
TRAINING UPDATEThank you to Phil for running the Boat Handling Theory this month. An excellent course that covered a huge range of material. Phil kept it interesting and fun as well as being informative. Colin Wilde is organising a regional Oxygen Administration courses and has invited us along. It's on 22nd September. Contact Sid (sidlothian@hotmail.com) for more information or to reserve a place. Hurry - there are only two left! BSAC have just launched their new training scheme. No need to panic - diver grades have not changed and if you are currently working on a particular grade just continue as normal. They have moved some skills forward and back between the grades (for example you now learn to use an SMB as part of Ocean Diver training) but in general have moved a lot closer to what we teach in the branch. The best thing to do is get in touch with Mike (mikewilco@yahoo.com) and see where you're up to.
KIT FOR SALESteve has a BCD to sell: Buddy Commando, Medium Size, Yellow/Black with emergency bottle, all working (would recommend a service though) £60 o.n.o E-mail Steve.Hughes@citigroup.com |