Hellfins Newsletter - December 2002

Don’t forget to let all you friends and family know that all you want for Christmas is a book from http://www.hellfins.com/shop/books. Or indeed a video from http://www.hellfins.com/shop/videos or some fine clothes from http://www.hellfins.com/shop/clothes. You get a great present, they get great price and Hellfins get a kick-back! Nice! It really is the easiest possible way to raise money for the club. Amazon handle the entire sale and shipping and charge the same price as they do on their web site.

BOAT HANDLING - 2003 IS THE YEAR!

Hellfins is going to boost its Boat Handlers in 2003. We currently have five divers who have completed their theory and will move everyone on who wants to achieve this skill.

Our aim is to get this done in the first quarter of the year ready for the diving season.

DIVE LEADER RESCUE SCENARIOS

Phil has checked Wraysbury as a facility for doing the Dive Leader Rescue Scenarios, it is feasible and close to London though currently very muddy due to the autumn rain.

We also plan to do this during the first quarter of 2003 to help all those working towards Dive Leader.

There will be a meeting in January (date to follow) to plan and prepare for this lesson.

NEXT YEAR DIVING PLANNED

Thanks to Mike for organising the dive planning meeting. A big turn out and a lot of dives planned already. You can see them all in the handy cut-out-and-keep document attached - or on the web site at http://www.hellfins.com/diary.

Some people have already provided details of their trips. They look great! Here they are:

MAY 9TH - 16TH, CHANNEL ISLANDS

Maureen of Dart - live aboard to Channel Islands and St Malo.

10 spaces. £435 per person. All air, food, diving and accommodation. Nitrox extra.Excellent wrecks - especially off the St Malo coast, and some spectacular walls in Channel Islands. Islands to visit are Guernsey, Sark, Herm and Jersey.

DUTY FREE so loadsa bargains to be had! Sports Divers and above.

Please register your interest to me at sophie.rennie@bsac.com. 1st Deposit £50 secures a place!

MAY 24TH - 26TH MAY, PORTKERRIS

Porthkerris Dive Centre, The Lizard, Cornwall.

The diving is mostly around the nearby reef, The Manacles, graveyard of many a wreck, including the liner Mohegan. The areas also has some spectacular scenic dives.

RIB diving is £25 per day, hard boat is £30 per day, accommodation : B&B is £21-24 per night, camping is £7 per night.

Minimum qualification is Ocean Diver (with sufficient UK experience).

To reserve your place send a cheque deposit for GBP70 payable to Mike Wilkinson to:

71 Dyke Drive
Orpington
Kent
BR5 4LY

stating your preference on accommodation (B&B or camping)

TWO RIB TRIPS 28-29 JUNE & 16-17 AUGUST 2003

Camping, Beach BBQ & Diving!

Back by popular demand, two weekend trips on the sunny South Coast, diving from the RIB, camping on the beautiful South Downs and a Saturday night BBQ on the beach! These are very popular trips and space on the RIB is limited, if you would like to join us send an e-mail to Chris_J_Warner@yahoo.com stating which date you are interested in. A non-refundable £25 deposit will be required by the 1st March to confirm your place on the trip and book the campsite. Further details will appear in the Newsletter over the coming months as the arrangements are firmed up, so watch this space!

JULY 19TH - 20TH, STORM (PLYMOUTH)

5 places left - £29 per head per day plus lunch at £3.95 a day. Sports divers and above.

e-mail sophie.rennie@bsac.com and send a deposit of £29 to 49 Maritime Court, Haven Road, Exeter EX2 8GP

Don’t forget, the complete diary is available on the web site (http://www.hellfins.com/diary) if you are organising a trip and would like it to feature in the newsletter and web site, let webmaster@hellfins.com know.

WHICH CHARITY SHALL WE SUPPORT NEXT YEAR?

Last year we raised money for the Diving Diseases Research Centre and very pleased we were to do it to! This year we’re planning to raise a lot of money. I’m hoping everyone will participate in the exciting event’s we’ve got planned, so it makes sense everyone should help pick the charity.

We can all vote in a couple of weeks. In the meantime if you’d like to press the case for one of those options (or indeed another) let webmaster@hellfins.com know and we’ll publish you on the web site and send it out to all members. Look out for news at http://www.hellfins.com/fundraising.

WE’RE MOVING THE RIB

We are investigating the possibility of moving the boat further up the coast, the benefits are we wouldn’t have a two and a half hour trek each way to use it (and no Sophie your front garden is not good, Exeter really is over 2.5 hrs from London, even the way I drive!), a change of scene would also be nice as we’ve had the boat at Poole for some time now.

Volunteers are needed to come up with locations that can provide the high quality diving that Hellfins divers have become accustomed to, whilst also being cheap and handy for day trips. A day trip to the seaside would be necessary to check out those boat yards!!!!

We have until the end of Jan to decide (when we need to put a deposit down with Shell Bay for next summer).

LATEST POOL UPDATE

Our man in the know (Allan) is keeping abreast of developments with Shell’s planning application, and tells me that it’s looking like we will have the pool until at least next September. Good news there then!

The application to redevelop the ground floor will be considered at a special meeting of the Lambeth Council planning committee on Thursday 12 December. The meeting, which is open to the public, will start at 7 PM in the Franklin-Wilkins building, Kings College, Stamford Street (close to the IMAX cinema). This is a public meeting and we encourage you to attend the meeting and make your views heard.

The pool closing has been hanging over us for some time now - blocking decisions about buying new equipment and so on. To ensure that we have a concrete plan in place when the pool does finally close down, the committee are starting the whole process of looking for a new home again. They are already searching out suitable venues, but if you know of a good pool we might not have thought of please let us know! Send an e-mail to sid@hellfins.com.

OCEAN DIVER LECTURES

Don’t forget the Ocean diver lectures will conclude on December 11th. If you’ll miss them, or have missed some already, let Shona know (shonaprice@hotmail.com) and she’ll arrange for you to complete the ones you missed.

KIT FOR SALE

Spring has a stab jacket to sell. Brand new, never used Seaquest jacket. Can be used for twin set (which is why he bought it - although he never got around to buying the relevant twin set tanks). Black with lots of macho D-rings and stuff. Will accept £150 for it. It is currently sitting at Katherine Gillespie’s house, so if someone wants to see it, it is best to ask Katherine and she might bring it down the club one night or else Spring will try and bring it down next time he is in town.

A couple have contacted us through the web site looking to sell their dive kit. They are selling everything you need to get going (minus computers and cylinders) for £600 each. Contact Shona (shonaprice@hotmail.com) for details.

DIVER MAG’S ‘BEACHCOMBER’ IN BIG TROUBLE

If you read diver magazine you may have spotted a small article in the ‘Beachcomber’ column accusing Hellfins as being, not only silly enough to lose a propeller, but also of reneging on the ensuing promise to make a donation to the lifeboats.

Truth is, there wasn’t even a Hellfin on the boat in the first place! Our very own Sophie was kind and generous enough to use her inestimable charm to recover said propeller from a crotchety hard boat owner on behalf of some friends.

Beachcomber clearly been misinformed and, rest assured, our chairman is writing him a very strong letter indeed.

Hellfins December Newsletter