February. Time for that tingle of excitement as the dive season approaches. Time to make sure that kit is serviced and the post Christmas bulge is attended to.

Not that Hellfins haven't hit the water already this year. In this issue you can read about the fantastic trip to the Red Sea but the award for first UK dive of the year has to go to Mike and Janos. Janos said "Stoney Cove was fantastic. I'm sure all the people on the Red Sea trip were extremely jealous of the warm clear water and vibrant marine life of the Cove." which, after careful analysis, translates into "Cold, Damn Cold!".

Lots of things to keep us entertained while it's still chilly out there though. The London dive show is on the first weekend of march, and we're having a little get together to talk about kit on the Wednesday before. Don't forget bowling too - nothing beats a post-pool-beer-and-bowl. For those of you training there's the sports diver lectures and the dive leader exam this month too. Oh, and get in quick to book the RIB trips. They go fast!

Welcome To Hellfins...

Welcome to Hellfins John, Simon, Andrew, Tony, Mark and Komal.

We're all glad you chose us to dive with! Just think, with a tiny donation of only £5 to our fundraising efforts you could be john@hellfins.com, simon@hellfins.com, andrew@hellfins.com, tony@hellfins.com, mark@hellfins.com and komal@hellfins.com. e-mail webmaster and we'll sort it out.

A very special welcome to 'Little Anne'. She's a very special asset to the club as she'll snog anyone and, even better, comes with a removable easy clean face! I'm sure all the sports divers and dive leaders will get to know her well.

... And a Sad Farewell

Maili is leaving us! Imagine, she is giving up all of the lovely pool session and winter trips to Stoney. And for what? To take a measly job as a dive instructor! In Borneo of all places! Some people just don't have their priorities straight at all.

Seriously though Maili: We'll miss you. Thanks for all you've done as training officer, and good luck in your fantastic new role as an instructor on the Greenforce conservation project. Don't forget to send us the odd e-mail.

Maili's still around until March 10th - so plenty of time to buy her a farewell drink or catch her for a one-to-one lecture (she says she'd like the practice on the new syllabus before she heads off)

The Best Dive Trip Ever

Its Here!

Well its been quite some time in the making, but we can now announce that the destination for Dive Extravaganza is...Sipadan Island.

It’s a long way to Sipadan, so those of you who are not into long haul travel this trip might prove tedious, annoying and frustrating. To those that can really get into the journey being part of the holiday this is going to be ideal. Also this trip is intended for Sports Divers and above. Don't be disheartened if you haven't got the ticks in the book yet there is enough time and training trips in the calendar to qualify up to this level in time for September.

The Itinerary is as follows.

1st September
Depart Heathrow @ Noon

2nd September
Arrive Kuala Lumpur @ 0730
Depart Kuala Lumpur @ 0935
Arrive Kota Kinabalu @ 1210

One night stop over in Kota Kinabalu in the 5 star Shangri La Hotel. This hotel has its own beach and there is plenty to do (apparently). Although it is an early start the next morning so not too much drinking!

3rd September
Depart Kota Kinabalu @ 06.10
Arrive at Tawau @ 06.55
Road trip to Port (takes 1 hour)
Boat to Sipadan Island (takes 1hour)
Dive in the Afternoon!

4th,5th,6th,7th,8th
Diving with Borneo Divers. You never know - you might even bump into Maili!

9th September
Leave Sipadan for Tawau
Depart Tawau @ 1740
Arrive Kota Kinabalu 1820
Depart Kota Kinabalu 1915
Arrive Kuala Lumpur 2140

Two night stop over in the other 5 * Shangri La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

11th September
Day in Kuala Lumpur
Depart Kuala Lumpur 2340

12th September
Arrive Heathrow 0550

The price includes:

• All flights, taxes and transfers.
• 3 Boat dives per day
• Unlimited Beach Diving (you can walk into some amazing dive sites!)
• Free Tanks, Weights and Dive Guide (this not required after a checkout dive on Day 1)
• 3 meals a day
• Accommodation in en suite Beach Huts!
• Free Water and Fruit Juices
• Additional 10kg of luggage to accommodate Dive kit: total allowance = 30kg
• 2 x 1 night stop overs in the 5 star hotels (includes breakfast)

OK now the price. £ 1,465

What you need to do.

Ian will need a non-refundable deposit of £130 by 14th February. This is non-refundable and there are no name changes allowed on Far East flights at the minute. So if you pay the deposit and then can't make it you can not substitute someone else, its full cancellation and rebooking for additional divers.

He will then need a second payment of £650 by 30th April

He will then need a final payment of £650 16th June

Please send your deposit to Ian at.
Ian Dorward
59 Glenbuck Court
Glenbuck Rd
Surbiton
Surrey
KT6 6BZ

Or give it to Ian on Club Night.

Training Roundup

Don't forget, the dive exam will be on 12th February.

The sports diver lectures will be on the same day - so expect frazzled looking people in the Festival Hall just after!

Phil is organising the Dive Leader Rescue Scenarios. If you want to achieve diver leader in 2003 and you haven't told him yet - e-mail phil@hellfins.com.

Kit Show

Thinking about going to the London Dive Show on 1st/2nd March? Thinking about getting kitted out?

Some Hellfins go back years - and some of them have kindly offered to pass on their years of kit experience at a special event on 26th February. Come along to look at equipment and chat about your requirements. The stuff on show will include:

• Stab Jackets
• Suits
• Regulators
• Computers
• Accessories
• Basic Kit

To compliment our members extensive experience you can also chat to Sophie from Exeter Diving Services and Tony Marshall from Collins and Chambers Ltd. who can offer a professional view of the latest diving kit.

Bowling Night

Fancy a bit of bowling?

Wednesday 19th Feb - after pool session
Venue - Namco Station - 5min walk from the pool
County Hall, Riverside Buildings,
Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7PB

We have 5 lanes booked from 8pm-10pm and access to the bar…

Price - £2 per person per game. Drop Nicky a line if you are interested.

Skydiving

While we're enjoying a quiet bowl, Nicky will pop round with the forms to sign up for the skydiving, so make sure you bring £35 deposit. If you won't be bowling but want to do the jump e-mail Nicky for details. It looks like fun. The skydiving company describe it like this:

TANDEM DESCENT WEIGHT LIMIT 15st (95 Kilos)

Probably the easiest way to experience skydiving because once your short briefing is finished you will be ready to take to the skies at altitudes between 6,000 and 12,000 feet depending on weather conditions and local Air Traffic Control restrictions. Training is run throughout the day on a regular basis and students are strapped to the front of a Tandem Instructor who is there to control the entire skydive for you.

Once you exit the aeroplane you will accelerate to 120 mph, covering each thousand feet in approximately five seconds. At 5,000 feet the Instructor will deploy the square parachute which will then be controlled by both persons until you land softly and gently some four minutes later.

Counting the Fish

Source: MCS web site

We are all aware that our marine environment is in danger. As divers we are privileged to experience the wonderful life in our seas at first hand - but also experience some of the damage that's caused.

On Wednesday 12th March David Harvey will come along to give us an introduction to the Marine Conservation Society, the work they do and the way we can get involved.

In particular the Seasearch project lets us provide some valuable survey data while getting some diving in too! If you're interested and haven't let Sid know please e-mail him so he has an idea of numbers.

For more background, visit their web site or pop along and visit them at the dive show - stand 860 (conveniently close to the bar).

We've asked him to come back on 26th March to deliver the first Seasearch Course if enough people are interested. We may even be able to show the television report from the time the club was involved before - when Spring was the diving officer.

Diving the SETT

Looking for something different, or just fancy a dip in clear warm water without going overseas. The Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT) is now available for recreational divers.

The SETT is a 30 metre deep tank located in Gasport, Hampshire. It has a diameter of 5.5 meters and a water temperature of around 34C. Water clarity is usually excellent with top to bottom visibility.

The SETT is an ideal facility for practicing deeper emergency drills in a safe environment, doing work up dives or staying current for deep dives or just for the novelty of diving the world’s only 30 metre tank.

The proposed date for this trip is October 11th/12th - we can choose between a one day visit or combine it with some diving at Horsea Island

If you are interested in either option contact Nicky as she needs a £10 deposit (non-refundable) by the Wednesday 19th Feb.Please send your deposit to Nicky at.

Nicky Deeley
59 Glenbuck Court
Glenbuck Rd
Surbiton
Surrey
KT6 6BZ

Or give it to Nicky or Ian on a Club Night.

Fun in the Red Sea

The generator judders into silence and all the lights on the boat go out. Too high from my day I've crept through the sleeping boat to the sun deck (by now, I suppose, the moon deck). As my eyes adjust to the night a brilliant canopy of stars unfolds all around me. I smile. I light a cigarette and reflect on the days diving - and what a fantastic day it has been.

It started, as was routine by now, with a knock on the door at six in the morning. Briefed and in the water fast, by eight Maili and I had finished exploring the Thistlegorm and were working our way slowly up the line. The day before we noticed a shoal of fusiliers off the port side of the wreck and this morning the hunt was in full swing with us right in the middle of it. The small fish swirled in confused unison as jack fish attacked them from below. Every panicked flight took them towards another jack relentlessly pursuing breakfast in the cool blue water. They swirled back - below us, above us and around us as they swam for their lives.

After a long, lazy safety stop watching the action our own breakfast was almost ready back on the boat. Quickly devouring eggs, cheese and fruit we sat chatting as the boat headed to Shag Rock. Spending a week on a boat without landing once is a superb way of getting a lot of diving in but can turn into purgatory if the people don't get on. No problems here, Tony has got some great people together. Chatting on the sun deck we were an easy going, relaxed group.

Marc interrupted the calm. Books got put down and tanning bodies un-stretched as he appeared with a cheery “Briefing Guys!” He roughed out the plan with a picture of the Sara H in front of him as we sat on the deck. There were an odd number of us and today I was “fill- in buddy”. Maili and I had enjoyed the spectacle on the Thistlegorm and for the next dive I was with Carl.

The Sara H lies upright and stretched up the reef from nineteen metres to four. She’s not a big wreck but beautifully covered in sort corals. We had a thorough look around - spotting a nudibranch nestled in the hull to compliment the ships fixtures and machinery.

Then off up the reef for a drift along the coral. As we admired the table corals and gorgonians, crowded with life, a turtle swam over to meet us. In a gentle current now, we drifted along together for five minutes before the turtle thought better of our company and dropped languidly down the reef - almost as if he knew that divers will seldom follow.

It didn't take long before we were joined by another turtle. If anything he seemed even happier in our company - drifting smoothly along, sharing the current with us. We kept company for ten minutes or so before he decided on a breath of air and coasted to the surface, ignoring the shoal of barracuda as he spiralled idly through the water, completely blanking the unicorn fish.

Working slowly up the reef I checked my buddy behind me, I spotted him in among the coral and parrot fish and we exchanged signals. (Back ashore later I would notice how much harder it is to look around in two dimensions. All I had to do was lean slightly forward and look back past my feet, suspended in the water I could look up, down, left or right with just a languid flick of a fin) By then we were in about 6m and enjoying the last few minutes of the dive, more waiting for our computers to say “60 minutes” rather than looking at anything specific – just taking in the whole beautiful scene.

Back on the boat I hadn't even got out of my wetsuit before the shout of “Dolphins”. We all headed to the bow and watched as a pod of at least twenty bottlenose dolphins teased the boat. The skipper gently nudged forward, moving the boat into a good position. From the moment he shouted something in Arabic that resembled the word “snorkel” to the time we hit the water was about thirty seconds.

They were all around us. Mothers and calves hanging back while the others enjoyed playing with the divers. There would wait until someone duck dived then bomb in, spinning around them. They would swim by close, wait until you tried to reach out then peel of fast – whistles and clicks sounding like giggles. We were being played with and we loved it!

Lunch and a dive on small crack with Ed and Trevor filled our afternoon. The current was too fast to make it though the crack, so we contented ourselves with a moray hunt – Peri finding four along the reef and excitedly pointed them out to the divers behind. Ed, Trevor and I continued our game of killer hand signals: Miming frying fish for groupers, dispatching trigger fish with guns, and tearing the blue spotted rays in half. Only funny because it was so far from the truth – I never dived with a group quite so careful with the coral and respectful of the wildlife.

The sun went down in a beautiful layered display. Orange mountains overlaid by stripes of white cloud fading into the deep blue of the outer reef and finally the turquoise strip of the lagoon. Those not diving toasted the sunset as we gradually prepared kit for the night dive.

Dropping into the lagoon our first find was a huge moray, poking his head from the top of a coral head – eyes wicked in the torchlight. Trevor and I finned to the reef and towards Small Crack. The current through the gap was still strong, but not too strong so we knuckled down and swam against it. The extra pressures flooded my mask constantly but we pressed on. I was just looking up to clear my mask again when the eagle ray appeared. Soaring just inches over our heads, we looking into its eyes as it passed into the night.

Finally through the gap and the current was with us now, pushing us gently along the outside wall of the lagoon. A moray out hunting adopted us and for a while we buddied up with him, hunting along the reef together.

My cigarette is finished and I look around one last time. No moon tonight and the boat is suspended in space, invisibly held between the stars above and the darkness below.

I creep back down and lie on my bunk. The surface of the water seems to be just above me, the portholes lighting ripples as I gaze through the surface of the gentle swell. I close my eyes and my mind fills with the reef fish of Tiran.

Memories come in bright colours: Fifteen divers out in the blue, all trying to use each other as a reference point as they bob up and down looking for hammerheads. A moray being cleaned by an iridescent blue wrasse seeing me too close and hissing – jaws opening menacingly as the wrasse bolts. Lazing on the top deck while an orange moon rises over the night sea – slowly brightening to white as our effortless conversation rolled on. Seeing my first shark – a grey silhouette in the blue beneath us.

Thank you Tony for organising the trip.

Thank you Martin for the fantastic photos - you can see them all on his Web Site.

Tomorrow I'll fin out into the blue with Shona, chasing a shoal of Barracuda. I'll pose for a photo sitting on a toilet on the wreck of the Yollanda and I'll savour the last few moment of the last dive of the trip, drifting along a wall with Cathy, surrounded by butterflies and angels.

But that’s tomorrow. For now I breathe out gently and drop the last couple of metres into sleep.

A knock at the door. “Briefing in ten minutes guys!”

Flat mate Wanted

Katherine Gillespie is looking for a flat mate from the end of February.

Her flat is in Kentish Town, which is zone 2. It's a good size, has a garden, is close to bus, tube and train and the rent is very reasonable.

Katherine's a diver - so she's not going to mind if the bath is full of neopreen and there's a damp wooly bear haning in the corner. Well, maybe the damp wooly bear bit is a bit much!

Anybody interested should contact Katherine on 07710 592338.

Kit for Sale

Chris Warner has a suit for sale

Hydro-Tek 7 mm Neoprene Semi-Dry Suit

Large size to fit medium build 6ft male, mainly black with green sleeves and hood trim, separate long John's and jacket with hood. Ideal for the UK combined or long John's can be warn separately in warmer waters. Little use and in excellent condition, bargain at only £60 cost new over £180!

Contact Chris_J_Warner@yahoo.com to arrange a fitting at the pool.