Blog Posts - Penrith Divers

The value of local information

13/12/2016

Report in Cumberland and Westmorland Herald reunites founder member.

After seeing the report of Penrith Divers’ trip to Lanzarote, one of the club’s founder members - Frank James – was prompted to hunt for some early club information he knew was stored somewhere. Coming up with copies of meeting minutes from 1978/79, national council minutes from the same time and some early suggestions for the club logo, Frank then contacted us via our website and arranged to meet up.
He was invited to our next meeting and welcomed by the club. After the regular meeting business was concluded he captivated the present members with information about how Penrith branch was formed in early 1978, following a split between the then Carlisle /Penrith branch and also with tales of “Real Divers”, none of this drysuit stuff for them! At the end of the meeting Frank offered to put together a slide show of early photos of dive trips covered by the club, which was gratefully accepted.

He also visited our training session at the Leisure Centre on Sunday morning to complete the hand over the files to David Bell, our present club secretary, leaving with the thought that he should come back some time to get in the water.

Frank’s slide show will be on the evening of Wednesday 11th Jan 2017 and any club members, past or present, are welcome to come along and have a chat. If you are interested, please contact us through the website www.penrithdivers.co.uk or ring David on 01768483932 to give us an idea of numbers

That’s Frank James slide show for past and present members
Wed 11th Jan 2017 19:30 at Abbot Lodge Ice cream parlour.

One week in Lanzarote

6/11/2016

Seven members of Penrith Divers (sporting new club shirts sponsored by Abbott Lodge Jersey Ice Cream) and their partners met early one morning at Edinburgh airport ready to jet off for a week of diving with Manta Divers at Puerto Del Carmen. Guided ably by George, the group visited caves, swim-throughs, lava walls and even an underwater art installation - the Museo Atlantico.

Day 1:
As day one was Halloween, the challenge had to be diving in fancy dress! Club members rose to
the occasion well but the Barracuda, Sardine shoals, Sea-horses and assorted other sea life that we
passed didn’t seem impressed. However, some members who, up to now, had only dived in English waters were surprised that you were able to see for more than 10 meters underwater and astonished by the amount and variety of sea life around them.

Day 2:
From day two we were joined for the remainder of the week by some of our Welsh brethren, who gratefully received their club shirts and adapted well to Northern Club life. This day involved two more dives from the old sea wall steps with sightings of Angel Sharks on both dives and an Octopus or two again.

After the day’s two dives it was becoming standard to meet
the partners for a tapas lunch followed by a relaxing
afternoon in the sun.

Day 3:
For the divers, day three involved a visit to the underwater statues and a reef dive from a boat with both dives proving that you don't need to go deep for good diving.
For the non-divers there was a full range of activities from a bus trip round the island for some to an
experimental dip under the water for others.
The excitement continued after the sun went down with a night dive where we had chance to see lots of the small, young and timid sea creatures that try to stay safe by not venturing out in the daytime.

Day 4:
Day four was a very special day for one club member who celebrated both his 500th dive and 68th birthday. As Lanzarote is a regular haunt, the day’s boat trip was chosen to include his favourite part of the local reef. A drop down to 18 meters then over the edge of the wall to 30 meters led to encounters with large Barracuda and Grouper along with some of the more usual local wildlife. The
second dive was to the wrecks just off (and in one case built into) the harbour wall. As well as exploring the wrecks, there was much excitement on reaching the bottom as we were joined first by
a Stingray and then by one of the biggest Angel Sharks we had yet seen. All of which made the time spent decompressing at the end well worth it.

Day 5:
Our last day’s diving continued the trend with two very good dives from Black Beach, enjoying some spectacular swim-throughs and a last chance to marvel at creatures like Cuttlefish, Garden Eels and Fireworms. On the way back to the dive centre, members were already asking “Where shall we go next year?”.

Days 6 & 7
The last day and a half on the island involved the obligatory no diving time to allow our bodies to
get back to normal before flying. There were some spectacular thunderstorms to watch and a
chance for the non-divers to show off what they’d learnt about the local area and the island’s
culture. Not to mention a spot of rugby and the famous local Honey Rum to be enjoyed.

Finally its time to get back into English waters and training sessions at Penrith Leisure Centre each
Sunday morning.

Explorers

30/11/2014

Following some intense negotiations (and good working relationships) with the land owners, we were kindly given permission to dive the River Eden near Lazonby. Rob, Steve and David formed the advance party to check out the suitability of the site for the rest of the club.
25 minutes later and the decision was that it was a good, if slightly shallow at 5m max, dive with a different set of challenges to those presented by the lakes.
A new challenge for the club to experience in small, controlled groups when circumstances allow :-)

Finally, a quick breath of air :-)

26/10/2014

No more messing about with giant tools to make it work!

At last, after many years of discussions and much worrying about cost and specs, the club has a new compressor!

A fun afternoon/evening was had trying to sort last minute dilemmas and manoeuvre the not-so-light machinery,

Having fun playing with the pallet trolley :-)

followed by a day or two of frantic searching for electrical components and people to sort them but the new beast is now in and settled, more than halving the time needed to be spent waiting for tanks to fill. Here's to many happy breaths with her help.

Club blessed with sunshine for B.B.Q.

12/8/2014

Saturday 9th August saw members and families, 27 in total, gather at Ann and David's place for an end of summer BBQ.

Everyone enjoyed the good food mainly prepared by Ann with assistance from David on barby, good company helping the ladies to put faces to names, a few beers and wine rounded off with the great weather.

Club Divers - missing from the photos are Charlotte, Euan, Fiona and Chris.

The day helped to celebrate a good 12 months with several members gaining new certificate levels.
They were:
Sports Diver - Josh Beattie and Josh Brooke.
Master Diver - Kate Brooke, Alan Green, Dave and Charlotte Skelton
and achieving Club Instructor - David Bell and Alan Green.
All of this was made possible by our BDO and instructors Rob ,Richard and Billy and not forgetting the area RDO Peter on the cold mornings in Crummock.
Many thanks for the time and sometimes patience.

The next day saw an early start as Rob took some of the trainees up to Loch Long. So starts the next 12 months.

More successful treasure hunting

29/7/2014

A pleasant little bimble under Pooley Bridge pier lead to the discovery of a mislaid mobile phone. After some cunning detective work, the delighted owner was located and re-united with what turned out to be something of great sentimental value.

In his own words, "I received my phone this morning through the post and wanted to say an absolutely massive thanks. I honestly cant believe it was found. I was very touched and humbled by the effort you had made to trace me.

Some of the photos are obviously priceless and so happy to see them again - no thanks to a large amount of wine I consumed at a wedding 3 weeks ago. I think it would make a hell of a story for the local paper!!

Once again massively appreciated and don't know how to thank you.

I will be in touch and maybe make a visit in the near future."

Gear for Sale

1/7/2014

If you are interested in any of the following, please contact Mark on 07760 254500.
Everything is out of test so will need to be serviced/tested before use.

Twin 10l tanks with isolating manifold
15l tank
3l pony
Poseidon JetStream regs with cold water 1st and 2nd stage
Apeks TX regs 1st and 2nd stage
6' JetStream LP hose
4mm compressed Neoprene suit with front entry zip and auto dump valve
Pressure gauge (x2)
Buddy Commando BCD with auto air

Well done

16/6/2014

Congratulations to Alan Green and Josh Beattie for qualifying as Branch Instructor and Sports Diver respectively this weekend :-)

Our Hero!

5/6/2014

An Appleby schoolboy is cycling 100 miles around the Eden Valley to raise money for a cancer charity that helped support his mum after she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Josh Beattie, 16, attends Appleby Grammar School where he is currently doing his GCSE’s. He’s a member of Appleby 2192 ATC squadron and also Penrith Divers, the sub-aqua club.

Josh will be cycling around the Eden Valley on Sunday 6 July, taking in the fell villages, over to Orton, up to Kirkby Stephen and finishing in Appleby.

His friends, family and his younger brother, Dylan, will be alone different stages of the route to offer support and encouragement along the way.

Josh decided to do a fund-raising challenge to raise money for the cancer charity Macmillan, because of the support they gave his mum, Sam Beattie, following diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma in December last year and throughout having chemo at the Cumberland Infirmary.

Josh set up a JustGiving and JustTextGiving page and has already raised £385 towards his target of £500.

Josh said: “I wanted it to be a personal challenge. Because my mum has gone through a hard time, my fundraising has to be something difficult too.

“I wanted to raise money for Macmillan because of the support they have given me and my family and I wanted to repay that so that they can help other families to.”

Josh’s mum and dad said: “We are so proud of Josh. To challenge himself like this to help others is amazing.

“We’re really grateful to everyone who has sponsored him.”

Josh’s mum Sam added: “I’d like this chance to say a big thank you to the nurses and staff at Cumberland Infirmary.”

To sponsor Josh please visit his JustGiving page.

(article from Cumbria Crack)

Not-quite-Christmas dinner

23/11/2013

It was an almost full turn-out, including some no longer active club members, for the annual not-quite-Christmas dinner at the Cross Keys Inn.
A good time was had by all with much merriment and only a slight excess of alcohol partaken of in some quarters ;-) It could even be said that there were some interesting revelations made!
Here's to a great start to the festive season and many more to come.