Underwater Ireland over the years

Inishbofin Diving Week

I just got back from Inishbofin (Connemara) Saturday, after a great week of dives, great weather, good food ( thanks to the great cooks in the group), clear waters, a bit of mad trad session, and fantastic buddies. All organized by the Aughinish Diving Club.
What else could you ask for ?

Our base-camp, with the boat club:

Boat ready for departure

One of my underwater buddy, a keen photographer, probably looking for seal or dogfish:

Underwater

Decompression Time in the local pub:

above water

Dawn colors:

Sunset

Underwater shot:

Anemones

Dead man fingers

The Harbour, on the day we left.... :(



The ferry who brought us back:

Our ride back to land :(

More information on Inishbofin:
http://www.inishbofin.com/

First octopussy

Last monday, I saw my first Octopus in Irish Water. Actually we saw two, in was at 27 meter deep near Scariff island in county Kerry. One of my buddy, Brian was lucky enough to capture it on photo before his battery died. See below Brian picture.

Eledone Cirrhosa

octopussy
Originally uploaded by upskill2008

Via Flickr:
Brian snapped this little guy just before he squirted ink and I ran out of batteries. Diving off Scariff Island, Derrynane.

Officially back scuba-diving

That's it, after a couple of snorkels in the lake and in the sea, I am officially back diving with an impressive 30 minutes dive in Newfie, Kilkee down to 10 meters. Lovely day and lovely dive with great people indeed.

To illustrate this some picture of Kilkee with the ladies going to train for the Currach race.

Halloween Dive 09

Underwater Kilkee - 1 from Christophe G on Vimeo.

Before Saturday night part, i went to Kilkee do a bit of diving with Tomas, a small one from the pier, mainly so he can test his new dry suit.
Interesting, and i've been able to play around with the video setting on my camera :)


Songs of the Week:
- Octopus Garden (The Beatles), I am rediscovering the Beatles, and on that one had to agree with Summer, this is one of their best song.
- Heartbeats - The Knife
- You can go your own way - Fleetwood Mac
- Seeing Things - Zero7

UnionHall

Just finish a quite typical Irish diving weekend down west cork. Here's the recipe:



- a big slurp of salty water

- 2+ pint of Murphys
- a rugby game ( to be watched at the local pub )
- some seals
- crabs, loybsters and anemones



- and finally meet and greet old and new friends

Luck of the Irish dive sites

IMG_0140.JPG, originally uploaded by TOF2006.

I just stumble upon to this top ten dive site in Europe by Scuba Travel

1. Diving the Booroo The Zenobia, Cyprus
2. Blue Hole, Gozo
3. Cirkewwa, Malta
4. Booroo, Isle of Man
5. Blockship Tabarka, Scapa Flow, Scotland
6. Diamond Rocks, Kilkee, Ireland
7. Eddystone Reef, England
8. Secca della Columbara, Italy
9. Fanore, Ireland
10. Chios island, Greece

And guess two of them (Fanore and Kilkee) are actually at a driving distance from Limerick... to be more precise, number 6 is a regular dive site for our diving club... I'd also loved to go to Scapa Flow...
So let's go diving

Poem: If I should die beneath the sea

If I should die beneath the sea --
What e'er the circumstance may be --
I only ask that you not cry
For such a lucky one as I.

But, rather, weep for those alive
Who know not what it is to dive
Into the planet's liquid heart
And of God's ocean be a part.

For even Christ must envy all
Who stroll along the ocean's wall;
Though wind and sea His will obeys,
He only walked upon the waves.

And may I ask for one thing more?
A simple cross beside the shore.
Below my name inscribe for me:
Lost to the earth, but found at sea.

Carson Ray... 1989

Scubadiving Photographer

And yes even underwater, you can see some starlet and other paparazzi...


See the starlet in all her splendor:

Back Diving....

Back diving (seriously) after a couple of week-end were i was not very actively diving (interrupted by work travel, and my previous dive was only in 10 meters with a trainee).

Dive Site: Pinnacle in Kilkee.


I had a lovely siren/buddy to accompagn me :

Brandon Cox

June Bank Holiday Week End in Brandon.... which can be summarized in : boat - pier - pub

The Boat


The Pub:


Brilliant spot, with the pub just on the pier, wonderful sunny weather. Mike ( one of the "boulets" of 2006 posts was there for the week-end, enjoying some diving (Guinness, Spider crabs, lobster all checked ).

No diving for me, due to an hear infection, but hours of driving the boat up and down Brandon point.

Brandon Head

We had the pleasure to see Dolphins visiting us....
I've passed my Cox test Monday, despite poor maneuver in the harbor ( I really need to practice that - a lot - to improve my boat handling ).

Down to Cork on Wednesday ( OysterHaven ) for a rescue diver examination ( passed, but need to practice CPR more)

Regional WE May 2008

I was at the CFT regional week-end (South-West) over the may week-end.
Excellent, we had it all: sun, calm sea, basking sharks...




I've put all my photos of underwater Ireland into one Flickr set.

Octopus

Octopus in Mediterranean sea near Marseilles (France)

Scuba-Diving in Valentia

Few pics from my week scuba-diving in Kerry...

L'Auvergne debarque a Limerick.. J-6

Next Sunday, ASM (Clermont Auvergne) is playing Munster for the Heineken Cup in Limerick. Last Sunday night, Clermont beat the Lliannell Scarlet (semi-finalist last year after eliminating Munster ) 48-21 ( seven tries including 3 from Aurelien Rougerie ).....

This past week end i have start the training to be cox'n swain.
So what is cox'n swain ?
Definition: A person who usually steers a ship's boat and has charge of its crew. Under defined by CFT ( the Irish scuba diving federation ), it's basically, the person who's in charge of the diving boat, insure the safety of the divers on-site, and on the journey on and from the diving sites.
So last Saturday we spend the day lecturing about knots, charts, boats, and Sunday we had some boat practice in the Shannon estuary ( man over board, attach a buoy ...)

Sea safety:On the Royal Navy Lifeboat Institution website, there is load of informations about boat, driving safely which can easily be downloaded.The sea safety is accessible online.

Irish Activity

Underwater Ireland

Just a link of National Geogrpahic adventure:
Underwater Ireland by the National Geogrpahic

Scuba Diving Links in Ireland

• Aughinish Diving Club
  
• Scuba Diving forum on boards.ie
  
• Diving Site in Kilkee
  
• Scuba Web Shop (Spain based)
  
• Diver Warehouse (UK)
  
• Aqualung
  
• Met Eireann Costal forecast
  
• Irish Sailing Association (PowerBoat)
  
• Irish underwater council
  
• Waterwold Diving in CastleGregory (Kerry)
  
• Mevagh Dive Centre Donegal
  
• Baltimore (west Cork) Dive Center
  
• Valentia Island Sea Sports
  
• Dive Center Kilkee
  
• Beuchat [FR]
  
• CMAS
  
• French Diving Federation
  
• Aqua Sète [FR]
  
• Insa Bulles [FR]
  
• Emmanule Georges [FR], Theorie Niv 1,2,4
  

Such a perfect day

Perfect saturday, morning scubadiving in Castlegregory, and afternoon on the beach....

The only lowlights of the day: 1. No girls were serving the tea on the boat ( Mika will understand, and no they were not there at all) 2. No waves... damn

France - Scuba Diving

Activities: Airplane, Scuba-diving, Restaurant (4), Pub (1), Apero (evryday), sea, sun and friends......


Back to France ( Nice - Marseille ) for easter week-end, to enjoy some sea, some scuba-diving, some food and some friends.

Taking Off from Dublin


Landing in Nice, and straight heading direction Marseille (Massillia)


Diving in La Vesse (Again)




Apero....

And sunday, again diving, small "pelerinage" in "Le vieux Port" in Marseille.



Listening a lovely percussion band in the sun:




Apero....

Monday, back to Nice, diving, and walk in Nice Harbour....


Tuesday Back to Ireland, nice reading...