Why duo-divers, well why not?
Why this web-site, well I thought a while ago, how things have changed in the last……..too many years, but some things haven’t like the lack of accurate information on interesting dive sites.
Small changes like prescription masks, BCD’s, bigger things like dive computers, look at these shots from Cyprus back in ’82 then Egypt in ’11 and work out how much has changed yourselves and mostly for the better.
I remember the first re-breather I saw, it was a modified bag of bits used by the regional mine rescue team and the user wasn’t keen on trying it in 12 ft of water at Bishop Auckland swimming pool! Now the ubiquitous ‘Yellow Box of Death’ can be seen most weekends, oh and yes I am a user, but I’m not a total convert to closed circuit technology.
Back to the ‘why’, there are a huge amount of good, lets face it bloody good, shallow shore and boat dives around the UK and whilst information about them is not hidden away it is not readily available, sure some books and guides are available but much of the web based data, consists of a paragraph….nothing telling you where to park, what you might see, a particular route and heaven forbid some emergency contact details.
So that was the main ‘why’, well written and reasonably detailed guides which would be posted only after a significant amount of dives and research about a site. Sorry there aren’t 1000 great UK dives here, but what you have here will be accurate, free guides to a limited number of good sites and there will be regular additions!
The rest of the site, the albums, the diary and the links are just little things that you might find interesting.
Oh I’ve just thought of another big change, underwater photography, limited to 36 photographs on film….no flash photography…..leaky home-made housings….trips to the swimming pool trying to find a leak was just another rite of passage!
If you have any comments, drop me a line and thanks for visiting the site!
Rich W
PS, the re-breather was used by Alan Bowser, a blast from the past who members of Bishop Auckland Club should remember!
Latest Photographs


The seal eventually lay on the bottom and wanted to have its photo taken.....
Part of the stern section of SS Mistley, there is a small area where the girder construction is still present and maybe 1m above the seabed.
The barrel of one of the secondary guns
A small shellfish, probably some type of oyster. I took this photograph as I have never seen one before and thought it may be a 'foreign invader', it isn't!
Work over the site and you will see odd bits of iron jammed into cracks and fissures on the sea-bed
Leopard Spotted Goby (thorogobius ephippiatus) the knack is getting them to stay still, lots of phtographs come out as a puff of silt and a tail.
Once inside there is plenty of room to move about without many intact bulkheads you'd struggle to loose your buddy too. The floor was wood with no metal plate behind so it's rotting away rapidly.
The site is very,very tidal and as such smothered with Dead Mans Fingers and other species, some of which are not common on any other farnes site!
Watch out for those sharp edges, at best a slashed dry-suit and at worst a rusty cut giving you a reddish brown tattoo and trip to A&E to be stitched up
A Common Hermit Crab (Pagurus bernhardus) this one is in a winkle shell and was quite happy trying to stare me down, cheeky little blighter!
The cascabel is turned and there is a 10mm hole machined in the brass blank and it's time to go!
A grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), the mother (?) keeping an eye on the young seals the reason loads of divers visit the islands
On this particular site on this day there were loads of smallish Edible Crabs (Cancer pagurus) quite an unusual sight as they don't normally show in shallow water.
The size of the scrap-field gives some indication of how large the vessel was but every year more of it is bashed, pulverised and washed away in winter storms....
You will certainly get a few chances for 'davit' shots on the wreck!
On the southern side the edge is under-cut close to the deep gutter, with various critters living in the space under the rock