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


This is about mid-ships by my reckoning, could be the top of a capstan or similar, again this hasn't been visible for a number of years.
On this shot you can see the ribs and some of the remaining steel hull plate plus the sea-bed, not sure how long it has been since this much sand and rock was washed from the site.
A scenic of one of the masts, snapped where it goes over some other wreckage, going away from the body of the wreck
A Painted Goby (Pomatoschistus pictus) a very common small fish that follows divers around hoping that some small creatures, its next meal, are dislodged.
The front end of a lobster (Homarus gammarus), there are more and more blue fiends on this site, a fact down to the lack of predators of smaller lobsters, that is to say not a huge amount of cod about!
Another shot of the propellor tip, this time from the side, maybe looking at the two shots it makes sense.
A more conventionally coloured Bloody Henry (Henerica oculata)
At last something recognisable, in this case a small calibre gun and associated turret
There is coal everywhere on this and the other sites
And again in the rocks you will see lobbies (Hommarus gammarus)
Along part of the site there is a definite step of maybe a meter, a very good spot for picking up lost weights but note the general lack of life here in 10m of water!
Even more bits from the broken up boiler.......
The deeper gullies have a thick layer of grit and sand on the bottom, possibly concealing 'goodies'
Go out, south, and the bottom turns to big rocks surrounded by grit. Unfortunately it's all very mobile as you will see from the wave form of the sand, this means no scallops!
Dropping to the bottom about eighty meters from the cliff face and you are faced with a bottom comprising of boulders with coarse sand between them, the boulders vary in size from the size of cars to maybe a meter cubed.
Eat my camera set-up!!