It was probably late 2023 when a like-minded group of keen divers decided that they wanted to form a club which would offer the benefits of BSAC affiliation but would be driven by divers who dive and dive frequently.
We have a very active diving programme with both night and day shore dives taking place regularly around the South Gare throughout the year, if there is reasonable vis someone will be in diving either during daylight hours or night dives when some of our more interesting creatures come out to play. It’s not just South Gare, our members regularly, have away dives further afield in and around the borders and should prevailing conditions mean that diving in the North Sea is not possible then Wastwater is a regular dive site with others enjoying freshwater cave dives when the saltwater diving is out of the question.
However with the clue in the name a large amount of our weekday diving is at the Gare with Simon acting as our 'eyes on the water' giving very regular updates on conditions via our Whatsapp group. For those venturing further afield you have the Farnes vis record on this site as a guide.
BSAC 2655 - Darkside Diving @ Redcar
We are a new club and as such don’t have a huge amount of assets yet, we intend to grow and as the membership pool grows then we will invest in equipment with our first target being a compressor for club use.
Whilst the club doesn’t own a boat there are active members who will happily take along a buddy pair or two if they are out diving from their personally owned craft. Club members have personal craft at both the South Gare and Fluke Hole at Seahouses, with a little organisation small, private dive trips can be organised to compliment the occasional hard-boat charter that we organise.
If you are interested in joining please contact:-
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or
07354 874995
Latest Photographs


The common edible crab (cancer pagarus) you tend to get only smaller ones in shallow water but there are still plenty of them about.
A tiny Long Spined Sea Scorpion (Taurulus bubalis) this one was less than 10mm long!
A scenic of some of the ribs, again plates missing and loads of brittle stars and 'poor cod'
Everywhere that you look the bottom isn't bedrock, it is formed from sections of ship, in some cases folded over and over forming very useful lobbie lairs
Towards the end of summer the kelp does get eaten away, once the critters or urchins have broken through the tough outer skin they rapidly get stuck into the softer internal flesh
A Sea-Hare (Aplysia punctata) these large nudibranch come in a variety of colours, depending I think on what they have been eating.
An arty fary half and half shot
Another 'arty farty' this time shallow water and seaweed being bent ever so slightly by the incoming tide.
A bike.......a bloody bike!
I do get carried away with Starfish photographs, in this case a Common Starfish (Asterias rubens), mainly because you can get damned close for macro shots of all the parts!
A Ling (Molua molua), this one zipped past me at speed and went into it's hidey hole, it was quite a size, maybe three feet long.
Bits of MV Yewglen wedged and jammed into the Little Rock
The mast going off into 'the gloom'
Everywhere that you look the bottom isn't bedrock, it is formed from sections of ship.
J - After a few coats it started to look the part
Until we were lens to nose, so to speak!
In the shale bedrock you will also occasionally see some very nice fossils, in this case some prehistoric bi-valve