The Beginning

Welcome to the Whitby Dive Site and content I hope you find interesting, free of the past web space restrictions I look forward to adding more content.

My first introduction to sub aqua diving was as a member of the BSAC in 1985 and continued on through the diver grades to become an Open Water Instructor using my knowledge and experience to introduce students to the wonderful world of sub aqua diving. Along with some close friends we were planning to open a new diver training school here in Whitby alongside a shop. To meet the criteria set by the BSAC I was happy to begin the process of advancing my instructor to the next level as a BSAC Advanced Diving Instructor. I had passed the theory test, unfortunately finding a local suitable inland location outside of the diving season proved difficult as we had suffered some bad weather. The BSAC coach was far from encouraging and had little enthusiasm preventing me taking it any further, and ending our school / shop plans.

Practical Diving

As far as diving went my passion was wreck diving. I looked forward to the challenge that deep diving offered reflected in the majority of dives I undertook. It would be quite difficult to choose the best dive I have ever done, but a 58 metre dive to an unknown wreck as one of my most memorable. The wreck was known locally as The Flagship, after an angler brought up an admiralty ensign! The wreck was well broken up, however the visibility and light was really worth the depth (and decompression time)! In contrast to my first open water dive in Hartlepool Coal Dock, although now largely filled in it forms part of the upgraded marina. It was a very cold and dismal day and it sends shivers down my spine to recall the thin wet suit I had on, a stark introduction to open water diving. The underwater visibility was such that I could just make out about two feet of the buddy line I had attached to me. I can but wonder what encouraged me to continue after such an eye opening dive.

My diving career has had its highs and lows and they serve as a reminder to what turned out to be a varied and interesting sport diving career. In 1994 I was part of a four man dive team diving the wreck of a U - boat in 52 metres, it was a day I will remember for the rest of my life as we lost a very experienced diver in a diving accident. My buddy and I entered the water hoping to find the diver with a problem but with something we could overcome. Despite our best efforts I was the diver who found our friend, we recovered him and my last memory was seeing the helicopter departing the scene it was without doubt the worst point I had ever experienced throughout my diving career. The fall out afterwards was upsetting and in part traumatic, something I would never hope to repeat again! The diver was well known throughout the town and was a lifeboat crew member as well as part of the fire brigade crew. He served the fishing fleet and local boats and it could be said that his loss touched so many facets of Whitby. He left behind a family with young children and his loss is a timely reminder that sport diving is not without risks. I have added this to my home page so as to encourage qualified divers or those in training to take a moment to consider their diving practices and look to reduce the risks of an accident.

I considered myself an experienced diver and instructor and used this to write my first book, Scuba Diving. The book is an overview of sub aqua diving, and whilst I was primarily a BSAC member the book was not biased toward any specific training agency. With the success of my first book, I started putting more emphasis on writing and had some limited success with diving magazine features. I didn't really find this productive and found the popular magazines sometimes complicated to work with. In early 1999 ill-health forced me to hang up my fins, and whilst I am no longer actively diving, I still retain an interest in sport diving. I have no plans to cut myself off from the diving community altogether, after all my diving experience must be worth something. This has meant some dramatic changes, to my interests but I hope to retain diving related content for quite sometime as the many wonderful wrecks off the Yorkshire coast have so much to offer. The wreck list I have is shortly going to be revised and the plans I have for this are looking very promising

For many years Whitby had its own well equipped dive centre called Dive Whitby, a centre which I was actively involved with for some time. I knew everything about the business and was responsible for many elements of running the centre including maintaining a good selection of diving equipment. Having ran the dive centre here and all its facilities whilst Gary was off otherwise engaged we both had something to offer each other. I have a page dedicated to Dive Action which has more information, just follow this Dive Action link. Today only one diving support service facility exists locally. Yorkshire Diving Services offers the services expected from a dive centre including cylinder filling, cylinder testing, sales and spares etc. The owner, Ray Cartledge is a keen diver himself and having personally spoken to Ray I found him to be an enthusiastic dive shop proprietor. Ray is willing to meet divers on a Sunday for air fills (subject to prior arrangement), why not pop along and see for yourself what he has to offer, or check out his website

Yorkshire Diving Services are located at Unit 2D, Larpool Industrial Estate, Tel: 01947 - 603388 Yorkshire Diving Services.

Last year the Yorkshire coast proved challenging with three separate and tragic incidents during the summer. One incident involved a 16 year-old boy and his father who were airlifted with decompression illness after diving to the wreck of the Brentwood. The wreck lies 5 miles off Whitby with depths reaching up to 48 metres. The divers from Scarborough were treated aboard the lifeboat whilst awaiting the helicopters arrival and are reported to be in a satisfactory condition after receiving treatment within the recompress in chamber at Hull.

The second incident occurred further down the Yorkshire coast off Filey involving divers from Scarborough. This time however, the incident proved to be a tragic one with two fatalities. In a report published in the "Evening News" the divers are alleged to have gotten into difficulties during a "rapid ascent". Although airlifted from their boat and taken to Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, they were pronounced dead at the hospital.

The third tragic incident saw another diver loose his life whilst diving the north east coast. Colin Bell an experienced diver from Scarborough died whilst diving with two friends off Hartlepool. As a teacher at Yorkshire Coast College he was the head of engineering and students from Whitby and the surrounding area will have known Mr Bell. Please visit the following link to a BBC news page about the sad diving incident it takes but a few moments, but may encourage you to be just that little bit more careful.

In memory of Mr. Bell a fundraising initiative has been put together in which

These three individual incidents highlight the need for vigilance and suitable experience during all diving activities.

Here is the Met Office weather forecast for the next five days.

** New Pages **

One of the last new pages to grace my website was a page to the diving side, one that is indelibly linked to Carl Racey and Andrew Jackson and a dive to a wreck which contained not one but two mammoth, traction engines. To add to my original comprehensive wreck list this website now has another selection of GPS positions and depths, many of which even I have not heard of before. I have express permission to host the list on this website from its owner, use the following link to access the new wreck list page. The newest addition to the website is a page about, Andrew Jackson the remaining founder of SubseaTV giving a biographical look at Andrews activities and aims for the future.

Please take the time to view the remainder of the Whitby Dive Site, if you find it interesting please recommend it to others. If you have any questions or suggestions you may contact me using the link below, likewise if you would like your own page on the website drop me a line I welcome your feedback.