It’s aimed at both people undergoing rehabilitation (having been referred by a doctor) and children; offering easy-to-use equipment for those over the age of eight.

For more info call 01323 738822 

The club’s efforts over the past four years were rewarded by winning the newly created ‘Environment’ award for helping to clear up one of their dive sites, in and around North Harbour of Sovereign Marina.

Read on for more photos of the event, and also last year’s clean-up…

The Professional Association of Dive Instructors (PADI) is the world’s leading training organisation for scuba diving and they take environmental resposibility and marine protection very seriously.

Planet Divers take this on board and participate in PADI’s annual Project Aware exercise to clean-up dive sites and increase the awareness of pollution and its affects on the local environment to the general public.

Last year the event in North Harbour coincided with the Charity Dragon Boat races, and the Club’s marquee was swamped with celebrities involved in the races, as well as local people who were happy to help out.

Each year, Planet Divers’ Project Aware event has got bigger and bigger, and has received more support from local businesses and residents.

Although the majority of Planet Divers’ members are involved in Project Aware to some extent, Claire Pooley has taken on the role of Project Leader for these activities and has been the driving force behind getting local businesses to contribute something to the event.

Watch this blog for details of further clean-ups, both in the marina and on the local beaches.

Jon Martin

It is said that “you only get out of something what you are prepared to put in”, so I put on some warm clothes and gritted my teeth, as I braved the cold train journey from Eastbourne to the big city lights of London, and specifically the Holland Club within the campus of Imperial College, near to the South Kensington tube station on the District and Circle line.

It’s here, on the first Wednesday of every month, that some of the World’s best underwater photographers meet to share ideas, anecdotes, and socialise in a well-suited subterranean meeting room…

You see, it’s here that the British Society of Underwater Photographers (a.k.a. BSoUP) meets, and in whose esteemed ranks this budding enthusiastic but inexperienced underwater snapper found himself; uncertain whether it would be a roomful of cliquey technical egos, or a group of passionate and friendly divers fascinated in underwater marine flora and fauna, and in capturing their adventures to be enjoyed by those not fortunate enough to be in the water with them.

I’m extremely happy to report it was the latter group, and despite my nerves and inexperience I was welcomed with open arms.

The format of most monthly meetings is for a first half consisting of a guest presentation following by a themed photo competition. The competition topic is known in advance and members can submit their entries. These are shown and the members in attendence vote for their top 3.

After a break to refresh any empty glasses, and for the votes to be counted, the second half starts with the results of the competition and then a second guest speaker.

I’ll write about the speakers in a later post, but the evening finishes around 11pm and I left buzzing about the possibilities.

The only downside to the evening was having to catch the 00:05 train home, which thanks to some midweek overnight engineering works included a bus service from Lewes, which meant my head didn’t hit my pillow until around 2:30am.

Though it didn’t take me long to drift into a dreamy world of colourful fish and photogenic sharks ;-)

Let me know what you think,

Wishing you health, success and happiness in everything you do,

Jon