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Dive Fest Diaries – Day 1
Each year the magical, Caribbean island of Barbados holds a festival to celebrate scuba diving, free diving and marine conservation. This year, Nick and Caroline went along to see what it was all about…
Wednesday 4th July: Day 1
We arrived in Barbados last night, and headed straight to our hotel: Coconut Court. We have a large room, with plenty of space for all our camera equipment and a stunning beach view from our balcony. We had dinner with the group and then headed back to our room to prepare our cameras for the diving tomorrow. At breakfast, we discovered that if you do not cover up your food, whilst heading to the buffet to collect items, the bananaquits, pearly-eyed threshers and any other savvy bird, will come in and steal your food and drink!
We are diving with West Side Scuba Centre for the first couple of days of Dive Fest Barbados and on this day one, we have two morning dives planned, before joining in the underwater clean-up dives that all the dive shops will take part in. West Side Scuba Centre is based at The Boatyard, and we met the team early in the morning to start to prepare for our day ahead. Peter, the owner, greeted us and informed us that the plan for the first dive was the SS Stavronikita wreck – a huge wreck that is a highlight of the diving here. It was going to be a great start.
The wreck does not disappoint. We made a tour of the exterior, marvelling at the incredible, lush coral growth on the deck and masts. The top of the deck lies in about 20 metres of water, with huge a-frame style masts reaching up to the surface, but not breaking it. These structures attracted schooling fish and even, at the very end of the dive, a solitary turtle. What a great start to Dive Fest Barbados.
Our second dive led us to explore a shallower reef, with a small wreck thrown in too. Alas, a tropical storm was heading our way and the waves and surge were picking-up and hence the visibility was not so great. However, even in these conditions, we found plenty to enjoy, hunting out tiny Flamingo Tongues, huge lobster, Moray Eels and Drumfish.
It was a short ride back to The Boatyard and time to grab some lunch at this busy and popular tourist hangout. While youngsters soaked up the sun and partook in drinking games, we re-hydrated in a more sensible fashion, as we still had another dive to do! Once we had eaten, we jumped back on the boat and headed to the National Park area to help out on the underwater clean-up. West Side Scuba Centre offered this dive to its customers for free, to ensure a large turn out to help collect any rubbish we found.
Underwater, all the volunteer divers formed a large line and we started our search for trash. Each diver had a mesh bag to collect the detritus and we found items of clothing, lighters, plastic cups and other plastic utensils, discarded fishing gear as well as plenty of undetermined pieces of plastic. Between us we pulled up a good amount of rubbish, but not as much as we had expected to – which is good news for this area.
Our day was rounded off with an exceptional Thai meal at the Zen Restaurant, where we watched the storm clouds build from behind the huge glass windows of this tranquil dining room. Our first dive of Dive Fest Barbados had given us some great diving, and shown us the spirit of this event: to bring together divers who are passionate about protecting marine life. Now we needed some well-earned rest…..
Want to join in on all the fun at Dive Fest Barbados 2019 – put the dates in your diary: 3rd to 7th July 2019!
Equipment used:
- Nikon D800, Nauticam housing, INON Strobes
- Olympus OMD EM-1 mkII, Nauticam housing, INON Strobes
- Olympus TG5
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Ho Ho Ho! Vobster Quay’s recording-breaking charity Santa diving event returns on Sunday 15th December 2024 for another round of festive fundraising frivolities. Run in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Help For Heroes, this ever-popular annual fundraising event aims to raise sack-loads of cash for these two very deserving charities.
Divers of all levels are invited to grab their Santa outfits – and as much festive cheer as they can muster – and head down to Vobster Quay near Mells, Somerset for a mass sponsored Santa dive in aid of charity. In previous years, the event has attracted divers from the far corners of the UK to join in the festive merriment for a final festive dive before the Christmas and New Year break. Back in 2015, the event smashed the world record for the most Santa divers with 188 divers taking to the waters donning their festive finery – a record that remains unbeaten to this day!
Vobster Santas isn’t just about setting records – it’s also about raising some serious cash for charity. Vobster Quay encourages all divers to get into the spirit of the season to raise much-needed funds for two very deserving charities – the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Help For Heroes.
Through individual sponsorship and online donations, divers can invite their friends, family and work colleagues to sponsor them to plunge into the balmy waters of Vobster Quay dressed in full festive finery. Since the very first Santa dive in 2007, the event has raised over £52,000 for charity. “It’s been over 17 years since the very first charity Santa dive took place at Vobster Quay and every year the event just keeps getting bigger and better” enthused Vobster Quay owner, Amy Stanton.
“Vobster Santas is a great way for divers to say a massive thank you to the both the RNLI and Help For Heroes – two very deserving charities close to our hearts. We’re immensely proud of all that Vobster Santas has achieved and hope that even more divers will join this year’s event on Sunday 15th December. I’m confident that we can make Vobster Santas 2024 the biggest yet!”.
Divers wishing to participate can get involved by simply registering their attendance at
www.vobster.com/event-vobstersantas.php.
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