On Saturday the 7th of June Brentwood Selo returned to the dive site at Leybourne Lakes in Kent. Although limited to a maximum depth of 10 meters it is ideally set up in close proximity (under an hour away) for introducing divers to open water and provides opportunities for training Ocean Divers, instructors under training, buoyancy and dry suit skills. The diving area is in a dedicated lake within the Leybourne Lakes country park with a separate dedicated access, good parking facilities, nearby toilets (Portaloo) and a secured lake access point. The club has access to combinations for the access gate, toilets and diving area and, subject to booking, can use the facility at any time (including night diving). During normal day hours there is a café and toilets a short drive away at the Leybourne Water Sports centre. The cost for divers is £14 per day with BSAC Open Water Instructors gaining free admission. Dependant on traffic at the Elizabeth Bridge the journey time to the Lakes is about 50 minutes from Brentwood.
This dive was organised and managed by our Diving Officer, Gavin Burgoyne, assisted by Jim Goldsmith in the water and Dave Roast on surface cover. The club carried out a total of 11 dives completing Ocean Diver open water lessons 001 & 002 for Skye & Mitchel, Harry & Anna, halfway to completing their last part of the Open Water training and well on the way to completing their Ocean Diver qualification. We must not forget that any qualified club members can join us on these training days and dive under the shore cover supplied and it was great to see Mark Wainwright and Alison doing exactly that.
A really productive day. Thanks go to the training team for their support and all the divers for attending whether progressing their training or just getting wet on another dive. And thank you Christine for the unexpected but gratefully received refreshments.
The club is planning to organise for dives 003 & 004 Ocean Diver training so please watch out for the club updates. If you are waiting for training to progress in a diving qualification please let the DO or one of instructors know and we will try to include in one of our training days.
Are you going on the next club dive? Why not take a picture, add a write up, and pass it onto our PR guru Bob Willis for inclusion on the club website.
Dive Safely,
David Harvey
Club Chairman
Brentwood Selo Sub Aqua Club BSAC 177
Photos supplied by Dave Roast
