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UK DIVING TURNS OUT NICE AGAIN
NIGEL EATON, EDITOR
What's so good about British diving? That's the question investigated by our Wreck Tour guide and dedicated UK diver John Liddiard in this issue of Diver.
To find out more, John solicited the views of some of the many UK-based divers who learned their sport in warmer waters, but who have since been seduced by the charms of doing it closer to home.
Starting on here, he tells the stories of their conversions. He also shares their insights into the myths surrounding coldwater diving, and describes a selection of dive sites, from Oban to the Manacles, that they recommend as starting-points for UK diving wannabes.
Elsewhere, the thrill of coldwater wreck diving - albeit in the northern Baltic rather than around the UK - is captured by John in a report on wrecks near the Swedish island of Åland . Not only are these vessels relatively undived but, because of the low salinity of the water, they also remain astonishingly intact.
Meanwhile, off Scotland's west coast, Leigh Bishop reports on a technical-diving project to explore one of the many wrecks in UK waters that lie outside the normal sport-diving range. HMS Vandal was a British submarine sunk in uncertain circumstances in 1943, and Leigh's team planned some forensic wreck-diving to try to discover what really happened 60 years ago to cause the loss of the vessel and her 37 crew.
Of course, diving in UK waters can never be all things to all divers. When it comes to underwater photography, for instance, there are some tough challenges.
It was therefore no surprise, at the recent judging of Diver's Image 2003 photo contest, to see that entries shot around the British Isles again lagged behind those from warmer climes in terms of both volume and quality.
That said, images such as Alan James' portrait of a basking shark - which won not only a British Waters Gold Medal but also a Silver in the Open category - show what can be achieved.
And even at the modest Diver-magazine sponsored Stoney Cove photo splash-ins - the latest of which was due to take place as we went to press - it is fair to say that some outstanding underwater images have been produced in less-than-ideal conditions in the past couple of years.
So forget Louise Trewavas's lurid picture of the murkier side of British diving. On a good day - even on an average day - there's no doubt that UK can be OK.
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