Challenge for overseas divers who want to experience UK diving

Photo credit: Francesca Cambi/SEAC

Kirsty Andrews considers the mindset of an overseas diver visiting the UK – is there a practical way for them to dive our shores? 

If I may lead you momentarily into the dim and distant past, in the year before Covid I was lucky enough to spend some time based in British Columbia. I wasn’t there exclusively or even mainly for diving, but the Pacific Northwest is absolutely brilliant underwater so, of course, I had to pack my scuba gear, including drysuit, undersuit and, non-negotiably, my camera, ‘just in case’.

I didn’t have a car there (Vancouver is actually a brilliant city for car-shares and at the time of my visit there were three companies offering an app-based car rental subscription, but I digress); whenever I wanted to go diving, I took the bus. I had a voluminous dive bag with wheels and I may have looked slightly unusual to the commuters but the system worked. I arrived at the local dive shop and they looked after me from there; I hired weights, cylinder and found a buddy who would show me a giant Pacific octopus and give me a lift to the dive site and back to the bus stop in time for dinner.

The reason I hark back to these fond if back-breaking memories was that I recently tried to assist a friend making the similar trip, but in reverse. She’s an experienced diver based overseas and has dived all around the world (we met in the Red Sea), but was having trouble planning a dive in British waters. As with my Canadian adventurings, diving wasn’t the primary purpose of her journey, but in between visiting friends and family, a quick dip into the salty stuff would be good. Worth bringing dive gear and drysuit, certainly.

I’ve mentioned before in this column how much I value our unique Great British Diving; our BSAC club-focused experience with a rich history of working together to explore our seas in a community-spirited way. We also in my view have brilliant diving in UK waters, that I love to shout about and encourage my friends to enjoy, wherever they may live.

A flip side to our club set-up is that unlike almost anywhere else in the world, the standard experience is not to walk into a dive shop, hire some gear and go for a dive. We join a club. Of course, there are some dive outfits that offer these services, but unfortunately none it appears in the area my friend was looking at. Charter boats tend to cater to clubs who arrive with all their own equipment and buddies ready, so it’s not worth their while having much kit to hire on the off-chance they have a visitor who couldn’t take her weight belt on to the plane. So it’s not simple, which is a shame as I can rave about UK diving as much as I want, but if it’s difficult to do it then I can’t blame folk for heading elsewhere. 

Where am I going with this? Certainly, I’m not suggesting we all set ourselves up as rental companies; goodness no. I’m hoping my friend will sort out her trip - I’ve passed on a local contact or two. I myself have enjoyed the generosity of BSAC divers away from home, with the benefit of their local knowledge and so much more. In my experience clubs tend to be welcoming, within the bounds of safe diving practices of course. I’d like to think that we’d all do what we can to lend a hand; to enable visitors to enjoy what we might take for granted: Great British diving. 

Article ‘The travelling diver’ by Kirsty Andrews first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 147 July/August 2024.