Diving

Dives

I've had 33 1-star dives so far:

Dive number Date Site Location Area Country Wreck Freshwater Depth (m) Bottom time (min) Total time (min) Divers Quality Summary Equipment
14
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29 Jun 1980 Chester II Off Fidra Forth Scotland Wreck site 24 18 18 Iain Hosking, John Crichton One stars Dived with John Crichton from boat with SMB to try to find wreck. Reached bottom & followed line of dragging anchor. Vis terrible, maybe 6ft. Weren't getting anywhere, & air low (50 ats) so came up, tangling SMB round anchor line in process. Not a successful dive. Steel 60, own dv, ABLJ 4, ~24lbs weight (buoyant on surface)
30
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23 Nov 1980 Largs Clyde Scotland 2 25 25 Iain Hosking, Eric Franz, Mike Malone One stars Boring, but funny. ABLJ 1, steel 69
40
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15 Apr 1981 Ostend Mull Scotland Wreck site 7 10 10 Iain Hosking, Malcolm Gauld One stars Malcolm's rope search - unsuccessful. Vis low, about 3m. Bottom - shells! Cold. Steel 69, ABLJ 2
89
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12 Apr 1982 Salen Pier Salen Mull Scotland 5 10 10 Iain Hosking, Ewan Rowell, Susan Playfair One stars Just a plowter round the pier to look for leaks in Susan's and Ewan's dry suits. Two leaks in Ewan's - none in Susan's. Flipping cold without gloves. Hardly a dive. own
97
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15 Apr 1982 Salen Pier Salen Mull Scotland 7 10 10 Iain Hosking, Susan Playfair One stars Decompression dive. Boring. own
103
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21 May 1982 Seacliffs North Berwick Forth Scotland 5 5 5 Iain Hosking, Ceri Reid, Eric Franz One stars In water after 9pm so dark and very low vis, 2-3m. Dive abruptly cut short by realisation of massive leak in cuff. own
128
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28 Nov 1982 St Abbs South side of the Firth of Forth Forth Scotland 15 20 20 Iain Hosking, Grace Franz, Julian Fuchs One stars Dived with Grace (because Eric's suit sprang a leak) and Julian Fuchs. Vis very poor, strong swell and current. Not ideal. Swam out to Cathedral underwater. Saw nothing. Swam back against current. own
129
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13 Feb 1983 St Abbs South side of the Firth of Forth Forth Scotland 12 20 20 Iain Hosking, Grace Franz One stars Bloody awful. Vis less than 1 metre. Freezing cold, sea life all gone south for the winter, suit leaked. own
130
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10 Apr 1983 Pettico Wick South side of the Forth, west of St Abbs Forth Scotland 14 20 20 Iain Hosking, Derek Borthwick, Derry Paul One stars Dived with Derry to test dry suits. Found 2 leaks in left leg. Water greeny-yellow and full of bird shit. Vis 2m. Cold, and conditions marginal. own
131
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12 Jun 1983 Bass Rock Forth Scotland 20 10 12 Iain Hosking, Eric Franz One stars Fairly strong westerly, maybe force 4. Also strong current in same direction. Dived off north side of the Bass. Had to crawl into the current by hanging on to the rocks. Not much fun so came up. Saw a seal. Doc's dry suit, demand valve and boots, Jenny's woolly bear [!], Grace's gloves. I remembered everything else.
133
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19 Jun 1983 St Abbs Head South side of the Firth of Forth Forth Scotland 35 7 7 Iain Hosking, Eric Franz One stars Abortive search for the 'Glanmire'. Beautiful day: flat calm and blazing sunshine. No excuses. own
159
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6 Nov 1983 Wallachia The Gantocks Clyde Scotland Wreck site 30 20 22 Iain Hosking, Eric Franz One stars Hell. Force 5, wet (on surface), dark, deep, silty, current. Dived on ebb tide (missed slack). Lost line on first attempt. At the second attempt spent half the dive undoing the grapple, then drifted over the jars. Only 20 ats by this time so surfaced rapidly. Soaking wet. PS. Seasick too. own
181
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9 May 1984 Dunbar South side of the Firth of Forth Forth Scotland 6 4 10 Iain Hosking, Marcus Hunter One stars Second dive to take down one of the pupils. Happy enough snorkelling out (16lbs) but couldn't clear ears underwater. Too rough to cure the problem. own
208
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22 Nov 1984 Seacliffs North Berwick Forth Scotland 3 20 20 Iain Hosking, Ross Butler One stars Conditions worse than expected. Zero vis, current and waves. Gave up after 3rd attempt and retired to harbour. Nearly as bad as Largs beach! own
209
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25 Nov 1984 Wemyss Bay Clyde Scotland 36 8 8 Iain Hosking, Adrian Roddam One stars The less said about this the better. own
213
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17 Mar 1985 Creran Bridge Oban Scotland 5 10 10 Iain Hosking, Adrian Roddam One stars As good as the last dive with Adrian. Vis 6 feet; yellow pea soup. Reasonable current. Sinuses disgraced themselves. Adrian and I decided to separate again. own
244
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18 Aug 1985 Kintyre Wemyss Bay Clyde Scotland Wreck site 44 7 10 Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide One stars Actually only 'Very near the Kintyre'. Very overcast day with plenty of rain. Dived at 10 to 3, 40 minutes after HW Girvan. Surface layer very peaty to 5m - below this surprisingly clear. Pity there was no wreck - the grapple had pulled out. Surfaced to try again later. own
245
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18 Aug 1985 Kintyre Wemyss Bay Clyde Scotland Wreck site 36 10 12 Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide One stars Grappled again, found the wreck and others dived it. Geoff and I had time only to fold up the grapple and take it off the wreck before surfacing to do stops. Oh well. own
266
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16 Nov 1985 Rosehearty Somewhere north of Aberdeen Scottish East Coast Scotland 18 35 35 Iain Hosking, Ewan Rowell One stars Ewan's idea. Rumours of a Cox and Danks destroyer remain unproven. Life: one sea scorpion. Vis: up to expectations. Rain, current and dark complete the formula. Hard to believe we did it. Others: Ewan, Paddy [who brought his Rolls Royce], Robin Harding, Mitch and Trevor. own (+13 patches)
279
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19 Apr 1986 Belnahua Oban Scotland 58 4 7 Iain Hosking, Mark Inall One stars Not the HF. Both echosounders packed in, weather bad, and worsening, cold, set. Crossed fingers, dropped the shot, went down the line, narked, shook hands, came up, drank, ate, drank, drank. own, Rollo's twin 55s
304
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20 Sep 1986 Beagle North of Great Cumbrae Clyde Scotland Wreck site 34 21 23 Iain Hosking, Gordon Fyfe One stars First Class practical. Down grapple line, no wreck, so dived again down existing buoy. Carried out survey of monofilament and debris. Rowi suit, 24lbs
314
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21 Dec 1986 Wallachia The Gantocks Clyde Scotland Wreck site 30 20 32 Iain Hosking, Mark Inall One stars The less said about this the better. Perfect conditions made irrelevant by the fact that Kirkintilloch got there first. Graham had a jar, but all Mark and I did was break one and lose the lifting bag (duly returned by Joe Murray). Aaargh! Club 78
344
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3 May 1987 River Tweed English side North-east England England 3 15 15 Iain Hosking, John Clarke One stars Why, why, why? Went diving 'cos I couldn't think of anything else to do. Down to Eyemouth to fill bottles - the gully was like a frothy milkshake. Met Dave Nance [from Orca] who suggested the Tweed. Asked if I had a camera. Hah! We saw lots of mussels, two flatfish, a dead fish, a hot water bottle and a spade. Oh, and a prawn.
404
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13 Jan 1990 Not the Yambacoona Terrigal Sydney Australia 25 15 17 Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries One stars 8am start so drove up to Terrigal the night before and camped. Up with the lark and on the beach shortly after 7am. Already hot. Much hotter inside the drysuit. Descended along the anchor line to find Bruce Smith executing a circular search for the wreck. He didn't find it, so after milling around for a while we came up.
437
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18 Dec 1990 The Pinnacles, Forster Forster Australia 40 27 27 Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries One stars Very unfortunate dive. No echo sounder on Rory's boat so we depended on transits - except it was too hazy. Very hot day - sunburnt. Water clear at the surface but absolutely pea-soup at depth. Didn't stray more than 20ft from the anchor yet lost it. Spent the whole dive playing with Cathy's BC, then were faced with a long snorkel back to the boat. Sea rough. Big swell. Wetsuit, BC, 20lbs lead (began the dive with 28lbs - big mistake).
442
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21 Dec 1990 Satara Seal Rocks Forster Australia Wreck site 45 19 19 Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries One stars All psyched up (and kitted up) for a dive on the 'Satara' but Ari couldn't find it! Anticipation turned to disappointment, frustration, then exasperation, and we voted to dive on the approximate transits. We found a dogfish. Others found a lump of coal.
452
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4 May 1991 Not the Foggy Shark Cave Terrigal Sydney Australia 36 16 16 Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel One stars Out on the BWAC boat. Terrible dive. Seasick, missed the site, current - it had the lot. Beautiful day - 1001 better ways to spend it. Cathy's 88, unreliable shot belt (random detach feature), Arctic.
481
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12 Jun 1994 Middle Ground Out from Port Hacking Sydney Australia 32 20 25 Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel One stars Strong winds all week, so very rough seas and poor vis. Circled the anchor line and came up, dropping the weight belt on the way. Weight belt recovered by Richard and buddy. Thanks guys.
500
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13 Dec 1998 Hole in the Wall Avalon Sydney Australia 18 40 50 Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy One stars Another year+ layoff. Very choppy, so seasick. Mask leaked. Suit leaked. Viz OK. 3 cuttlefish, large groper and a good swim-through. Another soggy suit dive. Legs and feet dry till end - back and sleeves soaked. Underweight? Try an extra weight belt next time.
506
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23 Apr 2000 Barge, Forster off Forster Forster Australia Wreck site 30 20 26 Iain Hosking, Andrew Kennedy One stars Too rough for The Pinnacles so we did this barge. Descended optimistically through oceanic blue water but hit the bottom in about 2m vis. Crept along to the barge and swam twice round it, the second circuit being just as interesting as the first. Highlight was a moray about the size of a pencil which I tempted out with its reflection in the torch. own Dived from the Fisherman's Wharf boat
538
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10 Apr 2011 North Bondi Sydney Australia 6 14 14 Iain Hosking, Cameron Hosking One stars By this time the forecast rain had set in, but not to be discouraged, we entered the water anyway, only to find Cameron had seriously blocked sinuses and couldn't descend, even slowly. Changed in the rain and returned the tanks to Coogee, and managed to navigate back via Moore Park, where a Bulldogs vs St George game had just finished. More gridlock. What a day. Dryish suit. New TUSA Element II dive computer, 21 lbs, hired 88 cu ft tank (own out of test). Borrowed Deborah's fins.
541
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5 Oct 2013 Latitude Rock Forster Australia 14 14 14 Iain Hosking One stars Most of the time spent sitting on the bottom waiting for the others Dry suit, I think
582
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5 Oct 2024 Hayden's Rock off Forster Main Beach Forster Australia 10 43 43 Iain Hosking, James Hagarty One stars Shallow dive, strong swell and somewhat underweight made for a very unsatisfactory experience. No second dive as the suit leaked. Air hose inlet? Fourth Element dry suit, Oceanic Chute 2, 12 litre tank. 21 lbs (insufficient).