Welcome

To the Whitby Dive Site and the next phase of website updates, I continue asses the whole dynamics of the website making changes where I feel there is room for any improvement. The website has far more pages than it did a few months ago and I have some more to add soon.

The latest pages to be updated are ones dedicated to diving the more temperate waters of Tenerife and the Gavin Parsons photograph gallery page with each featuring a better range of photographs and being worthy of your visit. A number of pages were recently added that held information related to the former Whitby lifeboat the William Riley, the lifeboat is in its final stages of being restored. This website is hosted on 15 mb web space allocated to me when I first registered with Freeserve many years ago. When this latest overhaul was completed it became apparent that the pages exceeded the 15 mb allowance and I have had restrict which pages I upload. I am therefore considering using one of the domain names I have registered which will then give me far more room for this website to evolve.

It's hard to believe that we are now into 2008, where does the time go? We have had a year of varying weather patterns sometimes in the extremes and it is thought that this is a trend likely to continue. With an interest in diving living on the coast was a very important aspect but we will watch these developments with interest. I had thought that the diving season had finished but was surprised to see one local diving boat going out over the festive break it certainly display's a commitment to diving and I hope they have enjoyed some ongoing success.

The Beginning

My first introduction to sub aqua diving was as a member of the BSAC in 1985 and I continued on to become an Open Water Instructor using my knowledge and experience to introduce students to the wonderful world of sub aqua diving. I was undergoing the process of taking my instructor grade to the next level and had passed the theory test to become a BSAC Advanced Instructor, unfortunately finding a suitable venue for the open water element was far more problematic and I did not follow it through. As far as diving went my passion was wreck diving. I looked forward to the challenge that deep diving offered this was reflected in the majority of dives I undertook. It would be quite difficult to choose the best dive I have ever done in the past I have listed a 58 metre dive to an unknown wreck as one of my most memorable. The wreck was known locally as The Flagship, after an angler brought up an admiralty ensign! The wreck was well broken up, however the visibility and light was really worth the depth (and decompression time)! This is in stark contrast to my first open water dive in Hartlepool Coal Dock, although it is now largely filled in and forms part of the upgraded marina. The dive was a stark introduction to open water diving, it was a very cold and dismal day and it sends shivers to recall the bare wet suit I had on. The underwater visibility was such that I could just make out about two feet of the buddy line I had attached to me. I can but wonder what encouraged me to continue after such an eye opening dive.

My diving career has had its highs and lows and they serve as interesting reminders in to what turned out to be a varied and interesting sport diving career. In 1994 I was part of a four man dive team diving the wreck of a U - boat in 52 metres, it was a day I will remember for the rest of my life as we lost a very experienced diver in a diving accident. My buddy and I entered the water hoping to find the diver with a problem but something we could overcome. Despite our best efforts I was the diver who found our friend we recovered him and my memory was seeing the helicopter departing the scene it was without doubt the worst point I had ever experienced in all the years I had been diving. The fall out afterwards was upsetting and in part traumatic, something I would never hope to ever repeat! The diver was well known throughout the town and was a lifeboat crew member as well as part of the fire brigade crew. He served the fishing fleet and local boats and it could be said that his loss touched so many facets of Whitby. He left behind a family with young children and his loss is a timely reminder that sport diving is not without risks. I have added this to my home page so as to encourage qualified divers or those in training to take a moment to consider their diving practices and to look at reducing the risks of an accident.

I considered myself an experienced diver and instructor and used this to write my first book, Scuba Diving. The book is an overview of sub aqua diving, and whilst I was primarily a BSAC member the book was not intended to be biased toward any specific training agency. With the success of my first book, I started putting more emphasis on writing and had some limited success with diving magazine features. I did not really find this too productive and found the popular magazines sometimes complicated to work with. In early 1999 ill-health forced me to hang up my fins, and whilst I am no longer actively diving, I still retain an interest in sport diving. I have no plans to cut myself off from the diving community altogether, after all my diving experience must be worth something. This has meant some dramatic changes, and whilst the web site remains primarily a diving related website featuring the wonderful wrecks off the Yorkshire coast, I have added new pages and made some changes to the website dynamics.

For many years Whitby had its own well equipped dive centre called Dive Action, a centre I was actively involved with for some time. I knew everything about the business and was responsible for many facets of running the centre including maintaining a good selection of diving equipment. Lured by the prospect of a lucrative partnership with Porthkerris Dive Centre, Gary eventually decided to leave Whitby around 1996. Having ran the dive centre here and all its facilities whilst Garry was off otherwise engaged we both had something to offer each other. I have added a new page dedicated to Dive Action which has more information, just follow the link in this paragraph. Today only one diving support service facility exists locally. Yorkshire Diving Services offers the services expected from a dive centre including cylinder filling, cylinder testing, sales and spares etc. The owner, Ray Cartledge is a keen diver himself and having personally spoken to Ray I got the impression he is an enthusiastic dive shop proprietor. During the dive season, Ray is willing to arrange to meet divers on a Sunday for air fills (subject to prior arrangement), why not pop along and see for yourself what he has to offer, or check out his website.

Yorkshire Diving Services are located at Unit 2D, Larpool Industrial Estate

Tel: 01947 - 603388

Once again Whitby played host to the familiar green coloured charter vessel Ocean Dancer. The vessel on charter to the international best selling author Clive Cussler resumed its search for the Bonhomme Richard. The vessel and its crew have covered swathes of ground but the location of the infamous vessel remains ever elusive. I am always welcome aboard the vessel and look forward to getting reacquainted with the crew. I have an individual web page here on this website dedicated to Dr. Clive Cussler that gives more insight to his endeavours to locate the Bonhomme Richard. As chairman of NUMA Clive has carried out extensive searches over the years locating many unique wrecks although he is especially keen to locate this one. Divers from around this part of the coast are only to well aware of the wrecks importance and over the years many teams have tried to locate the wreck site to no avail.

A photographic presentation at the Pannett Park Museum which may prove interesting to diver and maritime enthusiasts is expected to run until the 6th April next year. I have had the opportunity of being able to view it for myself and was suitably impressed. The exhibition consists of around 26 quality photographs of vessels beached or lost off this part of the coastline along with another 39 photographs of lifeboat assorted material. The following page  is a web page dedicated to the exhibition with a definitive list of the photographs in the exhibition, I am hoping to upload  another page soon that will host some examples of the photographs. In the meantime I would strongly encourage everyone to go along and see the exhibition for themselves.

Like most other museums Whitby Museum has a strict 'no photography' code, I was allowed to take selected photographs only because I am well known locally and because the material was for my website. Information on opening hours etc can be accessed on the museum's own website as ever though, don't forget to come back to my website.

Sometime ago I made comprehensive changes to the website and added a page dedicated to a pretty child called Megan Armstrong, who was diagnosed with an extensive brain tumour from birth. Megan has already suffered more than many people do in their lifetime. I have battled since 1999 with three brain tumour's but as extensive as mine are, I am perhaps fortunate that mine are benign as opposed to Megan's malignant tumour. I feel a close affinity to Megan and can only sympathise with her plight. My family have pledged their support to Megan's appeal and I had planned to take part in a sponsored parachute jump. However, my somewhat chequered medical history made it impossible for me to take part. I have added a link on the navigation bar or this link which accesses a page I have dedicated to Megan. Megan's parents already have their own dedicated website Megan Armstrong Cancer Appeal and I hope that having read through Megan's page on my website that I can encourage you to send a donation to the appeal, Megan is without doubt a pretty child in need of your support. She her 8th birthday later this month and our hopes are for her to remain healthy.

Please take the time to view the remainder of the Whitby Dive Site website and if you find it interesting please recommend it to others? I have recently added the search facility above which I hope you find useful, please feel free to contact me using the link belowl.

It would be hard to have missed the tragic news of Madeline McCanns sad disappearance. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the circumstances I would urge everyone to lend their support to her plight, after all there is a lifetime for her parents to consider the ramifications of their actions. There is not a great deal that we can do on a personal level, I would however ask that you keep Madeline in your thoughts, sending positive prayers for her safe return.