The truly committed UK diver should always plan well in advance , says Yo-Han Cha
UKDIVING YO-HANCHA
Reservation spares perspiration
The truly committed UK diver should always plan well in advance , says Yo-Han Cha
I
am not the kind of person that has a five-year plan or a one-year plan for that matter , unless it ’ s dive trip related . For dive trips , I ’ m all over it and I ’ ll usually have pretty much all of my year ’ s diving booked by the previous December .
It ’ s UK diving that has made me this way . I used to go backpacking with very minimal planning . I ’ d perhaps have a few things I ’ d like to see and do , but the rest of the trip would be a blank slate . It led to more spontaneity , learning locally what was fun to do ( or not ) as well as occasional mistakes and wrong turnings , but that all added to the adventure .
As much as I ’ d love to be more spontaneous and perhaps dive where the weather looks to be good , it ’ s very difficult to charter dive boats without planning ahead . When I first got into UK diving , I tried to book spaces on dive trips a massive three months in advance ( which I thought was being really prepared at the time !), only to be met with disappointment as boat after boat was full .
Therefore , I had no choice but to book trips much further ahead , which can be up to a year in advance . In the last few years though , having moved to Bristol , I ’ ve found that shore diving on the South Coast is possible to do on day trips so that last minute spontaneous dive trip is back on the agenda again . I just need to keep some weekends free for that !
Different clubs organise their trips at different times and as a fairly new member of Reading BSAC ,
“ It ’ s very difficult to charter dive boats without planning ahead ”
I ’ ve found them to be very organised in their dive trip planning . The sign-up night for 2024 ’ s diving was in September 2023 , which wasn ’ t out of character for them . In order to give everyone a fair chance at their preferred trips , each member ’ s first two picks were done via a lottery before we were released from our shackles to sign up for as many trips as we wanted to . One of the reasons I ’ m still a member of Reading BSAC , despite no longer living there , is the number of dive trips they put on .
I ’ m always having to be mindful of the amount of annual leave I have versus all the dive trips I want to go on . Unfortunately , I can ’ t go on them all and I just have to choose . And Reading BSAC can ’ t have all my dive trips ! There ’ s my trips with Clifton SAC and the Bristol Underwater Photography Group to fit in . I just can ’ t fit them all in ! Unfortunately , the Scottish Nudibranch Festival will have to wait until 2025 . Such are the sacrifices I am forced to make .
Some of my diving buddies have only started to discuss dive trips in the crazily late months of January and February , and I sadly find myself turning many of these down as my year ’ s full up . I ’ m not sad that I ’ m going to the ones I ’ ve booked on , I ’ m sad that I can ’ t do it all ! Perhaps I should risk my work manager ’ s wrath and ask if I can buy more annual leave ... or is there a way of cloning myself and experience two dive trips at the same time ? I want to go on all of them , but I can only be in one place at one time ! �
Yo-Han ’ s buddy Roisin Maddison discusses upcoming trips with Sally Walsh of St Abbs Charters
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