Christmas Meal is JUST round the corner....

Venue for the Club meal is The Crooked Chimney in Lemsford on Saturday 13th December at 19.30 , tables are booked, deposits are all in so all that leaves is to remind you to bring the remainder of the money on the night and tell you how to get there...

Here's to a great night ......

To those that are not aware..............

Mid Herts club members qualify for 10% discount at SDS Watersports on the following:

- Regulator servicing, repairs and upgrades

- BCD servicing and repairs

- Cylinder inspections, repairs and O2 cleaning

NOW is an ideal time to submit your equipment for servicing, either ready for the forthcoming winter season or to beat the spring time rush of divers getting back into the water.

SDS Watersports in Sheffield have been awarded the prestigious “Dive Retailer of the Year” an incredible 7 times by readers of “Diver” magazine.

Please see Paul R if you wish to take advantage of this offer or for further details.

On Sunday 16th November, a crack team of hardened British divers took Bert, the Mid Herts Divers gnome to his new home at the National Diving and Activity Centre, Chepstow.

Although the weather and diving conditions seemed set to suspend operations, following a sustaining lunch of chips and curry, the hardy team led by Pete "Pistol" Hodkins successfully deployed Bert to his new watery home.

During the operation, two of the hardened divers carried out a reconsissance mission to an unexplored and classified area of the site whilst the other two provided sniper cover from the 27m shelf. Mission failure however, was narrowly averted when one of the snipers lost composure and was compelled to ride a discarded motorcycle.

The National Diving and Activity Centre is the UK's deepest inland dive site with a maximum depth of 75 metres. It has numerous attractions including aeroplanes, helicopters, cars, lots of swim-throughs, training platforms and a gnome garden.

Onsite is a dive shop, a food wagon (with a surprising variety of hot food) and a high-capacity filling station. The site also provides trolleys, raised kitting-up areas, mask-washing buckets and transport to and from the quarry’s floating pontoons.

A great day was had by all and a return weekend trip is pencilled in for the 28th/29th march 2009.

Thanks must go to Pete for driving and Tony for the loan of the vehicle.

The committee and club members would like to extend their thanks to Phil Porter for the kind donation of a brand new two-piece wetsuit.

The availability of a new "small/medium" suit will definitely help training and newly qualified club divers get into the water sooner.

Thanks Phil !

A new 8 part series called "Oceans" starts on Wednesday 13th November. A Series revealing the hidden stories of the deep as a team of four marine experts voyage across the globe to explore our planet's last true wilderness - its oceans.

Over a year, Paul Rose, Philippe Cousteau Jr, Dr Lucy Blue and Tooni Mahto explore how a unique ocean paradise, home to the greatest variety of whales and dolphins in the world, is under threat. They dive stormy seas to investigate how a giant predator, the cannibalistic Humboldt squid, is invading this sea, and search for the threatened hammerhead shark.

In an extraordinary encounter, the team carry out pioneering science on one of the largest carnivores on earth: the 20-metre-long sperm whale. They explore a sunken ship with a tragic human story, and search for evidence that the Sea of Cortez is still growing, they dive along part of the San Andreas fault line. The dive is above waters heated to near-boiling point by the furnace of the inner Earth.

The series can be seen on Wednesdays on BBC2 at 8pm and on Saturdays on BBC-HD at 5pm.

Set your Sky Plus/Sky HD/DVD recorder NOW!!