Richard Kurowski    Advanced Diver

For the past two years I had talked about wanting to learn to dive. I finally got round to taking the plunge, and found "Dive Buddies" via yell.com. I can honestly recommend diving with Steve and Deb at Dive Buddies. Diving is a fantastic hobby and great chance to see new places and meet new people.

My best experience was diving for the first time at Stoney Cove in Leicestershire after I had qualified with Steve and Deb. A favourite dive was seeing The Galleon in Stoney Cove, fantastic, I also enjoyed a day trip to Babbacombe beach for some shore diving

 

 

Carl Dixon.  Advanced Diver

Ever been swimming in the sea and wondered what's beneath you? That was me 18 months ago, let me tell you, it's a whole new world! Thanks to Deb and Steve once a dream is now a reality. My good friend  and now dive buddy Richard found Dive Buddies on the internet and within a few months we were Open Water qualified. Deb and Steve were fantastic and very reassuring as the first time can be daunting.

It's a great sport / hobby which can take you all over the world.

My best diving experience to date was in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Warm clear water and the fish were amazing. In my 30 minute dive a I was lucky enough to see hundreds of different species of fish, a Blue Spotted Sting Ray and a Basking Shark.

I would 110% recommend Diving, especially with Dive Buddies.

 

 

Steve Hartnoll.  Open Water Diver

II have always wanted to learn to dive but never really thought the idea that diving in British waters would be much fun ( now I know this was wrong), so on a recent holiday to Turkey myself and my partner Sue went to a dive school that was doing a PADI open water course that we could complete while we were away so we signed up for it and completed the course.

I must say however that having completed the course in such a short time I did feel that although we had passed our PADI open water certificate that I was not confident enough to go diving by ourselves so after returning home I searched for local dive clubs and contacted Steve and Deb from Dive Buddies who Kindly offered to take us diving with them.

After doing a couple of Dives with Steve and Deb at Dosthill Quarry it became apparent that our training in Turkey had missed out some of the skills that we should have been shown and thankfully Steve and Deb are going to be teaching us the missing bits from our training. I mention this in a hope that anyone who reads this that has trained or is thinking of training overseas should contact a reputable dive school in the UK to make sure that the Training you have received is up to standard.

 

Memorable Dives so far

 

Apart from our open water dives that were done in The Aegean Sea which were really great fun. I done a couple of dives at Dosthill and after getting my buoyancy sorted out on the first dive, the second one of the day was great and I now realise that I am going to have a lot of fun diving in Britain.

 

Phil Dorney.  Rescue Diver

Why I started diving:
 
My fascination with the sea was first initiated when my father started taking me away sailing on the weekend.  From these initial experiences I decided to do Marine Biology at university.  While there, I did a trial dive and I haven't looked back since!  I'm currently doing my Rescue Diver course looking to proceed up to instructor level.
 
My best dive:
 
My best dive was a wreck penetration in the Red Sea on the famous SS Thistlegorm wreck.  The visibility looked infinite and the atmosphere the wreck generated was awesome.  I would recommend that anybody gets the opportunity to dive this wreck or any other in the Red Sea should grab it and prepare themselves for an unforgettable experience!

 

Claire McCann & Daniel Boey. Open Water Divers                            

   

On a recent holiday to exotic shores we took the opportunity to try some snorkelling. We were in awe of the experience of viewing the underwater world and decided we could extend our reach further by completing a scuba diving course.
 
We got Dive Buddies details from a family member, who also completed the open water course, and is a close friend of Steve. Steve and Deb are the friendliest people you are likely to meet, and their knowledge of Scuba will be hard beaten. We thoroughly enjoyed our course and are looking forward to future dives abroad, and with Steve and Deb.
 

 

 

Ian Walsh & Joanne Hodge. Open Water Divers

Although something we'd both wanted to do for a while, a holiday shark diving in September was the final catalyst to our open water training.
 
We found Steve & Deb on the internet, along with a number of other potential suppliers, but after a few conversations with Steve it became clear that he had a passion for scuba and the opportunity for personal tuition really appealed, (rather than training as part of a big group as we would have been if we'd picked a number of other companies). We began our training in April and Steve and Deb were really flexible, tailoring the training to us, whilst ensuring that we developed all of the skills necessary to earn our open water qualification. Throughout the course they couldn't have been more supportive and we were both over the moon when we qualified as open water divers! Now we're ready for the great whites (well as much as we can be!!), and we're really looking forward to the many underwater adventures we have ahead of us. We very much hope we can share some of these with Steve and Deb.... thank you both!
 

 

IanJoanne

 

Julia Robinson Open Water Diver

 

After applying to study marine biology at university I decided to try scuba diving to get a unique view at the animals I was going to be studying. I saw an advert for Dive Buddies in the supermarket and was able to try the scuba gear and get a taste of what diving is all about at a taster session in a pool. I loved it. Being able to breathe underwater is exhilarating and there's nothing like the feeling of freedom you get from swimming through the midwater - its like a different world!
Steve and Debbie have been so great at teaching me and very understanding especially as my training had to be squeezed in around exam revision. Ive just recently qualified as an Open Water Diver and am looking forward to exploring new dive sites with them and making lots of new friends.