Scuba Diving is a world wide experience, here in Wales we have amazing sites to dive especially on the pembrokeshire coastline, sites such as limeslade bay, oxwich, langland, stackpole quay, dale, Martins Haven, St Brides  the list goes on and also spreads accross the hole of the country and accross the world.

Thousands of people have been trained and instructed through the PADI Open Water Diver System to obtain there PADI Qualifications to be able to Scuba Dive anywhere accross the world, at present we are instructing School Students from accross the country to obtain there PADI Open Water Diver Qualification so they can dive and research in sea's accross the Globe in places such as Egypt, Honduras, South Africa, Cuba, Indonesia, the list and the potential is endless. In fact I have recently watch the planet from space on the TV and it just show the vastness of the sea's and oceans accross the world.

Scuba Diving is a priverlage and an humbling experience, one which anyone who is willing and able must try in their lifetime, some people go even further and push their hobby into careers by going on expeditions, researching the wonderfull marine inhabitat of the world, we have taken many people on this journey, one which everyone has the chance to take, its your decision to take the plunge like we have.

The Scuba Diving Season has well and truly began here at Ocean quest, on the weekend we had 16 eager students completeing the PADI Open Water Diver Course at Hebron Hall in Dinas Powys in Cardiff. The students had travelled from all over South Wales including Swansea, Cardiff, Bridgend, Newport and Porthcawl and were completeing their confined water section of the PADI Scuba Diving System.

The course which consists of Swimming Pool and theoretical instruction has prepared the Students to complete 4 Open Water qualifying dives on sites we use around the area, these sites include Oxwich Bay, Limeslade Bay, Langland Bay, The National Diving and Activity Center and Vobster Quay Diving Facility. The 4 dives will give the students the competancy to be able to Dive anywhere in the world upto 18 meters . This Qualification is the first step to the wonderfull underwater seas and oceans of the world, and is instantly obtainable by all members society, this is why Scuba Diving is the most wonderfull skill a human can obtain.

We would all just like to say a massive well done and congratulations to Daniel Lewis who has recently qualified as a PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor. Dan has completed all his courses here at Ocean Quest from open Water Diver, Advanced, Rescue, Divemaster to now fully qualified Instructor and may I say he has been an absolute pleasure to teach and I can honestly say one of the best Divemasters and Instructional members of staff we have ever had in our organisation over the past 16 years.

His commitment and effort have been impeccable and he has become one of our most valued members, we hold our Divemasters and Instructors in very high reguard and their training is far harder than most places in the world and Dan has excelled in all areas. He truly deserves his position as an Open Water Scuba Instructor and I know he is going to have an amazing career

Anyone who knows Dan or has worked with him, will know he is a great person both professionally and personally, just one world of caution if he asks you to go out for a couple of beers, just say NO! Trust me it can end up in situations you really don't want to be in as a normal everyday human being, trust me I still have the scars both mentally and physically.

CONGRATULATIONS DANIEL YOU DESERVE IT MATE, NOW LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

When starting out on the journey to learn to dive many people believe it will be stress full and very difficult to become an Open Water Diver wether certified with PADI International, British Sub Aqua Club, NAUI, CMAS, SSI, SSA, SDI or any other certifying body for Scuba Diving Instruction.

All the systems have one thing in common, they all teach people how to Scuba Dive and diving is pretty generic in its format, we put together our Scuba equipment, we put it on, we check it with our buddy, we get in the water, we float and check again, we descend under the water, we clear our ears and most importantly of all we obtain neutral buoyancy, this is the main concept of learning to scuba dive, neutral buoyancy is the art of stopping, controlling and levelling in the water to obtain the perfect position and depth for your dive. It is total weightlessness only felt by astronaughts flying through space.

Neutral Bouyancy initially is the main reason to dive, not the fish or the sea but the feeling of hanging and hovering with perfect neutral buoyancy is truly amazing, a feeling I still love to this day and I have been diving for 20 years. So really learning to dive and being an accomplished diver is about hanging, hoverering and chilling out underwater. Anyone can do this above the age of 10 years old, that is why diving is so amazing, it can be taken up at any time of life and will become the ultimate journey to follow.

Our next course of underwater astronaughts is being held in Hebron Hall in Cardiff on the 1st March, students will learn all the basis concepts of Scuba Diving befre going into the Open Water, but the main concept they will learn will be Neutral Buoyancy.

On Saturday we completed our first course of the year it was the PADI Rescue diver course with our student Divers Haley and Paul from Cardiff and Maria from Swansea. The water was cold down to 6 degrees but the students were fantastic and the completed all the sections of the course to obtain there Open Water Diver Qualification.

This weekend we are Scuba Diving on the beautiful Swansea Coastline, there are several dive sites in this area the first site to mention is Limeslade Bay in the Mumbles, this is quite a tidal site and is best tide an hour or two before high tide, access can also be a little tricky with a steep shelving bank down to sea level. The dive can be worth it though with an abundance of marine life including many soft coral, sea sponges and squirts, crab, lobster, crustanceans as well as many fish species such as bass, cod and Pollock. This weekend we are diving the site to assess the access for training students in the bay on their PADI Open Water and Advanced Dive qualifications.

The next dive site to look at is Langland Bay again in the Mumbles in Swansea, this has all the same plus points as Limeslade but easier access and facilities but is far more prone to swell and surf conditions. This is also true for Oxwich Bay, which can be a fantastic dive site, with easy beach access, car parking and restaurant facilities, again though this can be prone to swell and surf conditions. Next week we will go into depth explaining this site and the wreck which is positioned on the point of the bay.

Scuba Diving as I always say to anyone starting a course wether it be the PADI Open Water Diver Course in Cardiff, or the PADI Advanced Course on the beautiful coastline of Swansea is not a sport, infact If you look at many Divers they are very unsporty you might say. This is why Scuba Diving is so great pretty much anyone can dive and experience the Seas and the Oceans of the world with all its amazing wonders and amazing sights.

I always say as well even to Open Water Divers starting their new journey that they can instantly have a better dive than me or anyone of my instructors, diving is a feeling, an emotion it is humbling and a priverlage. To hang with neutral buoyancy in the water is a un explainable pleasure wether in the Quarry in Chepstow or the Indian Ocean it is the same feeling. its hard to explain the emotion of seaing your first shark, dolphin, turtle, reef, whale, moray, plankton, sea horse, crab, lobster, nudibranch the list is endless and just keeps giving and expanding.

In a life time though their are certain Diver's who as I mentioned last week are Pioneers, Adventure's, mavericks of the art of Diving. One such man is Dr Dan Manion who is the only man in the world to reach 155 meters on pure air 21% Oxgyen and 79% Nitrogen. This is a feet In my personal opinion which is the equivalent of Climbing Mount Everest with No Oxygen, wearing flip flops and Carrying Christopher Biggins on your back! The fact that only one person has only ever done this and the great Bret Giliam tried on several occasions and said it was the limit for a human being to survive underwater gives further weight to my claims.

You don't have to be Dan Manion, David Hasselhof or Neptune to Scuba Dive, it is all about the experience and the wonderful environment we are allowed to enter which many people may never witness in a lifetime, but as Divers we must give a though to the people on this planet who advanced the levels and increased our awareness and knowledge, the true watermen and women of the world.

Over the past 15 - 20 years myself and the staff at Ocean Quest have endevoured to travel the world and Scuba Dive some of the most amazing diving sites in the world. The concept of diving is purely skills based and very much dependant on psychology, metal ability, understanding, experience and physical ability. In the world of Scuba Diving there are diving sites all around the planet from the murky waters of Cardiff Bay, to the Sea'a of swansea, to the coast of pembroke, and distant foreign shore's of Egypt, South Africaand beyond.

Some Scuba Divers however become pioneers of the industry one such person is Brett Gilliam a true waterman and pioneer of the underwater world, from an early time he has exerience deep water encounters with sharks, he has pushed the limits of diving on an open water scuba diving unit to deep depths past 100m  and he has advanced the world of diving both physically and intulectually, yet most peolpe will not have heard of Brett Gilliam even though he truley has been exeption in the Scuba Diving World.

Here at Ocean Quest we have taught people to dive through the PADI Open Water Diver system, the British Sub Aqua System, Scuba Schools International and TDI which is teh system founded and formed by Brett Gilliam himself. Technicall diving was really in its infancy when he came along and structured the whole concept of human beings diving at depth using Open Circuit and Closed Circuit Scuba Diving System.

So in honour of my Gilliam I would ust like to say spend some time to read about the man and his achievements has he deserves more aknowledgment and respect for truy being a pioneer of our tie.

Over the past 20 years I have been privileged to be able to live a life full of excitment and adventure, I have travelled accross the world and worked and played in the most amzing locatio's as a profession I have been able to live all my dreams, I have surfed the most amazing breaks on the planet including Australia, Indonesia, Canaries, South Africa, Europe and the Uk.

As a profession I get to take people surfing, climbing, canyoning, kayaking, coasteering, powerboating, gorge walking, I really have the ultimate lifestyle, now I am not stating this to blow my own trumpet and tell you all of my amazing experiences in the rivers, mountains and sea's of the world, I am simply trying to enthasis how amazing Scuba Diving is. Out of all these adventures nothing compares to the experiences I have had Scuba Diving in the sea's around the Globe.

I first started  20 years ago and have never looked back, I have dived in the most fantastic seas in the world, and seen the most amazing things, unlike any other sport Scuba Diving is for everyone from 8 - 80 and it dosent matter how fit or cool or agile or young or old or big or small Scuba Diving is about getting in the water chilling out and looking at what the wonderfull waters of the world have to offer, it dosent matter i you have dived 8 times or 8000, what you see and how you feel is what diving is all about.

On saturday we are at Hebron Hall teaching the PADI Open Water Diver course with students from all over South wales including Cardiff, Swansea, porthcawl, Newport and Bridgend. I have personnally been teaching this course for 15 years and can honestly say I feel very proud to know I have given such an amazing ability to opeople and shown them the greatest show on earth.

We have been offering Scuba Diving Instructional Courses at our centers in Cardiff and Swansea for the past 15 Years and I am proud of what we have achieved. We have instructed thousands of people to Dive and not one of them has ever regretted it.

As a center e teach many course's including Surfing, Gorge walking, Canyoning, Kayaking and many other water based activities. But Scuba Diving is the only one which is available for all and gives instant gratification.

The first time just trying the scuba gear on and entering into the water is a truly amazing experience, to breath see and feel underwater is wonderful but then to float with neutral bouyancy and complete weightlessness is awe enspiring.

The PADI Open water Diver Course is the first course to becoming a diver and anyone above the age of 8 can start. The great thing about diving is that anyone can do it and the pay back is not how fit or fast you are, but how chilled relaxed and what you feel and Sea.

Between all of the staff in our Diving Centers in Cardiff and swansea we have been priverlaged to Dive accross the world including South Africa, thialand, Egypt, Australia, Caribean, Indonesia and the Maldives. This is not a sport its a life stlye and the only one we could imagine.