The weather and conditions have been far more settled this week and moving into the weekend it's looking like we could see some acceptable conditions for Scuba Diving on the South Wales coast.
Swell is set to be low, at around 1ft - 3ft and whilst we are going to be getting Westerlies and Southerlies they should be fairly gentle, particularly on Sunday, with gusts hitting around 13knots.
You do need to be very careful with the tides however this weekend in South Wales as we're coming off the back of a full moon, meaning spring tides. Saturday and Sunday are going to see massive movement from the tides, with low tide less than 1m and high tide 10m+ the rule of twelfths is going to be absolutely vital in any dive plan. You will also need to take into account how that volume of water movement could affect your visibility.
With these size tides you may find it difficult to plan in a dive for as long as you wanted, so you always have the option in South Wales if heading to some of the near by inland dive sites, such as Chepstow in Wales and Vobster Quay in Somerset, which won't be affected by tidal conditions.
Last weekend saw us back in Cardiff for the confined water section of the PADI Open Water Diver course as well as the theory. We also had a couple of people join us for a Scuba Diving Taster Session, so hopefully we'll see them back soon on the PADI Open Water Diver.
Next week our Open Water students will be with us in Chepstow to complete the PADI Open Water Diver course and become qualified divers. This will allow them to Scuba Dive to 18m anywhere in the world and is also their passport to to further scuba diving courses, such as the PADI Advanced Open Water and various specialities.
CAUTIONS – Water temperatures are still mild for the UK, although they'll be starting to fall from here. You'll still need to take all precautions with regards to thermal protection (wetsuits, drysuits, hoods, gloves) as even the warmest UK sea temperatures are around the 12°C mark. We're getting spring tides this weekend, meaning the volume of water movement from the tide is the highest we get in South Wales, remember the rule of twelfths.