We are pleased to announce our second guest speaker at Rebreather Reunion 2019 will be Mark Powell.

Mark will be familiar to anyone diving at the National Diving & Activity Centre and is also one of the world’s leading diving instructors. He is a member of the TDI/SDI Training Advisory Panel and an Instructor Trainer Evaluator, the highest rating of instructor.

Mark is the author of Deco for Divers and his new book Technical Diving – An Introduction. In 2010 Mark won the EuroTek ‘Publication of significance Award’ for Deco for Divers and in 2014 was the winner of the Tek Dive USA Media Award.

In 2016 Mark Powell was part of an international team that dived the HMHS Britannic as part of the 100 year commemoration of the sinking. Mark’s talk will cover the history of the Britannic as well as details of its exploration as well as giving an overview of what is required to put together an expedition of this type.

HMHS Britannic was the third and final vessel of the White Star Line’s Olympic class of steamships. She was the fleet mate of both the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner.

HMHS Britannic is considered the ‘Everest’ of wreck dives. The vessel is the largest passenger ship on the sea floor, followed by Titanic.

Over 100 years have elapsed since Captain Charles Bartlett, standing in his pyjamas on the bridge of the biggest vessel in the world, the HMHS Britannic, gave the call to abandon ship.

It was 8.35am on November 21 1916. The four-funnel ocean liner, built to be even larger and safer than the "unsinkable" Titanic, her ill-fated sister, was listing fast. Bartlett knew the ship was doomed, but on this eerily calm morning as it sailed to collect troops wounded in the first world war’s Galipolli campaign, neither he nor any of his crew could have imagined the speed with which the vessel would go down.

The explosion occurred at 8.12am, sending a giant shudder through the gargantuan vessel, badly damaging its bow as it steamed past the Greek island of Kea. Fifty-five minutes later, the 269-metre (883ft) ship lay on the seabed.

There the Britannic, which was launched in February 1914 at Belfast, and, the following year, put to use as a wartime hospital ship for the first time, would stay at a depth of 122 metres (400ft), untouched and forgotten, until being discovered by the explorer Jacques Cousteau, in 1975.

Today the Britannic lies well preserved in the Aegean. There are many reasons why this is a challenging wreck to dive; the depth of 120m, the problems in getting permissions from the Greek government, the fact it lies in a very busy shipping lane together with all the variations in weather and tides make this a pinnacle dive for anyone.

The Rebreather Reunion is a two day social gathering for like minded divers from all backgrounds and levels of diving experience.

Join us for a weekend of diving and socialising as well as live talks & presentations from our guest speakers.

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We are pleased to announce our first guest speaker at Rebreather Reunion 2019 will be Phil Short. He will present a 60min talk on J2 1000 hours under the earth. Using CCR in extreme places.

A combination of Dry Caving, Cave Diving and CCR as a lead exploration diver on the United States Deep Cave Diving team J2 cave project under the leadership of Bill Stone that saw Phil and Marcin Gala pass the 4th sump in the J2 cave to discover dry cave beyond at over 1 kilometre vertical and 12 kilometres horizontal from the entrance. The project utilised Poseidon MK 6 CCR and saw Phil spend 45 days underground during the 3 month project.

In 2015 Phil became a member of the Explorers Club, being sponsored by Bill Stone and Jill Heinerth.

Phil was awarded ‘Diver of The Conference’ award at the Tek Dive USA conference 2016.

Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)

Over a 25 year professional dive industry career Phil has logged over 8000 dives and 3500 plus hours on CCR

The Rebreather Reunion is a two day social gathering for like minded divers from all backgrounds and levels of diving experience.

Join us for a weekend of diving and socialising as well as live talks & presentations from our guest speakers.

(Read more…)

You may have noticed recently that we have been carrying out lots of works and improvements around the site.

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks removing debris and carrying out rock stability works on the South-East rock face, under the VIP/Deluxe Wigwams.

This work will continue over the coming months, and for safety, we have placed the water area at the far Southern end out-of-bounds to divers and other water users.

The areas have been buoyed off with orange marker buoys.

Visitors over the last couple of weeks may have seen the infrastructure works being carried out throughout the site.

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Just a reminder that the slipway area is not to be used by divers and must be kept clear at all times.

The area can become very slippery and may be required for emergency vehicles and access.

Thanks for your understanding.

You may have noticed a change if you visited the NDAC last week.

We have added an extra 45m of floating pontoons and are looking to install an additional 205m floating pontoons over the next few weeks.

A new Scuba Diving attraction was delivered to the National Diving & Activity Centre today.

The Hyperbaric Chamber has retired from its previous life at DDRC Healthcare and will be placed at 20-30m as an underwater diving attraction.

(Read more…)

We’re really proud to announce that the National Diving & Activity Centre has been shortlisted as finalists for two categories in the 2018 Welsh Hospitality Awards.

• Outdoor Venue of the Year

• Best Entertaining Team

The Welsh Hospitality Awards are a celebration of those who provide residents and visitors with great experiences and enhance the Welsh hospitality industry.

For the full list of finalists, please visit The Welsh Hospitality Awards website »

At midnight on Hallow’s Eve, The Night Creatures returned to the underworld and the Eye Brotherhood sealed the Coombesbury Woods Gateway to Hell.

Congratulations if you survived FearFest-Evil: The Rising.

However it’s not over yet, FearFest-Evil returns October 2019 with ‘Condemned’.

We have Early Bird tickets available now for a limited time.

For a reduced price of £24.99*, tickets allow access to all Scare Zones.

Book your tickets for 2019’s FearFest-Evil : Condemned now »

(* Standard Tickets will be £29.99 at the end of the promotional period.)

The Evil has risen and it wants you!

Here’s the latest teaser trailer from our halloween horror event, FearFest-Evil, returning to Chepstow on the 12th October.

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