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  Dive Sites
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At West Wales Diving School, we
are ideally situated just 2 miles from the sea and our nearest launching site at
Abercastle. From here, we can get to a variety of dive sites.
The underwater scenery can be
breathtaking, the marine life is fascinating and plentiful,
and the wrecks are well worth exploring.
Only 200 metres from shore, there
is a 3,800 ton wreck called the Leysian lying in 12-15 metres of water,
one of several wreck sites that we use. We usually take people to visit
this site on the last day of their beginners course. There are always a
lot of fish swimming round it, some very large, others small but colourful, and
quite often our friendly resident seal will turn up and follow us throughout the
dive.
On the other side of the bay we have a spectacular long, narrow gulley,
which oddly enough we call Long Gulley! The walls are covered with sponges, anemones, soft corals and much,
much more. Colourful species of starfish live here alongside crabs, prawns and
the odd lobster. The highlight of this area when conditions are right must
be the 'Blow Hole'. There is a cave entrance at only 6 metres deep, which you swim through
towards a glimmer of light, and after approximately 10m you surface inside the blow hole.
This is everybody's favourite dive, and it is an ideal way to 'finish off the air'.
Crab Island,(Ynys Deullyn)
was nicknamed for the fact it can be teeming with crab life, and can be seen while
still standing on the beach. We usually find lobsters and crayfish hiding here.
Those with an eagle eye may even spot the tiny nudibranch, Flabellina Pedata.
Around the other side of Ynys Deullyn you will find the amphitheatre
which is absolutely teeming with life and really enthralling. If there is one
thing more exciting for a marine biologist than finding a sponge crab here at
Abercastle, it must be finding three or more on the same dive. If you are very
lucky you might even find a mating pair!
V Reef and Deep V are also
popular dives when conditions are right. Diving these regularly, these
sites never give us the same dive twice, sometimes exhilarating when a current
is running, but always interesting with plenty to see.
Huw's Reef is another site
that varies tremendously. You can either explore the gullies where we can often
find a trigger fish or three during the summer or stay on the outer wall and
enjoy a drift dive, seeing whatever the sea choses for you on any particular
day.
Anderson Reef can be
deceptive. As you drop down the line your first sight is of a very flat reef,
but look closely and you will see there is so much life here. If the current is
running it is a really enjoyable drift dive which should take you over the
brittlestar bed at some point before you reluctantly have to surface.
Another favourite is Ynys Melin which
is not far from the Vendome, with a gully on one side with a little cave
and a fascinating wall on the other - the rock formations here have to be seen
to be believed. Reasonably nearby is Anchor Reef which we have just
recently started to explore more.
The Pinnacle and Bola Reef when
conditions are right are both wonderful dives and we also have found a few new
sites that are definitely worth further exploration!
For more information about any of these
dive sites, please contact us.
Bruce
Jones
Sessions
Hall, Mathry
Pembrokeshire
SA62 5HB
e-mail: westwds@aol.com
Tel.
01348 831526
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