SCUBA-Q

SCUBA-Q Finally, a place to share all of our adventures with Spike aboard SCUBA-Q...Enjoy! We also want to continue our education in diving, safely!

Spike, is an ex-Royal Navy Clearance Diver of 30 years, and has been diving for almost 40 years - 10 have been in Qatar waters. He is still a Military Instructor/Advisor, but also a PADI/TDI Instructor, who specialises more in Technical Diving. Although Qatar doesn't have the visibility of the Barrier Reef, or the depth of the Red Sea, we do have many interesting wrecks, in depths of 18 - 50m; mor

eover, we are blessed with many species of fish☺ I decided, after much persuasion from other divers, to buy my boat 'SCUBA-Q', because there weren’t many other dive-boats running out of Doha. We are not a Club or, indeed, in competition with any of the other boats running out of Qatar, just a small group (40 ish) of keen divers who want to get wet and have fun at the weekend. Who would have thought that, after 7 years we would be still up and running 'floating':-)

03/08/2020

Possibly, my last dives on Terrys and Huwaila today...but, you never know:-) And, what a way to go, if it was: the biggest Hamour and definitely, the biggest Hawksbill I have had the pleasure of 'literally' bumping into! Apologies, for the poor quality vid and lack of 'selfie' - mine is en route to the UK, but at least Patrick (alias the DSAC Spy), did remember to turn his GoPro on this time...just:-) A few photos and a 'better vid' of another turtle encounter we had, during our cheeky midweek visit to Pericles, to follow!

07/07/2020

What better way to release almost four months of pent-up frustrations, than a rather pleasant 25m dive, with my daughter, on the Pericles Wreck today! Great conditions, both above and below, however, not much in the way of marine life – perhaps social distancing also, applies to fish😁

07/03/2020

A very pleasant 75 min 'bottom-time' dive on the Pericles today:-) Haven't been there for a while, but really worth the wait: vis, fish - BIG and small, and even I couldn't miss the Nudies! Took a couple of nice videos, but when your dive is topped off with a game of hide and seek with a camera-shy Puffer...there's only one winner:-) A few photos to follow, including, hopefully, a monster Ray!

A tad late – again – but, a pity not to share a few photos from our last trip North to Terry’s! After the Holibobs, illn...
26/02/2020

A tad late – again – but, a pity not to share a few photos from our last trip North to Terry’s! After the Holibobs, illnesses, family commitments and a fairly hectic work schedule, it was great to have most of the ‘Gang’ back on board! With a great start to the day, we were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins (12-15), before we even arrived at the Coastguard Barge…unbelievable, I have never seen them that close to shore, before. The conditions both above and below, were in stark contrast to our previous trip: flat calm, 10m + vis, no BIG fish (apart from a few friendly hamour), and humongous tides and strong current. Hardly surprising with the Wolf Moon making its annual appearance the previous night! Nonetheless, my group of 3 rebreather-divers, managed to soldier on down, even if it did take us about 10 minutes to reach the bottom.☹ Although there weren’t many fish, the highlight was a huge shoal of Queenfish bombarding me and Robert at the Cleaning station☺ Photos by Danny (testing his new lens), so really looking forward to some of his work this season, and Karim…see if you can spot the extremely 'rare to Qatar’ nudibranch, which he has only seen, once before! Obviously, as a highly accomplished ‘nudi-spotter’, I obviously did☺ Weather not looking good, yet again, for the weekend, so Advanced Wreck training it is☺

07/02/2020

A complete 180 from our last dive on Terry's: strong current, cracking vis (10m+), and hardly any fish...until, myself and Robert - on rebreathers - took a peep at the 'Cleansing Station'! With Danny testing his Big One (his new wide angled lens), and Karim back, there may be a few photos to follow...

17/01/2020

The sheer number of fish at Terry’s today, more than made up for the lack of vis, for SCUBA-Q’s first dive of 2020. Hamour, Queen Fish, Jacks, Barracuda, Trevally – you name it, they were there…unbelievable! Two, one hour dives on the rebreather made it even more special…indeed, being bubble-free, is probably why everything, including a small shoal of eerie barracuda followed me and buddy, Robert, almost the length of the wreck. Despite all of the BIG stuff, the highlight for me, was a V friendly juvenile stingray who’d had its tail bitten off. I got within inches of it, and it just swam aimlessly (with a total loss of balance – probably, because of its missing tail), between me and Robert – so, so funny – and I have it on film☺ A bit scatty, no navigational-skills, zero buoyancy or trim, cute, but rather ugly, a small tail, and no hair, we have decided to name it ‘Patrick’!

Forgot, we had 4 different rebreathers on board, perhaps a Qatar record? With 2 more joining, it will perhaps be a 'worl...
16/12/2019

Forgot, we had 4 different rebreathers on board, perhaps a Qatar record? With 2 more joining, it will perhaps be a 'world record':-) For sure, someone will enlighten us! Hands off your hips sailor!

Good dive, bad dive, SQ always says it as it is: no ifs or buts or, indeed, even a maybe (sorry, if you’ve suffered 3 ye...
16/12/2019

Good dive, bad dive, SQ always says it as it is: no ifs or buts or, indeed, even a maybe (sorry, if you’ve suffered 3 years of Brexit and the recent UK general election like me), but the dives on Saturday were CRAP! Possibly, exacerbated by the previous two dives being so good – this was Qatar diving at its absolute worst; however, it is what we must always be prepared for! Topside, conditions were ok, but I did warn, before the dive that, after almost a week of rain and windy weather, not to mention spring-tides from hell - the conditions underwater, probably wouldn’t be the best! And so it proved: as soon as the first group hit the bottom at Terry’s, they could hardly see the anchor, let alone the wreck…Big John wasn’t diving, so they couldn’t even blame him☹ Off to Huwaila it was then - one of the reasons we went to Terry’s, Huwaila is always decent vis, even when conditions elsewhere are CRAP! Thank Heavens, the vis was better (only just), but with the strong tides, the current was absolutely horrendous! Anyway, enough said, other than a bad dive is better than no dive: highlight, Dave spotted an Eagle Ray, but a combination of the strength of the current and speed it was travelling, meant he couldn’t get a photo. As ever, the photographers managed to make the best of some awful conditions, and got some really nice shots of those small thingees.☺

After the understandable excitement over the past 2 weeks, with both Zebra sharks and the Whale shark, at Terry’s and Ma...
12/12/2019

After the understandable excitement over the past 2 weeks, with both Zebra sharks and the Whale shark, at Terry’s and Marjan, we neglected to mention those small critters, which I never seem to spot! It would be remiss of us not to share, and probably why both, Amy - Queen nudi-spotter and Dave, responsible for the photos - never seem to see the “Sharks”☺ Wonder what we'll encounter this weekend(?) BIG or small - well, Dave is with us, so it definitely won't be sharks!🦈🙃

29/11/2019

A pretty mediocre dive at the Marjan today, and then up pops this little beaut! Juvenille Whale Shark - well done Patrick, for catching it on video, although much room for improvement on the selfies! Another vid, by Christian to follow, including dit and a few photos from last week's dive on Terry's:-)

23/11/2019

Despite the, lumpy conditions, we decided to soldier on North to Terry’s, instead of the more comfortable option, Pericles! Thank God we did…we were on a mission, and convinced that the Zebra Shark(s) would be there again. We wanted to confirm that there, indeed, were 2, and work out what they were actually doing there? Well, after spending almost 10 minutes ‘solo’ with them, I think I have the answers to both, and confirm the male wasn't wearing a condom! Hopefully, a dit and few more photos to follow, including ‘loads’ of those small critters (which apparently were in abundance), and I never seem to spot☺

19/11/2019

As promised, a couple of ‘firsts’ from Friday’s dive. Granted, I had no choice, but first time that I’ve touched a shark, (I know it would probably have licked me to death, as opposed to bitten me), but a shark is a shark! First contribution by Patrick (aka the DSAC Spy), who took the vid, with what must be the greenest filter, ever☺ PS you need to work on your 'selfies':-)

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