All,

I received this today from the DFL (Diving for Life) organisers:

We are excited about Diving for Life at Phi Phi Island in Thailand October 18-25, 2008. The trip is selling well, and we have booked enough participants to have exclusive use of our section of the resort. (Thai hospitality dictates that a small section of the resort be available for other guests.) However, we still have capacity to add more particiapnts. Please go to our website, http://www.divingforlife.org/ for more information about this year’s trip and to obtain registration forms. We also have some wonderful add-on trips on the website, if you are inclined to stay in Southeast Asia a little longer.

Please pass along information about Diving for Life to other diving friends. We are pleased to have registrants who have never been to Diving for Life this year from all over the world, and it is always nice to expand our community. We hope to see you in Thailand.

Kelly Thiemann and John McCall

DFL Co-Organizers

4 days/nights live-aboard to co-inside with the Dive for Life Scuba Jamboree on Phi Phi Island, Thailand.  For a scuba diver, no visit to Thailand should be complete without a visit to the famous Similan & Surin Islands, one of Asia’s top dive destinations. The schedule for this trip will include visits to all the major dive sites in the area and unlimited dives within safe recreational limits.

Price per person in THB: Double Bed Cabin 30,400 Bunk Bed Cabin 28,500.  Approx. Price sterling (1THB=64 GBP): Double 475 Bunk 445

For every person booking Rainbow-Scuba will make a 50 USD donation to DfL.  Plus free rental of scuba equipment for DfL participants. Full details please see www.rainbow-scuba.com or email Adam@rainbow-scuba.com

To all GLUG divers.

Bookings for Diving For Life 2008 are now open. Go to : www.divingforlife.org and download the registration forms.

Flights with BA to Bankok are currently about £809 ret economy + £69 Bankok- Phuket with Thai International

Flights with Thai to Phuket are £878 ret.

Flights with Eva Air to Bankok are £789 + the internals.

For our Eco warrior members who may wish to go, by my reckoning if you start walking now, you’ll be just about in time.

Happy New Year!

Please could all those who expressed an interest in DFL (Diving for Life) email me again to let me know who you are (Log in and click on the envelope above).

AOL managed to completely screw up my email - I’ve lost all my contacts, email messages, etc., etc.

Sorry for the inconvenience

Steph.

Diving for Life 2008 has just been announced - it will be on Phi-Phi Island, Thailand from 18-25th October 2008. We hope for a huge GLUG uptake on this one!! Keep your eyes on the DFL (Diving for Life) website : www.divingforlife.org
where in the next few days/weeks bookings will open.
I have emailed Adam at Rainbow Scuba (also Thailand) to see if he can arrange a liveaboard for the week preceding - if you’d be interested in this please email me direct so i can keep a head count. (stephaniebutcher@aol.com),

DFL (Diving for Life) is three-quarters full, so if you’re thinking of going, I suggest you get your booking in quick. This year it’s in Belize, 29th Sept-6th October. Come along and have some fun and do your good turn for charity at the same time. See their website: www.divingforlife.org.

DFL (Diving for Life) have announced the prices for DFL 2007, on Ambergris Caye, Belize:

Rates start from US$1335pp (~GBP 720) for double occupancy in a Courtyard room. Ocean view rooms are US$1485 (~GBP 802), and a single-occupancy Courtyard room is US$1855 (~GBP 1000). Non-divers pay US$150 less.

These prices include: Room, Full board, 6 days diving (2 boat dives per day), Use of 3 pools, all government taxes, and resort staff gratuities (but not Dive staff gratuities), plus transfers by boat or shuttle plane from Belize City. International airefare is not included - cheapest current price (found on Expedia.co.uk) is £602.70.

This year, for the first time, DFL are taking over TWO resorts, next door to each other. Looking at the websites for the resorts, one of them appears to be able to accomodate over 150 people on its own, so it looks as if there will be more places available this year than in previous years…

However, places sell out FAST, so if you want to go, you need to request a registration form by sending an email to dfl2007@divingforlife.org and send it off as soon as possible. All applications will be processed in order of the postmark on the envelope.

Cheers,

Neil.

PS. If you’re planning to go, don’t forget to register your interest on the Events Page!

According to those nice people at SDRSC (San Diego Rainbow Scuba Club) , Diving for Life have announced that this year’s Gay & Lesbian Scuba Jamboree will be held at Ambergris Cay, in Belize.

There are no further details as yet, but keep an eye on the DFL (Diving for Life) website.

I stayed at Caye Caulker in Belize (the next Caye along from Ambergris Caye, and more of a backpackers hangout), as part of a Central America trip about 10 years ago, and loved the place. I only did one day’s diving, but the two dives were spectacular - the first to the Blue Hole (see the photo on the left) - this was a cave, thousands of years ago, whose roof collapsed when it sunk beneath the waves - there are huge stalactites and stalagmites which you can swim between, along with a docile Bull Shark.

My other dive was in Hol Chan Marine Park - and was one of my first encounters with free-swimming sharks. Nurse sharks, about 15 of them, quite often coming to within a couple of feet of me, but curious rather than agressive.

It’s just as well it was a shallow dive - when you’ve never seen a free-swimming shark before, and are suddenly surrounded by over a dozen of them, you tend to be a bit heavy on air!

I’ve always wanted to go back… we’ll just have to see what the prices for DFL are like!

GLUG MEETING MINUTES 7 FEB 2006

Officers’ reports
UK dive coordinator (Corinne)
o UK trips are filling up fast. There is one space on Corinne’s trip to Scapa Flow.
o All GLUG spaces on Fiona’s Farnes trip are full and there is a waiting list of GLUG members. There are still four Pink Tank spaces and Fiona will open these up to GLUG shortly.
o There are still two places left on Fiona’s Swanage trip.
o Check the website for latest details.
o Some months ago the possibility of a trip to Jersey was discussed. Lots of members interested Neil to contact Jersey contact to explore. Action Neil

Treasurer (Alan)
o Apologies for absence

Membership secretary (Fiona)
o 30 paid up members so far this year. Fiona will send out reminders to those who have not yet paid.
o Anyone who has not paid their sub by the end of March will be deemed to be no longer a member and will not be able to access the members’ area of the site. Action Fiona and Neil

Publicity officer (Kirk)
o Nothing to report this month

Webmaster (Neil)
o Our website host had hardware difficulties leading to the site being out of action for several days. It is now up and running again.

Equipment coordinator (Corinne reporting for Steph)
o 2 SMB reels have been purchased plus a new 02 kit. Belts and weights still to be bought.

Dorothy Divers (Corinne)
o One new Ocean Diver student
o DD to run Sports Diver and Dry Suit training in the spring

Other dives
o Dive for Life (Corinne) 85% full as of 2 weeks before the meeting. Will be in St Lucia on 16 September. Check DfL website for details- there is a link from the GLUG website.
o Djibouti (Brian). Brian has researched a trip to Djibouti either over Christmas or New Year. Cost approx £1,200 including flights and six days liveaboard. Brian will put details on website. Action Brian.

AOB
o We have had a very generous offer of a complete set of diving equipment, barely used, from Siobhan who has had to give up diving following a back injury. Members thanked Siobhan for this and Allen will collect Action Allen
o We are running out of T-shirts. It was agreed that we should purchase further supplies. Kirk suggested using an ethical source and will investigate costs. Neil to compare costs with traditional suppliers. Action Kirk and Neil
o The Dive Show will be held at Excel on 1-2 April. Noted that there are ticket price reductions for groups of 8 tickets or more. Corinne volunteered to coordinate tickets Action Corinne

Date of next meeting
7.30 pm Tue 7 March

I am confirmed as booked on DFL (Diving for Life) and will be happy to room share with anyone. I shall be extending the stay by a few days and already have the room booked
etc.

(You can contact me by logging in, then clicking on my name at the top of the post).

I’m pleased to say that following my appeal for more photos, several members have uploaded new photos from this year’s trips to Pembrokeshire, Croatia, and Plymouth.

You can find all these, and more, in the GLUG Gallery.

Now, if anyone has some photos from DFL (Diving for Life), there’s still plenty more space on the website!

Does any one know of a gay or gay friendly London hotel or B&B that may be willing to donate a long weekend (or even longer) accommodation package that could be offered as an auction or raffle prize at Diving for Life this year? Also any shops (diving or otherwise) that may be able to donate raffle prizes? Call me - see the contacts page for my phone number, or email me by logging in, and then clicking the envelope at the top of the post.

If anyone wanted to go to Diving for Life, but found it was already full, it’s not too late!

I received this message today from one of the organisers:

Hello DFL (Diving for Life) particpants,
Due to recent cancellations, we have three available slots open: one Garden room bed, and a Lanai Twin (two twin beds) which adjoins with a Lanai Queen. Sorry, the twins beds do not push together, but there is a private bathroom. The one Garden room bed is $1,300 and the Lanai Twin is $1050, each person. If you know someone who is interested in joining us in Curacao, have them submit a registration form ASAP. I’m certain it won’t take long to fill these three spaces.

Watch your email boxes for more DFL 2005 updates. We are working on the pre-trip information package, which we will hopefully be sending out via email this year. If you plan to change your email address, please send us new contact information.

Anita Floyd

If anyone is interested, I suggest you send an email to DFL at once, to tell them an Application form is on its way.

I believe we already have 5 GLUG members attending - would be nice to have another one or two.

Neil.

As of Saturday 26th March, there were reported to be only 10 spaces left for DFL (Diving for Life) 2005. We already have 5 GLUG members signed up for the trip, but if you’re not one of them, and you’re thinking about going - it’s time to stop dithering and send off that form!

More details here and here

Registration for DFL (Diving for Life) 2005 is now open. Prices are $1050 for a Lanai Villa, $1300 for a Garden Villa, and $1400 for an Ocean View villa. These prices include 3 meals per day (except Wednesday, when you make your own arrangements for Lunch & Dinner), 2 boat dives per day, unlimited shore diving, transfers, and a DFL T-shirt. Drinks and flights are not included. Please note that the single supplement is only payable if you’re not prepared to share a room.

For more details, and booking forms, see the Diving for Life website.

If you’re planning on going, please register your interest on the Events Page (you need to log in first), so that others know who’s going.

N.B. There are only 140 places available, so reserve your place early, by downloading the booking form, and sending off your deposit of US$300.