St Abbs 'SPLASH IN' 2010

This event takes place each year at St Abbs in Scotland, and this was my 16th that i've attended and taken part in. What is a 'Spash In'? Simple its a day when divers hit the water to take pictures in the same area, pick thier best and enter them to be judged by the public on the Sunday. This event attracts professionals as well as casual divers, this year thier was 31 entrants. The registered divers head off to take what ever they can find then check in at the end of the day. (PS I'm a supposily a Pro and i'm using a Point and shoot - fuji F80)

After a 4am drive up to Scotland with a van full of not dive kit this time - but electronic equipment (more about this later on) - Me, Squirrel and Moose landed in in st abbs at 8am!.

As resident photographer I was appointed by the the small team to get registered! Now we met up with Emma, Steve, the Crumbs, Will and Pauline. Time to get wet and take whatever we could find.

The Plan: ONE LONG DIVE for Andy and me

So thats what we did..... 1hr 45mins off the harbour. Max Depth 11m. but we had was clear water, bright sunshine above, fish, crabs, lobsters, dogfish and more - and we only went 50 yds of the harbour wall.

So here is the dive in the usual picture form.......... enjoy

Before I bore you with with what we entered out of the above images. I need to explain the van full of electrical equipment.

Well Last year i'm happened to say to the organiser that Squirrel (and I) could provide the audio visual equipment and set it up in the village hall and the old school - thus link the two venues together.

Well Squirrel got together the kit, 4am we loaded it at his house, then added the massive projector screen to Squirrels roof rack, filled my van and set off.

A fit up on the Sunday by Squirrel with assistance from me joined two rooms with Visual screens for the 150 people public to view, not only that, but for the first time we added sound.

Now the Squirrel and ProScuba are loved more than ever for making this work.

With this competitiion you can enter three images:

One is entitled 'Marine Life Portriat', One is 'Marine atmospheric', and the third is 'Most humorous'.

As I had only just been for a potter dive, snapping at the undersea creatures was difficult to chose from. Images can not be cropped and only basic colour correction is allowed. So It's just the camera and the photographer!

So this is what I choose:

Marine Life Portrait.....



Most humorous and Atmospheric - The humorous shot was going to be a play on the news item of cat in a bin, but we nearly had a dog in a bin. My Atmospheric was just divers kitting to get in, nothing too special.

Congrats again for yet another award

Wish I had been there, I love this dive site. That would have meant a still v dusty house from the removal of bathroom and a lack of email account and no way to communicate :x I cant believe how many people need my email address for my work

Will def be there next year to help with the photos, may even need a practice a few wks before to practice Well that is unless I decide to have a new kitchen next year!!!! ( please dont disown me Tink )

Congrats Smudge!!!!!! Sorry I couldn't be with you!
Dead chuffed that you got placed! x

well done smudge.
love the photo's,
we are planning to be there next year!

Congratulations.

Quote :

Sammy and I will be there next year, with a birthday cake for all to share, Sammy wants a junior, novice, point and shoot section to enter And if it is held on Sat 27th can you make that an under 15 class as well

Well done mate

Will be back for next years compitition and might even be good enough with the camera to have a go

Congratulations on your acheivement Mr Smudgemeister. I will try and get up there one year I promise, as the Catering for the masses in Wales has just about come to a head. I don't want to do it anymore......

See you all in the water soon. Hopefully Sunday?? with a bit of luck.

What a fantastic days diving!!!!!!!!!

This place is just lovely both above and below water. We met up with Smudge, the squirrells and the split fins on Sat morning (we have been camping up there since Tuesday). After a brIefing on the shore diving possibilities we decided to splash in at the same area as squirrell and smudge.

The scamble over the rocks is a bit tricky BUT so worth it in the end ,even if i did put a hole in my dry suit. Steve and i managed a 45 min and 35 min dive. ( the soggy undersuit and the resulting cold got the better of me in the end) but we just saw tonnes of critters. Steve was 'lobstered' out and with a camera in his hand all i saw was his arse or fins for both the dives. So for the second dive i donned camera number two ... i will post some piccies but i really need to get some practice in!!!!

Unfortunately, it was way too rough on the sunday to dive ( a few nutters did venture out on boats and a rib!) but we had a good time watching the waves crash into the harbour and rock pooling.

just around the harbour there is a fabulous beach, Coldingham Sands which has just got its blue flag status and has a great surf too...so if you ever venture up and the north easterlies stop you diving you can get body boarding or just wave bashing.

For anyone interested we stayed at CROSSLAW campsite in Coldingham, a mile from St Abbs. They take tents and tourers and its a really nice site so if you fancy it next year its well worth it.

Well done to pa for his placing in the comp. His picture was more original than many of the others and after my attempts with a point and shoot i realise just how good he is :worthy: :worthy: .

A great weekend with great company, so big hugs and thanks to Pauline Will Smudge Squirrell and not least Em who kept an eye on the crumbs for us.

WE WILL BE BACK IN ST ABBS FOR SURExxxxxxxxx

thanks for a fantastic weekend, here's a few of my pics........