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For anybody who has chosen to undertake their diver training in the UK then the chances are the former quarry Stoney Cove is the place they will find themselves once they have graduated from the warm and safe waters of their local swimming pool.
This is the place where you start your sheltered water training and is the stepping stone towards the day when the water starts to taste different, there are lots of big fish to see and you find out whether you will be a victim of sea sickness and spend your first few dives feeding the fish the contents of your stomach from the side of the boat.
It is certainly one of the top inland destinations for diver training and its popularity does not seem to have waned despite the opening of the National Diving Centre.
Getting There
One of the main reasons for its continued popularity is its central location which finds it within easy reach of both the M1 and M69. Located in the small Leicestershire village of Stoney Stanton at weekends it's three car parks are filled with a wide range of accents from the north and south with many people choosing to visit for the weekend and stay locally in some of the nearby guest houses or camp sites.
Being a resident of Northampton it is ideal for my fellow Dark Island Divers and me to hop up the M1 for a days diving and be safely home for tea.
Before I describe the underwater pleasures of Stoney Cove I want to cover the details of the facilities at the surface.
Admission and Opening Hours
A
days diving at Stoney Cove will cost you £15 for entry. However if you are going to attend on a regular basis or at least four or more occasions in a two year period then it is worth buying a two year membership for £25. This then reduces the entry fee to £8 for every visit. Keep the receipt for your first visit as you will also get a refund of £7 from the £15 entry.
The other benefit of being a member is that for subsequent visits you do not have to register your details each time as these are contained within your photo membership card which will be swiped on each visit. This card should be retained with you at all times as in the unfortunate event of you requiring emergency treatment staff can use the card to access personal details.
There is no entry charge for non diving visitors.
The site is open from 7.00 in the morning with divers having to be out of the water at either 3.00 or 4.00pm depending upon the time of year.
On the first and third Wednesday of the month night diving is available until 9.00pm.
Parking
Stoney Cove is a victim of its own success and parking spaces are limited. When the car parks are full then the site will be closed to further visitors for safety reasons. There are three car parks known as top, middle and bottom.
The preferred site is the bottom car park as this is closest to the water and fully tarmac. The only people who can pre-book parking at Stoney Cove are registered diving businesses who are using the site for training purposes. For the rest of us securing a car park space on the bottom car park at weekends can mean a very early start and a long wait in the queue. It is not unheard of for cars to turn up as early at 4.30am to secure a parking space on the bottom car park.
The middle car park is flat however this means that you are faced with a 4-500m walk to the waters edge which is not a lot of fun with a full set of kit on your back Also this car park is a field so the surface is full of stones and kit will get dirty between dives if you do not have a mat to place it on. The top car park has a similar walking distance with the added down side of a steep sloop up to the car park and a sloped parking area which makes it less comfortable when assembling kit. Also as this car park is less busy and out of the way there have been incidences of car crime, indeed one of my friends returned from a dive to find his van containing his clothes, money and spare kit stolen.
There are three disabled parking spaces and these are located closest to the water.
Other Facilities
There is a newly built shop which is wonderfully set up mind you the fact that it has taken over five years to build means it should be pretty good. They have a vast array of kit, well displayed and with very helpful staff.
There is also facilities to get air fills however when the centre is busy you may have up to a 90 minute wait to get your cylinders filled.
The catering is adequate with a fully licensed bar serving cooked meals and bar snacks and there is also a kiosk that serves hot drinks and sandwiches. Up until recently it was possible to bring and cook your own BBQ which was very popular especially for the night dives however this has recently been banned on safety grounds and complaints about the smell however the cynical view is that it is an attempt to boost food sales at the site.
Finally there is a warm changing area with showers and a toilet block. I have never bothered with the showers however it is 20p a time which you insert in a slot.
Underwater
This is the real reason that people visit Stoney Cove as there are quite a few things to see which have been sunk in the quarry for training purposes.
Also it is ideal for training purposes as it offers a range of depths to suit the divers' experience. The underwater world is divided up into three sections each aimed at a specific training need.
Novice Area
This is the area immediately at the various points of entry and exit. Stoney has a number of entry points. There is a slip road which is ideal for beginners and also disabled divers as it allows a gradual walk into the water, on the downside it can be both slippy and very busy as it is also used as the exit point for those divers practicing their rescue skills or those who are carrying additional cylinders for longer duration technical dives.
My preferred point of entry is a wooden platform known as the bus stop because of the sign directly underneath it. This allows for either a feet first step entry or roll entry although you look a bit stupid doing the latter. There are a number of ladder exit points of different designs to help people practice negotiating the different types of ladders found on boats.
The maximum depth of the novice area is 7m making it ideal for skills practice and there is the cockpit of a Viscount airplane, an armored personnel carrier and a replica of Captain Nemos submarine. In addition there is an underwater swim through under the pub into a block house.
For night dives this area is great for finding crayfish that emerge at night to hunt.
Intermediate Area
This area is a set at 20m maximum and is a lovely descent down the quarry wall to a sandy bottom. I love going over the edge of the wall and free falling to the 20m shelf. This area is for the more advanced diver and the highlight for many is the Stanegarth, a steam powered tug which will be the first wreck dive for many people, there is a chain running out from the quarry wall which once located can be followed to the Stanegarth. Entry is possible inside the tug with wide open swim through and divers have been known to hang items of underwear from the wheel house.
Other things of interest to see in this area is a Wessex helicopter which is quite broken up, a single deck bus and Stoney Cove own monster which is known to move about hunting the garden gnomes which can also be found in the quarry..
In the south west corner of the quarry there is a further 20m area which boasts a small aircraft and a barge as well as a jeep.
Advanced Area
This is for the experienced diver as it has a maximum depth of 36m and can be a dark and cold place with a silty bottom area and with the exception of the large hydro box there is very little to see however it is an ideal area to build up depth tolerance and to learn to recognize the effects of narcosis. It is an area surrounded by spectacular rock piles and can be accessed quite easily by swimming down the old quarry road following the lines of railway sleepers that marks its route.
Many divers moan about Stoney, it is crowded, parking is a pain and the visibility can be awful with all those divers in the water at the same time. Certainly in the summer I tend to avoid it preferring to head for the coast however in winter although the water is cold (5C currently) the visibility has been 12 to 15m the past couple of weekends.
As well as the crayfish there area few resident Pike which will give you a look of disdain when you approach them along with shoals of Perch and Roach.
It does have quite a few incidents each year with the occasional loss of life but that is to be expected given the nature of the sport and the amount of training that goes on however the centre runs an incredibly efficient rescue operation and there is an area for the air ambulance to land nearby.
All of these factors mean it is still first choice for me when I need to get back into the water to practice my skills or train others.
Thanks for reading and rating my review and apologies for the length of my review.
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good review as a northern based diver stoney is somewhere ive never visited, did my training in Capernwray, and Oban, then since moving to Scotland ive turned in to a warm water diver, which is something im shamefully hiding from my diveclub.
Elaina18 21.04.2006 10:23
I'm very biased as I trained at Stoney Cove!!! Great review and lots of good (and cold memories)!! £15 for the entrance ! wow (fairly steep, I remember it being a lot lower in my days!) I dont' dive now. I started in the mid 90's for about 4 years. My last training dive was in March in 4oc of water - very cold and 2 m vis!! I went diving in the rain and when I came out it was snowing! My hands never felt so cold and numb!!! The next week I was diving in the Red Sea in 20oc of water!!! With 22 m vis!!!!!! We had a marvelous holiday - I dived the Thistlegorm three times!!!!!!!
Anyhow, back to Stoney Cove - a great place for training and keeping up your diving skills. Pitty it has it's reputation for accidents - but I believe most of them have been caused by people diving beyond their ability and with medical problems! Keep up the good work - writing and keep enjoying your diving! Elaina x
n13roy 22.03.2006 10:11
Really well written, detailed and informative review there, its a brilliant ( if expensive ) sport indeed, and you covered a lot of ground in here..........Roy.....
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