Why we dive at Porthkerris

Oxford Brookes University - OBUSAC - Mar 08

Oxford Brookes University/Oxford Polytechnic has been coming to Porthkerris for over 15 years now. The college has built up a good relationship with Mike and Porthkerris over the years and we have enjoyed incident free diving in all that time. The ease of access to shore diving and as a boat launch site to the Manacles and surrounding areas has meant the site is perfect for us as a student club to train new divers and to progress experience with returning divers. Our training takes place over Easter and every year we safely train our students to at least sport diver.

With the facilities on the beach for filling cylinders, showers, toilets and hot snacks there are not many places in the UK to match. Launching boats is simple with the assistance of Mike and his staff and any technical issues are remedied with the extensive experience available on site.

There is plenty of variety of life within easy reach of the beach and interesting wreck sites to suit the novice and experienced diver alike. Every year the novices we train are always pleasantly surprised by the variety of life that they can discover so easily. They can see first hand Wrasse and other fish displaying to each other in their mating rituals, where previously it was just something they saw from the comfort of their lounge. If the weather is not favourable at PK then the staff are more than happy to recommend alternate sites in the area with their wealth of local knowledge.

Over the Easter weekend the RNLI often have staff on hand at PK reflecting its popularity as a dive destination, they provide welcome knowledge and advice to clubs and individuals to further enhance the safe diving practices, which all responsible divers should be adhering to. The familiarity that Brookes has with the diving at PK and the excellent service that PK provides ensures that we will return year after year to introduce more people to the pleasures that UK diving can offer.

Ealing Sub Aqua Club ESAC - Mar 08

Ealing Sub-Aqua Club is a BSAC club based in NW London with around 60 members both BSAC and PADI trained. We first dived from Porthkerris 14 years ago when 6 of us and one of our boats stayed a long weekend as an exploratory expedition. We had a brilliant time, the diving was fantastic, the Anselmi family who run the dive centre were very friendly and helpful, plus (and a big plus for a dive club ) the local pubs served good food and excellent beer.

The “long weekend” proved so popular that it grew into a week and we have come back every year since. The dive centre has grown but Mike and Andy still run it in the same professional, friendly style and they have two excellent boats if you don’t want to tow your own 300+ miles!

The diving is as good as ever; the spectacular pinnacles of the Manacles never seem to suffer from pollution or a decline in the amount of life, the opposite seems the case. There are wrecks to explore, more colourful fish and anemones than most dive sites in the world and there is the chance of seeing Basking Sharks! In 2006 we were lucky enough to snorkel with a number of large sharks – a fantastic experience.

A personal favourite is Vase Rock, the pinnacle that doomed the Mohegan when it tore her rudder off. Over the years we have had great fun discovering and exploring the numerous anemone lined caves, clefts and swim-throughs on The Vase; it is home to a great variety of fish and is definitely one of the best ever scenic dives.
If you need a break from diving, we’ve found there are some great walks; the South West Coast path runs across the cliffs above Porthkerris and walking either North or South will take you through some great scenery and into pretty coastal villages.

Add to that the great pubs ( for bitter drinkers, the classic favourite Doom Bar was joined by the incomparable Betty Stoggs a year or two ago ) plus the incredible Roskilly’s ice cream and you have all the ingredients of a great dive holiday.

Des Powell (Dive Officer) Cotswold BSAC 332 - Feb 08

My own club visits the site for a week each year along with other trips and bring both our ribs which we use daily. Launching is made easy and Mike and Andy are always there at hand to offer advice and help. If you wish to use their ribs they run very regularly and if you fill the rib (or near to it) they will take you to great sites of your choice. Again for that bit of luxury then the ‘Celtic Cat’ is one of the best hard boats you could ever wish for!

I travel down from Gloucester area about once a month in summer and when I can in winter too. I have not yet remotely tired of the diving here. It has an excellent shore dive full of nooks and crannies and once through the swim-through out into a decent depth of about 18 metres even around good old Drawna Rock at high tide. Huge variety of fish available to see including Cuttlefish, Wrasse, Pollock, John Dorey, etc etc .(I even saw a large Trigger fish two summers ago.) As a club the shore dive is excellent at all levels of experience. I particularly enjoy a night dive as you can see all sorts of different species.

The surrounding areas boast dives of just about every type, from great reef dives, numerous wrecks, drift dives, etc.

I have found during my time at Porthkerris that for me, it has got better and better. There are good pubs, good food and places to see if the weather is too bad to dive (which is not that often due to a fairly sheltered site)

What make this place so special? Could it be the great diving, shore diving, reef diving, wreck diving, night diving, drift diving etc, fishing or accessibility for ribs or good supply of tea / coffee and air station within yards of the beach, or indeed having Andy Howell shout some bit of banter out for all to hear.

I think its not any one individual thing above that makes this place stand out but all of the above and I would wholeheartedly recommend a visit as club or as a couple of divers. You will not be disappointed.
I have always been made to feel very welcome and now consider this area to be my second home and the many of the locals and staff to be good mates!

Paul Naylor, Photographer - Feb 08 - Great British Marine Animals

I am a marine biologist and underwater photographer with a passion for showing people what wonderful animals live in British seas. My work has included the books “Marine Animals of the South West” and “Great British Marine Animals”.

Porthkerris has for many years been one of my very favourite and successful locations. The spectacular dive sites around the Manacles reef, along with others, are a very short boat ride away and the shore diving is superb. All this in an environment that gives you a feeling of wellbeing as soon as you get through the gate at the top of the road that winds down to the beach!

My particular interest is recording animal behaviour and the excellent conditions at Porthkerris beach give me the opportunity to spend long and enjoyable dives watching my subjects and letting them get used to me. It is, for example, the only place I have managed to get good photographs of the co-operative feeding and cleaning behaviour of rock cooks and ballan wrasse – these normally bold fish seem to get all coy when they are interacting like this, and a lot of time and patience was needed.

Other wonderful sightings have included John Dory hunting, sea slug mating chains and species such as angler fish and gurnards that are not usually seen when diving from the shore. But you don’t have to even get to the accessible deeper water; we once spent half an hour watching a territorial dispute between Montagu’s blennies on a rock within 4 metres of the shore.

In fact as well as being such a fruitful photographic location, Porthkerris is a fantastic place for my family too. On finding a cuttlefish standing guard over a half-eaten pipefish meal close to the beach on my return from a shore dive, I was able to take my daughters out snorkelling to see it – their first view of a cuttlefish in the wild. My son declared that the view of a young basking shark swimming past the Porthkerris catamaran made it the “best day of my life”.