In the mid-1990’s, three British divers, Graeme and Sue Davison and Andy Kerslake, became fascinated by the wrecks of Scapa Flow. They were interested in learning techniques to penetrate these historical wrecks, and their search for training led them to Jarrod Jablonski, training director of the Woodville Karst Plains Project in the USA.
They returned to the UK and linked up with UK wreck diver John Grogan, who also trained with Jarrod. They generated much interest in their new techniques and equipment configuration, and soon a group of divers formed with the desire to dive and explore wrecks on the South coast of the UK. This was 1997, and marks the beginning of DIR-UK.
Graeme, Andy and Sue went on to form GAS Diving UK, providing “DIR” training to divers in the UK. They were to become the first GUE instructors in the UK, and Andy went on to teach for GUE full time for over three years before retiring in 2006. In 1998, Jarrod Jablonski formed GUE. This enabled DIR-UK to draw on a rapidly expanding base of divers for its membership. Our membership had previously been based on informal mentoring. The standardised GUE training has made the process significantly more transparent and accessible. The nature of diver that is attracted to GUE, and hence drawn to DIR-UK, has led to an expansion in our exploration and research diving. Recreational, technical and cave projects are now regularly on the menu for a typical DIR-UK diver.
DIR-UK now has an active membership of over 20 divers. We are active in both wreck and cave diving and are involved in diving projects in the English Channel, Our biggest project to date was our survey of the Mystery Sailing ship. This was an archaeological project in conjunction with Graeme Knott, the regular skipper for DIR-UK. This project took place in August 2007, and resulted in a survey of a sailing ship in 57m of water. This project will be published in Quest (the GUE journal) over the coming months, and is due to continue in 2008.
In keeping with the Global philosophy of GUE, members of DIR-UK are also involved with international projects. We are also very keen to invite GUE divers from around the world to come and dive with us. If you are interested in more information about DIR-UK activities, please see www.dir-uk.org