Technical Diving Instructor, Mark Powell, will be hosting the next Technical Diving Social event at the newly opened View Cafe Bar at the National Diving & Activity Centre in Chepstow.

The event will take place on Thursday 10th May 2012 from 6pm until 9pm.

This is open to anyone who is interested in Technical Diving – Whether you are just thinking of buying your first twinset, are regularly diving to beyond 100m or just want to have a sociable beer with some other like minded divers.

It doesn’t matter what agency or instructor you trained with, all are welcome. This event is not associated with any club, shop or agency so everyone is welcome to attend.

The NDAC will be offering a special deal at the View Cafe Bar so you can get a pint and a curry for a bargain price.

Mark will also be showing a few videos on the night and planning a few trips. If you want to make an extra long weekend of it we have accommodation available in our Wooden Wigwam Village>

We look forward to seeing you

We are extremely pleased to announce that The View, our new Café Bar complex, will open at the National Diving & Activity Centre in Chepstow on Friday 6th April 2012 (Good Friday) at 7am, with the licensed bar open from 11am to 11pm.

With breathtaking views overlooking our Chepstow quarry, the View Café Bar will serve an extensive range of hot & cold meals as well as a wide selection of beers, wines and soft drinks from the licensed bar. We also have two very posh coffee machines that make a lovely freshly ground coffee, perfect to prepare you for a morning dive.

The construction works have taken around 22 weeks to complete and, we’re sure you’ll agree from the images, the results look amazing.

The View Café Bar will be for everyone; Divers and visitors alike will be able to sit inside or out on the decked veranda. When you sit at one of our tables with the stunning views across the water you’ll see why we’ve named our Cafe Bar ‘The View’!

As a little thank-you for your support, We are offering all residents staying in our Wooden Wigwam Accommodation a 10% discount on all food for the duration of your stay. So after a long day of activity at the NDAC you will be able to relax into the evening with a cold beer and a delicious meal.

We are working hard and continuing to invest in the site to provide you all with a superb facility and what we feel is the best inland dive site in the UK.

We have big plans for the future and a number if new activities will be coming to site over the next few years, kicking off later in the month with The Wire, one of the UK’s longest Zip wires!

Thanks to all our visitors for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in The View Cafe Bar very soon.

Sgt Lorna Dennison-Wilkins has been reporting on her recent training at the National Diving and Activity Centre.

Lorna is part of Sussex’s Specialist Search Unit (SSU) and since their police diving school shut down they have been using alternative venues for their training.

The NDAC was fortunate to host the SSU at our quarry in Chepstow.

Read the full story on Lorna’s Blog>

Today has been interesting. We did our dive drills and each dived to just under 18 meters. It’s important that we practice working as a team and also dive to depth. Lots of police diving is less than 10 meters in grotty ponds and rivers so we have to make sure we can dive deeper if the need arises both in a physiological and operational sense. We have got a plan of what we need to achieve each day and once we achieve our targets we move onto the next task.

Lorna’s blog is well worth a read and she can also be followed on Twitter @sussexssc

The next NDAC Night Dive is on Saturday 24th March 2012, 6-9pm.

The adventure, thrill and excitement of night diving can be yours on a NDAC Night Dive. If you have never been on a night dive before, you could consider joining on one of our PADI Night Diver Speciality Courses.

We have accomodation available in the form of our new Wooden Wigwams, to help you go glamping in style and make a weekend of it at the NDAC.

More about NDAC diver’s accommodation>

We endeavour to put events that are happening at the National Diving and Activity Centre on our Facebook group, so why not join the NDAC Facegroup group today>

and/or sign up for our News Feed.

To book on our night dives give us a call on 01291 630 046 or contact us using our online form> Don’t forget your torches and we look forward to (just about) seeing you!

It has been a very busy few years at the NDAC. We’ve installed numerous underwater attractions, built a new entrance, opened a Wigwam village and have completed a massive amount of infrastructure work across our site, not to mention the View Cafe Bar and the Wire Zip line that are coming soon!

All of this work had made our site maps regularly out of date and each time we did make another update there was always another exciting project around the corner!

With a lot of our current projects coming close to being complete we are pleased to announce that the most up to date version of the NDAC site map is now available to view online and download.

The NDAC Site map can be downloaded here> (Right Click and Save Target as) 1.1MB

Alternatively you can view the site map here>

For other maps and downloads please visit our downloads page and our site maps page.

Here are some of the latest pictures of our new Café Bar complex, The View.

The construction works are progressing well and the cafe bar is really starting to come together. Around 5 tonnes of steel have recently arrived on site and will be used to construct the outside veranda. The veranda will be a great spot to relax and enjoy the breathtaking view overlooking our Chepstow quarry.

We are working as fast as we can to get The View open for business and we promise it will be well worth the wait!

For some larger versions of the photos, take a look at the Facebook album>

The National Diving & Activity Centre will be closed to the public for all activities on Thursday the 29th March 2012 due to infrastructure works being carried out on the site.

The site will now be open on the Friday 30th running normal opening times and not closed as previously reported.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

What is the biggest thing that puts you off diving and water sports in the UK?

The cold, we thought so…well the answer is here with a brand new design of heated under suits that really do keep you warm no matter what the weather or water temperature!

This product is new to the UK diving and watersports market and the NDAC is pleased to announce that we have some Thermalution heated undersuits for you to try.

We have a small and a large undersuit available, and with the recent cold snap we’re expecting this product to be very popular.

It costs £20 to try dive one of the Thermalution heated undersuits which will be refunded if you decide to purchase one.

We can also offer NDAC Members a 10% discount on the cost of a Thermalution heated undersuit from the NDAC Dive Shop

Why Choose Thermalution?

• •     It’s slim, durable and weighs a mere 700g allowing you to have maximum flexibility and agility underwater whilst being lightweight at the same time.

• •     Three temperature settings, you can adjust the temperature of the thermal layer within your wetsuit, even underwater!

• •     This innovative product, which can go as deep as 100 meters, will spare you from cold dives, is super comfortable and stylish.

• •     Powered by two Lithium Polymer 7.4V batteries. These are the same type of batteries found in your mobile phone or mp3 player: no danger of radiation, electric shock or explosion

• •     They are compact and lightweight; a set consists of two 130g batteries.

• •     Battery pockets are positioned outside of the under-suit at the sides of the chest, under the arms offering maximum freedom of movement.

For further technical information about the Thermalution heated undersuit please visit the Thermalution product page on the PDE website >

The next NDAC Night Dive is on Saturday 25th February 2012, 6-9pm.

The adventure, thrill and excitement of night diving can be yours on a NDAC Night Dive. If you have never been on a night dive before, you could consider joining on one of our PADI Night Diver Speciality Courses.

Below are the dates for the Night Dives being run at the NDAC in Chepstow for the next few months, why not put these in your diary now!

We have accomodation available in the form of our new Wooden Wigwams, to help you go glamping in style and make a weekend of it at the NDAC.

More about NDAC diver’s accommodation>

We endeavour to put events that are happening at the National Diving and Activity Centre on our Facebook group, so why not join the NDAC Facegroup group today>

and/or sign up for our News Feed.

To book on our night dives give us a call on 01291 630 046 or contact us using our online form> Don’t forget your torches and we look forward to (just about) seeing you!

We have just added an extra course to our schedule for the PADI Advanced Open Water Diver

This two day course will take place on the 25th and 26th February 2012. Places are limited so please book up quickly to avoid disappointment.

The PADI Advanced Open Water program allows you to customise your training path and learn various underwater tasks that broaden your capabilities as a diver.

You will complete 5 adventure dives (Deep and Underwater Navigation mandatory dives, aimed at increasing your diving skills).

With your PADI Instructor, you will select 3 more adventure dives tailored to your diving interests.

Upon completion of your course, you will be certified to dive to 30 meters (21 meters for Junior Divers aged 12 – 14 years old).

Price

This two day course costs only £225.

Previous Experience

Minimum age – 12 years old.

Be certified as a PADI Open Water or Junior Open Water Diver, or have a qualifying certification from another training organisation.

Review, complete and sign all PADI documents prior to in-water training.

For further information, other date options or to view the other Scuba Diving Courses we have available please visit the NDAC Dive School pages>

If you want to stay with us for the weekend of the course, we have our Wooden Wigwam Accommodation available>