no cat

Beginner’s Guide to Scuba Diving?

PADI

I love the way that PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the biggest global organisation for training in Scuba Diving) describes its pricing structure for learning to scuba dive (within their great FAQs, which also gives information about what’s required). To learn costs about the same as:

  • a full day of surfing lessons
  • a weekend of rock climbing lessons
  • a weekend of kayaking lessons
  • a weekend of fly-fishing lessons
  • about three hours of private golf lessons
  • about three hours of private water skiing lessons
  • one amazing night out at the pub!

They surely know their audience, and the kind of thing they’s be into! Scuba (an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, a term developed in the Second World War by the US Military) is a form of underwater diving, breathing compressed air, undertaken for professional or recreational purposes. There are many places in the world to scuba dive, and in later posts we’ll look to mention some of them, with some of the tropical waters giving access to some of the best underwater wildlife, but don’t forget that there’s some great diving to be had in the UK (just wear the right wetsuit!)

And who k new that Britain has BSAC, formed 1953, the largest dive club in the world (well, according to Wikipedia!)

@Sfdo on Portwiture

SFDO Portwiture 28th September
The other day, we stumbled upon “Portwiture” (through a Tweet, of course), which describes itself as grabbing “photography fromFlickr that matches the content of your most recent Twitter updates. The result is a serendipitous visual representation of your Twitter profile.”  Being curious to see what it would produce for @sfdo, on 28th September, we were pleased to see that the screen was full of images of adrenalin sports, which is of course what we are all about – we were clearly talking about a lot of watersports, snowsports and adrenalin cycling on that day, so on the evening of 3rd October, we took another look, and there we are, still full of sports images, although we’ve clearly been talking about horses a lot today!
SFDO Portwiture 3rd October

About Yaz El-Hakim

Name: Yaz El Hakim

Place of Birth: Truro, Cornwall

Now Lives: Southampton, Hampshire

When I’m not having a SFDO, I will be found earning pennies as: Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of Winchester (teaching Sport Psychology), setting up www.superfundaysout.com, or at home with my (very patient) family.

Sum up a ‘Super Fun Day Out’ in 10 words: Fun, Smiling, Fresh, Adrenalin, Community, Service, Helping, Excitement, Experience-based (can that count as 1?), Awesome

The most ‘Super Fun Day Out’ you’ve ever had: I did a sponsored parachute jump (static line for anyone who has also done one). It was a Super Fun Day Out but scary as hell because I very nearly thought my parachute hadn’t opened and moved my hands on to the cut away (opens the reserve chute) just to look up before I did and see a glorious open chute above (serious relief) and loved the ride down from there!!

Earliest Memory of a SFDO: I did a camel ride in Africa when I was very young which was fun at the time. But I guess my first one was aged 7 on an assault course in Cornwall. It was set up by the army (I think) at a time when Health and Safety did not rule the world and 7 year olds could hold on to handles with leather straps around their wrists and fly down a 40ft zip wire! Left me smiling for ages.

Craziest Sport You’ve Ever Tried: Only tried Horse Riding once and I know its not that crazy but sitting on the back of something that you do not have full control over, scared the living daylights out of me (although my wife said I hid the fear quite well – the horse knew if you ask me!)

Next adrenalin activity you plan on trying: Hovercrafting at Adrenalin Quarry (hopefully on my Birthday in August). In the same week I also intend to Surf for a couple of days and also do the UK’s Longest Zip Wire also at AQ.

Highest Height (excluding regular flights): 4,000 feet parachute jump

Deepest Depth: Around 5m caving

Longest Distance: Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award The Peak District (76ish miles in 3 days hiking)…beautiful rain for 2.5 days!

Favourite Extreme Sport: It would be a toss up between three, Paintball, Snowboarding (no waiting for waves) and surfing (when you catch a good one – it feels awesome)

Wackiest Sport You’ve Ever Heard of: Cheese Rolling (for at least the past 200 years) – Agree with Bex, looks fun but very painful

Why you are involved in SFDO: I have always wanted to have my own business (then being a workaholic has real benefits) and have always loved helping people and doing fun things. This idea had many attractions within it and after positive conversations with some activity providers and two hard working colleagues (now partners), I thought ‘Lets do it!’ So I am involved, in order to provide a helping hand to anyone wanting to find out where an SFDO is and how to contact them (as well as joining a community of others who are also interested). Whilst, helping the businesses to get really cheap national advertising as small businesses don’t have the budgets of national businesses to market themselves on that scale.

Sum up your ideal day: ‘Love Life… Live It’: Sunrise –Hot air balloon ride to watch the sunrise then skydive down to a snow capped mountain peak (with snowboard attached ready to release at the top), board all the way down. Then grab the paraglide waiting to take me from the end of the snow down the rest of the way to the coast (shooting some pals with a paintball gun – acting as an airborne target myself). Land on the beach and grab the handle at the seas edge to enjoy a little wakeboarding for a bit. Midday – press a button on my snowboard and it transforms into a surfboard (spend rest of day with friends on the beach and surfing. Having a BBQ watching Sunset and then sit around the fire playing games and chatting with drinks followed by a good nights sleep (under the stars would be best but a big bed could be very tempting).

That sounds awesome!!!

How I like to challenge myself: I constantly try to challenge myself because they are the times in life that I am most alive and love life the most.

Extreme Sports Film: Either Point Break or Drop Zone

P.S. Never ever watch Frostbite!!!! – If you do let me know how far in you got before switching off – I managed it all as a dare but I will never get that 90 minutes back!!!

Adrenalin sports I have tried include: Skydiving, ZipWire, Archery, Abseiling, Rock Climbing, Assault Course, Camping, Horse Riding, Surfing, Hiking, Cycling, Skiing, Motor Racing, Sea-Fishing, Kayaking, Canoeing, Coasteering, Jet-Ski, Waterskiing, Windsurfing, Sailing, Body Boarding, Water fun parks, Theme Parks, Snorkeling, Air-Rifle, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Off-Roading, Tractor Driving (from Cornwall), Paintballing, Laser Quest, Quad Biking, Golf, Camel Riding, White Water Rafting, Snowboarding and Mountain Biking.

NOTE: awaiting photo.

Bex Lewis

Bex-Lewis-SurfName: Bex Lewis

Place of Birth: Cuckfield, West Sussex

Now Lives: Winchester, Hampshire

When I’m not having a SFDO, I will be found earning pennies as: Associate Lecturer at the University of Winchester (History, Media Studies, <edit 28/9/9> No longer Design for Digital Media, but Blended Learning Fellow</edit>), setting up Digital Fingerprint, or tour leading with Oak Hall.

Sum up a ‘Super Fun Day Out’ in 10 words: Fun, Challenge, Excitement, Adrenalin, Fear, People, Photos, Achievement, Something new

The  most ‘Super Fun Day Out’ you’ve ever had: My 33rd birthday in Peru, where I undertook a wobbly boat ride to the Ballestas Islands, undertook Pisco tasting followed by dune-buggy riding and sand-boarding, before heading off to Nazca for more Pisco!

Earliest Memory of a SFDO: Not sure I can remember, but with 4 brothers, and membership of the Brownies/Guides, I’ve done my fair-share of tree-climbing, camping, archery, rock-climbing, canoeing, etc. before I could even think about getting nervous doing it!

Craziest Sport You’ve Ever Tried: The snowboarders park on skis in Saas Fee. This video gives some idea… afterwards, it went into half-pipes, etc. I gave them a go!

Next adrenalin activity you plan on trying: Canyoning. I tried to do it in Queenstown, New Zealand, but it was rained off (once we’d seen 2 tree-branches floating down the river, which had risen 2 metres by the time we’d all zip-wired over the top of it).

Highest Height (excluding regular flights): 15,000 feet skydive

Deepest Depth: Around 30m scuba diving

Longest Distance: On foot? The Moonwalk at 26.2 miles, in a car, probably motor racing, well, it was fast(ish) anyway!.

Favourite Extreme Sport: Well, I’m more of a ‘give it a go’ kind-of-girl, but I’d like to skydive again with my eyes open, and stand up on a surf board more than 3 times in a week!

Wackiest Sport You’ve Ever Heard of: Cheese Rolling (for at least the past 200 years)

Why you are involved in SFDO: I have undertaken so many of the adrenalin sports (albeit abroad) I could write about my experiences of each almost single-handedly (but I won’t, let’s get others involved!), and as I was recently described as a ‘Queen of Social Media’, I wanted to let others know about the opportunities to do these sports, whilst scouting out more UK opportunities for myself! I am responsible for this blog, the Twitter feed and SFDO on Delicious.

Sum up your ideal day: ‘Love Life… Live It’: OK, let’s take a snow day! Up early, good breakfast, get a good crowd, catch the early snow – try something new, breaks for views, hot chocolates and gluhweins, more skiing – bit more lazy, a good meal/chat, crazy games, crash out and do it all again!

How I like to challenge myself: Feeling the Fear and doing it anyway… preferably with a camera to hand to prove that ‘I did it’! In Queenstown I watched the Bungee, but didn’t have the money – someone then suggested I do a bungee in South America for about $30 – no way, I like adrenalin, but I ain’t that crazy!

Extreme Sports Film: Cool Runnings

Adrenalin sports I have tried include: SkyDive, GoApe, ZipWire, Canyoning, Archery, Abseiling, Rock Climbing, Assault Course, Helicopter Rides, Camping, Horse Riding, Surfing, Hiking,  Scuba Diving, Cycling, The Moonwalk, Skiing, Motor Racing, Outdoor/Night/Beach Swimming, Hot Air Balloon, Sea-Fishing, Kayaking (including at night), Canoeing, Diving off rocks, boats & waterfalls, 10k, Light Airplane, Jet-Ski, Swimming with Dolphins, Pedalos, Sea Swimming, Body Boarding, Cable Cars, Water fun parks, Motos in Thailand, Paddling, Snorkelling, Tobogganing, Air-Rifle, Off-Roading, Tractor Driving (I’m a farm girl!), Thai Kickboxing, Paintballing, Laser Quest, Playzone, Quad Bike, Power Boating, Luge, Golf (Driving Range), Camel Riding, White Water Rafting, Sandboarding, and generally beating my fear of heights for new experiences/a good view!

SFDO in the Daily Echo

Daily Echo, July 2009 See more on the Daily Echo site.

Why Super Fun Days Out?

The Name

Super Fun Days Out was the company name that made us smile the most!

Adrenalin Sports Galore!

The Purpose

The vision was that all the companies trying to put a smile on your face would be on one site, not selling for them, not taking a commission, but directing the demand straight to the provider, who need it most for the sustainability of their provision.

I thought this was something people would appreciate both for seeing ‘what is available’ in your area or in an area you may visit on a break or holiday in the UK.

The Story

The reason behind the company was first generated when a friend of mine invited me onto his stag weekend to Cornwall (where I was born and raised). I said ‘yes!’ immediately, knowing it would be a cheap weekend and liked the idea of going deep-sea fishing and surfing.

This idea was destroyed when he said the flights, accommodation for two nights, fishing and surfing, with entry to one club would be £260 (I quite literally almost fell off my chair). Being from Cornwall and knowing the area well I did my own research, rang three phone numbers and booked the holiday provisionally for £100 per head (without flights) with full day surfing within 30 minutes!

I decided to do some more research into the industry as locating the activities was a little repetitive and I thought ‘the information for all these activities must be advertised somewhere on the web’. Through my research and conversations with my brother-in-law (Will Sneyd– owner of Adrenaline Quarry – amazing!) I realized that agents and websites that sell deals all take a cut or commission of the booking.

This website aims to change that by directing the bookings and all the money directly to the provider of the activity. It also wants to provide national advertising opportunities to these companies… hence the creation of Super Fun Days Out.

Have a terrific fun-packed day out! Love life, live it!

signature