Tag Archives: diving

Ship Wrecked – What they find on the bottom

The coming weekend an interesting event is taking place in Sonderborg. Every second year somewhere in Denmark a local diving club organises a Wreck Exhibition and this year it’s hosted by the local Sønderborg Sportsdykker Klub.

Here you can see artifacts that people have brought up to the surface from wrecks. You will also get a chance to talk to the people who brought them up, hear their tales of finding the wrecks and their theories for why the ships sank.

As part of the exhibition there will be a photo competition for the best wreck photo. There is also a competition for the prettiest and funniest find.

The last couple of years Danish sports divers has been acquiring sonar equipment which has made it possible to locate wrecks that were considered lost. One of these “lost” wrecks is UC 30.

During World War I in April 1917 the German submarine UC 30 struck a mine and sank by the west coast of Jutland. Almost a decade later in 2011 an expedition found the wreck and underwater photographer Kim Meineche was there to document it. At the exhibition Kim Meineche will be there to talk about the expedition and show the pictures he took. Some of them he took with modern 3D technology.

The artifacts that will be on display are in private collections so this is a very unique chance of seeing these things. To get an idea of the items and atmosphere we got some pictures from Søren Hertz-Christensen, Sønderborg Sports Diving Club to show you what it was like two years ago:

[nggallery id=2]

The exhibition is open

  • Saturday March 3rd 10am – 5pm
  • Sunday March 4th 10am – 2:30pm

Entrance is 40DKK, free for children under 12

6400 Sønderborg, Denmark

Below The Surface

Have you ever walked along the pier or across the bridge in Sonderborg and wondered what goes on below the surface of the water? To me the water usually looks dark, cold and inhospitable. But that’s not the case for the (crazy?) guys from Cold Blooded Divers. They seem to love the cold waters of Denmark and looking at some of their videos it seems like there is a world of colours and life to be explored below the surface. Here they dive around Sonderborg Castle:

Here is another video that starts off with pictures of a concrete barge getting sunk in Sonderborg harbour. The barge is 35 by 86 meters and has lots of hiding places for marine life. As they dive down to the barge you can see huge cods in the wreck:

There are diving clubs in Sonderborg, Nordborg and the Sports College in Sonderborg that all offer diving courses.

Ann already has a PADI certificate and I’m thinking of maybe trying to take a course when we go for a longer stay in Malta.