Rick's Blog

February 8, 2022

Back to Blue, Maldives Liveaboard

It was with fingers crossed that I booked onto the Carpe Diem Maldives liveaboard. Covid has certainly taken a toll on the travelling diver, overseas destinations have been off limits for the majority of us […]
June 19, 2020

HMHS Britannic Expedition 2019

When we got the phone call from Nick Hope saying that he was putting a team together to dive the Britannic back in 1998, our first thoughts were “it’s all been done before”. How wrong […]
September 19, 2019
British Wildlife Photography Awards 2019

British Wildlife Photography Awards 2019

Congratulations to our amazing Ambassador Rick Ayrton who was gained two highly commended awards for his shots at the British Wildlife Photography Awards…. 👏 Rick said: I am pleased to report I had a couple of […]
August 16, 2019

Rick Ayrton – Britannic – Scuba Magazine

Fantastic to see our amazing Ambassador Rick Ayrton getting his article about his expedition to dive the Britannic in this months Scuba Magazine. We are currently featuring one of his great photos of the shakedown […]
February 25, 2019

Competition success!

The results of Underwater Photographer of the year are out! I am delighted to be able to say that a couple of my images ended up in the mix, I managed to get a 3rd […]
September 14, 2018

SCUBA magazine

I’ve just received the latest copy of SCUBA magazine which contains my article about the Salsette wreck in Lyme Bay. I dived it in May of this year when the conditions were stunning, hopefully the […]

Biography

Rick Ayrton learnt to dive with Clifton BSAC club, in the late 1980’s, and has been active club diver ever since. He was an early entrant into the world of technical diving receiving his first Trimix qualification in 1999. He took up rebreather diving in 2002, at the same time as his first steps into underwater photography; acquiring a second-hand Subal/Sony Hi8 video housing.

As rebreather experience increased, u/w video equipment was upgraded. Rick was asked to be involved as a cameraman on the Deep Wreck Mysteries TV series of historical underwater documentaries, this proved to be a challenging and rewarding experience and he is pleased to see that the series still gets regularly aired. Unfortunately no third series has been commissioned (yet).

More recently he developed a passion for still photography, he is a member of the Bristol Underwater Photo Group(BUPG) and the British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSoUP). He has earned some success with his images , notably winning the Close up & Animal portrait category of the 2009 BSoUP splash in competition, in 2014 runner-up in the same competition for the wide angle category.

In the newly established British & Irish Underwater Photography Championship he was awarded Highly Commended in the 2015 wide angle category.

He has had images selected for display in the BSoUP print competitions, as well as intermittent success in monthly competitions for both the BUPG & BSoUP. Many of Rick’s images are used in O’Three’s publicity material.

Rick enjoys both close-up & wide angle underwater photography, but particularly enjoys the challenge of taking images of wrecks and happily admitting that getting good images of deep UK wrecks is a fickle process with many variables that he is still trying to master.

Alongside the photography Rick has contributed to several diving magazines, 990, Sport Diver, Scuba & Diver magazine, he enjoys telling the story behind the wrecks that often feature in his articles.

He remains an active member of the CliftonSAC currently holding the position of club President. He will equally enjoy taking his rebreather & camera on a shallow scenic dive as much as on a deep wreck, his diving year is split between deep wreck diving, club trips(which can be to any destination) & photographic trips. The majority of his diving is in UK waters but usually will take in a couple of weeks overseas each year.

Off the water Rick enjoys skiing and mountain biking and travelling in his VW California campervan with his wife Helen.