CLUBFOCUS
Vitto on a blue water holiday club . We would love for every member to have the opportunity to go on a big club dive , but without sufficient diving experience and transport to locations it ’ s a mammoth task that can be too much to handle when we are also studying .
Our Chair , Stephen Cook , who worked hard to get us back up and running after Covid , needs to hand over to someone new , as he is graduating . We also have a bit of a green agenda . We ’ re trying to be more environmentally friendly , avoiding printing out loads of paper posters and such . We occasionally support ecosocieties on campus when they do litter picks , or similar events . have some great volunteer instructors who don ’ t charge us for expenses , which really keeps costs down . So , here ’ s a shout out to Neil Turton , Alistair Allen , John Power and Hannah Short . In the past we have also been helped by John Barton ( now Yorkshire ’ s Regional Coach ) Kerry Ekins ( from York Uni ) and Yasmine Thorn ( BSAC ’ s University Coordinator ). Neil also fixes drysuit seals himself , which really helps keep our costs for kit repair low and we haven ’ t got wet from his replacement seals yet . Even so , this year we had to raise our annual membership fee to £ 45 , up from the £ 35 we kept it at for quite a few years .
Vitto , Neil and Luca after diving in Capernway
What ’ s the club planning for the next few years ?
We ’ d like to do a club dive trip ( eventually ). We ’ re planning a small joint trip with York University Sub Aqua Club to St . Abbs , to do some boat diving , but places on this are limited . We find it tricky to do bigger club dives because we don ’ t have the experience of diving and trip organising in the
Can BSAC divers help your club more ?
Yes please ! We always need more instructors and qualified divers to help us out . We hope to be interacting more with our new Regional Coach . Yasmine has been an amazing help recently , Club President Stephen finding options for training for Sports Diver instructor training and putting us in contact with useful people . Our biggest stumbling block when it comes to getting new people trained is that we don ’ t always have the money to get qualified as instructors . The union doesn ’ t like paying for instructors ; it can help with grants for equipment and ‘ one time ’ purchases , but doesn ’ t offer ongoing financial support . We have to keep costs down as much as we can , which includes getting trainers and instructors qualified , as well as the costs of Ocean Diver and Sports Diver qualifications . Students aren ’ t rich , so we can ’ t price them out , otherwise we risk losing the next generation .
We would like to see more diving cooperation between clubs ( especially involving university clubs ), as we often only have very new inexperienced members . This limits our choice of dive sites and our collective knowledge about organising dives . It ’ s great to have the opportunity to learn to dive at university , as prices are relatively low , and it is a time in life when you should try as many different experiences as possible . �
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