With a South Coast location and fantastic diving nearby, this medium-sized club is looking to encourage newer divers. Interview by Kristina Pedder
CLUBFOCUS
Jurassic Divers
LOCATION: Portland and Weymouth, Dorset MEMBERSHIP FEE: £ 40 plus BSAC CONTACT: David Collins e jurassicdivers @ gmail. com! www. jurassicdivers. co. uk F Jurassic Divers
With a South Coast location and fantastic diving nearby, this medium-sized club is looking to encourage newer divers. Interview by Kristina Pedder
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When was Jurassic Divers formed?
The club was formed by Diving Officer David Collins, along with five of his old diving friends, who wanted to continue diving together. The club’ s ethos is to“ simply go diving...” and we became BSAC branch 2572 in 2017.
Seeing Jurassic in your name is a bit of a giveaway, but I’ ll still ask where are you based?
Weymouth & Portland on the Jurassic coast is our home. We use the swimming pool at Osprey Leisure Centre in Castletown, Portland, and for lectures, training and planning sessions we have access to the classroom facilities at Jurassic Aqua
Try dive event at Osprey Pool, Portland
Sports, a Weymouth-based BSAC Premier Seamanship Centre and dive charter business owned and run by David.
Who are your members?
We have a great mixture, old and young, from a wide area ranging from Exeter to Bournemouth, up to rural Somerset and across to Hampshire. They have one thing in common; a love of scuba diving and the underwater world.
How many members are there?
We have between 30 and 40 members, most of whom are qualified divers. We welcome members from any diving agency. Our focus is on evolving our younger members’( over 18s) diving and snorkelling skills. We also have a social support network of family and friends. The range of good local pubs helps to support our social side.
Your membership fee is very reasonable, how do you manage financially?
The club doesn’ t have any assets as we are very fortunate to use Jurassic Aqua Sports classroom and facilities for free; we also get discounted seamanship training offers( Jurassic Divers members only). We raise monies as we require them, rather than any regular fundraising. We have a culture of pay as you go and we keep our overheads to a minimum; they are mainly pool charges.