CLUBFOCUS
Are you a sociable club ?
A lot of the socialising takes place around diving , but we do have a social secretary in place . Besides the curry nights , pub nights and club dinner dance / awards , we are always open to ideas . We are lucky in having the JA and members meet every Wednesday after the pool session in the bar . At Christmas we have a dive and then lunch at a local pub . At that time of the year , it usually consists of four to six people diving and 30 to 40 meeting at the pub !
Over lockdown we held a monthly Zoom social , with up to 15 members joining in .
We are open to ideas , and , after a quick online poll , we decided to hold a barbecue to kickstart TSAC ’ s social life .
In the past members have organised walks , visits to mines ( for a bit of potholing ) and we joined in the Menai Boat Run . We even have members who , though temporarily unable to dive , join in with dive trips just for the company .
What ’ s your local diving like ?
We are based inland , so we have to rely on fresh water sites for local diving . Still , we consider ourselves quite lucky because we have two dive centres relatively nearby – Eccleston Delph and Capernwray – both of which have good facilities for training . Finding a sub-30m dive is more of a
The God ’ s Pocket team from 2017
challenge , as the nearest is Stoney Cove , a two-hour hour drive away . To make up for this , we use local resources such as the old Manchester Docks at Salford , a local water sports centre and trips to the Lake District .
And venturing beyond your local sites ?
We believe this is one of our key strengths . The experience and training we have built up enables our members to get involved in a wide variety of diving .
There are many experienced divers who are keen to organise weekends away and already have Plymouth , Farnes , St Abbs , Dartmouth , Sound of Mull and Anglesey planned for next year . There are also the longer trips such as Egypt , The Outer Hebrides , Scapa and Gods Pocket ( Vancouver , Canada ) on the cards .
Past trips have included the Galapagos , Nova Scotia , Falkland Islands , Vancouver , Norway and the Seychelles . These trips are generally every two years , but have never failed to inspire other members into exploring dive opportunities and broadening their horizons . �
Enjoying a post-dive beer
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