CLUBFOCUS
Our favorite shore dive , Brackley Point
Buddy checks at Dunoon to get diving in and around the Clyde back on the map . During Covid lockdowns we held weekly Zoom meetings , engaged with BSAC ’ s online offer including the special interest webinars and the Diver Training Programme e-learning .
And now ?
The club hires an amazing pool in Dunoon ; we have the whole pool to ourselves and can use the sauna and Jacuzzi too . We have our social meetings at the Tryst bar in Dunoon , where we debrief after dives and pool sessions . There are many other places we use for meetings and courses including Wreckspeditions ’ premises , where there is a compressor and shop / classroom . Pool night is Wednesday night , and during the summer we made this a club dive night . We have been doing local evening shore dives over the three months of summer . In September , we restarted our try dives , hopefully to recruit new members .
What is the spread of skills among members ?
We have five trainees ; eight Ocean Divers ; five Sports Divers ; three Dive Leaders , and four Advanced Divers . After helping members with instructor training costs , we now have four Nationally Qualified Instructors and two Assistant Diving Instructors .
What training have you delivered ?
From our first try dives we got seven locals who went into training over a few months . That was our limit , with only one instructor and an assistant instructor . We got them all fully trained to Ocean Diver so that they could enjoy diving with us this summer . In September , we started again with try dives to start another training round over the winter . We will hopefully have some more divers ready for trips in 2023 . We are also planning some Sports Diver and Dive Leader training over the winter .
What diving do you do ?
We started by exploring our local sites , rediscovering them for ourselves . The first club dive was from the shore at West Bay in Dunoon , when two divers did an exploratory dive and found the remains of some anti-submarine boom netting and plenty of marine life . Since then , we have identified a variety of training sites and pleasure dives . We have entered site details on the Finstrokes website , which had plenty of sites logged in Loch Fyne and Loch Long but nothing on the Cowal peninsula .
What are the favourites ?
At Brackley Point in Loch Striven you can shore dive two wrecks ; a barge and a motor torpedo boat . They are stacked with life
Club and community , a powerful combination
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