Club RIB at Porthkerris
When was the club formed ?
The University of Bristol Underwater Club was formed in 1960 . While members are predominantly students , membership is open to all ; the club welcomes everyone . We value the former university members who stick around and give all they can to the club . They ’ re all awesome !
Who are your members ?
One hundred and sixty-seven members name UBUC as their main BSAC club . To give you an idea , at present we have six members from the university ’ s staff and around 25 active former student members . The Diving Officer is often a former student because they need to be an instructor , but sometimes masters or PhD students take on the role . Commonly , DOs serve for a year and there is quite a high committee turnover , as most individuals are students or recent graduates .
Is membership growing ?
Yes . In 2022 / 23 , we took on more new members than ever . At university clubs , people typically join and stay for the academic year . However , we have a good number who become long-term members and stay for good . On a recent trip to Skomer , we were joined by the president of the club from 2001 .
University clubs traditionally do a lot of training , what are your training statistics ?
UBUC had around 96 active trainee divers , across the diver grades , early in the start of the 2023-24 academic year . Sixty were Ocean Diver trainees , 25 were working towards Sports Diver , 10 were Dive Leader trainees and one was working on Advanced Diver .
Wow , that ’ s a lot of trainees , what does your instructor team look like ?
There are 15 active Open Water Instructors among our members , and a couple of active Advanced Instructors . We are hoping to get two new student OWIs by the end of the
At the Baygitano wreck
year . We ’ d like more Advanced Instructors , as it would make training more Advanced Divers easier , expanding our club ’ s diving ability , but it ’ s not easy to get them qualified . So , we often struggle with the number of trainees and the availability of instructors , especially since Covid . The club heavily relies on members ascending the hierarchy of qualifications during university and teaching either in their final years or staying on after graduation to become instructors . During lockdown , this process was obviously interrupted and resulted in most of the committee after lockdown not being qualified ( or able ) to teach . We are back into training them now , thanks to our dedicated instructor team , who committed serious amounts of time to instructor development and allowed the club to stay afloat and bounce back .
How do you organise club activity ?
There is a fortnightly committee meeting , either online or at Steam , our local pub . This is followed by the weekly social held in the pub every Thursday at 8pm . We have our own dedicated kit stores and we meet there ahead of diving-related activities to get kit , fill cylinders , and finalise dive plans .
How do you keep in touch with so many members ?
We have a WhatsApp community group with a chat for every trip and a new chat each year . The committee also has a WhatsApp chat . We have a very active social scene ( with regular pub trips and boating bar crawls ) and our sense of community is really strong .
Exiting Fort Bovisand 29