CLUBFOCUS
Gozo wreck divers by Duncan Hine
What type of diving do you do ?
Most of the club , being students , don ’ t own an entire set of gear , so not surprisingly our diving is mostly recreational , open circuit . Around 80 per cent of dives logged are shore dives , but we have two smallish RIBs which can be towed using most cars . They haven ’ t been used as often as we ’ d like , as few students own a towbar . At present there are two towing vehicles in the club . The Diving Officer ’ s VW Golf plays its part , which has led to some funny situations where all passengers and gear need to be unloaded to get up certain hills . Anyway , the engines are notoriously unreliable .
Camp fire at Porthkerris
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Oh dear , what happened ?
On a recent trip , both the boat engines died off of Skomer Island and the radios had been left on shore so members had to paddle back in reasonably windy conditions . As a result , we redesigned the checklist of things to bring on the boats to make it clearer and reiterated that boat handlers can ’ t set off without having everything from the list onboard . The boat engines are also in for service .
Where do you organise trips to ?
We tend to visit places we can get to-andfrom in a day , and which we know well . Babbacombe , Chesil , Brixham breakwater , Shoalstone , and Swanage Pier are staples .
We venture further away from Bristol during weekend trips to Cornwall or Wales . Going to Gozo in early September is becoming a reoccurring trip .
Do you do any diving with a purpose ?
We have a Sustainability Officer on committee who focuses on diving with a purpose . We are looking forward to working with the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow to release lobsters and with other charities such as Project Seagrass . We also organised a clean-up of Porthkerris beach , forgetting it was a protected site and was pretty much pristine already . So , it was a pretty quick clean-up .
What is the club planning for the next few years ?
It ’ s to do with boats , boats and boats . We want to make sure that we are using all our resources and getting some awesome dives from our boats . We are looking into working with other local clubs for further support : we are talking with Exeter University about running a joint Instructor Foundation Course , and with Clifton Sub Aqua Club about getting together for boat trips .
We are really proud to have loads of people trying scuba diving at UBUC . We pride ourselves on providing affordable and fun diving with like-minded folk , it ’ s really a pleasure being able to train everyone . �