Milton Keynes may be a New Town , but it has a well-established dive club that knows how to keep busy . Interview by Kristina Pedder
CLUBFOCUS
Milton Keynes
Sub Aqua Club
RIB diving at Durdle Door
LOCATION : Buckinghamshire MEMBERSHIP FEE : £ 14 pcm /£ 168pa
CONTACT : e diving @ mksac . co . uk ! www . mksac . co . uk F MiltonKeynesSubAquaClub mksubaquaclub I @ mksubaqua
Milton Keynes may be a New Town , but it has a well-established dive club that knows how to keep busy . Interview by Kristina Pedder
Despite reaching the grand old age of 50 last year , Milton Keynes Sub Aqua Club remains very active ; meeting socially around six times a month and diving locally at least eight times a month . Recently , it has achieved a number of firsts . A record number of members completed Diver Training Programme courses , Assistant Instructor training ; and attended Skill Development Courses . There have been more dives per member completed in the past year than in any other year .
Milton Keynes is about as far from the sea as it is possible to get , and members may well do more lake dives than the average club . But MKSAC prides itself on its local work , to look after what must be one of the best inland dive sites for quite a few miles around . Members dive there in rain , sun , wind or snow . When it freezes over , they go ice-diving .
When was the club formed ?
Five or six locals trained by a nearby diving school got together in 1972 to form an unaffiliated dive club . Some wanted to gain BSAC qualifications , so an internal BSAC special branch was set up for them . In 1976 , it became a full BSAC club , number 832 .
Where is the club based ?
Milton Keynes , the biggest and most ambitious of the new towns built in southeast England in the 1960s , is around 45 miles north-west of London . Being an inland dive club , we keep our boat down in Portland during the summer months , so we spend a lot of time there too .
Who are your members ?
We have 84 members , of all ages and with varying diving abilities . We welcome certified divers from any agency . Seven of our members are under-18s , and another four youngsters have paid deposits to start the next Ocean Diver course .
Hardboat dive at the Farne Islands
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