UKDIVING
IPSAC members with survey forms
Diving with a purpose
Formed in 1988, IPSAC’ s story actually starts three decades earlier. In 1958, diving brothers Bob and Dennis Wright founded Divers Down and Special Branch 1058, one of BSAC’ s early branches. When the Wrights sold the dive shop 30 years later, a group of members came together to form IPSAC— carrying on the same BSAC branch number and continuing the Pier’ s proud diving legacy.
Ever since, the club has had a hand in keeping the Pier in shape. IPSAC members serve as trustees, specialist advisers, and volunteers. Their first survey for the Trust
took place just after lockdown— and the collaboration has only grown stronger. The club is now helping to install an underwater camera that will stream a live feed from beneath the Pier.“ It’ ll show non-divers just how amazing the world under the Pier is,” says Paul,“ and it’ ll finally answer the question we get all the time:‘ What’ s the viz like?’”
Like many clubs, IPSAC once struggled to attract new members. Located in a small seaside town‘ at the end of a road to nowhere’, it was difficult to draw in trainees despite the nearby diving hotspots of Poole and Bournemouth. But after a
Compass Jellyfish alongside survey divers
A giant stride from the pier
Fixing the bracket for the underwater camera
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