poor, but the sea life is impressive. Newry Beach in Holyhead is an excellent site for beginners, offering easy access, with good marine life and a mix of sand, rock and kelp as the sea floor.
Daniel Goodman and Mark Lewis waiting to dive
Is there a club boat?
We mostly do shore dives, because the club boat has been out of action for a couple of seasons. We are trying to fix the engine, hopefully we won’ t need to buy a new one; if we do, then fundraising or a grant will be needed. At the moment for boat diving we do a three-diving-day charter trip to the Farne Islands every year: it’ s always over-subscribed. Last year we also had a charter in St Abbs as part of a member’ s Advanced Diver trip organiser( AP2) training. Oh, and we try to do one trip abroad: last year was Malta, this year we are planning a trip to Egypt.
Gary Tomkins and Mark Lewis at Beadnell
How does the club raise funds?
Raising money is the hardest thing to do. We have a weekly raffle and a monthly 50 / 50 draw, where half of the prize money goes to the winner, half to the club. We have also asked our local Rotary Club for a grant towards instructor training. We have found that local Roundtable and Rotary clubs may be willing to donate a small grant, if you can show it helps the local community. We gave a talk on scuba diving and how the club engages with local groups. We will be looking into more grants this year.
Do you dive with a purpose?
We try to, it has become a bit of a thing to collect any litter we see on our dives; this year we are keeping a record of how much. We also want to get involved with the Project Seagrass planting off Anglesey. We have several members booked on the March invasive species day at Llyn Padarn for the BSAC invasive species project. We did a site visit to a local park to talk about helping out with some pond management; removing rubbish, fallen branches and cleaning the filtration pumps. Several members of the club are also British Divers Marine Life Rescue-trained medics.
What type of training is most popular with members?
Last year we qualified six Ocean Divers, six Sports Divers, three Dive Leaders and an Advanced Diver; it was really busy. We hope for a repeat this year. We have a good amount of scuba kit for training. We get our air from our local dive shop; shout out to Frogsborn Diving Services.
As for Skill Development Courses, we did really well there too. Five members did First Aid for Divers, two did Life Saver, one did the Buoyancy and Trim Workshop, and six members did the Boat Handling course. This year, we hope to have members taking part
Ocean Diver training with Karol Wilson and Brodie Fryer
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