CLUBFOCUS
Scenery at Porth Dafarch
Who teaches scuba ?
We have two Open Water Instructors in the club . Michael first joined Tameside back in 1977 as a snorkelling member when he was eight , staying on as a snorkel instructor . During this time , he travelled to the former Yugoslavia with the then National Snorkelling Club to expand his experience and qualifications . But then he left the club in the 1990s to go to university in Plymouth . Three years ago , he heard the club wanted an OWI to help snorkellers who wanted to move to scuba . He visited us and agreed to take on some students and assist in setting up the scuba side of the club .
… and snorkel training ?
At present we have four snorkelling instructors . We are proud to say that five of our snorkellers will be attending SITCA training in September to become Snorkelling Instructors . The club has also put forward four snorkelling instructors to attend the north-west Advanced Snorkel Instructor Training Course and Assessment ( ASITCA ), which will qualify them to carry out open water snorkelling sessions as well as sign off skills for Advanced and above snorkelling students .
John Chadwick removing litter from the sea
What sort of open water sites does the club visit ?
We train divers and snorkellers at Capernwray , or Eight Acres ( a former quarry in North Cave near Hull that is good for training divers and snorkellers ) and Stoney Cove . We do open water shore dives in Anglesey at Porth Dafarch . We are planning to visit new sites in the Anglesey area this year . Our DO would like to do more wreck and reef dives and would love members of the branch to enjoy this type of experience .
We aim to dive at least one weekend a month with both the snorkelling and diving cohorts during the warmer months ; we have to take care of our very junior members who can be as young as six .
At the moment we ’ re concentrating on shore dives although there are moves to access a club boat . The students find the trips away enjoyable and this encourages them to continue in the sport . Additional activities are organised such as beachcombing . We plan to form contacts with other snorkelling and scuba groups and expand the sites we visit . Recently we ’ ve undertaken a blue shark snorkel from Plymouth and also dived from Eyemouth . Hopefully we will return !
What are you looking forward to in future ?
The branch is growing and has such a mixed age range now that we hope to arrange a wider range of social activities . We want to get the message out there that what we offer is a new fun environment , and the opportunity to see another world . It ’ s an exciting time to be a member of Tameside Divers , with new adventures to plan and undertake during 2023 with our refurbished RIB . Come join us , the water ’ s lovely ! �
( l-r ) Kurt , Brian and Tony speaking , seeing and hearing no evil
Watching students at Porth Dafarch
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