Who are your members ?
Our 53 diving members are a mixed bunch across genders ( 17 per cent are women ), ages ( nine are junior members ) and all walks of life . The vast majority are opencircuit recreational divers . To be honest , like many clubs , our age profile is towards the older end of the spectrum . We want to continue to recruit and train new members , particularly younger members from more diverse backgrounds , to ensure the health and longevity of the club . We welcome all nationalities and all backgrounds .
Is the membership growing ?
From the mid-1980s to 2019 , Furness Diving Club had between 40 and 50 members , Then , during the Covid pandemic , numbers fell away slightly . Since 2022 , we have reintroduced try dives and there is a healthy interest in them . We also have an improved social media presence and numbers have grown to 53 . The number of trainees has grown slowly over the last 18 months from six to 18 .
That ’ s a lot of new trainees …
Yes , 30 per cent of our members are trainee Ocean Divers . Of the rest : two per cent are Ocean Divers ; 28 per cent are Sports Divers ; 13 per cent are Dive Leaders and the remaining 26 per cent are Advanced Divers . On joining the club , we give support to individuals to complete their initial theory lessons and pool training . We do not rush trainees through the course , preferring them to gain confidence and experience . We encourage online learning for later courses , but encourage face-to-face learning for Ocean Divers .
How do you manage training for such a large cohort ?
Trainees are grouped in pairs or threes , as we think this works well for both trainees and instructors . Once we get to open-
Diving Officer Duncan Scott
water training , we put the onus squarely on the trainee . We encourage them to get in touch with an instructor to book a training dive or two at a convenient time . We dedicate one Sunday a month to training for both trainees and experienced divers , encouraging skills that are not used often to be refreshed in a controlled manner .
That sounds very organised …
We publish a quarterly dive planner indicating where the weekly Sunday club dive is likely to take place and try to introduce some variety and new dive locations from time to time . There are
Try dives at Barrow Leisure Centre
Pool training at Barrow Leisure Centre
sometimes changes and additional days or weekends added as people think about other opportunities .
Who is on the instructor team ?
The training team is an Advanced Instructor , eight Open Water Instructors , one of whom is also Diving for All qualified and two of whom are also snorkelling instructors , supported by three Assistant Diving Instructors . We try to have regular Basic Life Support training , including defibrillator courses , and encourage all members to refresh their skills . We also have two Diver Cox ’ n / Boat-handling Instructors : boathandling training is popular .
Sports Diver Darren Fine at Eyemouth
Red Sea deco stop
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