Wellington and Taunton Sub Aqua Club

Ocean Diver Training Course - Autumn 2009

WATSAC is please to announce the dates for the Autumn 2009 training course. The course will take place over the weekend of the 31st October to the 1st November and will consist of pool and classroom training with follow on training taking place in the sea over the following weekends. Once completed, you will have a BSAC Ocean Diver qualification, respected by dive centres all over the world. Contact us for more details.

Bob Cooksley

Sadly one of our club members, Robert Cooksley, died during a dive on Saturday 13 June at Plymouth. He was brought to the surface after becoming non-responsive.

Bob Cooksley joined the Wellington and Taunton Sub Aqua Club (WATSAC) in 2007 as a trainee diver. When asked why he wanted to take up diving at such an advanced age, he always responded that it was something that he had always wanted to do and that he did not just want to sit in a chair and grow old.

From the outset Bob was an enthusiastic member of the club, regularly attending club nights, social events and committee meetings and helping out with boat maintenance.

Bob was trained by BSAC qualified instructors and qualified as a BSAC Ocean Diver late in 2008. He had already put his name down for the club diving trip to Egypt in November and was looking forward to his first diving trip in warmer waters.

Bob was a friend and a keen and valued member of WATSAC and will be sadly missed by all of us. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are subject to an investigation by Coroner's Office so no further comment can be made by branch members regarding the incident at this time.

Any enquiries about diving and diving safety should be addressed to:

The British Sub-Aqua Club
Telfords Quay
South Pier Road
Ellesmere Port
Cheshire
CH65 4FL

Blue Peter on Dunribbin'!

Blue Peter's Joel is learning to dive with BSAC

Diving with BSAC is set to be showcased by BBC children's TV favourite, Blue Peter.

BSAC has been asked to help with the training and filming of Blue Peter's presenter, Joel Defries - taking him from non-diver to sports diver, with his progress filmed and aired over a series of episodes.

The first film of Joel's training is to be broadcast on Blue Peter on 20th January (4.35pm).

The programme will then continue to follow Joel's training as he progresses with BSAC to his first open water dives - at Vobster at the end of January then on to his first UK sea dives and beyond over the next few months.

BSAC's Andy Moll, who has been involved in organising the filming, said Joel's training is going well. "This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase diving with BSAC and all it entails - the best training, the best club diving and the diversity of diving the UK offers." Further updates on Joel's progress and details of the programme's broadcast dates will be posted on the BSAC website.

Below are the transmission dates for Joel's Diving journey, they will all be on Blue Peter at 1635 on BBC1. The transmission dates below may be subject to change.

• DIVE 1 - 20TH JAN
• DIVE 2 - 3RD FEB
• DIVE 3 - 17TH MARCH
• DIVE 4 - 28TH APRIL
• DIVE 5 - 16TH JUNE

The dives on the 17th of March will involve the use of Dunribbin, WATSAC’s boat, and the assistance of some of the club members to man it. Assuming all goes well weatherwise, you may yet see a few of the club on the TV.

Link to the Blue Peter Website and see how Joel is getting on.

WATSAC Successful Lottery Funding Application!

£9,000 Lottery Grant Awarded to Local Dive Club

The Wellington and Taunton Sub Aqua Club (WATSAC) have recently been awarded a grant of nearly £9,000 by the Awards For All Lottery Fund to purchase essential safety and training equipment.

In recent years members have relied on fund raising to enable them to maintain dive and safety equipment, so this lottery grant will certainly be a boost.

The dive club has around 40 members who meet on Wednesday evenings at the Trident Sports and Social Club in Galmington, Taunton, and regularly dive from their hard boat Dunribbin, built by club members, which is moored in Plymouth.

The club intends to use the funding to purchase safety and training equipment as well as updating its range of underwater breathing apparatus. New multimedia equipment will help them to improve their delivery of training to diving students and two new life rafts will ensure peace of mind for the club members when travelling to off shore dive sites.

The club also aims to hire Kings College pool for one evening a month to give members of the public the opportunity to participate in 'Try Dive' sessions.

Training Officer, Lynda Rose, commented: "Training is the lifeblood of our club, allowing us to introduce diving to a host of new recruits each year. With this new equipment we can continue to help ensure quality training for new divers for some years to come."

Chairman of the club, Chris Beighton, said: "This successful outcome is the result of many months of hard work by members of the club in putting this bid together. It is nice to see that our efforts have led to such a fantastic reward."

Thank you to The Big Lottery Fund

Magnox South help WATSAC find the way

Hinkley Point A have kindly sponsored WATSAC for the purchase of a new chart plotter.

This piece of state of the art technology, which is a bit like TomTom for the sea, will enable our skippers to navigate more safely and pinpoint old and potential new dive sites with ease.

Thank you, Hinkley Point A!

New Telephone Number For WATSAC

WATSAC now has a new telephone number for enquiries about our activities, it is 01823 441345.

This will connect to an answering machine and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Monthly Pool Sessions

Following our successful lottery grant, WATSAC is pleased to announce monthly pool sessions.

These will take place on the second Wednesday of every month and are open to members who wish to try out their kit (or their rusty skills!) and non-members who would like to try a dive with us for any reason.

If you would like to take advantage of this facility, please get in touch asap and we will arrange a session to meet your requirements. In the case of first time try dives, we will provide all the equipment, training and qualified supervision that you need to experience diving in a safe and controlled environment.

Go on, give it a go!

The date for the ocean diver course is 14th 15th February 2009 - see the training page for details