BSAC Heinke Trophy 2019 Winning Submission - Chester Sub Aqua Club

CHESTER SUB-AQUA CLUB 0588 Front cover image

HEINKE SUBMISSION 2018 Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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In preparation of 2018’s Heinke Trophy submission, all our club members helped gather information, in particular, the members who contributed with various articles are listed below. All images are courtesy of Chester Sub Aqua club members. The submission was designed and produced by Martin Holloway.

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Mart Holloway

Callum MacKay

Lonn Landis

Nigel Sperring

Luke Sperring

Martin Kay

Wendy Northway

Nigel Cossons

Neil O’May

Simon Williams

Tom Downer

Dave Parry

Maggie Russell

Dave Roberts

Chris Holden

Justin Owen

Luke Vernon

Colin Mee

Dennis Mahar

Sally Landis

Trev Warner

Dave Hodgson

Seamus Kirby

Toni Jenkins

Steve Clarkson

Sharon Downer

Paul Wynne Jones

Teresa Warner

Simon Payne

Contents History

4—6

Membership Introduction

7—10

Numbers

11—14

Snorkelling

15—17

Administration

18—24

Communication

25—32

Promotion

33— 45

Members Forum

46—55

Training Water Work

56—61

Theory Lessons

62—63

Courses

64—66

Equipment

67—75

Diving Activities Branch Dives

76—99

Expeditions

100—111

Try Dives

112—121

Scientic Competitions

122—130 131—132

General Activities Branch Meetings

133—140

Social

141—142

Inter Branch Relations

143—147

Chester Sub-Aqua Sub-Aqua Club Club Heinke Heinke Trophy Trophy Submission Submission 2018 2018 Chester

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History

Chester Sub-Aqua Club History Chester Sub-Aqua Club was formed in 1973 as Branch 588 of the British Sub-Aqua Club, with Derek Robinson as chairman and Phil Swain as treasurer. Early members were Alan Wood, Stuart Tattersall, Geoff Phoenix, Mark Roberts, Nigel Riley, Christine Riley and others. The idea of setting up a sub-aqua club originated from a group of people who worked at the Thornton Research Centre, part of the Shell oil refinery at Stanlow, Cheshire. With members having responded to an advert in the local papers, early training sessions were held at Rivacre Baths, an open-air swimming pool in Ellesmere Port where those early members have a vivid memory – It was cold! However, they soon took up the offer of moving to Chester City Baths, an indoor, heated pool, located in the centre of the historic city of Chester. Ever since that time, the club has held their meetings on a Wednesday evening at Chester City Baths, where members still have access to the Pacific Pool from 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm and the social area until 11.00 pm.

For most of the 1970s, lectures and social events meant a trip to the Bear and Billet public house after pool-training, while refilling a divingcylinder entailed a journey to a member’s house in Waverton on a Thursday evening. This was the era when divers used home-made wetsuits that were cut out from sheets of neoprene and glued into shape. You then had a choice of colour for the tape that was glued over the seams – blue or yellow! It was also the time when new members were initiated into the club by undertaking the feared ‘A-test’ whereby they had to perform various feats in the pool such as swimming along while wearing a weight-belt, or treading water with their arms raised above the surface of the water. On completing this test, a member could then move on to snorkeltraining. Only when he or she had satisfactorily completed their snorkel-training could they move onto learning how to dive. These were the days before BCDs, when buoyancy was provided by ABLJs (Adjustable Buoyancy Life-Jackets) that had a small attached, and competitions were held in the pool to see how long to a diver could breathe off this cylinder. Thankfully, no members of the club succumbed to the lung disease that could be caused by this practice, of which we were totally unaware.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

History

The club’s first boats were an 11-ft inflatable and a 13ft 6in inflatable, both made by Beaufort, and powered by somewhat unreliable 20hp outboard motors with tiller-steering. Despite this, annual trips were made to Fort Bovisand in Plymouth, the Mecca of diving on the south-west coast of England, where one member of the club located and recovered a ship’s bell marked ‘Nillus’. pictured Above The year 1977 brought a major challenge to the club when it was announced that Chester City Baths was to close, with all swimming activities in Chester moving to the brand-new Northgate Arena leisure centre. The club was involved in the opening of this new facility, but soon realised the limitations of this pool, as it was mostly designed as a leisure-centre rather than for competitive swimming or sub-aqua training. A plastic whale and a water-slide didn’t really help us to teach sub-aqua diving! Meanwhile, local swimmingclubs also expressed their disappointment with the new pool, and a charity, Chester Swimming Association, was set up to keep Chester City Baths open from April 1977.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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History

The opening of the social area at the City Baths in 1978 meant that lectures and pool-training could now be undertaken in the one building, and the sub-aqua club was given access to one of the disused changing-rooms to be used as an equipment-room. As a result, our 7-cfm diesel-powered compressor was relocated from the garage in Waverton to the City Baths, and the boats could be moved from a farmer’s yard in Rosset to our new club-room. The ability to house our boats and training-equipment adjacent to the pool has long been a major factor in the club’s success, and tribute must be paid to those earlier members of Chester Sub-Aqua Club, Chester Swimming Association and Cheshire West and Chester Council for keeping this facility open despite the recent enforced closure of the pool that lasted for over two years until the Duke of Westminster reopened the building in February 2016.

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Opening of the social club by the Duke of Westminster at the Chester City Baths 21st march 1978

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

MEMBERSHIP Introduction

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Introduction oway

oll Martin H

I have been a member of Chester Sub-Aqua Club for 7 years and in that time I have seen and supported the club through some challenging times, the biggest threat being the temporary closure of the Chester City Baths, our base, our home. This is what drove us to look within and understand how we operate. What stands out for me is the resilience and the commitment of our members and as a club seek out solutions and dedicate time to ensure we are able to continually Develop, Support and Progress our members so they can explore what diving can bring.

It takes a club that is diverse and inclusive to create a community, believe it or not 7 years ago I was anti club, but since I joined I have never looked back, it is a pleasure to be part of the community and with out it I would not have progressed as I have.

The North West region boasts some of the largest and most active clubs in the UK, over the years Chester Sub-Aqua Club has grown and developed in to a strong active club, this is all due to the members themselves and not to anyone person. If any time was right to give the members recognition, and to reflect on the progress made, I feel it is now, and this is why I have put our club forward for the Heinke Trophy.

I’m sure, as you see what our members are achieving and what they give back to the sport and community, it will give you the feeling that we are a club you would want to be part of. This proposal should encourage our members to even greater things, by reflecting on the achievements we have accomplished over the past year.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Chester’s Success Story 2014 we were a relatively strong club with 70 members, two boats and we went out diving, we did a few try dives, we had money in the bank and use of a facility with a garage, bar area and access to a pool every Wednesday night, we were comfortable and felt secure.

In September of 2014 we received a phone call stating that there had been a partial roof collapse in the Pacific pool and our Wednesday night pool access was gone! A few days later the council came round and inspected the whole roof and confirmed that both roofs needed replacing and the pools had to be closed.

At this point we were negotiating a pool share with our neighbouring dive Club Jesters who used the Chester University pool, this would cover us until our pool roof would be repaired, we received another call stating that due to Health and Safety and required building work the facility would be closed completely until further notice!

We were shocked at how quickly we had lost everything, it was coming up to Christmas and we wanted to tell all of our members that we were active and meeting in the local pub, for the next few weeks the attendance declined.

At the next committee meeting we reviewed the situation and we agreed the only way to ensure we retain our membership was to improve our communication, and try to negotiate a reprieve to get access back to the garage and the bar area. We also searched the local area for temporary accommodation but there wasn’t anything suitable.

Martin Kay, successfully negotiated temporary access to the bar area and we changed the locks to the garage to enable access without going through the building.

Lonn Landis, reviewed our web site and confirmed it was dated and inaccurate, he agreed to develop a new web site for the club.

I reviewed our social media presence, everything was out of date and incomplete with the latest post going back to 2012! The page and the group was updated and club members invited to follow the page and encouraged to post their diving exploits.

John Moore, reviewed our Google groups account and identified that a lot of our members details were not on the group account, he set about ensuring that all of our members were on the group email.

This was the realisation that we were only communicating to 70% of the membership directly and the public impression / view of our club was that we were inactive and probably disbanded.

The pools were closed for 18 months, since the changes were made to how we communicate the club has grown in membership by 10% year on year.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Introduction

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Values COMMUNITY

SOCIAL

SUPPORTIVE

INCLUSIVE

DRIVE

DEVELOPMENT

DIVERSITY

PROGRESSIVE Community

A common passion for diving brings the members together they have a feeling of belonging, a feeling they matter to one another and to the club.

Progressive

We are constantly looking at improvements to the facility how we communicate and the methods to which we train and develop our members.

Inclusive

We encompass all members giving them the opportunity to take part in all club activities.

Drive

The club is ambitious and motivated towards diving activities and members are compelled to achieving set goals or targets.

Social

The members not only dive together but we also socialise and form long last friendships.

Diversity

Our members come from diverse backgrounds and offer a range of skills and experience which encourages members of different abilities and ages to participate.

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Development

We encourage and enhance members experiences to give them greater confidence and abilities.

Supportive

Provide each other with encouragement and reassurance to achieve their personal ambition.

MEMBERSHIP Numbers

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Numbers The year of the Coup

The Realisation

&

Knowing Growing

Like any club we have gone through high and lows of membership numbers, in 2005 there was a mini coup and a breakaway club was formed, this attempt didn’t last long and the club started to regain it’s membership, from 2009 to 2013 the club membership plateaued at around 70 members, since the realisation in 2014 and the subsequent upgrade of how we communicate to our membership and public we have grown 10% year on year.

Female / Male breakdown Start 2018 % End 2018 % Difference

F

M

Total

23

72

95

24%

76%

29

78

27%

73%

6

6

107

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The club has seen a 13% increase in this year’s membership numbers, in 2018 we attended two Know and Grow sessions in Chorley, we took away a number of hints and tips to further enhance our growth. Mainly around Advertising, Community notice boards and the use of club banners.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

Members who Joined Female 7, Male 15, Total 22 9 members on the Ocean Diver course, various people returning or left other clubs to join us due to our activity.

Members who Left Female 2, Male 8, Total 10 4 left due to work commitments, 3 ill health, 1 no longer likes UK diving, 2 stopped paying membership

The average age of a member is 46, this has remained a constant for many years, this is expected to drop in 2019 as in the 2018 AGM we voted and agreed to change the joining age to 12 and we now fall in line with BSAC recommended guidelines.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Membership

The biggest loss in 2018 was the drop of 5 Dive Leaders, these members were once active members but through having families or moving through work have reluctantly left the club, we always have an on-going “Work in Progress� Ocean Diver trainee list. Most Ocean Divers qualify within the year, but in 2018 we held 2 Ocean Diver courses and we now have a small overlap of outstanding trainees.

Our biggest gain was the number of Ocean Divers, usually we run the Sports Diver course straight after the Ocean Diver course but in 2018 we ran the Dive leader course first as there was a greater demand, this was to allow time for the newly qualified Ocean divers to purchase their own kit / equipment.

The next addition to the club was an increase of our First Class Divers, these have been a welcomed addition to the club as the club objective for 2019 will be to carry out more Expeditions using the club boats.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

MEMBERSHIP

MEMBERSHIP

Snorkelling

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Snorkelling MEMBERSHIP

There’s something appealing about freedom of snorkelling over scuba. There’s also a lot to see in the shallows, things which are often overlooked in our rush to reach the bottom whilst wearing scuba. We also don’t need to invest in expensive courses and equipment and learn scuba, just so we can snorkel safely.

Being a parent and caravan owner, we as a family, tend to spend a lot of time around the North Wales coast – making snorkelling a more accessible last minute activity – if the weather looks nice - throw the gear in the boot and go.

Simon Payne

Snorkelling is not, generally speaking, something which we do at CSAC, so when I read about the snorkelling courses offered by BSAC I was interested to see if we could integrate them into the normal club activities.

I wasn’t really sure where to start with understanding the course offerings, and as I already had an interest in instructing, I turned my attention to the SITCA. My thoughts were that, although scuba instructors can teach snorkelling, they might not necessarily know the current syllabus. So a dedicated snorkel instructor in the club might at least be of value in bringing this knowledge to the club.

However, it turned out that SITCA in the North West is a less common event, with several clubs also wanting the same thing. I spoke to David Grindod several times, who was trying to organise something for the East Cheshire branch; this got me thinking about the excellent facilities which we have at Chester – why not host the event here? We have everything under one room, pool and teaching facilities.

So after some coordination with Jim Watson and Jackie from the Chester Baths, we came up with some suitable dates and advertised our first BSAC Regional event. This quickly filled up from club members from all over the North West and North Wales.

The event was a great success – leading to two more events, the IFC and a second SITCA (2019).

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

After qualifying as a snorkel instructor I was excited to receive enquiries for our courses. I also quickly realised that instructing and integrating the courses into the club where not the same thing – how much were we going to charge for these courses? It appeared that clubs differed in their approaches. With enquiries coming in, I realised that these decisions needed to be made quickly – so found myself engaging with the club committee more frequency.

I also found myself speaking frequently to BSAC HQ so that I could fully understand the snorkelling course products – I didn’t want to offer something to prospective students which either wasn’t correct or consistent with other members.

We settled on a simple model of fixed price for experience courses and 3 months’ club membership to align with the 3 months BSAC membership offered for the dolphin snorkel course.

To get things going I negotiated with the committee to allow any funds earned from snorkel experience to be invested in snorkelling equipment. Due to many of the students being smaller children, some of the snorkels we had were too large, these were replaced with more suitable equipment. I was specifically interested to teach using simple J tube snorkels without drain values. We also needed some snorkel vests.

My main learning experience came with the completion of our first Dolphin Snorkeler course. Every part of it was a new teaching experience for me, and has given me plenty of opportunity for reflection.

The course handbook was an invaluable resource, but transferring that to the pool was more challenging. I realised that some of the activities I’d be teaching – I’d never actually performed before in the context of snorkelling (with the exception of during the SITCA). So brushing these skills up was top priority.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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MEMBERSHIP

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

MEMBERSHIP Admin

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Admin Committee Like most clubs and voluntary organisations, a voluntary committee manages the organisation and smooth running of activities. Although our club has a high number of members we have a small committee by comparison.

Our committee positions usually number around 10-12 members. The positions do change from year to year dependent on the clubs needs and planned direction. It is important to have a person in every role to ensure the club runs smoothly.

Committee 2018

Committee 2019

Chris Holden

Honorary President

Chris Holden

Honorary President

Martin Kay

Chair

Martin Kay

Chair

Dave Parry

Diving Officer

Dave Parry

Diving Officer

Nigel Sperring

Secretary

Nigel Sperring

Secretary

Andy Heslop

Treasurer

Mart Holloway

Treasurer

Dave Hodgson

Training Officer

Dave Hodgson

Training Officer

Anne May

Membership Secretary

Sharon Downer

Membership Secretary

New posting

John Moore

IT Officer

Trevor Warner

Members Rep

New posting

Seamus Kirby

Members Rep

Paul Wynne Jones

Equip & Boat Officer

Dave Roberts

Equipment Officer

Justin Owen

Welfare Officer

Paul Wynne Jones

Boat Officer

Simon Williams

Social & Fund Raising

Justin Owen

Welfare Officer

Simon Payne

Snorkelling Officer

Simon Williams

Social & Fund Raising

New Role 2018

Committee Support

Committee Support Tom Downer

New Posting

Dive Co-ordinator

Tom Downer

Dive co-ordinator

Seamus Kirby

Try Dive Co-Ordinator

New Role 2018

As a committee there is a lot of work and preparation needed prior to an AGM. This includes ensuring members who are willing to stand as a club officer has an adequate qualification and experience for certain positions.

Officers are invited to stand prior to an AGM, where they are seconded. If a new officer is to stand, we ensure they are supported in their role with assistance from other committee members or previous officers so they feel confident in their organisation and activities. Refreshing the committee is a vital part of keeping the club focused. Although some people move officer positions, we are always keen for new members to join our committee each year. This brings in new ideas to the committee and ensures we don’t get too “set in our ways”. If a member feels they cannot speak directly to the committee, they are welcomed to approach the Members Representative who will be vocal on their behalf.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

We are governed by our club constitution, which was rewritten in 2006 to be more inline with the BSAC model constitution, and with our club rules. both of these documents are reviewed at the AGM, these documents are available to all club members via our Dropbox document storage and posted on our club notice board.

Our committee meets once a month and all members are welcome to attend.

Historically we have held our meetings on a Monday night since 2006, when it was decided not to hold the meetings on a club night. This year to ensure new officers could make the meetings; we moved them to a Tuesday night.

Our meetings started the year being held at the Red Lion, a local public house; however with the noise levels increasing, we took the decision to move our meetings to the City Baths, making more use of the facilities we have on offer to us. Notices of meetings and the minutes are circulated to the whole membership via email and DO’s announcements on a club night.

Our committee covers a range of practical concepts all committee members are appointed annually at an AGM, as set out in the clubs constitution. we avoid small cliques. no one is tied into a committee role, everyone takes a role voluntarily. following BSAC club guidelines in regards to Officer appointments.

Annual General Meeting Our AGM is held in the casual bar area of the City Baths. We try our best to maintain it to be as short as possible, keeping it informative and friendly. We showcase a PowerPoint presentation, including each officers report for the years events, nominations for the club awards, trips planned for the coming year, the election of the new committee and the open forum. After the presentation, we open the voting for the club awards. The winners are announced on the last club night of the year, which is a major social night for the club.

We try to encourage friendly discussions on the night, however if an important item is raised and cannot be resolved on the night, we must call an EGM (Emergency General Meeting) and reconvene.

As mentioned elsewhere, a huge amount of effort goes into this event to ensure the correct information is summarised and to ensure the committee stays healthy and refreshing

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Admin

Club Subscription When a trainee joins the club, a years membership is paid in full, this is to ensure the trainees commitment to the course and the club.

Once qualified, individuals have the opportunity of paying subscriptions via a monthly standing order.

We encourage payments via standing order to save time some members still by Cheque!

At each committee meeting the Treasurer reports members subscription status.

This is to ensure we know which memberships have lapsed, this is particularly vital when our trainees 12 month membership expires If a member has lapsed the membership secretary contacts the member direct to understand their intention, if no response, the membership benefits are removed and we inform the member that they are no longer a diving member of the club., but if they choose to return they just need to start paying again.

In some instances we have members who no longer come down to the club but still pay the old monthly rate, in these instances we down grade their membership to social member.

We endeavor to keep the club subscription realistic to ensure we can attract a broad range of members but also to try and cover increased costs of insurance contingency pot and facility hire costs. Our subscription cost was increased by from £13.00 to £14.00.

Full Diving Membership £162 Social Membership £60 Snorkel Membership £60 We don’t have student or junior rates as we feel that as our training and membership facilities are equal for each member, the fees should reflect this. Members who are no longer able to dive with us, for example for medical reasons or they have moved away with work, are able to continue their association with the club by becoming a Social Member.

We currently have: Full member Snorkel Membership Social Membership Honorary Membership Total 22

101 2 3 1 107

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

Club Polies and Guidelines      

Club Constitution (Modelled on the BSAC by laws) Club Rules Social Media Policy Towing Guidelines Expenses Policy Welfare Policy (Buddy Guard)

Committee Objectives 2018 Club           

Increase membership by 5% minimum Increase female ratio to BSAC Average of 27% (currently 24%) Increase boat usage throughout the whole year, using the boats every month of the year Increase number of individual club dives The creation a boat fund to assist in the purchase of a new boat Improvements to the bar area of the City Baths Run minimum of 2 expeditions as a club Charity fund raiser, (Round Table, Chester Swimming Association) Ensure Welfare legislation is adhered to (Instructors DBS) Ensure the club RHIBs are available each and every weekend for members to use Encourage Dive Leaders to plan and lead club expeditions

Social & Fundraising     

Organise a social activity for every month of the year To encourage more members to participate in social activities (Target Ocean Divers) Create a fund for a Defibrillator Support to maximize try dives Raise funds to support new boat fund

Training   

Increase our instructor base Share the training across the current instructor base Run less explored SDC (Wreck Appreciation)

Club Finances  

Ensure Kit & Equipment is fully insured Ensure a reserve is maintained in case of facility Closure

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Admin

Document control All of the clubs documents are held on Dropbox, an online file sharing platform, all of the clubs Committee / AGM minutes, Treasurer reports, Constitutions, Policies, Dive logs, Risk Assessments, Templates, Training plans, Equipment asset list, insurance document even the Heinke Trophy prep is stored on Dropbox.

If a key member should have a computer malfunction or leave taking all the club documents with them on their computer we would need to start again. Dropbox eliminates the single point failure and provides security.

The documents are managed by the Club Secretary who grants access to members if allowed, obviously Exam papers and certain training materials are not available for all members.

Member access All members have access to the Committee minutes, General club documents, Dive slates and Templates, all documents can be viewed and or downloaded via a computer, tablet, or mobile.

GDPR Since the introduction of GDPR all club members personal contact details have been removed. Emergency contact details are taken before a club dive. Only data sourced is through BSAC.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

MEMBERSHIP Communication

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Communication MEMBERSHIP

Nobody can argue that technology has moved on massively since the 70’s, although some things haven’t changed, the club still meet up every Wednesday and the DO sits in the same position and updates club members with club news and activities, however reaching a membership of 107 can have it’s challenges.

Long standing members would tell you about sitting next to the radio waiting for the weather forecast on a Thursday evening, then ringing people up on their land line to arrange a dive or to call one off. Every Quarter there was a Dee Diver News Letter which gave members updates on what was going on in the club.

Obviously times have moved on and we are now able to look at a phone app to tell us the weather forecast and tide times, then instantly message each other with any changes. One of Chester SAC’s strengths is how we communicate to our members and over the years this has seen some massive changes.

General Communication Wednesday Evening Announcements Every Wednesday evening at 21:45 the Diving Officer will address the members and talk through what diving activities have occurred and any planned diving over the next few weeks.

There is an open forum for members to address the club about any other activities like, social events, deals on equipment, Do’s and Don'ts about using club kit and any required support on Charity events, equipment or building maintenance. If there’s time, Dave will also tell a joke!

insert image of DO announcements

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

Club Notice Boards The club house has a notice board area, there are two notice boards one for planned dives and the other for general communication.

The BSAC dive planner is printed off as an A1 and the usual annual trips and events are added, this quickly fills up with planned trips and events for the remainder of the year.

Also available is an up to date hard copy of the club Constitution, Policies and Guidelines, New member handbook and organisational chart of the Committee for that year.

On the other board the training officer displays the training programme for the year, while a dedicated club member updates the pool calendar.

The Secretary displays the Pool Marshall rota which is one of the conditions of the club pool usage.

Big Yellow Book All of our club dives are managed through a big yellow book, there is a standard template that gives club members the opportunity to put their names down for a club trip. This could be for a local dive off Liverpool Bay using club boats or for a large club trip abroad like Croatia or Egypt.

The trip is managed by the dive manager and members are generally selected on a first come first serve basis.

However Diver grade, and the ability to Tow or Cox is taken into account.

The Diving Officer / Diving co-coordinator will ensure the trip is managed accordingly Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Communication

acebook

Part 1

The club never utilised the full potential Facebook until 2015, since then it has been one of the main platforms to which we advertise and communicate the activities of the club. This has proven to be one of the key elements of the clubs success.

Facebook Page The Facebook page is a window for the public to see what activities the club does and also sets the first impression about what sort of club we are, every few days the page is updated with the latest club activity or dive related posts. This is a great way to promote what we do, but it does require monitoring as there can be negative impacts from posts. To mitigate the risk only selected members are permitted to post SCUBA and club related activities, those members also act as administrators to ensure etiquette and behaviour is maintained ensuring the reputation of the club and the welfare of its members is secure. (Social Media Policy)

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

Facebook Events The EVENTS tool on the Facebook page is an effective way to communicate club dives and other activities, not just to club members but also to other clubs and the general public.

In 2018 we advertised 50 events through our page, this ranged from dive trips, try dive events and other social activities.

The events page is a great way for members to check dates of trips and events whilst away from the club and stay connected with planned activities.

Related Image

Event Title Date location

Followers who expressed an interest Event Details

Event feedback

When an event or post is published it sends a notification to everyone following the page, also any cancellations or changes to the publicised event are notified to the follower.

More often than not I hear club members say “Did you see that post on Facebook� and then show other members the post weather it be an image or a video.

This only strengthens the argument that social media as a whole is a powerful communication tool, and should be utilised by clubs. However the nature of technology is that there is always something new around the corner.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Communication

Facebook Group The Facebook group is a closed group for club members only, the Facebook page is linked to the group and page posts are shared into the group automatically.

Why a Closed group?

We understand that some members do not want to be on display to the world, the closed group allows members to post up trip reports, the results of social nights out and any internal questions or queries.

Also any light hearted or precarious situations our members could find themselves in, like grounding the boat on a sand bank, jumping in with a phone in a outer pocket, or experiencing a sausage related injury whilst on a live a board! (it’s not what you think) These sorts of posts are kept within the club as they are directly associated with our members, like the Facebook page the Facebook group is monitored by administrators and the etiquette and behaviour is set out in the Social Media Policy.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership

Group Email Today the Club uses a group email “csacforums@googlegroups.com” and is controlled and managed by club members selected by the committee. (usually the ones who know what their doing) Only existing club members are allowed on the forum, members who have left the club are removed once their club membership has expired, this is reviewed every month at the committee meeting.

Etiquette and expected behaviour for it’s use, is set out in the Club’s Social Media Policy.

What is communicated? 

Committee meeting minutes,



Treasurer reports



Equipment updates & missing kit



Expression of interest for planned club trips,



Club trip updates and reminders



Social events



Equipment deals



General Meeting , Announcements, AGM or EGMs etc



Constitutional changes or policy updates



BSAC news & updates



Any other note worthy messages

WhatsApp There are many ways to communicate with each other, Messenger, Email, Text, Tweet, but the preferred option for club members is to use WhatsApp. This has been utilised across various sub groups within the club, our Dive leader trainee’s currently have a WhatsApp group which they share experiences, hints and tips about exams and practical assessments. WhatsApp is most commonly used on club trips, usually the dive manager will create a WhatsApp group to keep everyone in the loop.

This keeps the club forum clear for general communications and targets only those on the trip. Usually the communication is about traffic conditions on the way to a dive site , and to remind members about dive times and hostilely details post dive.

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MEMBERSHIP

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MEMBERSHIP Promotion

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Promotion MEMBERSHIP

On-line Presence When the baths temporarily closed in 2015 the Committee looked inward to understand what we could do to demonstrate that the club was still active to our existing members and perspective new members.

One of the things we looked at was our online presence, this was the start of the realisation that our website and social media pages was somewhat neglected and did not reflect the club we were.

All roads lead to the website‌.

All the social media posts, banners and leaflets that catch peoples attention all lead to the club website. We believe that an up to date modern website gives confidence that we are a genuine well organised club.

At the bottom of every page is the club contact details enquires@chestersubaquaclub.co.uk and visitors are encouraged to contact us directly.

Facebook Club banners TV Appearances Notice board Ads Instagram

Respond <24hrs

Try Dives We have three Committee members who monitor the enquires inbox, we aim to respond back within 24hours of the initial enquiry.

Try dive enquiries are directed to the Try dive coordinator who will arrange a date direct with the enquirer Training enquiries or new already qualified new members are directed to the Diving Officer who will invite them in for a chat and explain how it all works.

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Membership

Website Lonn Landis led the way and developed the website we have today, he took a clean simple approach to the design ensuring it was easy to navigate and maintain.

The website is based on four main categories, Try Dive, Training, Diving with us and Club Life.

There is also an emphasis on where and when we meet giving clear contact details on every page

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Promotion

Website The clean simple approach is constant throughout the website and the four main categories below show images taken by club members of club activities, giving the prospective member a real view into the club.

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Membership

As previously mentioned in the stats the club has gained younger members and with that came some surprising feedback. When speaking to the younger members about our Facebook page and group etc the response of “Facebook is for old people we use Instagram” did come as a bit of a shock but it was also discussed at the second Know and Grow session we attended. So in early 2018 we set up our own club Instagram account, Stacey Lee Led the way and before we knew it we had over 800 followers.

Instagram is geared up toward the mobile phone user and is easy to set up posts and share images, we have received loads of positive feedback about the images and believe this is promoting the club to the younger generation, more so than Facebook. Interestingly we have found that Instagram has connected us more globally than Facebook and we have follower from all over the world who share an interest in diving.

Lessons learnt from using Social media as a whole “always check your spelling” as this could lead to some embarrassing moments on your posts, this is why it is advisable to have several people as administrators on your sites.

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Communication

acebook

Part 2

Facebook Page As previously mentioned the Facebook page is a window for the public to see what activities the club does and also sets the first impression about what sort of club we are, taking some advise from the “Know & Grow” Sessions held in Chorley we ensured each element on our main page was up to date.

The initial set up and updating takes a bit of time but once updated the page is relatively self sufficient . The main element on the page that needs to be accurate is the “About” section.

About The club is now identified on Google maps and has an up to date “Our story” section.

Events

We communicate our Training, Trips and Social evenings on the events section on the page, this has proven invaluable for people unable to get down to the club. It’s also really easy to set up and manage an event on from your mobile phone.

Photos We post images of our events on to the page, this demonstrates we ae active and is again so quick and easy to do, most cameras are equipped with a good quality camera, most of our images are taken using mobile phones.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Membership Community

Videos Some of the best visitor numbers to our page are from trip videos, some of our members have a flare for creating a short video made up of clips and images of the event or trip they have just been on, with the improvement of camera technology the number of videos are starting to increase

The community section is something that can be overlooked on Facebook, this shows which visitors have tagged themselves at your venue, to the left are our dive friends from Sub C Divers, we met them initially at the Know and Grow session in Chorley, they came and joined us at the SITCA back in June 18.

Facebook Page Data, Data, Data! Facebook provides a great range of data which is easy to use and helps you manage the page.

The data provided can show you the performance of certain posts, which helps us target the right audience or topic.

Followers by Gender

2018 saw a massive growth in our page followers

Shows average response time to messages

Where the page follows happened

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Promotion

Club Banners and Flags I have personally found that vinyl banners are a really cheap and effective way to catch peoples eye. But the banner must be simple in design and the information on it clear to read, a short punchy line is ideal as this will stick in the persons mind, I have designed a few of the clubs banners but have eventually seeked the support from BSAC HQ, they have the software to enable us to have a Try Snorkel Banner. We have 5 banners, 3 are up around the facility and advertise Try Diving or Try Snorkelling and the other two are taken on trips so members take group images with the banner “Dive With Us” , the pull up banner is also effective in foyers or Fate’s.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

The club feather flag came to us by chance, A club member donated it to the club, it had a frame and base, but no flag.

Similar to the banner we kept the design simple and it was relatively cheap to produce. The feather flag has been tied to the back of the boat, which was ideal when we support the Chester Raft Race. The advertisement caught peoples attention and we gain a number of try dives from the event.

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Promotion

Facebook—Community Notice Boards One of the main successes of the try dive participation at Chester has been around the advertising on Facebook, however paid adverts can be restrictive and expensive if not set up correctly. An alternative we’ve found that works really well is using Facebook Noticeboards, every City, Town or village community will have a Facebook page set up as a notice board for their area, “Chester’s Biggest notice board” has over 16,000 followers and you can post for free. Most of our 40 Try divers conducted for our charity Try event heard about the event through this approach. The benefit is the advert is guaranteed to be displayed in the local area to you. We have had such success with this method we have now stopped using Facebook paid adverts.

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Club Clothing

We have a great range of Club logoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d clothing , ranging from Hoodies, Soft Shell Jackets, Zipped hoodies, Polo Shirts, Beanies, this is great for advertising the club but also gives the members an extra sense of belonging and feel a sense of pride showing people they are part of Chester Sub Aqua Club.

The club has business cards, which are great for when members are out and about and people ask for details about our club, we also exchange cards with Holiday firms, scout troops and include them in the try dive voucher envelope.

The QR Code on the back once scanned directs the person to our website The club mugs are sold to members for ÂŁ5 a each but are generally used within the club house, The design incorporates the website address and basic club information. this is great for starting a talking point at work, and we also drop them off at dive shops in the area.

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MEMBERSHIP Members Forum

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Membership

Words from the Chairman Years ago I thought I had joined Chester Sub Aqua Club to learn to dive, while this ambition was soon fulfilled, the club has given me so much more than I could have ever expected.

Martin Kay

Through the club culture and BSAC training I have gained friendships, knowledge, confidence and numerous new skills that not only progressed my diving career but also carried through to my personal and work life to improve myself overall.

I have also seen how this has helped in the development of other club members bringing out the best from them, developing skills and confidence they did not realise they had themselves. Particularly in club roles such as Diving Officer and Training Officer.

The great thing about club life is that due to the training together, socialising together and diving we all do together members will see the potential in others and encourage them to progress.

Of course we are not all good at the same thing which is why the club benefits from expanding and gaining new members to fill the many roles in the club that need covering.

Chester Sub Aqua Club has certainly grown a great deal since I joined, more so recently with dedicated drives towards attracting new members.

This all requires a lot of hard work from the members and committee volunteers who paddle like the proverbial swan to make it run so smoothly. From the members working on the boats, equipment and premises to those helping with the admin, social media, fundraising and generally tying it all together.

This works so well as we all have a single love of the underwater world that keeps us focussed on running and improving the club with the on going planning of diving and ever more adventurous trips.

The future for the club looks very healthy as we have a constant list of people wanting to join and train. Due in a large part to the push for try-dives which also acts as a great fundraiser for the club.

So years ago when I thought I was going to learn to dive it never occurred to me that joining Chester Sub Aqua Club would lead to all the friendships and banter, self improvement and a whole new way of life.

Chester Sub-Aqua Sub-Aqua Club Club Heinke Heinke Trophy Trophy Submission Submission 2018 2018 Chester

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Members Forum We have been members of Chester SAC since September 2015. We joined as qualified divers having been diving members of another local club since 2000 and 2010 respectively. Our previous club at the time was in dispute and we had had enough. We wanted to join a new club which went out frequently boat diving and without the politics most clubs endure.

We spent a few weeks visiting the clubs local to our area (which there are a few) and Chester just seemed right. They were friendly, went out diving frequently on Sharon & Tom sites we had not dived previously, and carried out more trips away than we had though possible. The set up they had was quite remarkable in comparison to most clubs, having all their equipment including the two RIBS all under one roof. Tom was invited out one weekend to dive a wreck off Prestatyn, which happened to be one of Tom’s dream wrecks to dive, The City of Brussels. From that day we were both sold, we joined the club and have never looked back.

For our first year we didn’t dive a single site that we had ever dived before in North Wales. Tom was able to join a trip to the West coast of Scotland where someone had to pull out last minute. This was his first trip to this area of the country and one he wouldn’t forget.

Since joining Chester we have gone on from strength to strength. Between us we have gained diving qualifications of Mixed gas diving, Open Water Instructor, Theory Instructor, Diver Cox’n to name a few.

We have participated in fund raising activities, maintenance and improvement work at the swimming baths, organising local weekend diving and expeditions. Joining the committee after being with the club for a few year, we are helping to push the club to new levels, making a more diverse and pro active club.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with Chester SAC, making new friends and diving new sites. We are looking forward to the next few years, hoping to dive more new sites and make more new friends and grow the club even further.

I joined Chester sub aqua club just over a year ago. I had previously visited the club a number of times and made to feel very welcome. I had been a member of another BSAC branch for 12 years where I became a qualified instructor and since I moved to Chester I have been fully supported with my development and allowed to grow. I have always felt very welcome at Chester sub aqua club even from my very first visit.

I feel fully integrated; I help with training, try dives and SDC’s. I now feel a valued member of Chester sub aqua club. Chester has a full and comprehensive dive and social program. I have been able to undertake more wreck dives, shore dives, weekends away diving and holidays home and abroad. Having a thoroughly good time with all of it.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Dennis Mah

ar

Membership

After seeing some advertising outside of Chester City Baths we joined the club in February 2017. We were given the ‘grand tour’ of the facilities by Dive Officer Dave Parry and left excited at the prospect of starting our BSAC journey.

Stacey had already achieved her PADI AOW but wanted to start a fresh with BSAC and Simon had never dived before.

imon

Stacey & S

We love club nights on Wednesday meeting up and catching up, diving trips, and socials.

There’s nothing better than being totally immersed with club diving.

I joined Chester Sub-Aqua Club at the beginning of 2018 and enrolled onto the Ocean diver course, I can honestly say its been amazing so far!

I have been welcomed into a community of divers with such a supporting attitude that makes me want to progress to levels I never thought of previously.

Luke Verno

n

We joined the club separately, Sally around 12 years ago and Lonn 7 years ago.

Sally had joined CSAC because she was attracted by the amount of diving that the club do. Lonn was returning to diving after a 10 year break after doing mostly warm water holiday diving and as such was new to club diving. We both progressed through to our current grade of Dive Leader and both loved getting involved in the diving and social life of CSAC. After diving together a few times and turning up at most of the club social events, we eventually started dating. Our common love for diving and specifically finding new critters meant we were always on the same wavelength and our relationship grew quickly.

n Landis n o L & y ll

Sa

In 2016 we got married on the banks of the Menai Straights only metres away from our favourite dive site. Of course, all of our closest friends from CSAC were there and we emerged from the church to an honour guard of DSMBs – a photo which made the BSAC magazine!

Both of us love being part of the club and have made loads of lifelong friends. Most of our life continues to revolve around CSAC and diving. We're looking forward to all the great times we will have together (and with the club!) in the years to come.

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Members Forum

I’m delighted and honoured to have been asked to contribute to this application, it’s given me the opportunity to reflect on the club and my own personal journey through my diving exploits over the last quarter of a century…. Omg, how Neil O’May long! I don’t quite remember the days of breathing from an old fire service respirator or cutting a skin suit from truck tyre inner tube, but safe to say, buddy breathing was a must in training, as an octopus or redundant air supply was just the air in your ABLJ, technology is a wonderful thing…. And in its way has shaped the course of diving in the time I’ve been involved.

reach thoughts virgin wrecks sitting there, just out of reach, blimey, if anyone showed an interest in the bugs and beasties without it being a shark, you were looked on as a geek, and as for wreck, you would only recover something that would have a monitory value, or big man kudos.

Well, as the century changed, so did the club membership and the reasoning for the dip into the briny, affordable trips to sunnier and more exotic waters kindled a rise in gribble watchers coming out of the closet, and on my part chasing the aforementioned for that all illusive beautiful under-

water When I first joined the Chester branch, it was through a photo, and the good friend who enticed me in with stories of treasure, treasure and massive conger to see on the local wrecks, I was an ing took on angler, and who doesn’t like the idea of finding treasure, as well, around then the idea of training was to achieve getting more to this particular Nirvana without dying in the process, was, and in fairness the idea of ‘grabbing what you can’, it’s just lying there for the taking, was a very common manintra, this in its way drove the improvement of equipment, everyone was looking to get deeper for longer to

I asked Neil O’May to contribute to this years Heinke Trophy as in 2006 he put the club forward for the award, since then he has seen the club develop and grow, I was keen to hear what he had to say and for him to be part of this years submission.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

hunta different slant we actually became excited about what something than what it was worth!

Around this time the club fell to our hands (the geeks that is), and the very technology that had helped the hunter go deeper, now needed

Membership

more learning and skillsets to master, so only the truly inspired and motivated carried onward, the club aim then became to encourage people to have something to dive for, other than just for profit, or even worse, a cheap way to get their diving ticket before they pop off on their hollies, never to be seen again.

However I’m glad to say with the introduction of a broad sweep of activities, ranging from photo clubs, marine conservation and archaeological courses, tailored with trips and projects’ like ‘The Royal Charter’, and ’Resurgam’, and more boundary pushing adventurous expeditions like taking the club RHIBs over to the Scillies, or diving within the Arctic circle, coupled with the ever increasing quality of equipment, and resources such

as the advent of mixed gasses, re breathers and so on, the diving club ethos moved on to became more, love the Lump sucker not than lump hammer, and as of the last 10 years (of which I claim absolutely no credit, just an observer) the committees and members have taken the club on to fantastic new heights as

I’m sure you will see in the this report, all with a good vision of where the club is heading.

It’s been a fascinating time watching the club morph from one construct to another, particularly mirrored in my own case, motivated for instance with finding gold on the Royal Charter on week long expeditions every year, using explosives, 1 and 2 ton lifting bags, 6” air dredges, all over some 20years, the motivation subtly changing to the thrill of knowledge of this increasable ground breaking ship, and it’s tragic and harrowing loss of life, still using the skills acquired to ‘work the wreck’ but in the later years becoming heavily involved in marine archaeology and conservation, to the point of being NAS qualified and working on several important sites, with some particular highlights, like finding a model of the ships screw, which now resides within the SS Great Britain museum in Bristol, a gift of which among others they value greatly for its historical importance.

Although we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the motivation, ingenuity and tenacity of the original diving club community, in my opinion I can honestly say Chester sub aqua club and myself, are by far richer for the changes than we ever were.

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Members Forum

Around two and a half years ago, before I became a member of Chester Sub-Aqua Club (CSAC), the thought of learning to Scuba dive had never once crossed my mind. In fact, I wasn’t fond of swimming, I didn’t like snorkelling and I had no Idea what really lay beneath the surface. However, when my housemate asked me to join him for a trydive at the local club I happily agreed, excited to try something a little bit different.

Before we started the try-dive we weren’t quite sure what to expect and were a little apprehensive. Our instructor however had no problems talking us though the equipacKay M m u l l Ca ment, getting us in and out of the water safely and making us feel comfortable at all times. Almost as soon as we began the session any thought of worry we had turned into joy. Even in the confines of the pool, I had a great experience and instantly wanted to learn more. As luck would have it, CSAC was running an Ocean Diver course in a few weeks and we put our names down without a second thought.

Having started out with no knowledge of diving, I was intrigued to learn more about the sport. The try-dive had sparked an interest and the subsequent classroom lessons and detailed stories from the club’s members only fuelled that enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, having not long moved away from home after finishing university, money was tight and I was in no position to be buying lots of new Scuba gear any time soon. This is where one of CSACs strongest assets came into effect - the training equipment and help from experienced members. As CSAC is a relatively large club, it’s been able to invest in dedicated training equipment, from weights to BCDs and Regulator sets. I was able to complete all of my training having only bought a dry suit, fins and a mask and once I’d qualified I was able to continue diving using the club equipment and items lent from other members like DSMBs and torches. For many months I was checking kit in and out of the stores room on a weekly basis. I believe that without this resource I would have never got into diving in quite the same way.

I joined Chester SAC some years ago because it has great facilities, but more importantly than that it is a fully inclusive club.

I have been involved in arranging many dive trips for the club, particularly for couples to include the non diving partners. There have been a series of "Dive & Dine" trips to the West Coast of Scotland diving in Loch Fyne and out of Crinnan, based around stay's at castles, luxury marina's, very old Inn's etc. These have been very nice diving and social events.

In 2019 we are doing a "Gin & Dive" trip - don't worry the two are separated - no drinking and diving.

Andy He

Since Diving with the club, I have been able to dive all around the UK and abroad including Shetland, Orkney, Cornwall, Wales etc and abroad in Egypt, Portugal and later this year, Croatia.

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slop

Membership

I’d sat through the PADI Try Dive lectures three times when on Holiday.

To be honest, I loved the underwater bit but got fed up of the lectures, so I decided to Join Chester Sub Aqua Club and get qualified so that I could dive in nice warm waters on Holiday. Six months later I was shivering in the car park at Capernwray on a cold and windy December day, doing my first open water dive and loving every minute of it!

The enthusiasm of the instructors and their obvious passion for the sport was contagious and after intending to leave it at Ocean Diver I got sucked into Sports Diver, Dive Leader and even a couple of Advanced Diver Lectures. I’ve done CCR try dives (loved it), full face mask try dives (hated it), dived with seals, on a protected historic wreck, surveyed a Dock in Liverpool , got lost at Capernwray managing to swim for 40minutes without actually seeing anything and am now totally hooked.

e Colin Me

The great thing about the club is that it’s very outward looking with Beach Cleans, Seasearch, NAS, Charity support through the raft race and regular collections as well as opening the sport up through Scout Association try dive packages. It’s a club that manages that fine balance between training those new to the sport and allowing all if it’s members to participate in dives that extend their skills levels. No-one’s excluded and there’s always a new to challenge in the Yellow Book to put your name down for.

I joined Chester Sub Aqua club a few years ago as a PADI diver who only dived on holiday. I heard that there was a BSAC club in Chester, so I popped in for a look without knowing much about the club or BSAC. I was looking for was a way to do more training and to go diving in the UK, when I joined the club was not only an outlet to train but a community I could be part of.

The club had a really welcoming, friendly & inclusive atmosphere, there were plenty of opportunities to progress and club nights were also fun and social. There was a Seamus Kirb lot of work going on to try and move the club forward and those running the club y were keen to have new members involved. Chester SAC’s commitment to ensuring all club members have an input is shown by the fact that every year people who have only recently joined the club are elected to the committee.

I joined the committee in 2017 having been a member for less then a year, as someone who had recent experience of joining the club I was given the role of Member’s Representative to help integrate new members into the club.

For me Chester SAC is a not only a club but also a community and something that all club members can be part of and help to develop.

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Members Forum

I originally took up SCUBA diving in the early 90’s training with Wirral SAC but after gaining my Sports Diver grade, I put my diving on hold due to family commitments.

After coming across my old logbook in early 2017 and having more free time, I decided to take up the sport again. Searching around my home address I found several clubs including Chester Sub-Aqua Club, as they meet every Wednesday I decided to pay them a visit.

Steve Clarkson

On arrival I first met the club Diving Officer, Dave Parry, after a long conversation he went on to introduce me to several other club members.

Everyone made me feel very welcome including showing me around all the facilities they have under one roof, so I decided to join.

Wanting to re-qualify and advance my diver training, Dave Hodgson the Training Officer took me under his wing and with the help of other instructors I soon gained an updated Sports Diver grade. I have also gone on to gain my Diver Cox’n, Assistant Instructor and I’m now on the verge of gaining my Dive Leader.

Long term I’d like to continue with advancing my instructor grades so I can put something back into the club and it’s future members. Since being a member of CSAC I’ve been on many diving weekends including The Farne Isle, Whitehaven, numerous sites around Anglesey and Egypt, Red Sea with further plans this year to dive Plymouth, Isle Of Man and Croatia. I can honestly say being a member of CSAC is an absolute pleasure and I find the members very helpful and experienced in all aspects of dive related topics, they are a very active club with diving organised through the summer virtually every weekend!

My wife and I joined Chester Sub-Aqua in 2005 and I qualified as an Open Water Instructor around ten years ago. My diving career has been long and varied starting with Ford Dagenham BSAC in 1988, my first open water dive was in the then recently opened Gildenburgh quarry near Peterborough. Following that I also qualified with NAUI and PADI, before rediscovering BSAC due to a chance meeting with members of Hackney BSAC at Baltimore, Ireland in 2000. When I moved to Chester in 2005 I had to find a new dive club, the obvious way to do this was an internet search followed by a visit. The Chester sub aqua website immediately impressed me as did arner W v e r T & a the subsequent visit. The quickly of facilities was simply outstanding, two hours in Teres the pool, an immense on-site garage with two boats, compressor and training kit, coupled with the large and well used bar area was fantastic. I joined for the diving but soon learnt the social scene was also exceptional and am very proud of the close friends I have made since joining.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Father & Sons Diving Journey MEMBERSHIP

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Father & Sons Diving J Dad’s view…..

From a very early age, my son has always been fascinated with my stories of diving under the ocean waves. When I’d return from my adventures, he would help me wash and sort my kit out and use my Nigel Sperring DSMB reels to make spiders webs which he and his sister would play though. He would try on my mask, breathe from my regulator and try on my drysuit to see if it fit. He even arranged for me to bring my diving kit into primary school, to give his class mates a talk on diving.

To say he had developed an interest in my hobby would be an understatement and he would consistently ask when he could learn to dive, to which my answer would always be 14. th

As his 14 birthday approached, I started to take him into the pool at Chester Sub Aqua Club to give some experience of being underwater. He absolutely loved it and took to it like the proverbial ‘duck to water’. Under my instruction, he started some basic drills: - buoyancy, regulator retrieval, mask clearing – which he became confident and proficient at very quickly.

He also joined us on the club RIB, when I was a nondiving cox, which gave him experience of how we dive from a small boat – and the banter that takes place between fellow divers.

A few months later, together with another young trainee diver, who was a year older than my son, we commenced his Ocean Diver training. I am an Advanced Diver and OWI and was able to train these two young students separately from the main cohort of adult trainees.

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They were great students and showed their commitment and willingness to learn in both the lectures and pool sessions. Being typical teenagers meant that sometimes they looked half asleep in lectures, however they always answered the recap questions with ease, just showing how young people are like sponges when learning something new.

My son revised hard for his test, not only to make sure he passed but also because he wanted to get 100% so he could beat me.

Open Water sessions were completed with a great deal of fun and joviality whilst also making sure that my son demonstrated his ability to complete the require skill to the required standard. When he passed his Ocean Diver course and was presented with his certificate by the club DO it was a very proud moment.

We have since enjoyed many dives together, however his first sea dive on the Missouri during the club’s annual trip to Trearddur Bay will always be a very memorable dive as I will never forget his beaming face when we surfaced.

I have been a member of Chester sub Aqua Club for many years, made many friends, been on some great dive trips and enjoyed some fantastic social events. It’s great that my son has been shown the same level of friendliness and encouragement that I was shown when I joined all those years ago, with some members giving him equipment like weight belts and torches to help him along the way. He is growing with confidence with every dive he makes, joining in the friendly banter on the dive boat, and still marvelling at the underwater world just like we all do. I look forward to many more dives with my son and hope he too will make many friends and enjoy his diving experiences as much as I have and still do.

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Journey

Membership

Son’s View….

Ever since I can remember I have been fascinated by the ocean and the secrets it holds. I always used to be mesmerized by my Dads diving gear and the idea of breathing underwater did, and still does, Luke Sperring blow my mind. I always wanted to follow his footsteps and I would beg him to teach me how to dive. A few months after my 14th birthday my wish came true. I couldn’t wait to experience a new world with my own eyes instead of just looking through a screen in awe of the blue planet and wish I could truly be there.

The gear we use to the wonders of the ocean will always amaze me as I journey farther into the realm of scuba-diving. I hope to continue diving for my entire life, witnessing and sharing many more amazing experiences.

I pounced on every chance I could that had anything to do with diving and on the 17th June last year, I was finally a qualified Ocean Diver. The following weekend, I went on a trip to Trearddur Bay and I was excited, really excited. We dived the Missouri wreck on the Saturday and it was the most astonishing experience of my life. Thanks Dad. Now, just under a year later, I am half way through my Sports Diver course with many more amazing stories to tell. The dive trips are always a brilliant experience and the support I get is astonishing from all in the club. Recently, I went to Pwllheli in Wales, where I was lucky enough to see a pod of bottlenose dolphins within touching distance, it was breath taking. I am learning more and more from every dive I do, about diving as well as the secrets of the Ocean.

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TRAINING

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Diver Training

I am the current training officer of Chester Sub Aqua Club and have been for the last 9 years. I became training officer in order to give something back to a club which was incredibly supportive throughout my training but also so welcoming to me and my family. When training new divers, I always think back to my first few dives and how anxious and out of my depth I felt. As the training officer, my goal to is make sure I make all divers feel more at ease than I was, but more importantly excited about the new world which they are about to explore. I want everyone to feel as passionate as I do about diving and so I make the training experience centred around the trainee, gson Dave Hod to make it fun, engaging, personal and accessible to whoever I am teaching.

Whether a trainee is a natural, or needs a bit more practice to feel confident, I enjoy training them all as I have found something that I enjoy and care deeply about, and I want others to share in this.

My diving career almost started in 2002 whilst on holiday in Greece. Following a Try Dive with the local Dive School in the hotel swimming pool, we decided to take up their offer for a day of diving only to be told that our daughter was too young and too small! This caused lots of upset but after making a solemn promise to one day take her diving, we went snorkelling instead.

I nearly didn’t keep my promise as shortly afterwards I was diagnosed with kidney cancer which was too advanced for chemotherapy and the only option was surgery. Fortunately for me, things worked out and I’m still here today. This made me realise how vulnerable we all are and how precious time is: ‘Carpe diem’ In order to accomplish my diving promise, we decided it would be a good idea to have some basic training before going diving. We came along to Chester Sub Aqua Club for a Try Dive & our Instructor was none other than our current Diving Officer. We managed to complete the Ocean Diver course with Frogsborn Diving Services and I fulfilled my promise during our holiday to Corfu where we did 4 dives to a maximum depth of 14.3m. It was so exciting, surreal, almost magical – I also remember not sleeping at all the night before because I was so worried.

I had definitely caught the diving bug and I quickly completed the Sports Diver course, Joined CSAC and started the Dive Leader course. In one year I had progressed from a Sports Diver at the start of the year to be an OWI by November. I was helped and encouraged by the CSAC Training Officer & by the North West Regional Coaching team; their continuous enthusiasm was contagious, and I have always tried to emulate it.

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Training

During my time as training officer, I have seen the club flourish. When I first started there were only 3 active instructors which limited the amount of training that could be done. The ocean diver course was still run yearly but there was rarely enough interest to have more than 4 trainees. The SDC’s that were on offer to the more experienced divers were limited and most were done out of house. Due to some especially dedicated members this has completely changed. We now have over 10 enthusiastic instructors, and many more assistant instructors. This has meant we are completing try dives most weeks, the ocean diver course is oversubscribed each year and those completing the ocean diver course remain with us to complete the sports diver course and beyond. This has enabled the club membership to double from 50 to over 100 members. The most important thing for me is that we have been able to expand the number of SDC’s that we run in house. It can be very easy to focus on recruiting new trainees but I have endeavoured to make sure the experienced divers are also catered for.

I feel privileged to be the training officer of Chester Sub Aqua Club and I have enjoyed sharing in the successes of my trainees. Even when a skill takes many attempts, which is common with the open water mask clearing, when they finally manage it, it is so rewarding to share in their joy. I realise that the progress that has been made wouldn't have been possible without the dedicated instructor and assistant instructor team that I have. It has enabled the number and range of training available to increase and they have made my job much easier. In future I hope the club rewards such dedication with further expansion of the SDC’s available to make sure every interest is catered for.

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Water-Work DIVING ACTIVITIES

The club operates a formal planned training system based on an annual cycle for Ocean Diver, Sports Diver and Dive Leader. Ideally 8â&#x20AC;&#x201D;10 students is a good size for a course, if there is sufficient demand will run additional courses, in most cases we run 2 Ocean diver courses per year. Advanced Diver course is organised when there is enough demand, generally every two years.

Groups larger than 10 we would split into two, alternating between pool and theory. Courses are overseen by the training officer and they will pull from the pool of branch instructors to conduct pool sessions and theory sessions as required.

This allows the Club to run concurrent training activities throughout the year.

Pool training is offered each Wednesday evening between 19:00â&#x20AC;&#x201D;21:00. all members are welcome to attend the pool sessions, even if this is to only try out new equipment; in addition to this, part of the pool is reserved for swimming to encourage fitness amongst our members.

Pool sessions for specific grades are undertaken on a fortnightly basis alternating with theory lessons. During the year, core pool training was held for the following grades.

Ocean Diver Courses, Sports Diver Course, Dive Leader Course Training for core BSAC qualifications is arranged in groups with a student : instructor ratio of 2:1 for pool work, in open water we have the 2:1 ratio and have a support diver just in case there is an issue.

Before an Ocean Diver course starts we offer an Ocean Diver open night where we go through what to expect whilst carrying out an Ocean Diver

Instructor Numbers ADI

21

SI

6

OWI

11

AI

5

NI

1

course and being part of a club, we lay out the costs involved and talk about time scales and the support and help on offer to them with kit and other requirements. This gives the students and parents the opportunity to ask any questions and decided if they want to sign up to the club & course.

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Training

The club is in a fortunate position where a lot of our sports divers are keen to progress on to the Instructor Foundation Course as they want to give back to the club.

When Assistant Diving Instructors are involved in training, they are always supervised by qualified by qualified instructors. The number of advanced instructors available within the club means it is often possible to have Advanced Instructors monitor Assistant Diving Instructors and provide feedback to help them improve their Open water instructor examinations .

Assessments for water work follow the current BSAC approach of continual assessment of competence and confidence rather than exams. For courses where there are formal exams, such as Diver Coxswain, considerable effort is put into preparing candidates, including additional briefings and on-water training.

Open water and sheltered-water work is arranged on Weekends throughout the year, but it tends to be concentrated in the spring and autumn when club dives are less frequent,. training for Ocean Divers and Sports Diver is principally undertaken in local quarries, which offer both shelving shore and stride entries and varying water depths and conditions. the limitations of undertaking early training dives in quarries are recognised in the club and every opportunity is made to undertake training in the sea when conditions permit.

Every effort is made to undertake open-water training for Dive Leader and Advanced Diver in the sea, using a variety of platforms, meeting requirements of the current training.

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Theory Theory lessons are undertaken almost every Wednesday evening from 19:00—21:00, we have a discipline within the club that no one unless part of the lecture should enter the bar area before 21:00. equally the instructor is et to a dead line of 21:00, this discipline is respected and ensures the quality of the lecture.

All lectures are supervised by qualified instructors and trainee instructors are encouraged to take part by running through sections of the lectures “lecturettes” these are a great way to boost the confidence of the trainee instructor, the mini lectures are monitored by an Advanced Instructor who provides feed back to the trainee instructor .

The number of the instructors we have at the club means that it is possible to provide a variety of instructors for theory lessons. This is not only reduces the work load on individuals but also means hat trainees get different perspectives and experiences conveyed to them. It also means that instructors have the time to focus on individual lessons and develop them beyond the “death by power point” recital, props and a tactile approach is encouraged,

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Training

Courses Completed in 2018 Ocean Diver Course

January

Ocean Diver Course

April

Dive Leader Course

May

Sports Diver Course

August

Oxygen Administration Underwater Photography Accelerated Decompression Procedures Sea-search Other Training 2018 Try Dive Workshops Pool Skills Workshop Tractor Training External Training 2018 RNLI Sea Survival RYA Marine Radio Licence

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Diver Training

Instructor Training completed in 2018

Snorkel Instructor course (At Chester) Instructor Foundation course Instructor Foundation course (At Chester) Theory Instructor Practical Instructor

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Training

Planned Training for 2019 Ocean Diver Sports Diver Dive Leader Advanced Diver Accelerated Decompression Wreck Appreciation Buoyancy & Trim Practical Rescue Management First Aid for Divers Life Saver Advanced Life Saver Sea Search Defibrillator Course Compressor Operator Course Nautical Archaeology Course

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Regional Courses Chester is proud to be able to host 2 regional courses in 2018, the first being a SITCA (June) and the second an Instructor foundation course (October) this is something the club has never done before, Members gave up their time to ensure everything was set up ready , this is where we identified the projector was un-reliable and we purchased a new ÂŁ600 wireless Epson projector

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Equipment

GENERAL ACTIVITIES

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More History

As already mentioned, the club’s first boats were two Beaufort inflatables, each powered by a 20hp outboardmotor, and trips were made throughout North Wales and beyond, even towing the boats on a box-trailer to Plymouth and venturing out to the Eddystone Lighthouse.

As the club grew, so the demand for extra boat-space increased, and an ex-army assault-craft was purchased and initially fitted with one of our 20-hp outboards. This method of propulsion proved to be totally underwhelming, and was soon replaced by a 55-hp, electric-start motor. The assault-craft was fantastic for floor-space, but was extremely difficult to re-board at the end of a dive as the sides of the vessel angled outwards, meaning that a ladder had to be hooked over the gun-whale to allow a diver to climb up into the boat. Another major disadvantage was the almost total lack of inbuilt buoyancy, and many scary times were ‘enjoyed’ when the assaultcraft was taken out to sea in anything other than a calm sea, when it could easily have been converted into the club’s own submarine.

With seaworthiness being a safety-issue, in 1983, the club purchased what was to become known as the ‘Banana Boat’, a bright-yellow inflatable that measured around 16-feet long and of Italian origin. A special box-trailer was built by club-members so that the 40-hp outboard, fuel-tank and diving equipment could be transported to the launch-site, with the boat firmly strapped on top of the trailer. The new boat was soon towed to Aberdaron, a popular diving-venue in North Wales, and carefully manhandled onto the water. Engine fitted; fuel-line connected; dive-gear loaded; engine started, and off we went. We cleared the line of buoys marking the inshore speedlimit, and then opened the throttle to bring her onto the plane. Wow – Fantastic! Then there was a loud ‘SNAP’ as the two wooden stringers that provided rigidity to the floor of the boat both broke in two and the boat assumed the shape of a banana - hence the name. The new boat was then returned to the supplier who fitted new ‘improved’ stringers, and a return trip to Aberdaron was organised. Again, we carefully opened the throttle, brought her onto the plane, and yes – that ominous snapping-sound was heard for a second time. Thankfully, the supplier of the ‘Banana Boat’ took the boat back and supplied a 16-foot Humber inflatable in its place, a boat that proved its worth time and time again, and as a result, two 14-foot Humber inflatables were added to the fleet.

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Boat Orientation

Diving Activities

Spring every year we give our trainees and new members a boat orientation morning, we run through how the boat is constructed, how it operates, how we launch and give them the opportunity to drive the boat on the river, this is at restricted speed and in a safe environment.

This helps build confidence when trainees come out on the boat in the future as they will be able to help launch and recover and feel like a valued part of the team.

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Equipment DIVING ACTIVITIES

The outboard engines have been run and flushed with fresh water. The boats and trailers have been washed down, dried and pushed back into to the boatshed. All of the oxygen sets and boat first aid and flare boxes have been stored away and all the wet kit removed and left to dry. So ends another diving weekend.

The preparation work starts again on Tuesday when one of the Boat and Equipment Team sets up the diving kit for the following nights ‘Try- Dive’ sessions.

This might be for one or two people or for twenty plus if it’s a large group.

Dave Roberts

The Club has an inventory of diving equipment that that can be used by Trainees for pool/open water training or can be loaned to members.

The brand new sets of Apeks TX40 regulators which can be used for pool/open water training.

All are individually identified with an individual club tag which helps keep track of loaned equipment and identify when servicing is due. The new regulators will be serviced annually and kept for five years. After that the regulators will be replaced and the older sets offered to the newly qualified divers. This churn is aimed at keeping the equipment at the highest standards.

There is a small stock of shorty wet suits available for occasional use. These are available for Trainees or TryDivers but most people, if they have them, tend to bring their own.

The club does not own/provide dry suits, Trainees are expected to source their own, once they are convinced that diving is for them. However, there is a fairly regular turn-over of members’ dry suits which are often left in the boat shed for prospective buyers to examine.

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Training

All of the diving equipment is stored in a secure cage and is closely controlled by the Boat and Equipment team.

Equipment for temporary loan is signed out to Members or Trainees with a strict return date, so the equipment is available for the next pool training session.

Wednesday is Club Night. There might be Try Diver’s or trainees in the pool with their various Instructors, Members might be doing a skill development course or just practicing their skills ‘n’ drills. Everyone seems to need something from the equipment store and usually all at the same time. Every bit of available floor space is taken up by divers kitting up or by the pool-side helpers moving equipment through to the pool.

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Equipment

Diving Equipment Asset List

72

Size

QTY

2018

Cylinder

5ltr

1

1 New for 2018

Cylinder

7ltr

1

1 New for 2018

Cylinder

10ltr

8

In test

Cylinder

12ltr

5

In test

Total

15

Regulators

10

In test

BC

XXS

2

2 new for 2018

BC

XS

4

2 new for 2018

BC

S

6

2 new for 2018

BC

M

5

BC

L

3

BC

XL

2

Total

22

Weight belts

17

Lead

Various

30+

Masks

Various

20+

Fins

Various

20+

1 new for 2018

16 New for 2018

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DIVING ACTIVITIES

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Equipment

The boatshed itself has been an ongoing task for a number of years. A number of working parties wielding brooms, plaster trowels and buckets of paint, have renovated a dilapidated shed (capable of growing mushrooms) into a clean, bright and efficient space for storing the boats and equipment.

New lighting, has transformed the former dark and dingy lean-to garage into a bright workshop area suitable for equipment maintenance and dive kit preparation.

The change to preventative maintenance (rather than break down maintenance) has enabled work on the boats and trailers to be planned and a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Just-in- Timeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; approach adopted to acquiring parts and materials for the jobs.

This has allowed us to de-clutter and rationalise both storage furniture/shelving and old stored materials to create more open working space.

After 9pm, the trainee divers and Pool-side helpers start trickling back from the pool into the Boat shed, returning bits of borrowed equipment. The trickle turns into a flood of cylinders, all needing filling.

The Club has a Coltrisub 3-stage air compressor for use by authorised Club members. On Club night, for efficiency, this is usually carried out by one of the Boat and Equipment Team.

The compressor hours are closely monitored and recorded with a service and filter change carried out every 30 hours followed by a BSI air test to confirm air quality.

In addition to the compressor, there are 2x O2 J-cylinders to enable suitably qualified club members to blend their own Nitrox fills.

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Training

At 7pm, CSAC divers can get into the pool and the Boatshed quietens down a bit. Time for the Boat and Equipment Team to spring into action. The boats, trailers and equipment need to be checked and prepared for the next diving trip.

The club has two RIBS which are housed in the club garage attached to rear of the main Baths building. The boats (and importantly, the trailers) require constant attention to keep them in top condition and ensure safety on the road and at sea.

The ‘big boat’ is a Delta 6.2m RIB with a 150HP Mariner outboard and 10HP Tohatsu auxiliary, which can carry 6 divers and a cox. This has a deep-V hull and is a fantastic boat in challenging conditions. Although in its autumn years, this boat is the go-to boat for most dive managers going on extended trips and it looks better cared for than most boats half its age.

The ‘small boat’ is an XS 5.6m with a 100HP Mariner outboard and 10HP Tohatsu auxiliary, which can carry up to 5 divers.

The XS is a shallower hulled boat but is a very capable, zippy and highly manoeuvrable partner to its bigger cousin.

All of the engines are on a service schedule monitored by the Boat & equipment Team. The engines are under warranty and professionally serviced by a local Marine Engineering company.

Both boats have identical VHF radio, GPS and chart plotters. This allows a degree of interchangeability and helps users with the operation of the units.

The boat trailers are highly serviced with at least two bearing and brake changes a year (usually at the start and mid- season) to reduce the risk of problems on the road. Keeping ahead of the effects of salt water damage is a full time job.

The skills available to the club and the time given by members are without doubt the most important factors in keeping the boats and trailers running efficiently (Club members include those with decades of boating experience, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, auto electricians, welders, Joiners and radio/computer specialists to mention just a few). For any repairs or modifications that need to be done in-house, there is always a number of willing volunteers able to help.

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Diving Activities

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Branch Dives

Words from the Diving Officer I took over as Diving Officer at Chester Sub Aqua Club in November 2008 and in that year there were 54 Diving Members, at present we have doubled the membership and as of now it stands at 107 diving members.

Dave Parry

The success of the Club isn’t down to one person but a Team of Committed Members, Committee, Dive Managers, Training Personnel, Boat Crew and of course Club Divers.

I had already organised a few Club trips so I started encouraging more Dive Managers to gain the experience to lead their own trips both locally with our own Club Rhibs and further afield on Hard boats.

Now each year we have more and more trips, we go to the four corners of the UK, From Orkney and Shetland in the North, Plymouth , Weymouth and The Scilly's in the South, Oban, Skye , Ireland and Anglesey in the West, Eyemouth, St Abbs and The Farne’s to the East, and of course lots of places in between.

This is then added to by Trips abroad from The Red Sea Live boards to far flung places such as Cocos, Indonesia, Galapagos and Truk, with more exiting places added each year.

By running all these Dives and going on all these Dive Trips our Divers have gained lots of experience and increased their depth of knowledge. We also encourage this by emphasising the importance of training.

At one stage most of the regular Divers in the Club had completed all of the SDC’s that were available at that time. This emphasis on training has I believe been one of the main reasons we have never had any serious Dive related incidents, The usual ones like forgetting to close the zip on your dry suit or jumping in without your fins on etc. are put forward each year to win the Snorkel of Shame.

When you go on lots of Dive Weekends away in the UK or longer trips abroad you get to know your fellow members even more and lots of lasting friendships are made, this also makes the Club one big family, No one is left out and newly qualified Divers are encouraged to go on Dive Trips that are designed especially for them so they can start gaining experience.

There are lots of groups within the Club with different interests like Wrecks, including exploring and researching for new ones or just Diving on known ones both locally and around the UK and abroad. Scenic Divers that Dive Reefs, looking for whatever wildlife is out there. Photographers that use their equipment to record their experiences of not only Wrecks but Wildlife from big fish to macro nudibranchs. Sea search is gaining lots of interest at the moment, recording what you saw and the places you saw them. Technical Divers that use equipment that enables them to go deeper to find more elusive Wrecks.

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Diving Activities

We also have an active social side to the Club and events are arranged for all from just meeting in a Pub to going out for meals, White water rafting, Caving in the welsh mountains, Hard Hat Diving, Cinema visits and Club BBQ’s.

Our Club hasn’t been without its problems and not so long ago we were faced with the possibility of losing our base of over 40 years, The Chester City Baths, A fault was found in the roof of our Edwardian Building and major repairs had to be made which meant the Baths closing for nearly two years. We however had a plan which meant that Pool training was done at another local pool but our meeting place in the Bar at the Baths stayed open for our regular Wednesday nights and access to our equipment and Boats was made by putting our own access in. All this hard work meant that our membership didn’t suffer and our numbers stayed solid, Trips were still organised and social outings still arranged. The Baths were officially re opened after nearly two years by the Duke of Westminster and we have gone from strength to strength since then.

Our Club did nearly 200 try dives last year and we have dedicated people that organise not only the Divers but the Instructors and all the helpers needed to achieve these events. This in turn adds much needed income to the Club which we invest in more equipment and are currently saving for a new Rhib. The try dives also help to fill our new Ocean Diver courses each year and get our name out there in the community, one weekend last year we managed to raise £2000.00 by doing Try Dives for Cancer Research.

I am very proud of all the achievements we have made in the Club and this is in turn making the Club a destination for more experienced Divers from further afield and we welcome them all, We now have Three first Class Divers, Lots of Advanced Instructors, Lots of Advanced Divers, Lots of OWI’s and lots of grades of Divers that want to further their training.

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Even More

Diving the early days Our local river also featured strongly in our Sunday morning ‘Voyages to the Bottom of the Dee’, where the visibility could be measured in inches, while fierce competitions were held in collecting Victorian bottles. Codds and Hamiltons, types of Victorian bottles, were fiercely fought over, then debated as to who had found the rarest specimen over a pint at the Red House, a hostelry located on the bank of the river. Most of our members thereby gained ‘low-viz’ and ‘nil-viz’ experience as part of their initiation into our sport, and were totally astounded to later find out that you really could see for more than a few metres while diving. Then, in the early 1980s, a rubbish dump was found containing much-older bottles that dated from the late 1600s and early 1700s. Negotiations were made with the landowner, and many happy hours were spent excavating the river bed to recover these examples of early English bottles while gaining experience in the use of water-jets, water-dredges and air-lifts. Other tasks included removing a large tree that was blocking the navigation of the river, recovering an anchor for a tourist-boat, and surveying the ancient weir in the centre of Chester. However, searches for a lost engagement ring and a valuable walking-cane were unsuccessful due to the low visibility and muddy riverbed.

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History

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were no dedicated inland dive-sites within easy travelling distance of Chester, with the nearest ones being located at Dosthill, near Tamworth, and at Stoney Cove, near Leicester.

As a result, what was known as ‘The Blue Pool’, a flooded slate-quarry near Llangollen in North Wales became the regular Sunday morning training venue where the ‘bottomless pit’ was flooded to a depth of around 15metres, and was inhabited by a shoal of 3-spined sticklebacks that would escort divers around the site. Access was not easy – a steep climb uphill, followed by an abseil down a 45-degree slope to the water’s edge. Most divers were clad in 4mm-thick, home-made wetsuits as the era of professionally-made wetsuits and dry-suits had not yet arrived.

Other trips were made to ‘Twin Quarries’ near Llanberis, another flooded quarry that could only be reached by wading knee-deep for at least 200 yards along an underground tunnel to emerge on a narrow spit of land at the water’s edge. This was the era when divers would bring a container full of warm water to pour into their wetsuits in an attempt to lessen the shock of immersion in cold water.

From the 1990s onwards, the flooded delights of Vivian Quarry, Eccleston Delph and Capernwray were opened as commercial dive-centres, with on-site air and cafeterias, making them far more suitable as venues where we could introduce trainee divers to our sport. Those divers who sought deeper depths would visit the 100-metre deep delights of Dorothea Quarry where dives in the 30- to 40-metre range could be undertaken.

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2018 year planner

Chester Sub Quarry

Quarry

Missouri Penrhos

Quarry Training Porth Ysgarden

Quarry Training

Quarry

Quarry Training

River Dee

Lelia Penstone Quarry Training

Quarry

Porth Dafarch

Plymouth

Quarry

Quarry Training

Quarry

Quarry

Lakes

Farnes

Quarry Training

Lugar

Calcium

Trearddur Bay Quarry Training Quarry Training

Quarry

Blayney Lanzerote

Quarry Ravens Point

Quarry

Quarry Scenic 82

Blayney

Carna

Quarry Training

Mull

Traeth Bychan

Training

Hard Bo

b-Aqua Club Quarry Training

Quarry Training Calcium

Canon Site Menai Bridge

Resurgum

Quarry Training

White Haven

Knoydart

Plymouth

Quarry Training

Azores

Scapa Flow

Menai Bridge

Loch Aline

Segontium Kimya

Snowdonia

Quarry Training

Quarry Training

Quarry Training

Quarry Training

Shetland

Quarry Training

Farne Isles

Llyn Dinas

Shetland

Llyn Cwellyn

Red Sea (South)

Puffin Is

Farne Ilses

Lanzerote

Royal Charter

Quarry Training

Menai Chains

Quarry Training

Llyn Cwellyn

Dukes Dock

Sound of Mull

Resurgum

Summer Isle

Quarry Training

Holyhead

Quarry Training

oat

Quarry Training Quarry Training

Local Club Dive Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Exploratory 83

DIVE STATS Members dived through out the year at a range of sites. Inland sites were used extensively for training, familiarisation with new kit and to keep skills ticking over during the winter periods of bad weather. Shore diving continued throughout the year, The Menai Straights and Trearddur Bay area being favourite amongst members. New members usually get their first taste of sea diving at Trearddur bay and their first wreck is usually the Missouri

Dives completed throughout 2018 No of Instances

No of Dives

Quarry

108

329

Sea

349

1205

Lake / River

10

25

Total

467

1560

Where did we go in 2018 No of Instances

No of Dives

UK Waters

284

1,032

Abraod

183

528

Total

467

1560

What did we dive 2018 No of Instances

84

Wreck

87

Scenic

311

Exploratory

4

Training

65

Total

467

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Diving Activities

The club RHIBs, together with Membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; boats, were taken out regularly from April to November, when ever the weather and tides permitted. Diving in general is mainly out of Liverpool bay or Anglesey . Dives ranged from Sheltered shallow sites suitable for any grade to deeper, more challenging ones suitable for experienced divers.

It has been a Committee objective every year to increase the number of dives year on year, again the correlation between us improving our communication across the membership can clearly be seen with the increase in the volume of dives.

The same can be said for the increase in boat usage over the year, we are getting more and more often than not we are using both boats for trips out, this is due to the volume of members wanting to dive.

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Branch Diving

86 Mart Holloway , Porth Ysgaden

Diving Activities

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Branch Dives

Dives completed throughout 2018 The local branch dives are usually conducted in Liverpool bay or Anglesey, Prestatyn Sailing club is 45 minutes from the club and we have full use of their facility, and equipment. Every year Prestatyn Sailing club put tractor training for us, this a refresher training as the tractors do differ and can be tricky to use.

Liverpool bay has a great range of depths for divers, most of the sites around the 6 miles out are within range of

Ocean Divers, from the Resurgum through to the Calcium, A little bit further out and the sites become deeper ideal for sports divers and above, City of Brussels or the Princess Victoria.

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Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Managing Risk

Diving Activities

WHAT WOULD THE COASTGUARD SAY? Diving can be a dangerous sport and there are hazards everywhere, from Propellers, falling cylinders through to poor visibility and entanglement, most of these hazards are mitigated through training, the right kit and a thorough risk assessment.

We have risk assessments for diving and they cover a large range of potential hazards and they are reduced where practicable but where it becomes difficult is when you need to manage people.

A dive has gone in to the yellow book, members are on it like a flock of seagulls on a bag of chips names and grades are listed, people drop out other people slot in, expectations are high.

The managers task is to go through the names and ensure divers have the minimum grade required for the dive, next is to put the divers into buddy pairs, generally an experienced diver will be put with an less experienced diver and the overall performance of a diver from previous dives is taken into account.

The dive mangers decision is final The Diving Officer will discuss the plan with the dive manager and talk through any potential risks with that dive 8 divers are up early, kit prepped, boat hooked up and on the road, launched and heading to the dive site, when you arrive a sea fog has set in.

This is where the pressure comes in, as the dive manager, you have to make the call, do you wait for the fog to burn off, how long do you wait, to dive or not to dive (Obviously itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a no) Running through the scenarios and possible out comes to which â&#x20AC;&#x153;what would the coast guard sayâ&#x20AC;? is a very quick way to extinguish any opposition

White out on the Apapa

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Mart Holloway , Shetland, E$( Sub

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Wrecks Dived 2018

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Annual Pilgrimage Trearddur Bay It’s early winter and as the nights draw in there’s the annual club night special to plan the key trips for the following year. In addition to many ad hoc weekends in North Wales with the club boats, there’s also a discussion on options for longer weekends away. Amongst all the ideas and options floated there’s two trips that are taken as read, the annual trips to Trearddur Bay and to the Farne Islands. Over the years both have become more of a pilgrimage than a dive trip with both sharing the key religious characteristics of regular timing, venue and activities.

Treardurr Bay is always late June or early July depending on the best tide. In addition to the usual excellent diving in North Wales this trip is focused on getting Ocean Divers trained during the winter, out of spring open water quarry training and into the sea. The usual sequence is shore diving on Saturday before being promoted, if competent, to boat diving on Sunday on the wreck of the Missouri. Just like Christmas there is ritual feasting, this is held on the Saturday night with an enormous BBQ for divers, friends and family alike, last year the total fed numbered well over 60.

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Farne Isles The Farne Islands trip is always late October the precise weekend is tide dependant. This trip is for Sports Divers who want to enjoy the last of the warm summer sea, and sometimes, spectacular visibility as the plankton dies. In addition to Seals and the other fabulous underwater life of the area, there is always a faint hope of reaching the fabled Whirl Rocks if the wind allows or failing that, sight of an Octopus.

The feasting culminates one evening in a specific local hostelry that in addition to excellent food and wine has a table big enough to comfortably hold all 12 divers, just like the last supper. opus. The feasting culminates one evening in a specific local hostelry that in addition to excellent food and wine has a table big enough to comfortably hold all 12 divers, just like the last supper.

Where possible images are embossed with the club logo, this is something we do with the try dive Images, when they are shared on Facebook the club logo is on display

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Supporting our S

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Skippers Cat b

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Branch Dives

Shetlands with the Valkyrie

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Red Sea, Egypt The clubs organises trips abroad every year, 2018 saw 24 members go to the deep south in the Red sea for some of them this was a first time trip

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Branch Dives

Diving in 2019 Swim & Swig Loch Leven

May

Lochaline

May

Isle of Man

June

Scilly Isles

June

Trearddur Bay WK

June

Plymouth

July

Croatia

September

Isle of Man

September

Farnes

October

Two of our members are going to Truk Lagoon in July (someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th) and they will present details of the trip back to the club, this will be gauged to see if it is feasible to run a club trip in the future .

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Expeditions

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Branch Dives

As part of my BSAC Advanced Diver qualification I have had to organise a weekends diving to a location unknown to myself and away from the usual r e n w o areas of club diving. To Tom D make this expedition more exciting I decided to choose an area that the club had never been before, ever. I also wanted to take the club ribs and not use a local charter to ensure that logistically, everything was possible. I emailed out an invite to all the club members of where and when we would be going, and eagerly awaited responses. Five members showed an interest and we were good to go.

would be able to help with my enquiry. The MOD were very helpful with my enquiry and assured me that the area would be safe to maneuver in and dive, although advised us not to touch anything suspicious.

My next task was to work out the sea traveling logistics. Using google maps and the charts to find a suitable launching location as well as suitable back up launch and recovery sites incase the weather changed.

My main launch and recovery point was to be Whitehaven Marina. This turned out to be a fantastic place to launch and recover. The slipway access was wide, the parking was secure and local and the sea access to the marina was via a huge loch. At first find out that there was a loch access to the sea was just excellent. However, carrying out more research I found that even with this access, due to the channel outside the marina, the access was limited due to the tide. We would have to be quite precise with our timings on the day to ensure we would have enough water to get back into the marina, otherwise we would have to wait a fair few hours before we could get back in. I contacted the marina directly to enquire about launching, berthing and parking charges; whether I would have to book access in and out of the loch and the minimum tide I would require to access and leave the marina. Their response was fast, helpful and really positive.

My first part of the plan was to find some wrecks off Whitehaven to dive and the timings for slack water.

This was rather challenging, although there were a number of wrecks on the charts, I really struggled to find out any information on the sites themselves. This became a factor in the final plan that the dive sites could be potentially hazardous and that diving activities would have to be restricted and controlled. There would be no penetration, buddies must be careful to stick together and all divers would carry an alternative source. I used the chart datum, tide tables and the rule of twelfths to work out the slack water times for each Next I decided to look at the accommodation for us all. of the dive sites.

I would require a local hotel, with a car park large and secure enough to keep a RHIB overnight and still naviLooking at the charts I found that we would be diving gate out of the carpark early in the morning. There very close to Ministry of Defense (MOD) live firing are- were a number of hotels with reasonably priced acas. Although we would not be diving or plan to maneu- commodation. For the carpark once again I turned to ver in these areas, I wanted to be sure that there Google Maps. I found a Premier Inn that had a large car would be no exercises being carried out that weekend. park with a secluded section behind the building away Struggling to find an email address of for the MOD that from the road. I dropped them a direct email to enwould cover this department I put in a freedom of in- quire if they would cordon off a section of carpark for formation request regarding the area. I quickly got a the boat and vehicle and they were more than obliging response which put me in contact with the people who to assist us for the weekend.

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Once I had the dive sites, sea access, accommodation and transport sorted, it was time to work out the run times for each of the days. starting at slack water, working out travel distances, travel speeds, launching allowance ,parking allowance etc, as well as factoring in some extra time incase of problems arising. Also we required the details of the local petrol stations, restaurants, hyperbaric chambers and hospitals. All of this information would be invaluable if it was required in an emergency.

The information which took the most amount of time was locating a compressor for us to fill our cylinders. Sourcing a local dive shop proved to be impossible. I turned to local clubs for assistance. After contacting various people via text, social media and emails, Darren from Solway SAC came to the rescue and kindly offered their compressor on the Saturday evening for us to fill our cylinders, to which we were extremely grateful.

Once I was happy with my number one plan for the weekend, it was time to look at a back up plan. Due to the openness of the sea in the area, I would have to look at a land base alternative. with us being in the lake district, I investigated a number of the lakes to find one that was local to where we were diving as well as one that allowed diving to be conducted, as there is a number where diving is not permitted. I chose Crummock Water as our alternative site. During my research I found a very detailed article which gave every possible piece of information you could possibly need on the site. After scaling down the information by selecting the parts which were relevant to my plan, I added this to my main plan.

I was finished. I passed the document to our Diving Office to have a read through and the plan was accepted.

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We were tipped off about Carna by one of our members who regularly travels around Scotland on business and also takes the opportunity to seek out new diving adventures. Knowing that there was a hard-core of CSAC who loved critters, he knew this would be a perfect place for us to explore.

Unfortunately, the houses on the island were booked for the time we had available, but the island caretaker also runs a small self catering lodge just across the Loch on the mainland. So with the lodge booked for a maximum of 7 people, we arranged the trip as a reccie to see if it would be suitable for a full

Carna is a small uninhabited island in Loch Sunart near the Isle of Mull. It sits right at the mouth of Loch Teacuis, forming two narrow and relatively

blown club trip in one of the following years when we could hire both of the houses on the island.

Bags packed, we set off on the nearly 8 hour drive from Chester to Carna. The local area around Carna, called Ardnamurchan, is remote, incredibly beautiful and very peaceful. It's home to a vast array of wildlife including sea otters and golden eagles. Our host, Andy the caretaker of the island, is a passionate conservationist and it's his role to ensure that Carna remains a bountiful home to all of the shallow 'straights' around the island which connect animal inhabitants of the island, both wild and doSunart to Teacuis. mesticated â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including a small heard of highland The island itself has only three houses on it (two of cattle. While Andy is not a diver himself, he's as which are available for holiday hire) and no roads or passionate about the life under the water as he is electricity making it the perfect getaway from mod- above the water. He was very keen to make sure we were well looked after. ern busy life.

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CARNA While staying at the lodge, visitors have access to small four man boats with small outboard motors. Guests are free to use these to go back and forth to the island as they wish. While you can dive from them, they're not really suitable for 'off-shore' diving, so our dives were either shore dives or 'close to shore' dives from the small boats. When asked where the best dive sites were around the area, Andy replied, 'wherever you drop in!' While there were a few identified sites that other divers had frequented, Andy was keen for us to explore the area and report back what we had found.

For example, on a shallow dive in the 'straight' by the jetty on Carna we found the seabed was absolutely teaming with brittle stars. They covered the seabed as far as the eye could see and were 4 or 5 deep in most places.

There must have been millions of them because as the tide picked up at the end of the slack window, we had an exciting drift over the aggregation and it showed no signs of stopping. Occasionally, large seven-armed starfish parted the masses of brittle stars who were scurrying away, trying not to end up a snack for their echinoderm cousins. Andy later told us that this brittle star aggregation was not common in that area so we had experienced a new phenomenon in this area.

So we set off on 4 days of exploration diving. All sites were unknown to us and there were no real dive briefs to go by so we kept a close eye on the tides and local conditions to ensure we all stayed safe. There's something rather special about dropping into a place that nobody else has explored and having no idea what you will find â&#x20AC;&#x201C; if anything! As it turns out, Carna and the other parts just off the shore of Loch Sunart are teaming with underwater life.

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The banks of Loch Sunart are only accessible with dive gear in a few places, so we spent some time driving around the loch seeking suitable entry sites. As with any unidentified sites, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Luckily we only had one rather uninspiring dive at the end of a fisherman's slipway, but still, any dive is a good one as long as it's safe! And what we missed out on with this dive was more than made up for in the dives off of Laudale slip! This is a known dive site, but was completely new to everyone in our group. We were on the hunt for flame shells which we were told were prevalent throughout the loch but we had failed to find so far. Thankfully, this dive did not disappoint and everyone in the group spotted the bright orange molluscs as well as loads of other life. We ended up diving this site twice during the trip as there was so much to see.

We spotted thornback rays both times as well as, sea mice, pink spotted sea cucumbers, flame shells,

squat lobsters, a dense smack of moon jellies, king and queen scallops, sun stars, feather stars, chitons, strawberry worms, double spiral worms and a range of sea squirt species.

The hundreds of queen scallops mimicking chattering teeth as the rose up from the sea bed made the dive particularly amusing!

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While we were there, our host also arranged for the local Sea Search expert to come along and give us a talk about all the various marine species that live in Loch Sunart. What started off as a one hour talk, ended up lasting through dinner and well into the night as we asked loads of questions and compared sightings of the various creatures. Andy later reported back to us that our speaker commented that we were the most keen and knowledgeable audience he had presented to ever!

Back in CSAC, we presented our trip to the club to determine if there was enough interest to run another trip â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this time staying in the rather primitive accommodation on the island itself. It's not our normal type of trip as there isn't a cozy pub nearby and the lack of modern conveniences (and internet connection) isn't for everyone! However, this wasn't enough to hold us back and around 12-15 members expressed an interest, so we're looking to organise a return trip in 2020! Can't wait to go back again!

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EXPLORATION While training and diving in quarries and lakes throughout the winters I fell in love with diving in harder to access and more rarely dived locations in North Wales and along with other members of the club I began exploring and documenting as many of these sites as I could. This led me to develop the website; nw-divesites.co.uk - a website dedicated to the in-land dive sites of Callum MacKay

North Wales and the North West of England.

With the help of other club members I was able to get valuable information about some of the lakes and quarries in north Wales and could tell which ones had very little known about them. I began to build up a list of all these sites and started working through them to find out if they were dive-able and if they were, what information I could find through trying them out myself. The goal was to dive as many as possible and log details such as depth, ease of access, permission needed to dive and to photograph any points of interest. I wanted to create a dedicated place where local divers could look for something inland for those days when weather wouldn’t permit a boat dive and they didn’t fancy diving the same old spots that the clubs tend to stick to.

Due to CSAC’s wide range of divers I was quickly able to find out what kind of diving I loved and focus on doing the dives I wanted to. I won’t turn down a good wreck dive but for me there’s something exceptionally atmospheric about diving in a huge flooded quarry with incredibly dark but clear and foreboding water. Without the knowledge and guidance of other CSAC members I’d not have been able to further my own exploration of local dive sites.

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GENERAL ACTIVITIES Diving Activities

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EXPLORATION Exploration

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Looking Forward: Recently I’ve been working through the Dive Leader qualification and I’m hoping to finish that this year. The club is also running a twinset course which I’m planning to attend and further my experience in deeper and longer divers, adding to the advanced decompression procedures training that was also done through CSAC. I’ve been continuing to help out with training here and there and have learnt loads from both existing and new members who’ve joined and am always trying to make getting into diving as easy for them as it was for me.

I also aim to continue diving in lakes and quarries around North Wales and the North West of England, expanding my database of unusual and challenging in-land dive sites and finding more amazing and interesting places to dive in our region of the UK.

www.nw-divesites.co.uk

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EXPLORATION Exploration

Funds raised through Try dives and other activities are going toward two investments 1, Boat fund 2, Water proof AED

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Try Dives

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Try Dives

After joining the committee at Chester Sub Aqua Club I was looking for some projects to get involved in. My opportunity came when a plan was put in place to upgrade one of the RHIBs and I suggested that we target try dives as a way of raising funds for this.

Seamus

Kirby

Try dives in my opinion are a huge asset to dive clubs. They allow us to introduce more people to the sport and to give potential new members a taste of what diving is like.

Try dives also give us a means of raising funds for the club while giving people a fun night where they can experience the joy of diving.

Many other sports do not have an obvious way to show case their sport or to raise funds and I feel that we are privileged in diving to have try dives.

The club already had some spectacular years with try dives even when the club membership was much smaller. I felt that since the club had grown in numbers and there was a lot more help at hand we could do even more.

A target was set to do 200 try dives and raise ÂŁ2,500 for 2018 which would be more then the club had ever done before.

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I set about recruiting a list of try dive instructors and got a great response. Lots of volunteers came forward and many of my fellow sports divers booked onto IFC courses so that they could get involved too. Those not eligible to do try dives offered to help poolside. Others helped by promoting through Facebook and local scout groups or by getting family, friends & colleges booked in.

Dave, the training officer, allocated lots of time in the pool schedule for me to use and I set about filling and organizing the try dive nights as the bookings came in.

During the try dive nights Dave & Paul did their usual Trojan work in the equipment room and everyone else worked hard in and out of the water to give the try divers a great experience.

Three of our members, Martin, Sharon & Simon took it upon themselves to organize a try dive event to raise money for Cancer Research UK which was a great event and raised a huge amount of money for a really good cause.

Due to this huge team effort by everyone at the club 2018 became our best try dive year ever and epitomized what Chester Sub Aqua Club is all about- a community where everyone contributes where they can to help move the club forward.

The statistics for the year speak for all the hard work by everyone involved: 227 total try dives, xxx scout try dives, xx charity try dives, ÂŁ2,120 raised for club funds & ÂŁ2193 raised for Cancer Research Uk. And most importantly a lot of smiles on a lot of faces that had just been introduced to diving

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After each try dive session the participant is given the BSAC Try - Dive Pack

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Full Face Mask We heard of an opportunity to experience full face mask try diving with Dutton's Divers, a PADI school based in Llanberis One Wednesday evening we a quick 30 mins brief and tried out the full face mask and underwater communications, this was open to all clubs in the area. Members were really intrigued about the underwater communications but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really take to the full facemask.

Re-Breather Try Dives Additional to the Full face mask on a weekend we experienced Re-Breather try dives, Simon Fryer arrived with 6 re-breather units. again there was a good hour lecture about the re-breather unit and how it operates, This was opened up to all clubs in the local area and we were joined by members from Wrexham Seals

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GENERAL ACTIVITIES Diving Diving Activities Activities

Support for Local Schools The branch has supported the local primary school for their project on Jacques Cousteau. For this we took a set of SCUBA equipment into the school and showed the children how it worked, we allowed the children to experience getting dressed in a dry suit and showed them a film of the branch hard hat diving to illustrate the advantages of SCUBA equipment. We discussed Jacques Cousteau and answered the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s questions. To date we have undertaken this project in 2017 and 2018.

Re-breather Try Dives

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Apnea Diving

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Apnea Diving 3 of our members had the opportunity to trial out Apnea Diving (Free diving) A company from Germany came over and ran a introduction to Apnea diving this was in conjunction with BSAC The course went into the science and the effects on the body some of which are very different compared to diving with SCUBA kit, there were practical sessions like YOGA There are 3 disciplines Depth Going down the shot line to various markers, slowly progressing your depth, some of us reached 17 metres, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thing the Scuba diver was expecting a person in just a wet suit waving at them at 17 metres Static Basically building up your lung capacity and holding your breath with your face in the water most of us surpassed the 2 minute mark Dynamic Duck diving down to 6 metres then swimming along for 50 metres then coming back up a shot line At the end of the course we received qualifications based on how well we performed

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Branch Dives

This Girl Can

Sharon Downer

When I joined the committee I was asked what we can do to improve the female membership of the club, statistics showed our numbers were below the average for the country and we wanted to improve this. We had three female assistant instructors but no female Open Water Instructors. In order to achieve a more diverse club, we found it important to recognise the different motivation and barriers to women in sport.

I organised a meeting for all the female members to attend. I laid out the statistics I had been given and showed what I wanted to achieve going forward.

We started idea searching for ways to increase qualifications for current female members as well as attracting new female members.

Some of the tasks we asked the committee to implement from our discussions were to dedicate a female to reply to females who have contacted the club, have a female available on a club night for females who have come

down to the club for information and ensure we have a female in our advertisement and marketing materials.

Some of these ideas have been taken from the BSAC buddy system for newcomers.

We decided as a group not to run a female only try dive event and to not run a female only diving trip. We felt that we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to prove ourselves as club members. We did decide to become more involved and active in courses, our existing try dive events and within the club in general.

We now have four female Coxswains with one female completing their Accelerated Decompression qualification and are looking at moving on to mixed gasses. Three females achieved becoming assistant instructors and one went on to become a theory instructor and assistant open water instructor. Another has achieved becoming an Advanced Instructor. Two females have taken on becoming Advanced Divers and one finished the tremendous achievement of becoming a First Class Diver.

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These Girls Can

At the end of this year we had six new female members, an increase of 26%. Our female instructors have increased to nine, ranging from Assistant Instructors to National Instructors. We now have 27% of overall club membership, which is inline with the national average.

Although we have had such good activity in our campaign this year, we can not rest on our laurels, we are already looking as to how we can improve on this again and continue to promote the sport to more females

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Scientific

Marine Archaeology Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments Wales and Nautical Archaeological Society, Commemorating the Forgotten U Boat War around the Welsh coast 1914 – 1918: SS Cartagena

Nigel Cosson

s

The Nautical Archaeological Society (NAS) approached CSAC regarding the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments Wales project ‘Commemorating the Forgotten U Boat War around the Welsh coast 1914 – 1918’. This National Lottery Fund supported project included the provision of two archaeological field schools, one in North Wales in 2018 and the other in the south in 2019.

For the 2018 field school NAS selected the wreck of the SS Cartagena. CSAC identified the wreck and subsequently adopted it under the NAS ‘Adopt a Wreck’ scheme. In 2014 the club won the ‘Adopt a Wreck’ award for it’s work to identify the wreck, and another nearby vessel the SS Kincorth – a project presented to the NAS annual meeting as ‘The Tale of Two Trawlers’. The Cartagena was built in Canada on behalf of the Royal Navy during World War One in response to the unrestricted U boat campaign, however, by the time she was completed in 1918 U boats had appeared on the eastern seaboard of North America and she was retained in Canada. After the war she crossed the Atlantic and was laid up in Inverness until she was sold to the Brazilian government in 1928. She was lost with all hands on her delivery voyage from Fleetwood to Rio de Janerio in January 1928, about six miles off the east coast of Anglesey. She now lies in around 35m of water and is substantially intact.

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Add in Image

imaging created by Bangor University, ÂŁD model was then created from multi beam scan of the wreck. (Credit to Bangor University

CSAC assisted NAS in developing plans for the field school including undertaking preliminary dives to check the condition of the wreck and to take a specialist cameraman to the site to make a photogrammetric record. We liaised with Bangor University who carried out a detailed side scan sonar survey of the wreck and prowreck to support NAS. Eight club members took part in the field school in June 2018, assisting with planning the field school, making a presentation to the field school on the history of the wreck, undertaking the dive briefing and assisting in managing the diving and research programme. X branches took part in the diving programme with a total of XX dives on the wreck, searching for evidence of how the ship was lost. The branch will be supporting the field school in the South of Wales in 2019. https://rcahmw.gov.uk/commemorating-the-forgotten-u-boat-war-around-the-welsh-coast-1914-18-2/ http://archive.divernet.com/uk-dive-sites/p301465-a-tale-of-2-trawlers.html Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Scientific

Wreck of the SS Lord Blayney After the ‘Tale of Two Trawlers’ project CSAC has been exploring a wreck off Prestatyn to try and establish it’s identity. The wreck lies about 3 miles off shore and is thought to be the SS Lord Blayney, an early steamship built in 1825 and lost in 1833.

The wreck location was known but it’s identity was not, although it does lie on the Blayney Bank. Research dives in 2018 established that what was reported as metal wreckage actually includes two cylinders with cross heads and other features consistent with ‘grasshopper’ steam engines of the kind likely to have been used in the Lord Blayney. Video and photographic records have been made and a side scan sonar survey carried out, the latter revealing the presence of another wreck about 70m to the north. The evidence from the 2018 dives have established that this is very likely to be the Lord Blayney and further dives are planned for 2019 to develop this project and find out more information about this wreck and the site that lies to the north.

A key aspect of this work has been trying to make accurate records and a measured survey is planned for 2019.

Neil O’May showing Club members how to use the Side-scan the towel is for some shade from the sun!

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River Dee Wrecks Project - Support to the Holt Archaeological Society The club has had a long-standing relationship with the Holt Archaeological Society investigating sites in the River Dee. Between 2014 and 2016 the club researched two sunken boats in the river at Holt, preparing measured surveys of both sites. These surveys were carried out by the Branch using recognised archaeological techniques to produce an accurate record of the sites, and a formal report was prepared for the archaeological society. In 2017 and 2018 further dives were carried out in the area of the two sunken boats to try and establish whether there was a crossing of the river at this location in the past â&#x20AC;&#x201C; potentially in Roman times. The 2018 dives involved a video survey of the river banks underwater, together with dives across the river bed searching for artefacts, twelve club members took part and the findings were reported to the archaeological society. To date the crossing, discussed in historical records, has not been located but this project continues as the archaeological society develops their plans.

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Scientific

Seasearch ay orthw N y d Wen

Seasearch Coordinator NW England I was approached by CSAC in early 2018 regarding the wreck of the Resurgam for which they have the licence to dive. As part of that licence, an annual report is submitted as to its condition. This usually comprised a structural analysis but this year they decided that it would be interesting to carry out a marine life survey so they contacted Seasearch. Seasearch is part of the Marine Conservation Society and we encourage recreational divers to monitor seabed and habitats to further conservation. We have 2 levels of recording, the Observer, which is a quick and simple form; and the Surveyor, which is a more in depth form including recording habitats.

The Observer is a 1-day classroom theory, which covers the need for conservation, marine life identification, position fixing, recording techniques and filling in the Observer form. We teach recognised quantitative and qualitative surveying techniques and the data collected is open to all, typically used by the NBN Atlas. Data has been used to extend boundaries of marine conservation zones in England and Wales.

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15 members of CSAC attended the 1-day theory course in July 2018 and then we headed out to the Resurgam to survey the wreck. A biological survey had been carried out in 1998 and thus the final report reflected the changes in the life over the 20 years. The marine life was healthy and flourishing.

Sea search Course held at Kinnerton Scout hut

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Scientific Below are divers carrying out the Resurgum sea search Survey and included is a completed Sea Search observer form. Over the past 18 months club members have showed an increased interest in marine life and impact we have on the environment, Chester University have increased the level of marine biology they offer due to increased demand from students, in turn this has increased the interest of marine biology and for students wanting to learn to dive.

Toni Jenkins Observing the Resurgum

Observing the sea bed around the Resurgum

The Resurgum

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Diving Activities

CSAC members on a Seasearch led dive, carried out further surveys in The Albert Dock complex in November 2018. This was a very important survey as an Aqua Gym had been installed in the docks over the summer months and I was very keen to determine if there had been any impact on the marine life in the docks, which is vital for the clarity of the water and indeed the ambience of the general area. A report was also written showing that the Gym had had little negative impact on the life present.

The Seasearch diving group are very enthusiastic to carry out further surveys and to increase their knowledge of the marine environment. To have the resources that a BSAC Branch can offer is invaluable to furthering our knowledge of the seas around the UK thus I am very keen to harness this and have proposed a plan of surveying the wrecks and surrounding seabed within the Colwyn Bay/Liverpool Bay area.

This is an area that has little documentation regarding the marine life and thus will be putting down a baseline of information. Indeed, it will help us understand more of the life within our waters. With this in mind, the following is planned To further knowledge by running a Marine Life Identification course To gather data and to provide a baseline of information To record species To monitor changes To survey on a regular basis To encourage more recording at other sites around the country To add enjoyment and diving with a purpose To further train and progress to Surveyor I find it very exciting that so many members of CSAC are committed to this cause to the extent that I decided to join the club and offer support with Seasearch and I look forward to enjoying diving with a group of like-minded divers.

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Scientific

Photogrammetry & Augmented Reality Two of us had heard about Photogrammetry and when there was a photogrammetry workshop taking place at EAST Cheshire Club we jumped at the chance The workshop was really interesting and opened our eyes up to what is out there and the potential of future exploration

Imagine sitting at home, putting a head set on and then touring around a wreck! The practicality involved is relatively simple, take lots of images and let the software stitch them together. Obviously when you go underwater this simple practical task becomes a lot more complicated.

The below star fish is a combination of 36 Images the detail and the way you can move the object around was amazing .

The next level was then adding the images to the virtual world, this blew our minds!

Next step Nigel and I are looking to start a project for 2019, which we intend to â&#x20AC;&#x153;Map the Missouriâ&#x20AC;? This is aimed at getting Ocean Divers involved with Diving with a purpose and to link Photogrammetry in with the Wreck appreciation course. project to envisaged to start in Spring 2019, this also has potential with the Lord Blayney.

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Competition

Diving Activities

In Memory of Jean Davies CSAC Training Officer. the above trophy is aptly awarded to the most progressed diver of the year Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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Competition

Club Awards / Recognition Once we’ve gone through the AGM presentation from the committee, we then give the opportunity for our members to vote for which member deserves the two trophy below, (one is awarded based on data), these are collected by the secretary and the trophy’s are edged and presented on the last club night of the year.

The Cartagena Shield The Cartagena Shield is named after the Wreck that Chester Club after investigation correctly identified .

The shield is a representation of the extraordinary effort made. The shield is presented to the person who members feel have made a significant contribution to the club over the previous 12 months. Seamus won it this year for his outstanding commitment and effort for arranging try dives, he smashed the club record and achieved over 200 try dives

The Jean Davies Award The Jean Davies Award a new award for 2018, this award was created in memory of Jean Davies who was a proactive lively Instructor within the club, who sadly passed. This recipient of the award is decided by the Training officer and is for the member who has progressed the most within the past 12 months. Simon had thrown himself into the training on offer and as a result he had progressed rapidly through Ocean and Sports diver with some accompanying SDC

The Snorkel of Shame The Snorkel of shame (originally named the Lead Snorkel but changed at the club AGM by members) This award is based on the best light hearted dive related incident, Like jumping in the sea with your phone in your outside pocket. Martin Holloway won it this year Mainly due to a sausage related incident whilst on a dive trip in Shetland, he wasn’t injured or hurt but had to stay overnight in Lerwick Hospital to have a large piece of sausage removed from his oesophagus 132

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

General Activities

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General Activity At 21:00, the focus shifts to the bar which is located within the same building. it is here that we have the club notice boards, described in Admin, this is where the diving is planned. New members and try -divers are encouraged to join us in the bar and get to know the members.

When the baths were closed for 18 months, areas of the building deteriorated in 2016 when the building officially re-opened we took ownership of the bar area and refurbished the bar it self and we applied for a grant came from the Duke of Westminster and it allowed us to replace the floor. In 2018 we replaced the front bar section and bought a double fridge.

The current projector and screen kept on letting us down and in 2018 We invested in a modern projector and screen as we were using the facility more and more for lectures, we were also l hosting regional events.

To aid with Dive planning and to give new members and try divers an idea about what was out there, we framed two charts one of Liverpool bay and other North Anglesey. we then put numbered dots on each dive site or wreck on the chart, next to which is the legend noting depth and coordinates.

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Charity Support

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Charity The club are not shy from supporting the RNLI, every Year Chris Holden leads the way rallying the club members to support the RNLI flag days in Chester City centre, 22nd February 2018 saw a celebratory Charity Chinese dinner.

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General Activities

Every Year the club support the AIRBUS RNLI Charity Race night, 2o + members turn up every year to help raise funds for the Flintshire branch of the RNLI. Each year we sponsor a race, and all the horses within the race, this is a great social night and fun way to raise funds for the RNLI One of our members sings in a choir and was part of a charity Songs in the park Toni Jenkins ran the Great North Run to raise funds for the RNLI We also support as boat cover for the round Table with the annual Chester Raft race, this brings in ÂŁ200 for the club.

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Charity Try Event

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General Activities

Charity Try Dives 1 in 2 people will suffer from some form of Cancer in their life time, one of the objectives for 2018 was to hold a charity fundraising try dive event. The members chose Cancer Research UK. We secured the pools at no cost and we ran a Social Media campaign, within 2 weeks we had 40 confirmed try divers, the cost was £20 per try dive, we also offered cakes and drinks.

The event was well organised and well received, we had risk assessments, Process maps so people knew what they were doing and the sequence of events. We had photographers in the pool, instructor change overs every two hours, pool marshal ensuring safety, Kit runners, the whole ran for 5 hours and we raised a total of £731. Innospec heard about our Charity event and offered to triple what we raised and in the end we were able to present £2,193

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Social

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Social Activities

Having not been in the club a long amount of time it was quite a challenge when I took over the social officer role at the club.

Thankfully all the members are the friendliest one could ever wish to meet. In the few months I had been at the club I had gotten to know everyone well.

Looking to put something back into the club I was determined to succeed within my new role. I set myself the challenge to organise a social event every month, a challenge which I am pleased to say I completed....with a little help.

Simon Williams            

Jan - Liverpool Maritime Museum – the most cultural pub tour of the north west.

Feb - Curry Night Mar - Meal at Picahna, Gin Ahoy & Pink Floyd Gig Apr - Comedy Night May - Beer Festival Jun - Daniel Adamson Talk & Haunted Tour (Cross Keys) Jul - Flint RNLI, World Cup England Game, Raft Race Aug - Quiz Night Sep - Full Face Mask Try Dive & Free Diving Weekend OCT Dive Show get together.

NOV Backford Belles Icecream tasting session DEC Christmas Party at the cross keys

Being in a BSAC club is more than just diving. Over the last twelve months we have shared many good times and laughs together and raised some significant money for the club (£1,360) and charity (2,193 along whilst doing it.

The social events are a great way to get deeply integrated into the club or any club. Getting to know everyone over a libation or two makes you feel part of the Chester family and in turn will help you achieve your

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Gathering of the clans

Members of the club love the annual boat run, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like a great gathering of the clans, we get to meet like minded clubs from all over the country , eyeing up the latest RHIB, sharing plans for the year ahead and even organising joint trips and training.

This event is fantastic way to network with key members from other clubs and seeing 40 + RHIBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s running down the Menai is amazing.

We are supporting Mersey Club (Branch 5) in organising the 2019 Boat run, hopefully this will just as good as the previous years.

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Inter Branch Relat Inter Branch Liaison As a club we have good relations with our neighbouring branches , mainly Flint, Wrexham Seals and Branch 5.

We have offered joint SDC’s but unfortunately we didn’t have any joint SDC’s in 2018. We do have plans in 2019 to conduct joint ventures with Branch 5 an equally sized and active club. The Menai boat run and dive weekend’s away is something we intend to look at in 2019.

We held a number of talks on in 2018, Daniel Adamson, Cartagena and the Resurgam where members from Wrexham club and Branch 5 attended. We also held Re-breather try dive event where again Wrexham Seal members took part.

Inter Club Support On two occasions we have lent Warrington club, scuba equipment to enable them to conduct Scout Try Dives.

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tions

General Activities

Media Coverage The club have featured in the SCUBA magazine a few times, mainly in the postcard section of the magazine Charity Try dive event 40 try dives with ÂŁ2193 raised for Cancer Research UK, Club Trip to Egypt , Annual Farne Isle trip and Luke Sperring Star Letter.

On the Telly!

In 2018 Chris Holden featured on a number of documentary's, hidden Wales, Combat Ships (War beneath the Waves) and BBC Northwest Tonight, all related to the Resurgam, Chris is usually seen with his CSAC Logo clothing on.

In 2018 Chris held additional talks about the Resurgam at Flint club and East Cheshire Club.

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Supporting BSAC Knowing & Growing 5 of our members have attended the Know and Grow sessions in 2018, we agree the Know and Grow workshops are a great platform to meet other key people from clubs in the region. The issues are generally common across the piece and it’s interesting to see how each club has dealt with that issue. The follow up session later on in the year was even more interesting as people started to feed back on their experiences of trying out Facebook and other social media sites. clubs Like SUBC have SUBC TV!

It was pleasing to see that BSAC have used CSAC’s Website as a good example of a keep it simple style website, again Credit must go to Lonn Landis for the design Another thing I expressed to the audience was that needed to respond back to an enquiry within 24hrs, even if it says , “thank you for your enquiry, we will get back to you in the next few days.” it’s all about the confirmation that some is at the other end.

The other success was about using Community Notice boards on Social media, it’s free and targets the direct local area, again our Facebook post were used as an example of what to do and how it works.

To re iterate how successful this has been for us I addressed the audience with our success story and reiterated that clear communication is one of the key elements for a club to grow and social media is powerful free tool if used the right way will prove to be an invaluable asset.

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General Activities

Try Dive Voucher I met Adrian Collier through the Know and Grow Sessions held at Chorley, and we were discussing what difficulties we had and how we got over them, the topic came on to try dives, something we have recently turned into a good source on income and recruiting new members. One of the things we have been doing on and off for a few years is a “Try Dive voucher” Adrian came down to the club and we discussed he topic of Try Dive vouchers deeper, Chester club sells around 20 try dive vouchers a year, mainly around Christmas time and at £20 a try dive they proved to be quite lucrative.

Adrian took a copy of our Try Dive voucher and started to develop a design, after some discussions we settled on the Banner design as a basic template, this would be good for continuity and was a clean fresh look. The final design was tested by Chester Club and feedback given, mainly around the ability to print them off to a higher quality like matt card and some of the fields on the PDF needed adjusting. Before I knew “Handsome Graham” One of our club members was plastered all over the BSAC website and social media sites.

Today, we have taken it a step further and developed the try dive voucher into a package which includes a cover note / joining instructions and a Business card

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Appendices 1, Constitution 2, Club Rules 3, Social Media Policy 4, Expenses Policy 5, Buddy Guard Policy 6, Towing Guidelines 7, Committee Meeting Minutes 8, AGM Presentation 9, Diver Training Programme 2018 10, Diving Book entry form 11, Trainee handbook 12, Try dive cover letter 13, Club Risk Assessments 14, Members list 15, This Girl Can Presentation 16, Dive Managers Slate 17, Club Joining Instructions 18, Treasurer Report 19, Passage Plan Template 148

Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to read our submission

May the best club win Chester Sub-Aqua Club Heinke Trophy Submission 2018

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