Dacorum Sub Aqua Club

About Us

Dacorum Sub Aqua Club is branch 0713 of the British Sub Aqua Club.

In 2004 we celebrated the 30 ^th anniversary of the foundation of the club.

See the history of the Club.

Aims

The Club aims to:

• provide the organisation needed to train club members to be skilled, safe and well rounded divers
• make it possible to organize dive trips mainly in this country but also abroad
• provide members with expensive equipment like a boat, oxygen first aid equipment and training kit at reasonable cost
• to be adventurous and have fun 

Amateur

All our club activities are for our own recreation and fun: not for profit or to make a living.

We train divers using our own instructors. Our own members organise dive trips for other members. But, our way of working that is very different to the one experienced at commercial diving organisations, such as schools and shops.

The club is non-profit making. Instructors and dive trip organisers are mainly motivated by the need for recreation and adventure. They rarely even have their most basic (travel or diving) expenses paid.

Individuals joining amateur clubs must understand that a different approach to the normal customer/supplier relationship is needed if they are to enjoy their club and get the most out of it. Our members are not the customers. The instructors and dive trip organisers are not the staff. The committee are not the management. If you want something to happen, very often you have to make it happen yourself.

Although it's often not very obvious, all our activities rely heavily on teamwork. Members are expected to play a full part, within the limits of their skills and experience, in each club venture from the start of their membership. Anything we achieve is the result of the commitment, reliability and enthusiasm of individual members. Go to the meeting to find out what's going on!

Members

Over the last decade membership has hovered between 55 and 95 divers. Recently the trend has been upwards.

We are big enough to be able to afford expensive diving and boating equipment but small enough to still remain friendly.

Most years around ten new members join and the same number leave. This provides a gradual turnover of new faces. It also keeps the club at a manageable size with a good ratio of experienced divers and instructors to trainees.

Its important that the club has active divers, is adventurous, trains new people to dive and provides members with new opportunities. To do this, a turnover of members is useful. Too slow a turnover results in stagnation and cliques. Too fast a turnover leads to difficulties in developing instructors for training and experienced divers to organise trips.

As the main emphasis of the Club is diving around the British Isles, most members aim to become Sport Divers quickly and buy their own equipment.

Currently our membership split is :- Membership breakdown Chart

Organisation

The Club is run by members for members. People we train are expected, in time, to become instructors, to organise dive trips, to serve on the committee and generally play a full part in the life of the club.

The Club is regulated by a constitution. A committee of six to ten members is elected each April to lead the activities of the club and to make decisions.

Diving safety is given top priority in the Club. Diving is carried out following the Safe Diving Practices and other recommendations of the British Sub Aqua Club.

We recognise the importance of training. We maintain high standards of diver training following the training schemes and recommendations of the British Sub Aqua Club.

We are a non-profit making organisation. The vast majority of our income and effort goes into supporting diving (through dive trips and the boat) and training (through courses, training equipment and the hire of the pools).

Awards

Each year the club awards a number of prizes to recognise achievement:

Cannon Award

Club Member of the Year Award

Photographic competition

Diced Carrot Award