New Cross BSAC members unveil the banner at Swanage
For most of us, diving is the closest we are likely to get to explore a different world. A proper different world, where you need a life support system to provide you with air to breathe, where gravity act differently on your body, allowing you to fly over the landscape, floating up, down, left or right as the mood takes you. This world can be cold, dark and scary, or it can offer the most incredibly colourful scenery and outlandish wildlife. A world where you can explore lost ships which are time capsules that hold information on events that happened years ago.
Diving is pure adventure, and what better escape could there be from cold winter nights than preparing for an adventure or two. The UK coast is a treasure trove of shipwrecks, or if you prefer bit more warmth then you could travel further afield to see breathtaking scenery and incredible wildlife that really looks like it’s from another planet.
The New Cross British Sub-Aqua Club is based in Dulwich College Sports Club on College Road. The New Cross club celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2010. Among the festivities was a celebration night dive from Swanage Pier last August. All the divers were suitably attired for the event in bow-ties.
As a BSAC club, New Cross is very strong on training and safety. You can progress from a novice diver through all the diving grades: Ocean Diver, Sports Diver, Dive Leader & beyond. As well as having access to the Dulwich College pool for training and practice sessions on Wednesday nights, the club has six full sets of equipment that are maintained for use by new & trainee divers, both in the pool and on training dives, so you don’t even need any diving kit to get started.
The club has an active diving programme, and arranges club dives at lakes such as Stoney Cove and Wraysbury as well as sea dives at Bracklesham, Swanage and Portsmouth.
Pool sessions are used for practical aspects of BSAC training, but are also ideal opportunities to try out new kit, practice diving techniques such as finning, or just to have a swim. As the pool is used exclusively by the club on Wednesday nights, you can swim at your own pace as there’s plenty of room. Or, you could just hang around in the pool chatting to the other members about diving, that new bit of kit you want to buy, or the state of the world in general; the members are very knowledgeable on all of these.
New Cross BSAC provides its 2 rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) as safety cover for rowing races on the Thames; so if you fancy a day on the river with a duck’s eye view of a race, then this could be for you.
If you think this all sounds like fun, you can book a try-dive by sending an email to newcrossbsac@yahoo.co.uk or visit the club’s website: http://newcrossbsac.com.
