Try dives are held the last Monday of the month at the Black Lion Pool in Gillingham Between 9-10pm
Try Dives Must Be Booked
If you have never had the opportunity to have a go at Scuba Diving then this is your chance to get all the Scuba gear on and get in to a nice warm pool for an hour or so. Our instructors will guide you through all the pre-dive steps.
The Cost
The only cost to you for our Try Dive Sessions is the hire of the kit and the entrance fee to the pool. Minum age 14
|
Kit Hire |
£15.00 |
|
Pool Entrance |
£1.00 |
|
Total |
£16.00 |
Please contact the Club Secretary to book a Try Dive
Luke Cawdell from the Kent Messenger came along for a Try Dive, this is how he got on.
Scuba diving is an adventure sport that not only offers the chance to test your nerve and courage but also the opportunity to view a vast underwater treasure trove. At Medway's Sub-Aqua Diving Club, they can start you from beginner to expert, in a safe environment and wiithin a club that take pride in their friendly and adventurous approach, as reporter LUKE CAWDELL found out.
You may have sailed on it, fished in it, swam through it and even washed in it. But until you actually get under it, you're never going, to realise just what all that water is hiding.
Snorkelling is one way of seeing what's under the water but if you really want to explore the depths, scuba diving is the only way forward.
Water cover three quarters of the Earth's surface, hiding more than 230,000 living species and some of the biggest mountains and deepest ravines and a host of hidden treasures.
If the dramatic scenery and the unique wildlife doesn't do it for you, then a vast collection of sunken vessels are proof of man's inability to navigate the world's waterways safely.
Since. the famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau tested out the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) in 1943, divers have been able to leave behind their cumbersome and restrictive gear at the surface and make full use of the new lightweight breathing system that gave greater freedom.
Medway's Sub Aqua Club is one of more than 1,000 branches which operate under the banner of the BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club), whose members enjoy safe exploration of the open water on a regular basis.
Training-is essential before you are unleashed unaided into the world's waterways and the best way of finding out whether the sport is for you is to experience a Try Dive.
The one-hour session teaches the basics and offers the chance. to sample the equipment while feeling the freedom thatlife underwater has to offer.
Andy Moon, Medway's Diving Officer, took me through one such taster session at the Black Lion Leisure Centre in Gillingham.
Once Andy had delivered a briefing on the safety aspects and explained what the equipment I was using and how to operate it, it was time to step into the warm waters of the swimming pool. The cylinder on my back, which contained pressurized air over 100 times greater than that of a car tyre, and weights around my waist felt weightless in the water and once I put my goggles and slipped on my fins, I was ready.
After a quick tester with the breathing apparatus, I was deflating my jacket and sinking to the bottom.
Breathing takes some getting used to, as does achieving the right amount of air in your jacket which keeps you afloat or sends you plummeting into the deep.
After a few lengths of the pool I was soon getting to grips of ducking underneath the swimmers on the surface and managing to keep myself steady, all of which I'm told gets easier with practice.
Buoancy is the key to being a good diver and is rather like trying to keep your ballance on a bike for the first time.
The peace and quiet under water and the different perspective is an experience in itself, even if there's not a great deal to see in the pool.
The members of the club regularly meet at the RAFA Club in Chatham before Monday night sessions in the pool but it's the trips further afield that keep the divers buzzing.
The tidal flow in the Medway makes for poor visibility, so the members usually travel to places such as the Straights of Dover, where around 400 shipwrecks await the curious diver.
Club chairman Kevin Tarr said: "We enjoy diving at Dover. Our favourite wrecks include the Loanda (sunk in a collision in 1908) and the Sholton which is at a depth of 30m.
"We have about a five-mile range from shore because of limitations of the boats, as well as the fact that it's a busy shipping lane.
"There is the occasional valuable on the wrecks. We're allowed to pick up the clay pipes of the Loanda but if things are brought up they should be declared.
"There's all sorts of vessels down there from tall ships, submarines, steamers and First World War German U-boats.
"We also dive at Leicester's Stoney Cove Lake and Maidstone's Leybourne Lake, which are more for training purposes, while the swimming pool sessions ensure we keep our kit in trim. It's also as much about socialising."
With around 50 members on their books, the Medway club are a close and friendly group, something which is essential in a sport where your life could be in your partner's hands.
Diving qualifications are a necessity before you can start the sport outside the confines of a swimming pool and the club are always open to new members and those wanting to try it out.
The Black Lion swimming pool may not be the most exotic place to dive but it's a safe route into an underwater world without boundaries and well worth a try.
LUKE CAWDELL