Watford Underwater Club
Brief summary of history
Watford Underwater Club members have been diving since early 50’s and became a club with rules and constitution in 1956.
Amongst the many activities over the years were: -
- Assisting the local police prior to them having their own diving unit with searches of local reservoirs, including searching for pilot of light aircraft after ditching.
- Clearing an old medieval well close to Roman ruins.
- First to dive several wrecks on south coast with a view to purchasing them, however this was never pursued.
- Holding several annual conferences in the late 60s and early 70s – eminent speakers included Hyperbaric specialists from Royal Navy and Dr David Bellamy.
Much of the scuba equipment used in the early years was scratch built by members, some of whom were engineers at Rolls Royce, and included use of breathing cylinders from old WWII aircraft
WUC had its own diver-training program - looked at favourably by BSAC during its early years. WUC joined BSAC in the 70’s and were allocated branch number 660.
Today
Today WUC is still an active club, with its own boat. A 21-foot hull destined to be a RNLI Atlantic 21 inshore lifeboat was obtained and a bespoke raised console was designed and built. It can accommodate 10 divers, has a unique recovery ladder on the stern eliminating the need for divers to de-kit in the water, and uses a large single outboard engine. Top speed is 32 knots, and very seaworthy. Detailed on club website with images. A newer 4x4 was recently purchased to replace the aging Landrover.
We have a very strong and active committee who work hard in their respective roles to raise the profile of the club internally by organising more social events and coordinating diving activity across the board. With Advanced Instructors and we offer wide range of Specialst Development Courses. We also cater for fast track training during diving season, as well as a more moderate pace during the winter months.
Recent club promotion event
One of the many initiatives, inspired by the BSAC promotion pack and health check recommendations, was to reuse diving magazines with a bespoke club sticker on the front and a flyer pasted inside. Left in doctor’s surgery and dentist waiting rooms and in hairdressers. Notice boards at swimming pools, health clubs and local dive shops.
The event was a success and even the sun came out. There was a lot of interest shown with more than 30 people being offered free try dives at the club pool. There was interest from existing divers from other organisations who were looking for a club environment, as well as former divers who wanted to return to diving but were unsure of advances or were perhaps concerned at costs.
What did surprise us was how many people did not know about us despite being around for 50 years, and having frequently been in the local papers. In fact quite a lot of people had no idea that Hertfordshire is well catered for with 19 clubs.
Of those try dive offers, 14 took the offer up, and 8 have confirmed their wish to join. Training starts very soon.
The coordination of the event relied upon one person taking the lead. Our risk assessment was based upon our own club diving R/A and was very thorough. This was positively commented upon, and compared more favourably than those submitted by professional bodies when they use the town centre for their PR events.
What lessons did we learn?
- Starting preparation for the event early
- A good display will interest the public
- A good place for the whole display is obviously essential
- Motivate membership and get volunteers to staff the display for a few hours each
- Clearly display the club name and that you are a scuba diving club, other wise passers by may think you want money and will ignore you.
- Have a few members wearing dry suits
- Don’t be afraid to speak to anyone showing any interest, otherwise you will give impression that you are not interested which is counter productive
- Speak to BSAC HQ for advice on promotion
- Contact local press and invite them to event, and request a piece in local paper
- Good quality posters, banners look better than home made stuff, although leaflets are easy to produce providing decent grade papers is used.
- Speak to BSAC who can assist with promotion material.
To find out more about Watford Underwater Club 660 click to visit their Website
Page last modified: 31st May 2007 - 13:18:44