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Severnside Sub-Aqua Club Bristol

Dive Club (English)

Service:
  • Air
  • Equipment Gear Rentals
  • Gear Equipment Servicing
  • NITROX
  • PADI
  • School Course Learn to Dive
  • Vacation Holiday Scuba Diving
Company description Welcome to Severnside diving club. Since 1969 we have been a leader in the scuba diving community around Bristol, taking the sport to new depths.
We are a very active training and dive club based in the heart of Bristol, but diving the UK and world over, with expeditions and club holidays already planned for 2006. If you are looking to learn to dive or are an experienced diver you will be made welcome, to dive, learn or just swap a dive story over a drink with us at our clubhouse.
In 2005 we recorded over 2000 dives as a club, visiting some of the most exciting locations around the UK.
In 2003 we achieved some other interesting feats such as 30 hours underwater, set the UK Extreme Ironing Underwater Record
and hosted one of the most successful BSAC AGMs.
All this following our success in 2002 of winning the Heinke Trophy.
Severnside was ``born`` in 1969 when its three founder members Roy Hicks. It established a base centred around Henbury Pool in north Bristol and at the nearby Old Crow and then the Salutation public houses.
Bank Holiday trips to the Lizard peninsula were the highlights of the year, with weekend diving off the Brixham breakwater and Chesil beach regular training haunts. Boat diving of any sort was a luxury in those days : beach diving with twin hose demand valves and home made wet suits was the order of the day.
In the early 1970`s Severnside embarked on its first project : it took a tenancy of a room at the old Brislington Fire Station in order to construct its first boat - a self build inflatable twin pontoon with a snub nose. It was marketed as a “Sub Mariner” - but it quickly and affectionately acquired the nickname “Sea Truck” - a tribute to its payload abilities and testament to its functionality rather than fine lines.
The Club had been set up on the right lines and was beginning to get itself well established and well run - so much so that it was able to survive the loss of its experienced founder members who were leaving Bristol to follow careers either as professional saturation divers in the new North Sea oil and gas exploration fields, or in the more glamorous role of professional diving instructor in what was an emerging new profession -the diving holiday industry - in exotic places across the world.
1973 saw the first of three annual fortnight long expeditions to St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly. It was pioneering stuff in those days : nobody had done it before; travel agents didn`t exist; and electronic navigation aids had not yet been invented. But Jack Haynes had taught us to dive, so we trusted Jack Haynes, and Severnside`s expedition diving had begun. The Scilly Islands still offers some of the best and most exhilarating diving that the UK has to offer, but it was those early experiences which were to mould a spirit of adventure and set the scene for the type of Club Severnside has become.
1974 saw the Club visit the beautiful Isle of Man with its crystal clear waters and fine shipwrecks, and the first of what was to become annual trips to the Channel Island of Guernsey took place in that year.
However events closer to home were about to change the Club forever. The Salutation Inn had been our home for over 25 years was owned by a brewery keen to make a substantial investment in redeveloping the pub. Friendly as we were, this wasn`t enough and understandably for their `family` pub it was no longer possible to accommodate a bunch of divers.
Severnside has always been a `divers` dive club and one rich in skill, knowledge and expertise. Now with its fate secured and future intact Severnside can properly demonstrate its abilities for the benefit of those interested in experiencing the underwater world we all love. Obtaining Lottery Funding for our Dive Centre project took a great deal of perseverance and dedication from all our members. We really have come a long way and it is true to say that Severnside is an Extra Ordinary Club
Location description: Some words from report about training:
The rocky surface of the planet had a steep-sided crater filled with a vivid green liquid. A platform floated on the liquid, and carried massed ranks of black-suited warriors ready to do battle with monsters in the deep. How deep? About 60 metres I believe, but as a lowly Sport Diver Trainee, I would be working on the 6m platform at the opposite end of the National Diving and Activity Centre, and carrying 3 less cylinders than the technical divers in the deep end.
SO1 lesson is what we were there for. It`s a rescue lesson and is great fun it you like being towed along on your back and periodically half-drowned by someone trying to simulate Artificial Ventilation SORRY Beth, I`m sure you were much better at it than I was!
We met up at the cafe – more of us than expected as the weather had cancelled a Miss Pattie trip, so Dave and Chris had plenty to organise. Rose was keen to get through all the Ocean Diver stuff before tackling the clear blue warm water of Turkey in two weeks` time. Ian and Paul were to do some training exercises in 20m and then take the two pairs of sport divers trainees, Beth with me and Dan with Malcolm. Chris was going for the Advanced qualification in how much fried breakfast you can get into one burger bun.
Briefing over, we assembled kit and bumped down in the gear-grinding old Land-Rover to the waterside. Ian took us through the drills. We started by practising the tow which wasn`t too hard, grabbing the pillar valve and swimming along without kicking the casualty in the back too many times. Then we did the rescue scenario, going out to a pink buoy and down to the 6m platform and checking buoyancy. I was the casualty first so I pretended to be unconscious.
Beth capably lifted me by putting a bit of air in my BC, then inflated both our BCs when we got to the surface . Remove mask, clear off the snot (I`m not embarrassed really – it happens to all divers doesn`t it?) commence AV and towing. This is the tough bit as you have to do 2 breaths in 15 seconds, so you can only swim for about 10 seconds, then you have to get into position for AV and do the 2 breaths before you can start swimming again. Then in standing depth the rescuer removes their own kit followed by the casualty`s kit, and hauls them up the “beach” - a collection of sharp gritty rubble in this case. Pretty soon Beth was putting me in the recovery position and her job was over.
Next day various muscular aches reminded me of the whole ordeal – but walking up St Michael`s Hill seemed like walking on the level. So if you did SO1 every weekend you would probably get very fit indeed.
Thanks Chris, Dave, Ian for a useful day. I don`t know how good I would be in a real rescue situation – perhaps the most important thing this bit of training shows you is the value of diving in a group so that hopefully you never end up having to deal with an emergency single-handed.
So you can try it too!

Website: Preview http://www.severnsidesac.com by Thumbshots.org http://www.severnsidesac.com
Bristol`s own National Lottery funded BSAC scuba diving club.

Contact information:
Street Address:

England
United Kingdom
Spoken language(s): English
Open: from 09-00 till 17-00
Local time:  Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) London, Edinbourg, Lisboa
Note: No guarantee is made to the accuracy of these details.

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