Last month Stratford-upon-Avon BSAC club hosted an enjoyable and very successful Try Dive night when it played host to Crew members of the Midlands Motorbikers group. Member and Open Water Instructor (OWI) Nigel Maris shares the story…
As the event organiser, I am both a long-in-the-tooth Open Water Instructor and a Crew member with the bike group. On the night, Stratford-upon-Avon Sub Aqua Club hosted twenty-four divers in the pool along with some very helpful volunteers on the poolside. The try dive group with instructors accounted for eight of them with the other divers continuing with their normal training activities.
The Midlands Motorbikers group is very active and conducts a variety of runs and training activities all year round. The ‘Crew’ organise and manage several activities for their 7,500 members from charity Christmas toy-runs to group rides.
The group regularly seeks new events and activities that the members can enjoy. Recent events have included go karting, track days, camping trips and surprise-escort rides. I suggested a Try Dive and this quickly grew into a trial run for Crew members to see how it may work for the wider membership.
The logistics was certainly a challenge, gathering willing instructors and assembling dive kit across a range of shapes and sizes, but it turned out to be a really fun event. The dive instructors were ably assisted by a team of volunteers who helped with the dive kit.
One biker had tried scuba on holiday and one professed to be a "non-swimmer". The dive club benefitted from the try-dive fees which were reduced for the group and pulled together to put on a memorable event. The bikers loved it and our “non-swimmer” turned out to be a competent would-be-diver.
Pool time goes by very quickly and its important to be organised and briefed beforehand. The group was allocated to instructors and given a briefing on the kit, the plan and safety aspects. In parallel the team laid out the kit which meant that everyone was good to go when the pool was available.
It was a great way of promoting scuba diving and raising funds for the club. Promoted by the positive messages around the biker group it looks like they will be back and several have used the phase “I’m hooked”!
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