SCUBA diving pioneers in Redditch are celebrating 50 years of underwater adventure with the British Sub-Aqua Club.
Redditch Sub Aqua Club, which formed in 1967, is still going strong after five decades of underwater exploration in the UK and throughout the world.
The club, which has its own pensioners’ section boasts an exciting and action-packed past.
Highlights of its 50-year history include discovering a first officer’s ring on-board the sunken battleship HMS Eagle in the Scillies Isles in the 1980s which is now exhibited in the British Museum in London.
Divers from the club also reunited the owner of a precious 100-year-old gold signet ring with the family heirloom after it was lost in a local lake in 1989.
They also took part in a charity collection at Dartmouth Golf and Country Club in which they recovered 2,600 golf balls – and a golf club – from the course lake.
Members have also dived across the globe on holidays to explore the Red Sea, Canada, Norway, New Zealand and Australia to name but a few.
The club’s inaugural dive was at Dosthill Quarry in February 1967 and was an exploratory mission to see if it was suitable for training. To this day, the club continues to train at the site throughout the year.
To celebrate 50 years, the club is appealing for former members to get in touch to attend a reunion dinner and photo exhibition planned for June.
Club member Terry Langford, a BSAC advanced instructor, who celebrates his 70th birthday later this year, joined the club in 1982 and carries an underwater video camera with him on all foreign diving trips.
“My best video was while I was feeding a North Pacific baby octopus of about three foot long. It was off Vancouver Island.
“I started diving in 1972 at the age of 25 and becoming a member of the club is the best decision I ever made.”
BSAC is the national governing body for scuba diving and is made up of 120 dive centres and 900 plus family friendly and sociable clubs, run by volunteers, up and down the country.
Redditch Sub-Aqua Club trains every Tuesday at Abbey Stadium Sports Centre and socialises at Redditch Cricket, Hockey and Rugby Club.
Members train at the Abbey Stadium Sports Centre pool and try dives for people keen to give the sport a go can easily be arranged.
Any former member of Redditch SAC who wish to get in touch should email: [email protected] or find the club on Facebook.
For more about BSAC go to www.bsac.com
