PerroneFord
Contributor
Announcing the Wakulla County Dive Club
For the last several months, several divers in Wakulla County Florida and surrounding areas have been nurturing a vision to open more local diving areas. Many people are familiar with areas like Cherokee Sink, but there is so much more available in the county. To that end, several folks thought it might be a good idea to come together and formalize those efforts.
Who we are:
The Wakulla County Dive Club was founded with the following principles
- To promote safe participation in recreational SCUBA diving in the area.
- Foster an interest in SCUBA diving by providing leadership, programs, services, and trips.
- Provide education in the skills of safe recreational SCUBA diving, especially those related to cave diving.
- Further advance the protection of the aquatic environment.
- Provide for social interaction between club members.
- Promote accessibility to area sites.
With these principles in mind, we are working with local landowners, state and federal agencies, the county commission, the local chamber of commerce, charter operators, hotels, and restaurants, to provide resources to divers who wish to use the vast resources available in the local community.
The response thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. Access to sites are being secured, hotels and resturants are coming on board, we have our first boat operator on board, and several landowners have approached members about spots on their property. In short, we anticipate having access to at least a dozen sites.
Who we are not:
Past efforts to secure diving in the area have been met with some resistance from various parties. It is important to note that the WCDC is not affiliated with any particular organization. We are trying to promote harmonious use of dive areas among ALL parties wishing to use the resources. This club will not align with or against any entity in particular. We feel that the best way to avoid conflict, is to simply we welcoming to everyone.
We are not all cave divers. We hope to have members in our community who are open water divers, wreck divers, snorkelers, etc. Again, the club is open to anyone who wants to use the local resources in a responsible way.
When we meet:
The first two meetings of the club were held on Monday evenings. We realize this was a great inconvenience to people not in the local area. Frankly, we were somewhat surprised at how many people wanted to attend from outside the local area! To that end, meetings have now moved to the first Saturday of each month. We are still securing a venue for the meeting in January '08. Recent meeting were held at St. Teresa Episcopal Church in Wakulla. We may have already outgrown that venue, so in the next few weeks we will announce the meeting place.
How to join or find out more:
The club has a new webpage Wakulla County Dive Club (pardon the dust while we grow) that will become the base of information about what is going on. It is our hope that members, and interested parties will come there to the forum to discuss the local diving. This is a community resource. If you have dive reports, stories, photos, or videos from diving in the area, please share them with us. If you have opinions on issues impacting the local community please share them with us. I would ask that if you please refrain from divisie political discussions on the forum. Discussions of this nature will be heavily moderated. Let's use this opportunity to share a resource rather than rehash old wounds.
Thanks very much,
Wakulla County Dive Club
info@wakullacountydiveclub.com
