Starting a diving club

[sucker4scuba]

Dear Divers

We are in the process of starting our own diving club... you know... a bunch of people with the same love for diving going diving togerther have a beer now and then and just socializing with people that has the same interests than you.

First of all we need to pick a name... any surgestions... O, this club will be in Cape Town, South Africa.

Secondly... any ideas on what type of events we can organise as well as fun things for the club to do...

Any surgestions from guys that belong to such a club?

 

[smatterchu]

Sounds great!! I don't currently belong to a dive club, but I'm looking for one...so I'll tell you what I am looking for. Depending on what types of folks you are hoping to attract, maybe this'll help...

I'm in the whole 'married with children' stage, so I'm hoping to find a dive club that has some 'family friendly' dive events where we can bring the kids and switch out childcare or something. DH and I would love to dive more often, but it can get expensive to pay for childcare or always hit up the Grandparents for help so we can do something fun. They're usually great, but it would be nice to have other options so we can save family for bigger favors...

Anyway, a lot depends on the type of folks you are looking to have. Another thought would be to try and make it attractive for non-diving family members/partners. My DH dives, but other spouses/SO's may not. Giving them something to do might make it easier for the 'diving-half' to attend...

Otherwise, I have no advice at all....new to this myself, but these are things I might look for...

 

[TheTrickster]

Events to think off:

• Live aboard Holidays - group bookings etc..
• Weekend aways
• Underwater clean ups
• Get together and organise doing a 'specialiy of the month' perhaps get a local shop to do a group discount on a speciality?
• Weekly club dives
• Get a pub quiz team going?
• Depending on diver level, perhaps each diver lead a dive to their fav dive site
• Again depending on diver level, get together and play out a rescue senario in a cove or similar, keeps peoples skills up

Any good for you?

 

[aabdalla]

Dear sucker4scuba

Well.........here is the deal, we are also about the start up of diving club here too,how about we organize dive trips between us, I mean I help you diving here in Red Sea, and the best cost possible, and you do the same for me.

Our last two activities that just ended are:
3 days wreck safari on Livaaboard with a cost of $210 per pax for the 3 days including open dives.
5 days diving in Dahad, 3 guided dives per day including transportation & hotel $280 for the 5 days.

Interest in putting our hands together email me : dinodinodino06@yahoo.com

 

[Drewski]

Hmmm...

Cape Town Bottom Crawlers?

Cape Point Crawlers?

Cape Hope Divers?

South African Sea Lions?

I don't know... Yeah "corny," I know...

But he did ASK!

Good luck...

 

[lifeisfullofgooddives]

I used to be president of a dive club...which was fun as well as a pain in the butt all at the same time.

Different social events I used to have were:

1. tailgating at football games
2. Bowling night
3. Movie nights
4. Bar Night
5. Bar Night
6. Oh yea Bar night:bang:

I think planning trips are the key, always make sure they are fun. the thing I always tried to avoid was having a group together with nothing to do. So have a back-up plan if the weather turns bad.

In our club we had a dive plan committe where differnet members would put trips together, which was always nice since it was less work for me!

 

[sbrooks]

Underwater pumkin carving
Underwater football (yes, tackle... hah)
Underwater Xmas tree decorating (hey, might work...)

I'm sure you get the drift.
S.

 

[fire_diver]

Lately I have been thinking of starting a local dive club. I see cars with dive flags all the time, but I wonder how many are actual divers and how many show the flag just becuase they got certified x years ago and haven't dove since.

Anyway, I think there would be enough people to have regular meetings. I'm just unsure how to organize the whole thing. Way out here in the middle of the dust-bowl, it's quite a drive to any diving, so group dives would probably only be once a month. I think many of the people here would dive more often if they had some involvement in something scuba on a regular basis.

So from you old hands with scuba clubs, how bout some ideas.
What locations (this is a land-locked and lake free zone here) make good meeting places?
Thoughts on a monthly newsletter?
Monthly dues? yearly dues?
What would the dues go for? (other than the cost to print and mail the newsletter)
what days are usually good for meetings?
can a dive club manage to get discounts from liveaboards or dive ops?
What things keep people interested in being a member?

FD

 

[ChrisA]

Here is what I think made ours work

1) Regular schedules dives. Every knows that we dive EVERY wed. night and EVERY sunday morning plus any other dives that get scheduled. But if you know the regular schedule you can clear out youe calender. We keep a web site with upcomming boat trips. Make it easy for people to div with your group. make it clear that you welcom new divers and ne members. Don't charge money for membership.

2) A web site for planning and comunications. We get lots of posts like "I'm diving hursday, can anyone else make it to XXX at about 8:00am"

3) skip the meetings. OK go some place after a dive for a beer but DIVING should be the primary activity.

 

[Melicertes]

First of all we need to pick a name... any surgestions... O, this club will be in Cape Town, South Africa.

Where in Cape Town you located? It's a big place Some of the best diving is in Cape Town, when the conditions play along :mooner:

Perhaps sitting down with your existing dive buddies and writing down lists of names that reflect where you dive often, what your club's mission is, whether it is only rec diving or whether it includes tech also, what type of diving your club focusses on, drift diving, boat diving, shore entries...you get the idea. Make lists until you can't think anymore between the lot of you and then mix and match terms in different suggestions to find something that sounds easy off the tongue and that's short and catchy. Just a suggestion, you know: use it, don't use it...

Secondly... any ideas on what type of events we can organise as well as fun things for the club to do...

Get involved with one or two LDS's and make deals with them for gear, participation in events they organize, trips, parties, meetings, speaker events etc. Get the families of divers involved - kids love pool parties, get some underwater pool toys, approach LDS's for sponsorships for prizes and run quarterly raffles...

It all depends on how formal you want the club to become. Is it just a local social diving group of divers that get together regularly for bubbles and beer, or are you aiming at monthly meetings to invite interesting speakers to address your members on dive related topics etc.?

Organize environmental cleanup projects - helping to clear out trash on the beach, assisting conservation groups with their projects etc...