About

Westhoughton Sub Aqua Club (WSAC), meet every Thursday at 8:00pm in the Westhoughton Leisure Centre which is behind the High School on Bolton Road, Westhoughton. BL5 3BZ.

The club is very friendly and welcoming to new members both complete beginners and qualified divers from any association, the club is open to all; regardless of age, sex, colour or creed however the minimum age that we will accept for membership is 12 years, although in some cases we would prefer new members to be 14 years old, our reasons for this are that Scuba Diving is an adventure sport and it involves some fairly heavy equipment.

If you think that you might like to try Scuba Diving, but you’re not really sure then call down and book a ‘Try-a-Dive’ with us, this only costs £10 and you only need to bring your swimsuit and towel, (an old ‘tee’ shirt is sometimes helpful as well). We will then take you into the pool and provide you with mask and fins and a full set of Scuba Equipment and let you have a go on a ‘one-to-one’ basis with an experienced diver, under the watchful eye of a Nationally Qualified Instructor.

W.S.A.C. was founded in 2001 and has a membership of over 40 divers. We run very regular training courses throughout the year and organise training dives almost every other weekend from March to December. The club organises many diving trips around the UK and occasionally abroad, all members are welcome on these training dives and dive trips provided they have reached an appropriate level of experience and qualification, (and if you are almost ready and still want to come, we’ll do our best to boost your training up to the required level in time!).

Westhoughton Sub-Aqua Club Branch 2295 of the British Sub-Aqua Club

Frequently asked questions…..

Q. How much does all this cost ?

A. Probably a lot less than you think, the first thing to remember is that we operate on a ‘not-for- profit’ basis, all the instruction that we give, we give for free, purely out of our love for the sport.

Firstly you need to join the British Sub-Aqua Club, this costs £50 a year for most people although there are reductions for students and if more than one member of a household join. New members will also need to buy a student pack and this will cost £32.

So the costs are £82 when you first join and you will also need to join WSAC and pay your pool fees of £10 every month, this is paid either as a monthly standing order from your bank, or as £30 every quarter paid as cash or cheque.

All this means that in the first year of being a diver you are expected to pay £202 this may sound a lot to some people until you look at what you get for your money…………

Q. So what do I get for my money ?

A. I’m glad you asked that ! You get membership of the biggest group of diving clubs in the world, with internationally renowned diver training for free, as far up the qualification scale as you want to go, from beginner to Ocean Diver all the way up to starting your instructor grades, and some help in preparing for the instructor exams beyond that !

You get a student book and your qualification log book and free third party diving insurance, as well as a world class monthly diving magazine; ‘DIVE’ (which costs £3.90 if you had to buy it).

You get the loan of almost £1000 worth of W.S.A.C. diving equipment for you to learn to dive with up to the start of your open water diving activities.

You get access to diving activities and opportunities to go diving with the branch members, both during training if appropriate and later on once you have qualified.

You also get the chance to make new friends in a relaxed and friendly club environment, where being a diver means that everyone is responsible for looking after their fellow divers. Together as a team we are able to add friendship, exploration and adventure to our lives!

How much is that worth to you?

Q. That sounds really good, so what’s the catch ?

A. There is no catch, that’s all there is to it, you join and turn up every Thursday evening and we train you, then when you are suitably qualified we take you diving, and everyone has a good time !

Q. What if I only want to learn the first grade and don’t want to go any further ?

A. That’s perfectly fine, we encourage new members to learn at their own pace, if you want to stop your training for a while and pick it up again later that’s great, we want you to be happy and relaxed and only do the training you feel ready for. If you don’t want to progress beyond the first stage, (Ocean Diver), that’s O.K. but we do want you to stay on as a member and to take part in diving activities.

Q. O.K. this all sounds much too good, there must be other costs involved ?

A. Well that all depends on how far you want to go; we do recommend that you buy your own dive mask early in your training, and this must be a good one so you need to spend £25 – £ 35. It’s a very personal item of dive kit as every face is different and it needs to fit right so you are comfortable underwater. A snorkel and pool fins are also worth buying early on, but the quality of these is not vital, a cheap set out of a supermarket is fine.

Once you start your open water training you will need a dry suit, these can be quite expensive to buy new, but to get you through your training we will try to beg, steal or borrow one for you, or in the worst case we can help you hire one, which costs about £30 per day. (you will need three days in total). Most of the other bits that you will need we will find a way of lending to you. It also costs £12 a day to enter the inland quarries that we use as training sites.

Q. Right, I’ve got my Ocean Diver qualification, now what ?

A. By now one of two things will have happened; either you have enjoyed the experience but only want to dive on holiday in the future and don’t want to spend any more money on it, or the dive bug will have bitten and you want to progress with your fabulous new-found adventure sport.

Either way the future looks great, your new qualification card will be accepted by dive centres all around the world, so the adventure is only just beginning, but if you want to go further into the sport you will need to start buying your own equipment as we will need to lend the kit you have borrowed to our next intake of trainees. This can be a worrying time if cash is tight, but the branch has a huge amount of experience in buying diving equipment, and with our knowledge and contacts we can help you get the best for less.

It is also worth remembering that the British Isles has some of the most varied and interesting diving to be found anywhere in the world and has more shipwrecks than anywhere in the world, and has some of the richest areas of sea-life in the world, and if you don’t believe me, just wait until the next club trip ! You will never experience what we can show you by sitting in front of a T.V.

Q. What is the next qualification and how much does that cost ?

A. After reaching the Ocean Diver grade we usually progress those members who want to go further by starting the Sport Diver course within a few months, the cost is only £32 for a new student pack, as long as you are a member there are no other additional costs.

Q. I’m still worried there is a catch, are you really qualified to teach all this ?

A. Yes we are; our instructors are all Nationally Qualified ‘Open Water’ Instructors who have taken two courses and passed three exam stages to gain their instructor status. On occasions you may be taught by an assistant instructor who is under further training and will themselves be under the supervision of a Nationally Qualified Instructor.

We also have an Advanced Instructor who is also an Instructor Trainer, (they instruct instructors how to instruct !), and a First Class Diver and held the post of ‘North West Regional Coach’ from 2000 to 2003 and has held the post of Coaching Coordinator for the UK as a member of the UK National Diving Committee, so yes we can say with out any shadow of doubt, we are qualified to teach diving !