Meath's only scuba club celebrates 25th anniversary

The Alpha Dive Sub-Aqua Club, Meath's only scuba club, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The club, which has over 40 members, was founded in 1986 and has now formed a new research and recovery unit. To celebrate its silver anniversary and to encourage new members to join, the club will hold a 'Try A Dive' session at Kells Swimming Pool this coming Sunday at 10am. Booking is essential and anyone who wants to try out scub-diving or snorkelling can contact Brian on (086) 384 4194 or Martin (086) 195 5597. The club is very active in the Irish diving scene with a busy diving schedule and a great social scene. The Alpha Club is affiliated to the Irish Underwater Council (Comhairle Fo Thuinn). which is affiliated to Confederation Mondiale des Activites Subaquatiques (CMAS), the world federation of national diving organisations and which operates in some 80 countries on all continents. Alpha Club member, Brian Piggot, said that being a member of a dive club has many advantages. "For a small investment in club membership, you get access to all the club has to offer including our dive boats and compressors, CFT insurance, experienced officers and members of the club, and local knowledge of dive sites. If you want to learn to scuba dive at your own pace, you can afford to invest in your own equipment and would like to join a group of like-minded individuals, then club diving may be just the ticket," he said. Throughout the winter, the club trains every Sunday on water fitness. New trainees will also attend diving lectures where they will receive expert tuition from club training and diving officers. During the winter, the new committee is busy working on the next year's diving and social calendars. Once the weather warms up, members can be found every Sunday heading for the waters on the sunny side of Lambay Island or to the west coast. Throughout the year, social activities are hosted regularly. In the summer, the club heads off to the seaside, especially for bank holiday weekends, often travelling to the west coast where the water is clear with visibility of 20 feet-plus sometimes possible. Brian Pigott explained: "We try and head off early on Sunday morning to launch the boats and dive before lunch. Going out to sea, we would be looking for offshore reefs or cliffs. Around the coast of Lambay, we can locate several. We always dive in pairs, one to help the other, and usually arrange to dive in two groups, one staying in the boat while the other dives. Each pair check each other's equipment. Plunge "The perfect day plunges us into about 30 feet of water with six-feet high seaweed swaying back and forth in the swell and the light reflecting the magnificent colours. "A short way off, we will see a cliff edge and the deep blue of the abyss. A final equipment check, another hand signal and we are away. We see pollock, like old gentlemen enjoying the sun, and mackerel darting back and forth like starlings in autumn. Another hand signal and we push off and start to descend the cliff. Like weightless spacemen, we drop to 40 feet, then 50 feet and, on the way, we would probably see a few crayfish - a crustacean similar to a lobster but red in colour and very much bigger, sitting on a ledge." Brian explained that, at 50 feet, the vegetation will stop, the rockface will be naked and red green in colour with occasional yellow sponges and white 'dead men's fingers'. "There is not too much food down here so the fish life is not so plentiful. We drop on down until we reach the sea bed at 100 feet. "Down here, it is very glomy and much colder. Around us there are sea snails, similar to the garden snail without his shell and about 15 feet long and three feet round. If we peer under the broken boulders, we will probably see a black lobster. He comes out at night and hides during the day. He has vicious claws and is not too friendly. "We are using air very quickly at this depth, so another hand signal and we start up. We stop at the vegetation line and move across the cliff face, exploring as we go. In too short a time, our equipment will tell us that we are running out of air. Again, another hand signal, and we head for the surface slowly, enjoying every last second, being mindful that we are probably the first humans ever to explore and see this piece of another earth. "We arrive at the surface where the boat is waiting. We move to a second area off the cliff. It is then the turn of the second party. When they are finished, we tear back to land and the energetic ones arrange a refill of their cylinders for the afternoon. The sensible ones lie in the sun," he added.