Plymouth Sound BSAC - About Us - Plymouth Sound BSAC

About Us

We are an active Branch and dive throughout the year as often as members want to turn out! Dives are arranged weekly at our Monday evening meeting. Wreck Diving, Reef Diving, Drift Diving, Deep Diving, Scenic Diving, Night Diving etc. - all depending on our members' interests and capabilities. In the main diving season, diving takes place virtually every day with several dives each weekend day. Most diving is within a range of 15 miles from Plymouth Sound. Regular away trips take place to other parts of Devon and Cornwall. Members also arrange trips abroad. Launching from our base at the Mount Batten Centre could not be easier. The centre has changing facilities, hot showers, bar and food usually available all day. As a Plymouth Sound BSAC member you have centre membership as well with its discounts and privileges. For frequently asked questions please click here.

We have many Nationally Qualified Instructors and offer the full range of BSAC Courses for Ocean Diver, Sports Diver, Dive Leader and Advanced Diver. We can even provide your equipment for the early stages of your training. Our wide range of members interests, expertise and qualifications means that we can also offer a wide range of BSAC Skill Development Courses - Boat Handling, Nitrox & Advanced Nitrox, Oxygen Administration, Practical Rescue Management, Search & Recovery, Marine Life Identification, First Aid for Divers, Lifesaver & Advanced Lifesaver Awards to name a few.

Club Chairman, Officers and Committee Members with special responsibilities:

The Committee was 'renewed' on 23 January 2012. The section below will be completed when we have pen pics and images of some of our new Committee Members.

	Jon Parlour, Chairman. Despite having been diving for 40 years, I still get a buzz out of every dive. I like to think I can pass on that enthusiasm and excitement to others. I was lucky when I started diving. Still at school and without a car, older branch members were always ready to give encouragement, and lifts to pool and divesites. I believe it is vital for clubs to provide similar opportunities to both young and new (not so young) divers. I enjoy learning new skills and enabling others to do the same, safely. I have been an instructor with BSAC for more than 30 years and am involved in regional coaching and on the Instructor Training Scheme. My other passion in diving is underwater archaeology, and shipwrecks in particular. I recommend Plymouth Sound BSAC to anyone wanting to get more out of their diving. It's a friendly club with first class facilities, which you can read more about on this website. (photo courtesey of DIVE Magazine)
	Barrie Arch, Diving Officer. After initially learning to dive in Spain, with a BSAC club on the Costa Blanca, I qualified as a BSAC Advanced Diver in the UK in May 1992, and as an Advanced Nitrox Diver in May 2000. Since then I have concentrated less on further training, and more on enjoying my diving. I joined Plymouth Sound BSAC in 2005, and enjoy both the variety of diving available to our club members, and the opportunity to dive almost anytime that suits. I enjoy mainly wreck diving in the UK, reefs in the Red Sea, and Liveaboards just about anywhere, provided the sun is shining and the sea is flat calm. My passion for diving is only ever curbed by rough seas and high winds, and I look forward to each new Diving Season with a renewed enthusiasm. - Serving as DO is a challenge I take very seriously, and I hope to continue the club's tradition of carrying out a lot of interesting and varied diving, in the safest manner possible.
	Roger Libby, Training Officer. I started spearfishing around Plymouth in 1959; Hans Hass was the early influence. I organised many spearfishing competitions through the sixties, including the first international contest held in Britain (‘Mayflower 70’). I was diving on/off until taking a PADI course in Plymouth in 2000. I have dived the Caribbean, Red Sea, Cyprus, Crete, and joined Plymouth Sound BSAC in 2006. Still diving in a wetsuit – always a talking point on cold ‘wintry’ dives. I am still struggling to get decent UK underwater pictures on film despite the superb conditions off Plymouth.
	Mark Prior, Honorary Treasurer. 53 (age, not IQ). Ex-journalist, ex-publican, ex-yacht deliverer, ex-husband. Now a dry cleaner, photo processor, and frustrated round-the-world sailor. BS-AC Advanced Diver, newly-qualified trimix diver, chasing 2,000 dives since starting in 1989. Plymouthian, but don’t hold that against me. I joined Plymouth Sound after more marital discord forced a change of address in 1992. I have held posts from Chairman to now Treasurer. I enjoy all sorts of diving. Hobbies: the World Wars, diving, crosswords, Stella. Likes: good vis.; being at sea. Dislikes: fools; limited opening hours; poor vis. Favourite saying: “It’s positively tropical”.
	Alan Crossey, Hon. Secretary. I started my BSAC training in the warm waters off Dubai in the late eighties, but then let things lapse until, on a visit to Cyprus a few years ago, I thought I would give it another go. Then the bug really caught on and on returning to the UK soon after I signed up for aline of PADI courses to bring me up to date and to familiarise myself with local waters. Looking around to see where I might cross back over and return to my roots, the Plymouth Sound branch of BSAC seemed the answer to my diving needs. This it has done, with the opportunity for many and varied dives, and, more recently, furthering my diving interests with underwater archaeology.
	John Shelley, Equipment Officer.
	Mark Rayment, Publicity Officer
	Ash Boxall, Membership Secretary.