Southsea Sub-Aqua Club :: BSAC 009

About

Welcome to Southsea Sub Aqua Club's web site, the online home of one of the most active diving clubs on the South Coast.

Southsea Sub Aqua Club's main aim is to provide facilities and an environment that encourages people to go diving.

We are also a BSAC branch. This allows us to offer training courses free of charge to BSAC members. It is not obligatory to join BSAC but most members do as the benefits are convenient and inexpensive. BSAC membership includes third party insurance and eligibility for BSAC's self certification medical scheme.

We run on a non-profit basis. No one gets paid, not even the bar staff! We are dependant on the volunteer efforts and good will of our membership.

Within the club you'll find all manner of divers, from all levels of sport divers to a couple of Trimix divers, through to our newest members learning to dive in the pool.

The Club enjoys a rich and varied social calendar. Having our own Club House, with a well-stocked bar, allows us to hold social evenings at the Club. Events such as partys, film nights and charity events are regularly held throughout the year.

New Members Guide:

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 14:07

SSAC at the D Day Museum

SSAC at the D-Day Museum to mark the 65 anniversary of D-Day

The D-Day Museum in Southsea is offering free entry to visitors on Saturday 6 June to mark the 65 anniversary of D-Day.

This is a great opportunity to see the museum, including some new displays, as well as several special events and activities that will only take place on the day.

Southsea Sub Aqua Club will be displaying photographs and film shot underwater while diving on a site not far off Selsey Bill. They have dived on a site where there are several tanks and armoured bulldozers lying on the sea floor, which were lost from a landing craft at the time of D-Day.

The story behind this has been discovered through the club’s careful research. The craft concerned was LCT(A) 4248, a 112ft landing craft carrying Centaur Tanks manned by Royal Marines, as well as armoured bulldozers, all of which were intended to land on Juno Beach. The landing craft got into trouble and capsized while under tow, although the crew and troops on board were saved. This year the club hope to locate and dive on the wreck of this landing craft itself.

The Club will also be at the museum on Sunday 7 June. On both days, they will also have some of their specialist diving equipment on show.

Re-enactors and historic military vehicles will be at the museum on 6 June to give visitors a feel for the uniforms and equipment of the period. The “Pathfinder 101” re-enactors group, which depicts US airborne soldiers of 1944, will be giving presentations on the equipment and uniforms used by these elite troops. These will be at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

The day is also an opportunity for people to come and see the newest part of the D-Day Museum’s displays, about life on the home front during the Second World War.

A key exhibit in the new displays is a recent donation to the museum: a coat covered with around 100 badges and buttons that were given to five-year old Betty White (later Betty Nicholson) at the time of D-Day. She lived at Albemarle Avenue in Gosport. Troops regularly went past her house on their way to Normandy, and many of them gave her badges which her mother sewed onto this coat.
This is a unique record of the men of many different units and nationalities who left from the Portsmouth area for the fighting in Normandy, and is highly unusual.

Andrew Whitmarsh, Military History Officer at the museum said “The Museum is Britain’s only visitor attraction with the sole purpose of telling the story of the 1944 Normandy landings. This is an opportunity to see the museum’s displays and the special activities that we have on that day.”

Date : 26 May 2009

Hampshire Divers Explore WW2 ‘Neptune’ Wrecks

Written by Alison Mayor
A team of divers from Southsea Sub-Aqua Club plan to spend their summer exploring local dive sites to try to identify a number of wrecks which are believed to be linked to the WW2 Invasion of Normandy - code named Operation ‘Neptune’. They hope to locate and identify the wreck of a Landing Craft Tank (LCT) which capsized on the morning of 6^th June 944 spilling its cargo of Tanks and Bulldozers into the sea. The divers also plan to survey a number of Thames Barges or ‘dumb lighters’ which were requisitioned by the Royal Navy to be used to transport tons of supplies to the invading Allied forces. The wrecks lie 10 miles offshore in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex
Read more...

BLESMA Weekend

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to loose a limb or even worse two? Every aspects of your life will change beyond belief… What about your love of diving…? Could you still do it?

Southsea’s Training Officer John Strutt, arranged a special weekend of underwater activities which gave members of the British Limbless Ex Servicemen’s’ Association (BLESMA) an opportunity to take to the water and help regain their confidence. BLESMA is a charity which helps those who lose limbs while serving in the Forces. www.blesma.org

John spent months organising the event for the 8 men and 1 woman from BLESMA. They had lost limbs whilst serving in the Armed Forces, some while on active duty. Whilst most had dived before none had done so since becoming amputees and for some it was their first attempt at diving. John, a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy is also an instructor with the International Association of Handicapped Divers. The event was held at HMS Collingwood in Fareham and also included a visit to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. John was assisted by other club members who also found it a rewarding and worthwhile experience.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 11:52