NSSAC has been diving the waters off South West Scotland for the last thirty years and we are now the only active club in the area, diving most weekends and on regular mid-week days, weather permitting.
We are a relatively small but growing club with a membership of around 40 who come from all parts of Galloway and Northern England. As our membership is so widespread we are unable to have weekly club meetings, as most clubs do, and so social media plays a large part in keeping members connected and informed. Our main base of operations is at the nearby Isle of Whithorn, where our boats are moored and where we are affiliated with the local sailing club, providing us with club house facilities and a compressor room.
As a club we are always ready to welcome new members, whether they are already trained, by whichever agency, or complete beginners who want to give scuba diving a go. The former can be diving with us almost immediately and can then progress their training if they wish as BSAC divers. The latter need to contact us so that we can meet up to discuss and arrange try dives and appropriate training to the Ocean Diver (OD) level.
As mentioned, because our membership is widely scattered, we are unable to have regular weekly meetings. Most of our social activities take place post diving in the local pub at the Isle of Whithorn. We do however have our annual Christmas Dinner and Award Ceremony along with impromptu barbecues and curry nights at local restaurants. The club is a well established participant in village life at the Isle of Whithorn and so members find themselves involved various local activities from beach cleaning to skiff rowing, from helping local fishermen to recover pots to towing dead beached whales out to sea.
Since our boats are permanently moored at the Isle of Whithorn we can easily offer diving most weekends along with regular midweek dives for those who are not working. The rocky coastline where we dive offers interesting scenic sites and we have 12 nearby wrecks varying in depth from 4m to 50m.
For variety we also organise an annual trip to Oban along with other other UK dive trips. Last year we visited Scapa Flow and this year we aim to dive the Summer Isles. In the past Skye, Loch Fyne, St Abbs and the Farne Isles have all been visited and at the beginning and end of the year when weather conditions preclude sea diving we have two day trips to Capernwray Quarry.
As well as diving in the UK we also try to plan at least one foreign dive trip each year. This year we are heading to Malta but in the past we have regularly dived The Red Sea, Croatia and Lanzarote.
