Ruislip scuba club wins award

A SCUBA diving club has won second place in an annual award ceremony.

The Ruislip and Northwood branch of the British Sub Aqua Club, based at Highgrove Pool in Hume Way, Ruislip, was awarded second place in the annual Branch of the Year award, out of a total of 900 branches in the UK.

At the awards each club was looked at against a set of criteria, including how many members had joined the branch and the total dives it had done over the year.

Mel Armitage, the chairman and membership secretary of the club, said: "We managed to attract 33 new members this year. We did some promotion, but a lot of the diving thing is done through word of mouth.

"There are 102 of us and between us we did 1,072 dives this year, 75 per cent of those were in the UK and 25 per cent were done abroad."

First place went to a club at Dublin University which did about 1,300 dives over the year.

Five computers that provide vital information to a diver while they are under the water were given to the club as a prize for coming second place.

In the future the club is planning on offering different types of diving by working with other organisations.

A new course in archeological diving is about to start in association with the Nautical Archeological Society and there are plans to work with the Marine Conservation Society in the coming year.

For more information about the club go to www.rnbsac.co.uk.