TSAC’s 50th Anniversary
2023 brings up an important date for TSAC, our 50th anniversary.
I have attached a brief summary of the founding our club below, just for interest.
We have a plan to mark the 50th anniversary and will spread the celebrations and activities throughout the year with various challenges and events for club members.
1 CELEBRATION EVENT
The celebration event will take place in November, and we will combine this with our Awards night. The date is going to be Saturday November 11th. New and old members will be invited, and we will make it something special so please put the date into your diary.
2 CELEBRATION DIVE
The date of the first ever official logged dive.
This was February 19th at Ecclestone Delph (before it became a dive centre).
On Sunday February 19th we will have a dive and meal (similar to the Christmas dive). If you wish to dive great, if not come along for a brew and the meal afterwards.
3 DIVE CHALLENGE
This is a year long challenge and will be an individual or group dive challenge. We have called the 50th celebration ‘Fifty@50’,and that’s the challenge, can you do 50 dives in the year to celebrate the 50th anniversary?
We will organise a way of signing up to the challenge.
There are three sections to the challenge
Gold – An individual who completes 50 or more dives in 2023
Silver – A buddy pair who complete 50 or more dives in 2023
Bronze – A team of four who complete 50 or more dives in 2023
For those completing the challenge we will have a prize.
In addition, we are putting together an application for the Heinke trophy as part of our celebration. Link to BSAC page. BSAC Heinke trophy – British Sub-Aqua Club
A brief introduction to how the club began.
In 1973 Sale Sub Aqua was formed by Graeme Campbell and a group of divers who had been getting wet together for about four years (later transformed into Trafford Sub Aqua in 1980).
The first official dive was at Eccleston Delph the first official sea dive that the club completed was at Bull Bay in Anglesey in 1973
Roger Goodier (one of the founder members) now 85 and living on Anglesey has recounted the initial few months of the club and its formation.
‘Graeme Campbell and Paul Kirkman worked for IBM in Sale, they enthused a small group from his office and formed Sale Sub Aqua to further their diving and include others. Paul Kirkman initially acted as Chairman and instructor with Graeme Campbell as diving Officer.
They advertised the formation of the Sale SA club and had a good response, about 20 people. The group owned no equipment except a marker buoy and reel so they developed a link with Manchester Divers in Urmston who were the local suppliers of diving gear) wet suits only).
Lectures were first held at IBM, using their overhead projector along with GC’s slides made from BSAC manual contents. Paul and Graeme were the main lecturers.
‘Wet’ meets were held at Chorlton Baths and lectures moved to a local pub.
‘Wet’ meets were very intense starting with 20 lengths swim then snorkel work, mask clearing. black out mask etc. All open water dives were shore-based along with quarries at Fron (Wales) Eccleston, Blue pool (Wales) and shore based on Anglesey. Our clubs first official full club dive was at Bull Bay in Anglesey
To develop the club members agrees to set up a loan account and a small inflatable and engine were purchased and so began the clubs’ adventures.
Initially most sea diving was around Anglesey and had poor visibility due to dredging and dumping in Liverpool Bay. The first good visibility sea diving was up in Seahouses, club members shared one boat out to the islands and those waiting their turn took part in Beadnall beach dives.
The clubs first expedition was Port Erin in the Isle of Mann. It lasted 4 weeks with members taking turns to go over to using Rogers old estate car (eventually christened MV Collapso, after Jacque Cousteau’s MV Calypso, as it was always breaking down).
Lobster, crab, and scallops were collected for meals, SSA were the first to dive Calf Sound. At the end the Collapso was driven back to Douglas ferry in reverse gear as the carb had a blocked and if driven forward stalled. On arrival at the ferry the engine was on fire and we were refused to board but eventually after disconnecting the electrics and extinguishing fire they let us on so long as we agreed it was left on the rear deck and could be pushed over board if the fire started again. Sale became a diver training club with Graeme and Paul taking BSAC instructor exams. In 1980 Greater Manchester moved its boundaries so Sale Sub Aqua changed its name to Trafford to fall in line. Meetings were moved to Urmstom along with wet meets. To facilitate advanced divers who had got fed up with doing dives with a trainee in tow on every dive An Advanced Diver Group was formed also formed to ensure people were able to dive to their grade.’
