WHO ARE WE?

Poole Dam Divers are part of the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC Branch 1924) and dive every Tuesday evening throughout the Summer months from Beowulf, a hard boat out of Poole Harbour. Weather permitting of course! We are based in the wonderful historic town of Poole in Dorset on the south coast of England, which is of course famed for having the 2nd largest natural harbour in the world. Poole provides a fantastic base for SCUBA Diving as it lies between the dive sites of Swanage, Weymouth and Portland to the West and the Isle of Wight to the East.

Poole Dam Divers dive weekly from Poole throughout the months of April to October every Tuesday evening from the hardboat ”Beowulf”. We leave from Poole Quay at Customs House Steps between 1730 and 1800 dependent on dive planned to dive local sites from the simplest of drifts to the most fantastic wrecks that litter the coastline of Dorset. We are lucky to be based in one of the UK’s premier diving areas and have numerous dive sites within a 30 minute to 1 hour boat journey. These include spectacular and picturesque drifts & numerous wrecks including one of Britain’s top 5 wrecks as voted for in Diver magazine the SS Kyarra. Other wrecks include: Betsy Ann, Venezuela, Carantan, Firth Fisher, Valentine Tanks, Borgny, Aparima and Avanti ranging in depth from 15m to 44m.

Some of the great drifts include sites such as Peverill Ledges, always a challenging and sometimes extremely quick drift to Whitehouse Grounds where it is usual to see dog fish, rays and flat fish. After diving in the summer season we meet at the Customs House pub on Poole Quay and during the winter move to cosier pubs around Poole, check the news section of the website or email the diving officer to find out where to find us.

The branch was formed in the early 90's and at that time Dam Divers had just a handful of members. Today our numbers total around 30. We have an assortment of member qualifications from Advanced Instructor through all grades to Sport Diver. The branch is not large and does not own its own boat or clubhouse but it is a divers club for divers that welcomes all divers from all training agencies and backgrounds. We do not offer entry-level training but have good links with local dive schools. We do however, provide cross over training for non-BSAC trained divers and progression through the BSAC diving grades to all our members.

You may wonder why we are called "Dam" Divers? Well there are certainly no Dams in Poole, but constant comments of "not those Damn Divers again!" by other halves when the branch was being formed decided the name for us.

We also arrange weekend dive trips from RIBS and Hard boat’s as well as occasional Holidays and expeditions for club members. See the news section under reports for write-ups of our recent trips to Lundy and Northern Ireland and for information on forthcoming trips.