Become a Skipper, Dive for Free!

[James Gavshon]

Want a guaranteed seat on the boat?

Boat not getting out when you are available or often enough for you? 

We are looking for more people to step up and become a skipper within the club so that we can get the boat out more often and you can get more diving in. We have recently purchased a Landcruiser which means that it is now easier than ever before to become a skipper.

For those not familiar with the process a brief summary is provided below, more details are on the website:

• Get out and dive, become familiar with boat and get an idea how different skippers operate the boat.
  
• Recreational Skippers Ticket. This generally takes little more than a couple of hours and can be done through any one of the many schools around WA.
  
• Get hold of the Apprentice Skipper Log Book from the club site. Sign up as an "Apprentice Skipper" on the dives. Speak to the skipper and let them know you're keen to learn. You need a competency sign off from two current skippers.
  
• VHF Radio License. Once you have some experience under your belt, this will be a breeze. The club will even reimburse 50% of the course costs once you become a skipper.
  

Benefits of being skipper:

• Guaranteed seat... you're the one driving!
  
• Skippers dive for free!
  
• Dive whenever you want, as often as you want (only takes 3 others to get the boat out).
  
• Guys and gals will worship the ground you walk on (apparently).
  
• You get that warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you're helping out the club and helping other people get out on the water.
  

For those that have their skippers ticket and are keen to get a feel for whats required to become a club skipper, Pia has volunteered to do some jetty bashing (hopefully just gentle nudges) while things are quieter over winter. We're currently looking at the 14 August so plenty of time to get some dives/skippers courses in between now and then. If you are interested, please touch base with myself or any of the skippers.

On a similar note we have a number of jobs that we could really use a hand with including:

• Repairs to the the boat trailer.
  
• Installing a bilge pump in the boat
  
• Some electrical work on the boat
  
• Minor repairs to the vehicle.

Further information about these tasks will come through in the coming weeks so if you have some mechanical aptitude, know your way around a welder or just willing to lend a hand then please step forward when the call for volunteers comes. The sooner we get these done the less likely they are to become big issues and ground the boat.

Cheers

James

[Michaël Roelens]

Hi everyone,

Just making sure we reach the non-facebook people too: we're doing a night dive at North Mole tomorrow night (Tue 16 Oct): https://www.uwauc.org.au/events/north-mole-night-dive-3/

No need to sign up, just turn up with all your gear, including torches.

Cheers,

Michael

- Shore Dive Officer