Bicester Sub-Aqua Club (BS-AC Branch #995)

Bicester Sub-Aqua club is a fun an friendly branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club. We are a relatively small club but as such we all know each other and there is a great club atmosphere.

Being affiliated to BS-AC we follow the BS-AC guidlines for recreational diving and safety practices. This also means that we are part of largest dive club in the UK.

A Brief History

The club was started in 1978 by Dave Burden, who was by then an experienced diver. Dave began running snorkelling lessons at the local swimming pool in Bicester. After one of these courses a number of students expressed a desire to move on further and learn to scuba dive. They managed to persuade Dave to start teaching them and thus was born the first diving club at Bicester.

In these early days equipment had to be begged or borrowed and gathered together as best they could. Much of the open water training was done at Stoney Cove where the only facilities at the time were the recompression chamber and the compressor. Much has changed since then!

After a while Dave Burden moved on to pastures new, including working on the Mary Rose project. At around this time the club benefited from an influx of experienced divers from the Banbury area which allowed the club to continue training, ensuring its long term survival and growth.

From these early days the club has grown from strength to strength providing diving resources for all levels of diver, with diving organised at home and abroad.

Dave now skippers Xplorer, a diving and commercial charter operating out of Portsmouth.

The Club Today

Members of the club regularly meet on Monday evenings from 8:00pm at the community centre in Ambrosden, on the outskirts of Bicester. The club has exclusive use of the pool facilities from 8:30pm - 9:30pm. The club is a friendly and welcoming environment for new and existing members the focus being on enjoying the sport we participate in. There are dive trips organised by clubs members every month during the main UK diving and usually at least one warm water diving holiday a year.

If you would like to find out more about the club, don't hesitate to contact us via any of the methods described on the 'Contact Us' page.