Magic world of the deep lures divers of all ages
Some veteran scuba divers used to joke that their sport took off when “diving was dangerous and sex was safe” and it is quite remarkable that many of the founding members of the Galway Sub Aqua Club still like to spend time underwater 50 years on from establishing the first club of its type in the West of Ireland.
The club has enjoyed an excellent safety record since a group of students and a lecturer at University College Galway (now NUI Galway) came together to found it back in 1963 – they called it the Galway Sub Aqua Club because the College authorities felt the activity was “too dangerous” to give approval to a UCG club at the time.
Anatomy lecturer Jim Doyle and his students had been inspired by the underwater films of French adventurer Jacques Cousteau, but a lack of finance ensured that they had to make their own wetsuits and share two tanks between them. They had just two regulators for breathing underwater, in those early days.
Some of the original members, such as George Ryder, Peter O’Beirn, and Peadar Canavan, still enjoy spending time underwater, while the club has grown beyond recognition to have about 45 active members in 2013.
Peadar, who attended the first meeting, is still involved today. In the early years, before they got their own boats on the water, the club members used to get ‘lifts’ from fishermen to dive sites around Galway Bay in exchange for searching for lost lobster pots.
For more see this week's Galway City Tribune