Cork Sub Aqua Club is a sports diving club whose origins date back over forty years. We have around sixty active members based in Cork City and County, of all ages and all walks of life. As a club, we place a strong emphasis on training and helping our members to improve their diving and obtain further qualifications through our organising body CFT. We have a large number of instructors who have obtained their qualifications while diving with our club and are always willing to pass on their skills.
We dive mostly on Sundays. Oysterhaven is our most frequent launching site, but we try to add as much variety as possible by venturing to other sites of which there are a good variety within reasonable driving distance, e.g. Baltimore, Union Hall, Kilcrohane or Cork harbour. When the long summer evenings permit, we dive on Wednesday evenings which offers a nice break in the week for those on a nine-to-five schedule.
Each year, we organise four trips away; three long weekends and one week, most often on the Beara and Iveragh peninsulas, though recently we ventured as far as Mayo. We also organise many social activities during the year, and help out with community activities e.g. the Lee Swim.
In recent years many of our divers have become interested in extending the limits of their diving through the use of twin sets, rebreathers, different gas mixes, etc. Although not for everybody – engaging in this type of diving safely requires intense training, commitment, and large amounts of self-discipline – the club overall has benefited from the expertise of our technical divers. In recent years members of the club have been involved in expeditions to the Lusitania, a wreck of great historical significance which lies in ninety metres of water off the Old Head of Kinsale.
