The Underwater Club is Back!! 

With restrictions easing and summer quickly approaching, everyone must be keen for an exciting trip away. Come spend an adventurous weekend camping, diving, snorkelling and exploring Broughton Island this November.

We will be camping for 3 nights and chartering a boat to Broughton Island (Ex. Nelson Bay) and doing some dives at The Looking Glass. Broughton Island is a unique place as it the only island campground in NSW where you can camp amongst an active seabird colony. How cool is that? Plus, there is very limited sites, so we will practically have the island to ourselves to enjoy the pristine waters and hopefully see the critically endangered grey nurse sharks on our dives along with copious amounts of fish, rays and all the other cool sea critters we can find.

Full disclaimer: This is a very exciting trip, but its more adventurous than most of our weekends away. It involves a chartered boat trip to a mooring at the island, gear ferrying on the Didj and camping with compositing toilets and no showers. Logistically, it’s a very complex and isn't for the faint hearted - you need to be willing to be a team player and enjoy the serenity of limited amenities. You will also need to provide proof of double vaccination to participate in this trip. If you are uncomfortable sharing space with people you don’t know, this trip is unfortunately not for you.

Dives are open to all levels of diving and we are bringing the DIDJ with us so we can enjoy some cool boat dives for those new or experienced. Check out these links for more info on Broughton Island and the dive spots available:

https://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php...

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/.../broughton-island...

In the case of bad weather or extended covid restrictions, we have back up dates booked for 18-21^st of November. If the conditions allow, and there is a lot demand for the trip we will try to run TWO Broughton trips this year!

|| Itinerary ||

Dates: 4-7^th November

This trip is from THURSDAY NIGHT to late Sunday so you’ll need to take the Friday off work or uni but who wouldn’t want to have a cheeky long weekend?

We will camp in Nelson Bay Thursday night.

We will be doing a shore dive at Fly Point (Nelson Bay) on Friday morning on the high tide (~9am).

You can choose to travel up on Thursday night or Friday morning if you’d like, but its your responsibility to be at the Marina on time (departure time TBC). The boat will return to pick us up on Sunday afternoon (time TBC), so you will need to commit to the whole weekend.

||Cost ||

$180 pp (including camping permits, island transfer, food for fri/sat/sun and alcohol for party night)

Boat Dives: $25pp each dive

Air fills: ~$10 each

|| Gear ||

Camping gear: On the island we will be camping. Meals/cooking gear/water will be organised by us but everyone will need to organise their own camping gear (tent, sleeping mat, pillow, sleeping bag and eating utensils). You need to pack lightly (it’s a weekend not a week) because space on the boat over and camping sites is very limited. There isn’t enough room for everyone to bring their own tent so this means you need to bring a small one or be happy sharing.

Dive Gear: At this stage, as UNSW campus remains closed to students so we cannot guarantee our gear shed will be open for our usual gear hire. What this means is you will need to source your own gear to come on this trip. We recommend borrowing it if you know someone who has gear they aren’t using or contacting one of the dive shops in Nelson Bay, but this is your responsibility to organise.

We cannot refill tanks on the island so the number of dives you do will be limited by the number of tanks you bring. We recommend 2 tanks per person, which means 2 dives on the island. We will be able to hire out club tanks at this stage and aim to ensure there is 1 per person available (if there’s extras this will be divvied up).

Our fingers are tightly crossed in anticipation of the stars aligning so we can run this amazing trip in a covid safe manner.

|| Registration ||

Bookings open @ 7:00pm on Thursday 14th October. Tickets sell out fast so get in quick.

If you miss out on the weekend, add your name to the ‘Broughton Island WAITLIST’ event as spots may open up if there are any cancellations. This will open at 7:10pm.

If you have any questions before booking, just send an email to:

Tiffany Tisher - tiffany.tisher@gmail.com

Note: In order to participate in the organised dives:

• You will need to show us your SCUBA certification card (minimum Open Water cert) and be competent and confident in your swimming abilities.

• You should have dived within the past 12 months and be comfortable to dive in a buddy pair without a dive guide (we aren’t a commercial dive shop).

Dive safety is of the utmost importance and everyone must abide by the following rules:
• Every diver must use their own dive computer on every dive (no sharing).
• Every diver must have a safety sausage or SMB, with them on every dive.
• All divers must complete a 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres on every dive.
• No divers should go into decompression on any dive.
• All divers must surface at the end of their dive with a minimum 50 bar of air.