Underwater Club 2012

Wits Underwater Club, or WUC, was established in the 1960’s. This is nearly as long as the sport of Scuba Diving has been in existence.

Due to safe standards that have been developed over the years, SCUBA diving has become a very safe sport and can be shared between friends and family. It is a marvellous activity to partake in at student level.  At WUC we pride ourselves in the high training standards we maintain and the superlative quality of trained divers we produce, both in the recreational and technical diving realms.

WUC is a student club situated in Wits University. Our main objective is to offer the students of the University diving training of the highest standards, yet keeping in mind the fact that students have limited financial means. We therefore offer very economical course rates and gear rental costs, yet maintain the absolute highest standards, both with regards our diver training and our gear maintenance.

WUC is a non-profit club, which makes us quite unique when compared to other training organisations. The passion of every club member is what ensures our continual growth and success. Our Instructors, Dive Masters and assistants offer up their free time to instruct our students. They possess a deep passion for diving and a loyalty to the club and all strive to ensure that people qualify as competent and well educated divers.

This can clearly be seen in the patience and understanding that the instructors portray, when working with the dive students. As WUC is not profit-driven, we can afford to spend a little more time with our students resulting in a more relaxed setting and this, in turn, is more conducive to a pleasant and successful learning experience. We at WUC don't believe our members to be “clients” but rather to be friends. It is our aim to ensure that all our member’s diving experiences are pleasant and enjoyable and in this way ensure succession and sustainability of our club. We have about 150 paid up members, roughly half of which are Wits students, the remainder being non-students, but many of these being Alumni.

WUC is affiliated with CMAS, which is a worldwide recognised training organisation and was founded by the Jacques Cousteau. CMAS is also a non-profit organisation. For numerous reasons, CMAS is best suited for supplying the course material and supportive needs, to match our diving requirements and environment, which includes both fresh- and sea water and especially with regards to diving at altitude.

CMAS is also a preferred organisation for the technical diving community and for this reason, WUC draws an inordinately large contingent of Technical Divers. WUC’s clubhouse, situated on the Wits main campus (East Campus, next to The Matrix), is open most Thursday evenings, from about 17:30 onwards. A large group of members meet there most Thursday evenings. Members use these evenings to catch up with friends and plan new trips.

Our equipment room is open on the same days and from about the same time until about 20:30, for members who wish to rent or return some gear. We have around 40 complete sets of SCUBA gear to rent to our members. We also offer air fills at very reasonable rates, to those members who have their own cylinders.  The equipment room is run by our very competent and reliable equipment officers.

WUC is extremely honoured to have in our midst two SCUBA diving world record holders, for both the men and women’s SCUBA depth records. Nuno Gomes holds the men’s records for the deepest cave and open water dives and Verna van Schaik holds the deepest cave and depth records for women. WUC runs regular dive trips, both to coastal venues as well as some of the excellent inland diving venues in the region.

In July 2011, WUC headed down to Aliwal Shoal for the annual trip. We used this trip for 2 star (advanced) students to log deeper dives that this venue offers. This particular time of year coincides with the annual sardine run and sealife abounds. The water is also generally clearer due to it being in the drier season. Of special attraction to divers is the large amount of Ragged Toothed Sharks (Raggies) that are drawn to the reef at this time of year to breed. There are two famous wrecks, The Produce and The Nebo, which are just fabulous this time of year.

WUC embark upon trips to Sodwana twice yearly, usually in April and in November. In November 2011 a large WUC group, yet again descended upon this sleepy hamlet on the KwaZulu Natal north coast. Sodwana is a magnificent venue to take new divers for their final qualifying dives. The water is warm, conditions are generally quite calm, currents not too strong, the reef not too deep and the water generally quite clear and the sea-life is fantastic. In addition, our WUC instructors and DM’s know the reef well, due to our club’s many years of experience diving here, which makes the experience for new divers even more memorable.

Some of the dive spots dived on in November were Caves and Overhangs, Roonies, Bikini, 7-Mile, 9-mile, Diepgat (by a group of our tech divers) and Seymore’s Ledge (by a group of our tech divers).

Sea life seen included amongst others, dolphins, whale sharks, devil rays, humpback whales, sea-horses, juvenile rockmover wrasse, turtles, various species of moray eals, the huge variety of tropical corals around, many colourful and varied fish species, nudibranchs and many more.

Due to the fact that we take large groups on our diving trips, we can leverage preferential rates from dive charters and accommodations.  Many divers already qualified join WUC due to the awesome, well organized, yet inexpensive trips that we put together.

WUC also has a very strong Underwater Hockey group. They practice in the Wits East campus pool and can be seen refining their art on many a summer evening. WUC takes part in various Underwater Hockey tournaments through the year, with Interclubs, usually held towards the end of the year, being the highlight of these.  WUC also has a group of avid free-divers and spearfishers and freediving courses are held as and when the need arises.

Should you be keen on any of the activities discussed, just pop around the clubhouse on a Thursday evening or visit our website on www.wuc.co.za for more information and contact details.