About Us

Hi - we're the Queen's University of Belfast Sub-Aqua Club, and we offer scuba diving and snorkelling opportunities for students, graduates and staff members of Queen's University.

We're a branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club, the governing body for scuba diving and snorkelling in the UK. We are primarily a 'training' branch, which means we focus heavily on training new members who have never been diving before. 

Training

We have several qualified instructors within the club who undertake practical and theory training, we also keep in close contact with our graduates and many of them come and help us on training nights or during weekends away. We train in the Queen's Physical Education Centre (Queen's Sport) at Botanic Park every Thursday evening from 7pm onwards during term-time, with dives in the sea taking place on weekends when tides and weather conditions permit. 

We train all of our new members to qualify with BSAC's Ocean Diver qualification, which allows you to dive to a depth of 20 metres with another similarly qualified diver. We also undertake further training, the next level being BSAC's Sports Diver qualification which allows you to dive to a depth of 35 metres and undertake in-water decompression stops. 

The total number of trainees we can accept each year is limited by the amount of equipment we hold - we typically take 12 trainees, which we split into groups of six for theory lessons, and into pairs for practical (in-water) training. 

Qualified Divers

BSAC recognises 'equivalent' qualifications from other diver training agencies, most notably PADI. If you have a qualification with PADI, you can join and come diving with us, following a brief introduction to BSAC diving practices (making sure you know any BSAC specific signals etc). 

COVID-19

The club is planning to take a smaller number of trainees this year as we were unable to complete training for the previous year and those trainees will take priority. We remain uncertain as to exact numbers because of COVID restrictions which will impact both trainees and our instructors. Please follow us on Facebook for further updates on the situation.