Welcome to Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club

Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club
Diving in Ireland and the seven seas since 1992
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Lough Derg, Ireland

About Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club

Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club is a SCUBA diving and snorkeling club affiliated to Diving Ireland – The Irish Underwater Council which is an affiliate member of CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques), the international umbrella organisation for recreational diver training organisations. Our club was registered with Diving Ireland in 1995. Most of our members are from Nenagh in Co Tipperary and surrounding areas, and some of our members come from as far as counties Offaly, Limerick, Clare and Galway. The club has managed to maintain its membership over the years and has every year since its inception managed to take in and train new members in the sport of SCUBA Diving. During the diving season, which runs from approximately March to November, weather permitting, many of our members can be seen diving in Kilkee, Co Clare, on a Sunday afternoon. But we dive all over Ireland – up and down the west coast, off Cork and off Hook Head, Co Wexford – and we occasionally organise foreign diving holidays, most recently travelling to the Azores. We are also regular visitors to Portroe Dive Centre – Ireland’s first inland dive centre, which comprises a flooded slate quarry – a short drive from Nenagh. During the winter months, we meet every Wednesday from 7-8pm at Nenagh Leisure Centre to keep our fitness levels up. Come late February or March we head for open water to get the season’s diving underway again. We also like to take advantage of the beautiful Lough Derg, only five miles from Nenagh, for dives and open water snorkels.

Club Membership

The club is and always has been open to the public. As per the constitution the objectives of the Club shall be to:
Encourage the safe practice and development of scuba diving, snorkelling and/or boat handling.
The club shall cater for:
Scuba Diving
Snorkeling
Search and Recovery when requested.

Our 2024 committee:

Chairperson: Tom Shaw
Vice Chairperson: Colin Calway
Dive Officer: Simon O'Duffy
Search & Recovery Dive Officer: Josie Morgan
Secretary: Fiona Ryan
Equipment Officer: Philip Neville
Treasurer: Gudrun Michel
Training Officer: Steve Smyth
Public Relations Officer: Klaus Kappis
Snorkelling Officer: Paradzai Havatitye
Child Protection Officer: Mary Calway

Our club is involved in assisting statutory and voluntary agencies such as:

The Coastguard (unit based in Ballina/Killaloe)
The Gardaí
The Garda Sub Aqua Unit
Defence Forces
Civil Defence

The club is also available to assist voluntary bodies such as:

RNLI
Any cliff & coastal rescue

Search & Recovery

Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club has over the years also performed a civil duty of Search & Recovery support and other operations as requested from time to time.
The club began keeping records of this type of activity since 2006.
In the past few years our governing organisation, Diving Ireland, has formalized Search and Recovery (S&R) activities within affiliated clubs. In the past S&R was conducted within clubs on an ‘ad hoc’ basis; training was infrequent, if happening at all, and was often left to the generosity of club members to give of their time and equipment.
This is no longer the case. Within the club there is now a designated group of divers who are fully trained and insured (under a named Diving Ireland insurance policy) to volunteer as designated S&R divers.
In order to keep active, these divers must take part in training events and log activities
Statutory and voluntary bodies are on hand to tend to tragedies that may occur from time to time. Diving Ireland’s experienced sports divers are well placed to lend appropriate assistance to a Search & Recovery operation.
Diving Ireland divers will participate in S&R operations within specific units established in a club or region and not on an individual basis.
Being so close to the River Shannon and particularly Lough Derg, Lough Derg Sub Aqua Club is ideally placed to assist with S&R operations on the Shannon and provide support to other organisations such as the Gardaí and the Dromineer-based RNLI.
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Try a Dive

Try a dive’ is where you can test the waters in a safe and helpful environment. Our club is run by divers for divers; with the long term interests of the individual development as our prime objective.
Our interest in those who learn to dive with us does not end at the presentation of an ‘Diving Certificate’. For us, this is where the adventure starts!
Our try dives are held usually in October/November in the swimming pool at Nenagh Leisure Centre. Contact us to secure your place.

Interested? Drop us a line!