Recording Club History

SH ARING THE ADVENTURE SINCE 1969

Recording Club History

Our Honorary President, Keith Holman, consolidated nearly 10,000 photographs and videos from past and current members into a single club archive that covers every decade of Clidive. The project lasted about 18 months and was finished in time for the 50th party. Keith has posted many examples to our private Facebook group that highlights individuals, diving trips, training, equipment through those decades, and even all Clidive’s t-shirts! These have generated an enthusiastic interaction and helped many of us get a real understanding of the history of the club and where its ethos came from.

“For our 50th year it struck me that a lot of new people in the club don’t know about the club’s origins and goals, and I thought it would be good to show them. Pages of text, for the new generation of divers wouldn’t work. So I chose to use pictures from the club’s history to highlight the club over the last 50 years. Stories on the club boats, from inflatables with 8hp engines, to 7m RIBs with 225hp engines. Diving equipment, diving manuals, dive locations, etc. Various stories taken from the pictures that the club has built up over the last 50 years. I posted them on Facebook and it seemed to go down really well!”

One of the main series Keith posted has documented the history of Clidive’s boats with photographs, videos and commentary. Keith is fond of reminding us that we are enjoying diving on boats that his generation paid for. But we will in our turn pay for the boats that the next generation dive from. The boats are a very real link between generations of members and are clearly a focal point for the pride in the club that we all feel. They are integral to our mission of Sharing the Adventure and we are determined to remain a club that offers adventurous RIB diving to our current and future members. Appendix 5.3a has a compilation of the Boat History posts.