South Shore Scuba Club: Over 30 years and still growing

By C. Scott Holland

With a 30 year history, the South Shore Scuba Club is certainly well established and operates year-round. Yet few people are aware of this group.

After years of talk from scuba diving enthusiasts about forming a local club, the move was finally accomplished in 1989.

Its premise was to promote safe sport diving and have an interaction with more experienced divers. It was not created as a training club, but rather as one that is conducive to ongoing training.

The level of certification by its members is well over 50 per cent and includes basic water, first aid, CPR, AED, and DAN oxygen Administrator.

Some of its members are trained for Search and Rescue, while others are with the Auxiliary Coast Guard.

South Shore Scuba Club member, Jennifer Elcomb, takes the plunge off the Leamington Dock to join fellow diver Greg Chisholm, in the 1995 April Fools Marina Clean-Up. The club spent the morning and afternoon scouring the bottom and collecting things like a pair of glasses, a rake, pieces of hose, water-logged wood and the most unusual and surprising item of all — a skateboard.

Photo from the Scott Holland Collection

One of their biggest events each year is doing a clean-up at the bottom of the local marinas.

They have also visited various shipwrecks lying on Lake Erie’s bottom as well as shipwrecks in places like Tobermory.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Shore Scuba Club was meeting every second Thursday of the month at the Kingsville branch of the Royal Canadian Legion 7:30 pm.

A yearly single membership costs $40 and $10 for each additional family member. The membership includes newsletters and other special events and each one lasts for the period of May 1 to Apr. 30.

You can get more information at their website: southshorescuba.org.