We try to keep it as cost effective, as possible but make no illusions the sport can be expensive. However think of diving as owning a car, you can own a Rolls Royce or you can own an Escort. How much you wish to spend on equipment is up to the individual. For the first few weeks you will only have to pay the pool fee of £3.00. This helps the branch cover the cost of hiring the pool. Before using scuba gear you have to join ScotSAC and the current ScotSAC annual membership fee is £42.00, with an initial joining fee of £27.00 (or £63 and £29 for a couple). Peeblesshire SAC also has a membership fee of £35.00 a year, payable at the start of the year (so you don't get all the bills together). This helps with the cost of maintaining the training equipment and other costs of running the club. The fees have concession rates for younger members, students, families and pensioners for both PeebSAC and ScotSAC. The only other initial cost is the medical. The club also has it's own compressor. This is used to fill the bottles used during training. Qualified divers and trainees who are training in the sea can have their bottles filled locally. Dive shops and some dive sites have compressors where divers can refill their bottles but it is convenient to be be able to fill them locally. There is a charge for air fills for diving but this works out a lot less than a round trip to a dive shop. At this stage we are only talking about compressed air. There are different breathing mixes used for more specialised diving but for your initial training you will only use compressed air. Other breathing mixes need more specialised training in order to use them. These mixes do cost more and in some cases need specialised equipment. Once qualified it's then up to the diver if they want to train further in order to use what's available. |