No more Scuba Diving in Pools !

Posted by Scuba Herald at 1:02 am 0 Comment Print

If you are new in the scuba diving industry, you may think that everything is fun and roses in the diving world… but the reality is different, the scuba industry is in though times. And now in the Gold Coast – Australia, things are going to get more difficult for dive centers.
Mainly because Coast City Council is considering a ban on all scuba diving training at its swimming pools.

Community and Cultural Development Chair, Councillor Bob La Castra said tiles chipped by dive tanks and weights posed a safety risk to swimmers and increased maintenance costs.

Cr La Castra could not quote a figure for maintenance costs but the specialised tiles cost $17.50 each to replace.

But dive operators say Southport’s five metre-deep dive pool offers the only suitable conditions for training introductory students in Discover Scuba Diving and Open Water courses.

“We have received reports of cuts to hands and feet because of broken tiles,” said Cr La Castra.

He also cited the case of 18-year-old swimmer Nik Pregelj, a former TSS student who missed out on July’s Australian short course titles after cutting himself during training at Southport.

The council operates seven aquatic centres across the Coast.

The Gold Coast Aquatic Centre (formerly Southport Pool) is used by the majority of dive operators but the Palm Beach Pool is also used by Palm Beach Dive Centre, Cooly Dive and Kirra Dive.

Gold Coast Dive Centre owner Ruth Clarke, who has been teaching people how to dive on the Coast for the past 20 years, said the ban would leave local businesses in the lurch.

DevOcean Dive owner Shona Pinkerton, whose business trains secondary school and university students as well as general customers in the Southport pool, felt ’sick’ when she heard about the ban on Monday.
No surprise then.. more bad news for the scuba industry in Australia

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