Hi all,
In light of recent and ongoing developments, along with current WHO, Australian Government, and UWA guidelines, the Committee has agreed on the recomendations below.
We thank you for your patience, and realise most of you will be as frustrated as we are not to be able to enjoy our favourite sport. We also realise that this is all rapidly changing, and will continue to update club members according to current situation. Stay safe, and please remember physical distancing, hand washing, and limiting movement as much as realistically possible.
ALBANY TRIP
Unfortunately we have come to the conclusion that this trip should not go ahead. Staying in a busy backpackers for 4 nights is simply not advisable at the moment. Full refunds will of course be given, to be processed over the next few days. We're really sad about this as Albany is always a brilliant trip.
BOAT DIVES
Boat dives will also be put on hold. We did consider reducing maximum numbers on board to 6 rather than 8 people - but felt this would still not allow for appropriate distance between people, especially as you'll be sat next to someone for a good few hours.
SHORE DIVES
Whilst COVID transmission is easier to mitigate in a shore dive situation, we feel it is still wise to limit gatherings (especially those involving food preparation) and so will not be holding any 'official' club dives for the next few weeks . However, there is no requirement to absolutely stop diving in much smaller groups so if you still wish to find a buddy using the Facebook Group then we won't put a stop to that. Just remember not to shake hands, share equipment etc etc.
GEAR HIRE
Although we have investigated decontamination procedures for dive gear and found this to be feasible, the hiring and returning process will still involve unnecessary close contact between individuals - we've therefore decided to suspend gear hire for the time being.
Club AGM
Our annual general meeting, usually scheduled for April, won’t now happen in the usual format. However, the committee will come up with a cunning plan to allow reporting for the year and voting in the new committee for 2020/2021 (most likely via an online method). We will keep you all updated as to when and how this may occur.