Well here we are, on the last stretch of yet another club year!
Our next year will see us celebrate 20 years of SCUBA CULTURE, now the longest established Melbourne dive shop under the same ownership, and celebrate we will!!! We kicked off the month with great weather and a great club night hosting Daren Marshall from FOURTH ELEMENT with an engaging and thought provoking presentation and a graphic 2 minute video of Manta Point (Bali) where there was more rubbish in the water than anything else – even Jellyfish (counted correctly by Brett Connor and winning the FOURTH ELEMENT prize for the night).  FOURTH ELEMENT GEAR WAS ON SHOW, members of our amazing team took to the catwalk/floor/runway and put on their best “BLUE STEEL” look for the evening!

Much is being said by people about plastics, pollution and other plagues that damage our environment.   At the moment, SCUBA CULTURE stands alone in the Victorian diving industry with not only it’s ethics but its actions, in the same vein as our partnership with FOURTH ELEMENT, we’re also kicking off a relationship with a small local manufacturer called BARU THREADS, a couple of young guys who are passionate about our aquatic playground who manufacture swimming shorts manufactured from recycled plastic bottles, in fact, a pair of shorts is constructed from the recycling of 10 plastic bottles!  The BARU THREADS swim shorts will soon be available both in store and on our web site.  In introducing BARU threads to SCUBA CULTURE, we must thank our club member Mark Hillebrand.   Mark’s son is one of the 2 guys behind this amazing concept and product.  We hope that next time that you’re looking to purchase a drysuit undergarment, a wetsuit undergarment or a pair of lightweight casual beach/swimming shorts that your heart also becomes part of your decision making process and takes into consideration the impact that the product manufacturing has had on our planet.  Sometimes, these products may cost a bit more, a few extra dollars can, and do make a tangible difference and when people vote with their heart and their wallets, these actions can and have changed the way we think and do things, these decisions will impact positively on our planet and our oceans.  Someone once said “The longest walk starts with a single step”, our journey to a cleaner planet starts with our actions. 
Additionally to the FOURTH ELEMENT presentation, we used the evening to launch our 2020 CLUB MEMBERSHIP renewals   https://www.scubaculture.com.au/dive-club/dive-club-membership-renewal/ with some of the best membership benefits ever seen in the industry whereby we’re giving back to our renewing members right up front with 3 choices of tangible benefits provided, but if you want to make the most from these you will have to renew by 1 November 2019 or miss out.
Many things have happened in the background with the launch of our new web site with great feedback from our divers, a better, easier, simpler online shop and course booking facility, a fresh manner to assist in taking our service to a new level.
The month also kicked off with the 2019 November SEA SLUG CENSUS with our divers scouring Blairgowrie for the little critters, lots of cool stuff was found but not many Nudibranchs were seen and photographed. With water temperatures having taken an upward turn, the amount of divers coming out of Winter hibernation has been great to see, but with that a drastic increase in the volume of servicing has also hit the dive shop so we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you NOT to wait until the last minute before you want to go diving to get your gear serviced.  Three weeks ago we had 11 degrees in the bay, last weekend, dive computers were hovering around the 14 degree mark – to make it sound even better, we’re talking about approximately a 25% temperature increase!