A BSAC Special Branch for university members, was set up in January 1979 with James Blanchard of the Marine Science Unit of Heriot-Watt University as Chairman. The original membership was 8 and the Branch was called Dive-Sci (Heriot-Watt) BSAC Special Branch 1067. The inaugural meeting was held on the 25th January 1979. In November 1982, the Chairman, George Hartnup renamed the branch to Heriot-Watt University Technical Diving Club which was abbreviated to Divetech.
In July 1988, Ian Morrison, Secretary/Treasurer, asked that the Branch, which had been inactive for over 6 months, should be given Ordinary status which was later granted by BSAC. So the club became an Ordinary Branch, allowing anyone to become a member and took the name Divetech BSAC 1067. While the club became more focussed on recreational diving than technical diving club, there was a desire to keep the name and the history that came with it.
The membership in the beginning was small but grew quite quickly to around 30 and remained thereabouts until the late 1990s when membership peaked at around 70. When the recession came in 2008, numbers gradually fell away back to 30 members, but has since recovered to grow beyond 45. The current membership includes a few folk that joined in 1988/1989, so have been with the club more than 35 years.
Edinburgh Divetech 1067 