About Us

The Mount Maunganui Underwater Club is one of the largest and oldest dive clubs in New Zealand, with a long and varied history dating back to 1956.

Membership of the Mount Maunganui Underwater Club gives you access to the Mount Ocean Sports Club on Salisbury Wharf.

Our membership is diverse: spearos, snorkellers, casual divers, photographers, and videographers through to technical divers. We also have a large number of purely social members who join to enjoy our wonderful clubrooms.

Members have travelled together overseas to destinations such as the Coral Sea, Solomon Islands, Komodo Islands, Papua New Guinea, Raja Ampat and the Philippines.

In 2000, we organised the sinking of the tug ‘Taioma’.

We have undertaken historic surveys of the SS Taupo, and organised beach clean ups in and around the Bay of Plenty. More recently, the club was involved in surveying the site of the MV Rena from a recreational perspective.

Club Nights

We meet on the first Thursday of the month at 7:30pm, upstairs at our Clubrooms:
The Mount Ocean Sports Club

Salisbury Wharf
Corner Salisbury Ave & The Mall
Mount Maunganui

Our Clubrooms

The Mount Ocean Sports Club offers magnificent views of Tauranga Harbour, Pilot Bay and Mt Maunganui / Mauao.  Our licensed bar and ‘Pier One’ restaurant are open daily and offer well-priced drinks and quality meals and snacks.  Raffle nights and member-only jackpot draws are weekly draw cards.

Committee

PATRON
Steve Penn

PRESIDENT
Glen Grant
021 224 0212

VICE PRESIDENT
Warwick Fensom
027 674 8315

VICE PRESIDENT/  CLUB CLOTHING
Mary Gaylard
027 823 7616

MOSC DIRECTOR
Brian Dally
027 444 6166

MOSC DIRECTOR
Graeme Fair
07 543 0872

TREASURER
Ian Sherwood
027 410 4056

SECRETARY
Janet Houston
027 244 7404

CLUB CAPTAIN
Russ Hawkins
027 286 3638

EDITOR
Jenny Eglinton
027 22 88 336

SHALLOW DIVE ORGANISER
Glen Grant
021 224 0212

CATCH RECORDER
Tony Plank
021 398 507

MEMBERSHIP
Gail Bingham
021 471 768

COMMITTEE MEMBER
Iain Hughes
021 299 7516

COMMITTEE MEMBER
Tony Plank
021 398 507

MMUC Club History

The Mount Maunganui Underwater Club traces its origins back to 1956. Spearfishing was a popular pastime and scuba diving was in its infancy. A few local spearos got together and formed the Mount Maunganui Spearfishing Club, with early membership averaging twelve.

There was plenty of seafood for everyone: large paua around the rocks of Mount Maunganui, and if you wanted a feed of crayfish and mussels, you simply headed along the Rabbit Island (Moturiki) side of the “Blowhole”. It was easy to fill a sack of large crays and then sell some to the Domain Motor Campers for two shillings, or a big one for half a crown (25 cents)! No one worried about stocks running out as everything was so plentiful.

Many of the early spear-guns were hand-made out of rimu, with the fittings coming from Sportsworld in Auckland. Some of the big double rubber guns had five inch academy reels screwed underneath the trigger area, with thirty metres of heavy cord wound on for those real big kingies!

Today we still award annual trophies donated by those early club members: John Simms Cup for Heaviest Kingfish, John Rawlinson Cup for ‘Most Species Speared’, and Graham Barnett Cup for ‘Most Meritorious Catch.

By the time I joined the club in 1970, the name had changed to the Mount Maunganui Underwater Club. A highlight in those days was our annual seafood dinner at the Mount Sports Centre. In the early 1970’s it was still permitted to take mussels on scuba and there were thousands of huge and hairy ones near Stony Point, on the edge of the main shipping entrance channel. We also got scallops, loads of crays and some paua – although by then there weren’t huge amounts to be found.

This annual event became so popular that people would come up from Wellington for the great food. Tickets for the dinner were about $15.00 per person, we would sell around 150 and have a live band to help us work off the gout and calories!

In the 1970’s the club met once a month for a social get-together and a short committee meeting at the Tauranga Aero Club. Attendance averaged 30 members. We ran our own bar – small, and totally illegal of course!

The Aero Club was quite remote in those days and we had many a great social evening. A memorable theme was ‘Champagne and Rags’, where we came along dressed, but often went home with very little on that hadn’t been ripped off… huge fun – and nearly embarrassing sometimes!

Our current Patron, Steve Penn, very kindly took me under his wing when I first joined the club. He would sometimes say “let’s go out on the runway and chase rabbits!” This was in his little green Morris Minor, and usually nearing the midnight hour. We had great fun, more often going slightly sideways on the wet grass rather than straight ahead. Imagine if we did that today – there would be armed offenders out there to get us! No harm was done – but I can’t remember if we ever actually caught any rabbits!

The club used the Aero Club for over 20 years. In 1991 we were given the opportunity to partner with the Mount Sportfishing Club and Mount Yacht Club to build combined club-rooms – the Mount Ocean Sports Club. We moved into the building in 1993. With such wonderful facilities and great location, I’m sure we are the envy of every dive club in Australasia.

The club continues to enjoy this wonderful asset to this day.

– Russ Hawkins

Mount Ocean Sports Club story

The Mount Ocean Sports Club (or “MOSC” as it is known) was built during one intense year – 1992-93, under the direction of the three foundation members of the Management Committee, one from each of three Mount Maunganui clubs all closely associated with the ocean.