About John Womack Snr
John Womack Snr started diving in 1972 and joined Bradford Sub Aqua Club in Queensbury. He soon worked his way up to being First (1ST) Class Diver in 1979 and Advanced Instructor.
In 1986 John Snr decided to set
up Otter Watersports and Divers Warehouse in Bradford, soon after his wife, sons and daughter joined him to make both Companies very successfull for many years.
John Snr decided
to semi-retire in 2012 and sold Divers Warehouse to southern-based Company Lodge Scuba, so he could now have more time to create and perfect Otter Drysuits, Undersuits & Base Layers
and to go diving, leaving son John (JJ) to manage the day to day running of Otter Watersports.
Just some of John Womack Snrs Qualifications and Acheivements since starting to dive
- John Snr has been a member of the Bradford branch 44 BSAC continually for more than 40 years
- He has also been Bradford Diving Officer in the 70's
- Bradford BSAC Chairman
- Still to this day a trustee on the commitee and has been continually since 1976
- Diving Officer of Norfed
- Dived all around the world, Britannic, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Repulse and lots more, look at our Expeditions page
- In 2010 John Snr received the Special Award for his Outstanding Support & Contribution to the diving community.
|
The Company
John M Womack, the founder of Otter Watersports has over 40
years diving experience. A First Class diver and Advanced Instructor,
John developed the company with quality in mind.
Otter Watersports began in the upstairs room of an old mill
and within 2 years had expanded, taking over the entire building. Within
only 5 years Otter Watersports relocated into an old refurbished Wool
mill, but again we outgrew the premises and desperately needed more
space. We are now in an old Chapel which was originally built in 1816
and throughout it's colourful history has been involved with the wool
and textile industry and then was used for heavy industrial work. The
property was then half demolished for proposed plan's of being a dance
hall, but alas, these plans never came to fruition and the property then
spent the next 12 years as a derelict wreck. We acquired the site at
the end of 2001 and have spent the last three years rebuilding and
renovating the site to a usable building. This site now give's us nearly
19,000 sq ft of manufacturing and sales space together with a large
parking area for Customers and Staff.
We are a family firm, with John Snr's wife Marlene doing the
wages , John Jnr's wife Melanie doing Accounts, son John
Jnr running the production side of the company and daughter Tracie taking care of the website and IT.
|

|
Otter Quality is our Pride
As an active diver with a flare for design, John is committed to all stages of production from suit design to product testing.
The bigger part of production is now exported to most countries of the world.
Otter Quality
Otter Watersports has
always been quality driven, each suit receiving a unique number to allow
quality to be closely monitored through out its manufacturing process
Each suit is made by
just one person, where traceablity ensures constant quality. With each
suit being pressure tested for 12 hours without loss of pressure, there
is no such thing as a nearly dry Otter Dry Suit. Otter has achieved C.E.
approval for all its suits.
|
|
Our Pride is Otter Quality
Although Otter
Watersports try to maintain perfection, any product found to be faulty
within 12 months will be replaced or repaired as necessary.
Otters unique guarantee
that any made-to-measure suit will be replaced or repaired free of
charge even if the measuring mistake is ENTIRELY your own fault is
second to none!