[aclivity]

<font color='#810541'>First let me say - I'm a BSAC member so my views may be a bit skewed but I've dived with BSAC, PADI and even CMAS qualified divers in my relatively short diving career and both they and I are still alive to tell the tale, and we haven't fallen out over anything diving related.

I am lucky in that I am quite easily able to travel abroad as a result of my work for a holiday company.  I wanted to learn to dive so that I could do some holiday bimbling underwater, having spent the previous couple of holidays in the water snorkelling more than I was on land.  I never even considered diving in the UK.

On my last holiday before learning to dive, I very nearly did a 3 day PADI course in the resort, it was only becuase my wife didn't want to be sat on her own by the pool for 3 of the last 5 days of our holiday that I didn't do the course.

I returned home and determined to learn to dive in the uk, with the idea that I could do poolwork and theory in the uk and complete OW stuff abroad.  I found a couple of places nearby that did PADI training, and I was very close to starting the course when a colleague told me about BSAC.  I'd never heard of BSAC before that conversation, funnily enough.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I went for a try dive with a local BSAC club, then signed up for the course in January 02 and went on to complete my Club diver (forerunner of Ocean Diver) in about 5 months.  (Seems like a long time - I claim the birth of my first child during the course as a mitigating factor, and I missed some open water lessons and had to fit them in later).  I then went on to do a couple more sea dives in the UK and completed Sports Diver in the November.  Something happened along the way that I can't really fathom, and certainly never expected to.  I found that I really liked diving in the UK; it wasn't as cold as I expected, there was a lot more sea life than I expected, and my first experience of a wreck (the Countess of Erne in Portland Harbour) was quite wonderful.  I think the bug really bit me when I completed my Club diver qualification at Stack Rock off Pembrokeshire; with pretty clear water and even a Seal sunbathing on the surface.

Anyway, what has this got to do with Padi / Bsac?  The thing for me - and this is very personal to me, may not affect you - is that whilst building up my confidence level it was, and is, important to me to be in a club environment.  It means that I can buddy up with a fairly close group of people and learn from them as / if necessary.  It also meant that I was able to get more diving done that I would have done if I had not been in a club (I would have felt uncomfortable simply joining a dive with people I didn't know when I was a complete novice).  I've made some friends in the club and there is a small sub-group who are diving the sort of things that I want to do; most of my club is single cylinder no-stop dives, I want to develop into extended ranges both in terms of depth and run time; again, joining folks who I did not know for this kind of experience would not have felt comfortable.

So for me, the benefit of BSAC is the club network.  That is not necessarily restricted to BSAC though, as there are diving clubs not affiliated to BSAC that may be attached to a LDS.  The BSAC club also includes a training aspect - that is also useful and a benefit to me.  I don't see myself as limited to BSAC, however, and I am considering other agency training courses for specialities (notably the NAS underwater archaeology course).  

There is a another side to the BSAC system that may be less attractive, which is that not all of your learning is just for your own benefit in all cases.  I went on the BSAC boat handling course, for example, and it occurred to me that whilst it's fun to whizz about in the club rib, my passing the course was also for the benefit of the club, as the more people who can drive the boat, potentially the more chance there is of getting boat / divers away more often.  The same is true of instructor grades; it's for the benefit of the club rather than yourself (altough I'm sure there must be a huge amount of personal satisfaction in teaching - just seeing the look on people's faces after their first open water lessons is proof of that).

One other drawback with BSAC that I have heard mentioned on other forums is the fact that politics can cause conflict in the club.  I'm afraid my view on that is you can put 10 people in a club together for ANY reason and before too long you will have factions, fallings out and probably only 8 people left.  Politics happens - it's up to you to rise above it, play the game or get caught up in it, depending on your personal preference.  Me, I ignore it.

So, BSAC works for me at the moment.  I would not have done as much UK diving without my club, I intend to spread my wings a little next year and hope to make it on a YD dive gig or even go and book a space on a hardboat independently.  If you like the idea of a club of people you share at least one interest with (a 'real' club, rather than this 'virtual' one), then it may work for you too.

Hmmm, rambled on for too long there, sorry about that.  Hope it helps anyway.  I've reread what I have said and I don't think it'll start a flame war - if anyone is incensed by anything please let me know as I will happily remove the offending article.

TTFN

Andy (BSAC 1105 Enfield)