| Hello Alex,
It's a problem that faces many university branches, and there is no easy solution. It's really great that you have taken on the workload and responsibility of being a DO, and I'm impressed to hear that the region is helping out as well.
If you're keen to advance your diving, take every chance you can to get in the water. Even if the dives are not testing you, you're learning muscle memory for all your skills and, by seeing mistakes of both yourself and others, building a problem-solving toolkit for later. The importance of endless repetition of all manner of skills can't be overstated!
As others have mentioned, there are various routes to getting further training outside of your branch - be it a BSAC centre, a PADI school or TDI/IANTD instructor. All these cost though, and there might be a better solution that will also benefit your university branch - join a nearby city branch. You don't need to pay to join BSAC again, just the 'branch' portion. This is usually between £50 and £100 for the year. Not only does this enable you to access their instructors and resources for yourself, but you may find that they are willing to supply instructors into your club - I'm extrapolating from what you've said, but traditionally university branches have a huge number of trainees and a few mildly qualified instructors doing a heroic job to try and qualify the rest, while in the average city branch there are ADI's, PI's and TI's desperate to do more instructing so that they can be confident when they take the next step up the instructor ladder. If you join a local club, you're taking the first step to building a bridge between the two. Handled correctly this is a symbiotic relationship where both parties win - but I agree it's easy to mess up!
If you'd like some help thinking about how to arrange this, or approach the local city branch, please get in touch. I don't read YD that much, but I respond to PMs.
Cheers,
Ben  |