Boat diving speciallity

[The Dougie Paddler]

I occasionally dive with a Padi training company with a members club attached. We have just been told that to comply with the latest decree from the Health and Safety Exec we have to complete a Padi Boat diving speciality if we wish to continue to dive their trips.

They are providing the speciality at cost, £25, but it's still £25 I could have put to better use, probably in the pub. Those specialities are badges I don't see any worth in.

Have any YD's any info on the necessity of this, or come across anything similar?

Dougie

[David Wallace]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (The Dougie Paddler @ April 19 2004,06:59)]I occasionally dive with a Padi training company with a members club attached. We have just been told that to comply with the latest decree from the Health and Safety Exec we have to complete a Padi Boat diving speciality if we wish to continue to dive their trips.

They are providing the speciality at cost, £25, but it's still £25 I could have put to better use, probably in the pub. Those specialities are badges I don't see any worth in.

Have any YD's any info on the necessity of this, or come across anything similar?

Dougie

Simple,

Ask them for the reference to the said HSE document

then post the URL here for us all to see  

OFcourse, they have every right to impose their own rules on their trips......... so even if the supposed HSE decree does not exist they are doing nothing wrong ....... except using HSE as an excuse

regards

[sch]

Speaking as a PADI Instructor - I haven't heard anything official from either PADI or the HSE on this (yet). If it is a requirement it's brand new - we spent a fair bit of time chatting to the HSE last summer and they never mentioned anything about it.

However, rather than being an HSE or PADI requirement, it may be an insurance thing - a bit like the fact that many places won't allow you to hire drysuits unless you can prove you have a relevant qual.

[Juz]

<font color='#000F22'>It's not Scubadoos in Croydon is it?

They used to say the same thing, it was PURELY to get more money out of people.

It's absolutely ridiculous to say that someone needs to do the PADI boat speciality to be able to roll off a rib and get back on - complete waste!!

Juz

[Kristen]

Which company ? I would pay £25 for the course even if its going over old ground - just as a reminder (and I may learn a lot !)

[Fiona]

<font color='#0000FF'>I am with Juz on this one, just more proof it more was needed on how to extract more money out of divers.

Would like to know what the course content is though  

The PADI boat speciality is a joke, better off spending the mney in the pub. I did it along with several other PADI quals years ago for going abroad for cost of the PIC card (£10) and thought I was done. There is nothing you don't get in two minutes from the skipper of the boat you are on. If you have been boat diving before then you are really wasting time and money.
&nbsp;I think you ae being ripped off to get cert numbers up or similiar.

[AirHog]

Not sure how relevant this is, but did the BSAC Boat Handling SDC this weekend (great fun, lots learned and a big thanks to the BSAC SE instructors) and the last lecture was an update on the current rules and regs.  I am pretty sure they mentioned the need, in the not too distant future, to prove that you have done some sort of basic boat skills course if you are out on the boat.  The message was along the lines of the MCA/HSE will be investigating much more thoroughly all incidents involving private and club boats and as an example if only one person on the boat has any form of qual or training then they will take a dim view of this. It was also mentioned that charter skippers and the like had been putting pressure on the above organisations as, basically, they said a club boat operated in exactly the same fashion as a charter but just on a not for profit basis.

To comply with these new rules and regs and to make things a little easier on club divers like us the training organisations (BSAC, PADI, etc) have got together with the MCA/HSE and updated their courses to include any new information (I think)

Then again, I may have been asleep at this point and dreamed all this.

Regards

Mark

[Fathoms Down]

The PADI boat diving speciality, if I remember rightly, doesn't cover boat handling but how to dive from a boat. The use of current lines, running lines, the head and the usual &quot;Whats the name of the pointy bit&quot; questions get asked but I really can't see how this has much to do with the HSE and club diving.

To me it sounds like your club are trying to get their PADI stats up (I believe there are benefits for PADI instructors and clubs if they train certain number of divers a year).

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (AirHog @ April 19 2004,10:41)] I am pretty sure they mentioned the need, in the not too distant future, to prove that you have done some sort of basic boat skills course if you are out on the boat.  The message was along the lines of the MCA/HSE will be investigating much more thoroughly all incidents involving private and club boats and as an example if only one person on the boat has any form of qual or training then they will take a dim view of this.

BSAC boathandling is not a qualification. It is an attendance certificate and proves nothing as far as competency is concerned. If it had been the case that BASC was intending to force boathandlers to be qualified then why did they take it out of the Advanced grade?
Having people put through the courses is usually a club rule as until Dive coxswain or RYA II are completed you are not quailified as a boat handler.