[ardhill]

What is happening to the traditional BSAC Club?

It has come to my personal attention that a particular long standing BSAC club have been moving away with BSAC traditions.

This club has been around for many a year now and has a heritage and a past history to build on, but it appears that some strange sort of 'modern' thinking has infiltrated the club's thinking.

Looking at the membership, it is obviously that the normal lardy, bearded BSAC member is nearly extinct in this club! Beer induced blubber is hardly seen and facial hair is almost non-existent here. Even the male members of the club are following in the women's footsteps.

This particular club does have it's own bar, but it appears that this too is being lost on the days of old, as the most popular refreshment is not four pints of lager and 2 packets of crisps, but a diet coke.

As if all this were not enough...

For some years now they have accepted 'voodoo gas' as being a normal breathing gas, and have Oxygen and Helium available for those suitably qualified. Having banks of J's, a Haskel to scavange and a club O2 analyser. They also have two air sources, the traditional oily pump mixed with exhaust fumes for the die hards and a new fangled 'double filtered' system for the modern gas breathers.

(Well they would have O2 and He if that delivery man would stop dropping gas quads on himself and get back to work instead of being off sick - slacker.)

Some of those 'death divers' who use rebreathers are considered 'normal' members of this club and are even thought of to be 'advanced' be some of the more modern members.

It appears that the slide away from great British traditions gets even further.

The final shift in the equilibrium has come lately. It has been decided that the club rooms will become "Smoke Free" in keeping with our right not to breath other people's cigarette smoke. Who ever heard of such a thing - a non-smoking BSAC club? Now the members sit in their club room, only taking up one seat each drinking their diet coke, discussing what mix they will be using on their next dive yes, they actually dive too) and not polluting the lungs of the rest of the non-bearded, members.

BCAC is dead - Long Live the New BSAC

(BTW, this is actually a real club, not just some figment of my over active, Friday imagination)
.

 

[DAFFY]

up until two years ago we still had the last of old school, you know ropey old buddy commando, 12ltr cylinder doing 80 mtr dives on air:teeth: he considered you a wimp if you wore anything more than t-shirt and shorts in january but he left due to old age/ill health. Since then there has been an influx of wipper snappers bringing in their new traditions and ways (me included by the way) constant training and doing courses, citing health and safety and, here is the crux, actually, DIVING. Unfortunatley there has know been a divide in the club. Everyone who has joined the club in the last four years or so are still at that stage where they are willing to get up at 01:00am to drive for 5 hours to do a 20 minute dive and the old hands who now refuse to do a dive unless it is in the red sea or ropes off at mid day. This has resulted in more dives being done outside of the club and the club itself is more of a social club than a diving club. However rest assured not all things have died and have gone the way of the dodo, we still have a member who insists on telling anyone and everyone within earshot that even getting within 100 feet of a rebreather will mean instant death

 

[722]

Dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century eh?

 

[BrianG]

The new BSAC

Perhaps the ideal club is one which values the experience and knowledge of the older members while harnessing the enthusiasm and ideas generated by new members. Not all older members are stuck in the past, despite my iminent bus pass I am the only rebreather diver in my club and have been lobbying for some time for O2 and nitrox to be made available to members. True older divers tend to take a more "alpinist" approach to diving and could often benefit from more modern equipment and techniques, however those new to the sport are sometimes guilty of overequiping and can be overly dependent on equipment. I still believe that the club provides the best environment for divers to freely exchange their views and discuss the different techniques available to us all.

 

[Richard Mason]

..........

 

[Janos]

DO NOT PANIC.

We have the same problem, but if you have a look at our committee page you will see that Julian (our "Member without Portfolio") has come up with a novel solution to the lack-of-facial-hair problem.

London Hellfins Scuba Diving Club - Committee

Janos