[Justin Owen]

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:dance:

Passed my Ocean Diver theory test last night! Bring on the open water training...!!

And out of interest - one of the questions/statements last night was quite specific about only diving under the supervision of a dive marshal. So how do Ocean Divers go about diving with you chaps? Do you have your own Dive Marshals who legitimise the Ocean Divers who dive with you?

Just wondering...

 

[Richie]

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Forget the paper and just do it???

 

[MATTBIN]

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Justin well done.
Bsac require that you dive with someone of sufficient experience so as to cover their backs and safeguard your life (in their opinion). If you wish to dive you need to ask permission of your Branch (Diving Officer I think) as they will decide if the person you are diving with is suitable. On the other hand if you dont tell your Branch they wont know and you wont need permission. I have to be honest here in that being Padi trained, but a member of Bsac, I have never asked for permission and I never will.
Its one of the things I hated about being an actual real club member. Part of the reason for this is that nobody was ever available to take me diving, so I just did it for myself. If that is the way forward for you can I suggest you make sure you get someone experienced (Padi Rescue? or similar) and dives in a manner similar to how you would like to dive i.e. conservatively at first, in a safe location with emergency services at hand, somewhere like Stoney is perfect. There are loads of virtual clubs also that fit the bill and have plenty of divers happy to guide you until you feel comfortable. I used www.dive-fun.co.uk as they were happy to 'train' me at Stoney and have their own Oxygen kits etc. plus they have some great guys too.
HTH
Matt

(Edited by MATTBIN at 10:30 am on Feb. 13, 2003)

 

[Frog]

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Well done mate.  Great feeling when you pass an exam, isn't it?  Good enough reason for me to open a bottle of champagne...  Dive safely.  :boozer:

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Congratulations!, so you didn't get "paper B" then

I'm BSAC trained from the start, and although the "club rules" can seem a bit like they're designed to stop you diving, once you get more experience you'll see things a little differently.  

Re using Dive Marshals, that's a sound safety feature and I've been glad of this system on a couple of occasions. Within the Branch this will usually be done quite formally, taking details of tank contents , expected dive times etc,

Outside of the Branch its not uncommon to have one or two people simply watching out for FUBAR situations from the shore. THe more adventurous your diving becomes the more important this system is.
(Incidentally, this would be a sensible precaution for YD troop gigs which aren't done with the benefit of experienced boat skippers , who are automatically Dive Marshals in such situations

Basically, you should tell your DO about diving outside of the branch, even if purely out of courtesy (Ex DO myself so I can see both sides of the coin), you don't need his/her "permission" unless you're using club kit, which generally makes it a "Branch Dive" and therefore your DO can land up in court if things go FUBAR on a BD (check what your club defines as a BD, it's not set in stone).

As for who to dive with, as a newbie you need the safety of an experienced diver, usually this is Dive Leader or above, but your DO can give you the OK to dive with an experienced Sport Diver if they choose, I wouldn't recommend it at this juncture though.

Once you get into Instructor level buddies (there are several BSAC Ins on these boards) you really only need to tell your DO "I'm diving with XXX BSAC Instructor this weekend" he may ask for contact details of this person, which is perfectly acceptable in my book, but doesn't have any right of veto.

So, you got your own kit? If so there's a few of us likely to be at Capernwray or Lakes or similar on Sunday, typical places for your first OW dive.

Of course you can easily ignore all this, but let's not forget that diving can indeed be dangerous and we're a long time dead.

Chee-az
Steve W - cautious old fart planning to stick around diving until I can no longer lift my tanks



(Edited by Steve W at 10:51 am on Feb. 13, 2003)

 

[MATTBIN]

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Good advice Steve.
Matt

 

[Justin Owen]

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Hi Steve,

After the ranting on the BSAC forum I got paper A! A bit ambiguous on a few questions, but I got 27/30 so all the study paid off - personally I liked the fact the paper made you think about the answers.

I pick my gear up on Saturday from SDS. I don't think I'd be comfortable enough to go out on Sunday - no matter how adventurous I am! I've got one of the instructors with me next wednesday teaching me how to use my dry-suit, which will be good as it'll be one-on-one instruction as the others will be sitting their theory test. All you'd need on sunday is a trainee floating feet up!!

I agree with you regarding the set-up of BSAC. The club I belong to has both club dives and 'non' club dives so they have a lot of scope and the best of both worlds.

I think i'm gonna start hassling my instructors to basically take me out to complete the open water lessons sooner rather than later. I'm ahead of the others in that i've done the theory and will have my own equipment by Saturday - some of the others may not have their equipment for a while - and i'm not being critical of anyone, some of the others have partners/kids/other priorities, whereas all I think about at the moment is diving!

 

[Mr T.]

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Hey Justin,

very well done mate on passing your exam!!!

Take it at an easy and relaxed pace and we'll see you in the water before you know it!

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Good call on trying your drysuit first, presumably in the pool? But even if you feel you haven't quite got it right, don't put off your outdoors diving for too long, I have often taken folk for the first use of a drysuit in places like the lakes or Cape, sure, floaty feet can be an issue but that's why Cape has 3metre platforms.
Anyway, if you end up coming on a future YD Troop gig I'm happy enough taking inexperienced divers out so don't delay, dive today (or soon anyway)  
Chee-az
Steve

 

[Justin Owen]

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Thanks Bren!

Steve, yep, in the pool on wednesday, gonna be sweating buckets in a heated pool with a weezle on!

Quick **hypothetical** question, if a BSAC instructor was to offer to do the Open Water training with me outside our branch, would that be allowed? Or am I in danger of alienating my fellow club mates and branch instructors? I'll ask the question in the club next week, but i'm just curious. From a selfish point of view, I don't want to be waiting 2/3 months to complete open water training when I am ready to proceed now...

Just a thought (in case any of my lot are reading!)

 

[Dr Stevil]

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If your branch is finding it a drag to allocate the time to training you, then they'd probably be more than happy to let someone else do it, alternatively if they're on the ball with training dives then they'll be nagging you to get get out with them, either way it is entirely normal and a sensible idea to be trained by a variety of instructors as no two are identical (or at least shouldn't be!)
BTW who and where are your club?
Chee-az
Steve

 

[Justin Owen]

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Chester BSAC. Very impressed with them, good bunch of people and there's some top instructors there. I'm sure they'll have me in the water very soon! I doubt very much i'll ever need to think about getting any training outside the club, and I respect their judgement too much to do that without a #### good reason! But it's always nice to know your options eh?!

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Ah, when you said you were in the north west I assumed you meant Cumbria. Chester, that's the Midlands to us in The Toon!

The reason I mentioned varied instruction was that I found that as soon as I moved outside my original club I discovered there were a lot more variants of different techniques than I had previously been led to believe, eg donating primary reg as opposed to proffering your octopus, so be aware that at entry level what you may be taught as THE way to do something may turn out to be only one of the available options: For instance, not one person in my old club ever encouraged the use of the "frog kick" yet many divers on these boards swear by it.
Chee-az
Steve

 

[MATTBIN]

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When are you Northerners going to realise that anything North of Watford is NORTH ok? and anything further than North is Scotland.
Matt