BSAC Ocean Diver!

It's all over, bar the final stamp in my training log book.

I've successfully completed BSAC's Ocean Diver training course. Which means I'm qualified to dive to a depth of 20m, under the watchful eye of a qualified dive master.

As I've blogged before, there's nothing to stop me donning my kit and jumping into nearby Portland Harbour on my own. But common sense and good practice says I should always dive in the company of a buddy. And if I want to dive with a club I need to demonstrate that I know what I'm doing - hence the qualification.

The BSAC approach to scuba diver training is to use volunteer instructors. So we (I trained alongside my daughter) owe a huge debt of thanks to Geoff, Perrin and Simon from Alton BSAC. They've given up hours of their time to deliver lessons in the classroom, local swimming pool and open water sites. Their unwavering commitment and enthusiasm is to be commended. Thank you!

So what now? The next level of training is Sports Diver, which would allow me to drop to 35m underwater. A quick scan down a list of wrecks local to my Dorset home shows that those extra 15 metres would allow me to visit a much broader range of sites.

Then there's the change from wet suit to dry suit diving. Having picked up a second-hand dry suit it makes sense to get some training in how to use it.

And I ought to hook up with the local BSAC club. I've finally worked out where they meet and when; next step is to be there when they are!

What I still find incredible is that when 2010 opened, I had no intention of getting involved in scuba diving. Nine months later I've completed the course and, more significantly, I'll never look at deep water in the same way again.

Testing Times for Scuba Diving

It's a long time since I sat an exam.

But I had to take one yesterday. Learning to be a scuba diver involves plenty of practical work, in the pool and open water, but there's also a stack of theory to take on board. And your knowledge is tested with an exam.

Our training has covered diverse subjects including human respiration, how to plan a dive, the organisational structure of BSAC, how to dive a wreck responsibly, and more. We've mastered the BSAC dive tables and how to discipher the markings inscribed into compressed air cylinders.

If taking an exam isn't challenging enough, the pass mark is 80%. That's high, but it's all stuff that a diver needs to know.

Before the exam we had a revision session where we went through an example paper. A reasonable number of questions could be answered from common sense and general diving knowledge, while some required an understanding of how to use dive tables or remember technical terms.

There's always a slight nervousness before any exam. Do I know enough? Should I spend a bit more time reviewing my notes? The BSAC exams are marked on the spot, meaning you find out whether you've passed, or failed, there and then.

We were handed the paper and given 30 minutes to complete a multiple choice answer grid. Within moments I spotted questions that I would struggle to answer. Help! Turning the page I began to wish I'd spent more time reading the BSAC manual earlier that morning. My approach was to answer the easy questions and go back to the more difficult ones, and I was skipping too many to be comfortable.

So I was relieved when, moments later, it was discovered we'd been given a more advanced paper by mistake. No wonder I was having difficulty - we hadn't been taught most of this stuff!

We started again with the correct paper and it took me 15 minutes to complete a test for which I'd been given 30. Fortunately this wasn't school and we weren't forced to spend the remaining time in bored silence, waiting for the minutes to tick by.

The good news is that I passed, as did my daughter. But neither scored 100% and we spent time talking through the questions we got wrong. One or two technical terms had escaped me, and some points of procedure were open to interpretation, to me at least.

I have one lesson to complete and that's it, I should become a fully-fledged BSAC Ocean Diver. Which sounds grand, but it's the lowest level of qualification. I'll then have to decide whether to move on to the next level, Sports Diver.

At least I now have a better idea of what that involves, having had a sneak peek at the exam!

Ocean Diver (Almost)

I'm taking the BSAC Ocean Diver course.

So it's appropriate that yesterday's diving was in the ocean. Or to be more precise, the English Channel. Or to be even more precise, Swanage Bay.

During my various visits to Swanage I've watched the dive boats coming in and out with mild curiousity. Where do they go? What do they do? So there was some satisfaction in being part of the team loading a boat on the beach, watched by casual observers on the promenade. How many of them harboured a latent desire to be joining us, as I always had?

The Alton BSAC club is fortunate enough to own its own RIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat) courtesy of a National Lottery grant. It was large enough to carry the six in our party to our two dive sites, the first of which was just off Swanage's west beach.

Diving in the sea brings it's own challenges. First there's buoyancy - a novice diver needs to carry more weight because it's harder to sink in salt water. Secondly, the suface is constantly moving because of wave action. In a busy harbour there's also plenty of surface disturbance from other boat users.

Performing my first backwards roll entry into the sea was relatively easy - I've got used to the idea of falling into water and assuming that I'll eventually surface. I just concentrate on breathing and natural buoyancy sorts out everything else.

My main problem was overcoming this buoyancy and getting below the surface. On the first dive I was carrying 10kg in weight and could not get down. My buddy added another 2kg to my pocket and at the same time I remembered what my instructor had said about tension creating buoyancy problems. As I floated on the surface I told myself to relax and allowed the waves to wash over me. It did the trick and moments later I was 6m down, on the seabed.

I learned a huge amount from my two ocean dives and it's given me plenty to blog about in the coming days. I had my first encounter with marine life, my first dive to a wreck, my first drift dive and my first underwater incident that proved the importance of all our safety training.

It's also left me with some important decisions to make. Do I buy a wetsuit or a drysuit? Should I invest in an SMB (surface marker buoy)? Is this the right time to buy a dive computer?

Lots to think about and lots to write about. I'm not a qualified Ocean Diver yet, but at least I've now dived in the ocean!