Grade depth limits

[angiemac]

In our branch we have many very experienced divers who, because they did not want to take their formal instruction further, dive outside the BSAC rules because they are "only" Sports divers and dive beyond 35m. Can the council please look into some kind of DO issued award that recgnises their ability to dive deeper than this limit so we can bring these poeple back into the fold?

Angie

[John Williams]

In our branch we have many very experienced divers who, because they did not want to take their formal instruction further, dive outside the BSAC rules because they are "only" Sports divers and dive beyond 35m. Can the council please look into some kind of DO issued award that recgnises their ability to dive deeper than this limit so we can bring these poeple back into the fold?

Angie

Angie,

The reason that the NDC introduced different depth limits for different grades was because very experienced divers, with "junior" grades were having accidents by diving to depth beyond their training. At the same time it was noticed that those who had acheived the DL grade were statistically far less likley to have a similar accident.

Whilst I used to be able to understand the reluctance to gain a DL qualification - because it usually meant that you were collared to dive with Novices all the time - this is surely no longer true?

Today's DO and their marshalls recognise that divers have to be able to develop their own training and skills to the point where they can do the diving they want to do! Don't they?

Another of the reasons for the depth limits was to ensure that, on dives planned to 35m plus that DLs only got to dive with other DLs (or higher). Divers who had been trained to cope with those depths and the complications that come with them were therefore paired together to keep them safe.

The limits are there to protect members from diving to depths for which they have no training to extricate themselves, or their buddy, when something goes wrong.

In order to bring these divers safely back into the fold your branch needs to reassure them that by getting the training that will prepare them for these depths they will NOT be forced, co-erced, persuaded or otherwise pressured into changing their diving habits (or their buddies).

Have a concerted push to provide the training they need to gain their DL qualifications and promise them that it will not change the way the branch views them (except to afford them greater respect)

...unless they wish to take advantage of the new aspects of diving that being a DL offers. There is, after all, no greater rush than seeing someone else see something underwater for the first time. This is something seen FAR more often by DLs and Instructors than it is by SDs...no matter what depth they dive to. This is one of the main reasons why I still enjoy diving so much.

Hope this helps you to understand why the limits were set, and will help you, and your branch, to explain the reasoning to your deep diving SDs in a way that encourages them to seek the training that might keep them a little safer.

I am not a member of Council or of the NDC so cannot say that they will/will not look at this following your prompt.

What I can say...as a DO... is that I have many DLs in my branch who do not feel presured to dive with Novices. I also have a great many SDs who wish to extend their training to DL and beyond because it opens so many new avenues to their diving (not the least of which are some of the 35m+ wrecks that the "senior divers" visit).

John