Referrals?

[Polkadot]

Hi,

I am hoping to learn to dive and see that with PADI you can do the theory and pool lessons for a highly discounted rate if you are doing the open water dives abroad.

Do BSAC offer something simular as ocean college offer the referral part abroad, or will i have to pay full price for my uk lessons?:confused:

[Nigel Hewitt]

I am hoping to learn to dive and see that with PADI you can do the theory and pool lessons for a highly discounted rate if you are doing the open water dives abroad.
It's actually quite a good deal if you can find somebody abroad that wants to do the complicated bit and discount the easy bit. You end up playing more but you don't end up spending a chunk of your expensive holiday sitting in class.

It's a good way to learn warm water diving.
Do BSAC offer something simular as ocean college offer the referral part abroad, or will i have to pay full price for my uk lessons?:confused:Nope. We are totally different. You join a club, pay for your materials and then your instructor is somebody like me and you don't pay me at all.

It takes longer but if you want to learn UK diving learn in the UK.

[Polkadot]

Hi Nigel,

Thank you for your reply. I got the impression that we would have to pay approx £380 for the Ocean Diver course on top of the monthly subscription?

When we saw that ocean college offer the referral for the open water dives, we were hoping the £380 may drop a little?

Is this not how BSAC works? I am a total novice so please bare with me!

:)

[Edward]

Hi Polkadot,

Unlike PADI whom run commercial diving courses, a BSAC Branch is a club. Like most clubs its not run on commercial lines, but it still has to cover its costs.

Therefore, its not straight forward to compare costs.

* There is no annual membership for PADI (at elementary level) whereas BSAC charge £50 membership for all levels (you also get a monthly magazine, Public Liability insurance, discounts of various goods and services i.e travel).
* With PADI you pay for specific training, with BSAC training its free, but you are charged for course materials (manuals).
* With PADI you will complete a concentrated course within a few days, with a BSAC Branch you would normally get 1 hour of training per week. Therefore training well take longer.

My question is: What would you like to do once your certified as a diver?

Regards

Edward

[GMulhall]

Polkadot,

BSAC do indeed offer this option - see no. 3 on the following link :-
http://www.bsac.com/page.asp?section=946&sectionTitle=Three+easy+ways+to+learn+to+dive+with +BSAC

As others have said, it is not easy to work out the costs as you will have to :-

i) contact a Branch in your area
ii)confirm if the Branch / Branch Instructors are willing/ able to teach the theory and confined water lessons
iii) obtain a cost from the Branch for (ii) above to include both BSAC and Branch membership
iv) hope that there is a BSAC Resort Centre in the place that you are thinking of travelling to
v) confirm that the Resort Centre is willing to teach you the open water lessons
vi) obtain a cost from the Resort Centre for (v) above

As you can see, it is not as easy as the pre-packaged PADI system but it is possible.

[steve6690]

It's fairly straightforward.

1. Join a BSAC branch as a trainee Ocean Diver.
2. Complete the theory and pool lessons with the club instructors and make sure you get them correctly signed off in your book.
3. When you're ready for the open water lessons find a BSAC school in your holiday resort of choice, book the lessons with them, get them signed off by your holiday instructor when you've done them.
4. When you return from holiday you present your book to the DO/Lead Instructor at your branch who will then award the qualification.

simples...

I don't think you'll find a branch that will train you without you actually joining as a trainee. If you have no interest in joining a branch then you could approach a UK based BSAC school and pay to do the theory and pool lessons if they are happy to do it, and then proceed as per step 3 above. You'd be a member of BSAC Direct so I don't know who would award the Ocean Diver qual when you've completed all the training.

[Edward]

It's fairly straightforward.

4. When you return from holiday you present your book to the DO/Lead Instructor at your branch who will then award the qualification.


Just change 4 to:

4. Get the BSAC Centre (School) to sign-off your qualification, they finished it they sign it - simple.

Regards

Edward

[steve6690]

Just change 4 to:

4. Get the BSAC Centre (School) to sign-off your qualification, they finished it they sign it - simple.

Regards

Edward

Even easier then.

[Polkadot]

Thank you all for your help.

We have found Ocean College in Sharm that are happy to do the open water part so we will pop along to our local BSAC this week when they run their normal session to have a chat about it all.

question is: What would you like to do once your certified as a diver?

I'd love to think that Id dive regularly but the cold water in the uk really puts me off, hence wanting to do the open water abroad, and dry suits seem very expensive for a part time hobby.... I'll just have to keep saving for tropical holidays ;)

[Edward]

I'd love to think that Id dive regularly but the cold water in the uk really puts me off, hence wanting to do the open water abroad, and dry suits seem very expensive for a part time hobby.... I'll just have to keep saving for tropical holidays ;)

Glad we could help.

Compared to once a year diving holidays (I spend > £2k) a dry suit is good value as it then allows you to dive all year round.

Regards

Edward

[steve6690]

Thank you all for your help.

We have found Ocean College in Sharm that are happy to do the open water part so we will pop along to our local BSAC this week when they run their normal session to have a chat about it all.



I'd love to think that Id dive regularly but the cold water in the uk really puts me off, hence wanting to do the open water abroad, and dry suits seem very expensive for a part time hobby.... I'll just have to keep saving for tropical holidays ;)

you can get a made-to-measure drysuit for £400....just a thought :D

[Polkadot]

Is it much warmer with a dry suit?.... I'm the sort of person that thinks a bath is cold unless it makes my skin red....:rolleyes:

[Ron MacRae]

Is it much warmer with a dry suit?.... I'm the sort of person that thinks a bath is cold unless it makes my skin red....:rolleyes:
yes it is. I dived last weekend and got 3C at 25m. I was quite comfortable, apart from my fingers. Canned the dive after 25mins as the fingers were not working.

Most of the time it's much warmer than that.

Rent a drysuit from your LDS, later in the year, and get someone in your club to take you in.

Ron.

[toniken]

It's fairly straightforward
1. Join a BSAC branch as a trainee Ocean Diver.
2. Complete the theory and pool lessons with the club instructors and make sure you get them correctly signed off in your book.
3. When you're ready for the open water lessons find a BSAC school in your holiday resort of choice, book the lessons with them, get them signed off by your holiday instructor when you've done them.
4. When you return from holiday you present your book to the DO/Lead Instructor at your branch who will then award the qualification.

simples...

I don't think you'll find a branch that will train you without you actually joining as a trainee. If you have no interest in joining a branch then you could approach a UK based BSAC school and pay to do the theory and pool lessons if they are happy to do it, and then proceed as per step 3 above. You'd be a member of BSAC Direct so I don't know who would award the Ocean Diver qual when you've completed all the training.
1,2,3, is correct, if you've completed all the course, the diver training centre signs off the qualification.

[northern_diver]

A drysuit makes life much easier:) though its not impossible to dive the summer in a semi-dry (wet suit with seals).

Dived 3degrees before, wasnt really an issue in my MTM membrane drysuit (500 quid all told)

A club will normally be happy to give you an experience of UK diving, drysuit included. You may have to rent the suit but that's only around 30-40 quid and it be a good experience.

UK diving is just as good as foreign, its got the life, the wrecks and like...all the good...and bad and its more a case of '6 and two 3's'...worth the try:)

BSAC even has a presentation on it to highlight its good points and considerations.

Good luck with the course

John

[jsdiver]

On referrals - not sure how much you actually save - if you shop around you can find OW course for 300-340 from a reasonable centre - whereas Referral is usually about 200. You may as well complete the course in UK so you are ready for your holiday.

[Roz]

I'd love to think that I'd dive regularly but the cold water in the uk really puts me off

Hi Polkadot, you wouldn't go skiing in a bikini would you? Well it's the same in diving. We have some truly awesome diving in the UK - historic shipwrecks and amazing marine life. The trick is to wear decent thermal underwear and a drysuit. We're really fortunate that material technology has come on leaps and bounds and today we get to wear clothing made from material developed by NASA. And when it comes to drysuits, whilst initially you may think it's an expensive piece of kit, it's not really. I still dive a drysuit that's ten years old and it's still got plenty of life in it, whereas my first semidry did 6 years and then died.

The best way to describe the different between temperate water diving and blue water diving is with food. I love Italian food and I also enjoy a good Chinese. Both are wonderful for different reasons, but they are still both food. The same can be applied to diving. I love blue water diving and I also love temperate water diving because they satisfy me in different ways.

Enjoy your diving in Sharm, but please don't dismiss our wonderous waters. Otherwise you'll be 'eating a very limited diet', and they do say variety is the spice of life!

[Edward]

Hi Polkadot, you wouldn't go skiing in a bikini would you? Well it's the same in diving. We have some truly awesome diving in the UK - historic shipwrecks and amazing marine life. The trick is to wear decent thermal underwear and a drysuit. We're really fortunate that material technology has come on leaps and bounds and today we get to wear clothing made from material developed by NASA. And when it comes to drysuits, whilst initially you may think it's an expensive piece of kit, it's not really. I still dive a drysuit that's ten years old and it's still got plenty of life in it, whereas my first semidry did 6 years and then died.

The best way to describe the different between temperate water diving and blue water diving is with food. I love Italian food and I also enjoy a good Chinese. Both are wonderful for different reasons, but they are still both food. The same can be applied to diving. I love blue water diving and I also love temperate water diving because they satisfy me in different ways.

Enjoy your diving in Sharm, but please don't dismiss our wonderous waters. Otherwise you'll be 'eating a very limited diet', and they do say variety is the spice of life!

Well put, fully support the above.

Edward