Best way to minimise any risks associated with diving is to get the best training possible, and that’s probably going to be BSAC (although there will be exceptions). This is especially true if you plan to dive in the UK, can be surprisingly exciting and rewarding. BSAC training is basically more safety focussed and more rigorous for a comparable qualification. If I had to dive with a total stranger, I’d choose a BSAC qualified one every time. Having said all this, I sacked diving years ago as it’s very time consuming in the UK if you don’t live near the coast, and also pretty hit miss miss conditions-wise. Great memories, though.

maxtorque – Member

BTW, i’m not that worried in absolute value for money, as i’d be giving up my rallying to do this. (And last time i made a mistake doing that, it cost me £22k in about 4 seconds………..)

Does that mean you’re not going to finish building the toy in the garage?

Diving in the UK can be amazing or grim, but it is generally much harder work than bobbing around in the Red sea. The weather and viz can make a big difference and a dive to 30m in Sharm is very different to the Clyde, so if you plan on UK diving it is better to learn the hard way and have real understanding of what diving here involves

Exactly, now I have dived abroad after initially doing 60+ UK dives, which were often hard work, the effort all round involved for UK diving almost makes it a chore.

There’s perfectly good PADI instruction in the UK aimed at UK conditions. Train in the conditions you’re planning to dive in though – if you just want pretty fish in clear warm waters then there’s no point doing OW in a freezing pond in the UK.

I enjoyed it a lot, had a good group of mates who were into it so quite a few weekends away UK diving (plenty more sat in a pub because the weather was too bad). Haven’t for a while though, way too time consuming these days so it’s been the odd dive on holiday instead.

I have a stash of decent diving kit (BCD, regs, weights, etc) sat doing nothing if anyone’s interested – mail me and I’ll dig out details.

So it looks like doing a basic PADI course is a good idea, and then if i get involved in the UK scene, perhaps swapping to a BSAC / club environment?

So it looks like doing a basic PADI course is a good idea, and then if i get involved in the UK scene, perhaps swapping to a BSAC / club environment?

Sounds like a good plan to me.

FWIW I qualified with BSAC initially (poor instructor) and then went PADI for diving overseas (great instructor) and I would echo the above comments that it is more about your instructor than BSAC vs PADI.

As mentioned above, diving in Turkey tends to be a little bit slack on the safety side of things 😯

I’ve got PADI Advanced, if you’re interested in doing a PADI course in Spain I can recommend a couple of places – good instructors who speak English, kit in good condition, etc. The water’s probably warmer than a quarry in the UK, too 🙂

Maxtorque you are banned from diving unless you finish building the SEAT shopping car 😀
I am a fairly experienced diver (willy waving alert) in that I have now spent longer under the sea than I did in the womb (that’s over 6500 dives if you are struggling with the maths). I run a dive boat in The Maldives and our clients are divers of all training agencies.
Forget all the PADI (Put Another Dollar In) v BSAC (Buoyancy Skills Aren’t Compulsory) rubbish and find a recommendation for a good instructor. It looks like a few people have pointed you in the direction of someone in your area.
UK diving is rewarding but challenging so I would always recommend diving with a club in order to build your experience.
Holiday diving can also be challenging so select your destination carefully. If you aren’t intending to dive in the UK then do a referral course so you can get all the academics and pool work out of the way at home and use your holiday for diving.
Be careful though. I only learned to dive for fun and ended up becoming an Instructor living on a boat for most of the last 15 years.

ps: any valid risk comparisons with MTB? i suspect biking is the more dangerous due to a almost total lack of controls (i’m talking about the more serious mtb here, not riding a tow path

My gut feel is your assessment is odd, although I suppose it depends what you define as “danger”. The number of people who die in the UK Mountain biking is tiny; I suspect more people do it, and in general do it more often than dive. There are sadly more than a dozen fatal diving accidents in the UK every year, despite it being an activity generally with formal training, often run through organised channels.

This is where I turn for quantitative statistics on “sports” risk: http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/risk/sports.html

Note cycling is treated as one there – and I assume death by car is far more common than death by tree.

Of course you might not be so worried about dying in which case the risk of serious but non-life threatening injuries like fractures is probably much higher from cycling that diving.

ps: any valid risk comparisons with MTB? i suspect biking is the more dangerous due to a almost total lack of controls (i’m talking about the more serious mtb here, not riding a tow path

From a risk assessment point of view, MTB has a higher likelihood of having an incident with the consequences being non life threatening 99% of the time, with SCUBA the likelihood is probably lower but the consequences can often be life threatening.

There are sadly more than a dozen fatal diving accidents in the UK every year, despite it being an activity generally with formal training, often run through organised channels.

Indeed, the little obituary section in the dive mags (present in most issues) is pretty sobering.

BSAC publish annual incident reports here: http://www.bsac.com/page.asp?section=1038&sectionTitle=Annual+Diving+Incident+Report – there’s plenty of detail about the factors involved.

However, it’s worth saying that a good chunk of these are medical issues (heart attacks, etc) – dealing with those underwater is difficult, and even once at the surface you’re probably stuck on a boat a long way from medical facilities. Some more are people doing riskier diving – dives requiring decompression, different gas mixes, wrecks/caves, rebreathers, etc. Some are silly mistakes causing bigger problems.

I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned it, but for more advice, opinion and recommendations stick your nose in over at the Yorkshire Divers forum. It’s a bit like this site but without the magazine. I hear there’s a new cylinder size that really brings the seabed to life…

15l is the only way to go, unless you’re going with twins…

Matt24k
I run a dive boat in The Maldives

Ok, i already don’t like you…… 😉

I certainly don’t just want to be a “holiday” diver, as that’s too little diving a year to get, and more importantly, stay current imo. Bit like hitting the blacks at Antur just once a year with no other riding, it’s probably going to end in tears!

I’m going to have a ring around to the two Northampton groups mentioned by others and see whats what!

😉

BTW, i think i’m set on learning in the UK, as that’ll give me more time, and a bit like riding in the mud most of the time that makes you savour the dry rides, learning in UK conditions makes holidays even better (and i suspect a more skillful diver in the end perhaps?)

learning in UK conditions makes holidays even better (and i suspect a more skillful diver in the end perhaps

Probably. Sweamrs learnt in Oz on the Great Barrier reef and then decided she wanted another diving holiday. I did my Padi basic (so I can’t comment as well as lots of others on here) in the UK including a delightful dive in the muck somewhere off Southampton.

When we then went on another dive holiday in Greece (with an English Instructor) despite our qualifications being notionally equal it seemed that mine had more value in his eyes….

To agree with several of the points above it is about the quality of instructor (and maybe the mindset of the diver) rather than the training organisation. I have dived with brilliant divers from all organisations, and also appalling and frankly dangerous divers from them all.

Personally I would recommend a referral course. That way you do the class room and pool stuff in the UK, and the open water parts somewhere nice. I learnt to dive in the UK, and really didn’t learn to dive, I just learn to complete the skills needed. Doing a referral also lets two instructors assess you and provide comments on your technique.

BTW, i think i’m set on learning in the UK, as that’ll give me more time, and a bit like riding in the mud most of the time that makes you savour the dry rides, learning in UK conditions makes holidays even better (and i suspect a more skillful diver in the end perhaps?)

I think that makes sense from the perspective of having more time to enjoy holidays. It’s what I did, though next to no visibility training dives in Portsmouth and Portland haven’t encouraged me to do any regular diving in the UK.

I do frequently think about doing some but the prospect of weekends I could be riding lost to bad condition diving always put me off committing to sorting out UK appropriate kit. I was on a trip in the Maldives at the end of last year – about 50/50 at best on the “do you dive in the UK” front and that was with some pretty experienced folk.

It is a lot more faff diving over here, but I still love it. Infact some of my favourite dives were when I was living in Aberystwyth. If conditions were right we’d get a call and if we were available we’d rush down to Castle Rocks to catch the tides right. Had to be high tide because even then it was a max depth of 6m. Undersuits, drysuits, weights and everything else, trekking across the beach with a long surface swim all whilst desperate to get under water to cool down a bit.

Bali on the other hand was so refreshing, rash top, shorts, kit on and jump in.

If conditions were right we’d get a call and if we were available we’d rush down to Castle Rocks to catch the tides right.

What was so good about a 6m shore dive with a long trek in to make it so worthwhile?

Second all the comments about good instructors. I was BSAC trained at University and started on the route to becoming an instructor. Recently my girlfriend qualified through PADI.

I guess I have the following advice:
[list]
[*]Avoid PADI dive centres attached to a hotel that don’t have a footprint outside of the hotel. The PADI 5* rating thing is pretty meaningless in my view. Look for a PADI centre that has a good instructor training programme and has their own (decent!) boats.[/*]
[*]PADI vs. BSAC thing doesn’t matter much, but be aware PADI need you to do more qualifications and specialisations before you learn rescue skills, nitrox and basic decompression diving. These are all good things to know, even if you don’t intend to use them.[/*]
[*]I think of diving training as being a little like doing a degree. Sure, you can revise for the exam only, but if you’re interested in starting a new hobby it doesn’t hurt to read around the subject, then you’ll know what to do if your buddy accidentally slips into decompression and panics![/*]
[/list]

On the risks side, most people have nailed it – likelihood is greater mountain biking, but more serious diving. You’re in an environment that’s not capable of supporting human life.

It’s one of the best things I’ve done. Every dive is like a magical, weightless, playground safari thing! So above all, enjoy it and don’t be a dick!

I would recommend doing the theory and pool stuff in the UK, then finish off the training somewhere nice and warm.

This

When I moved to Singapore I was told skip the sailing and other sports yiu’ve done in the UK and take up diving as its world class in the region. One incentive is the oceans are dying so see stuff now 🙁

I personally didn’t take to it but recomend you give it a go. Pay attemtion and take care have a few friends of friends (inc a finacee of a friend) who’ve died doing it, all basically didn’t follow the rukes which are there for a reason

mtbtom
You’re in an environment that’s not capable of supporting human life.

I’ve been to Antur in December, about which you could say the same thing…… 😆

You are so right about keeping your skill level up to the type of diving or Mtb you want to do. After almost a year off the bike I went OTB 50 metres into The Beast of Brenin, cracked 3 ribs and couldn’t ride for 4 out of my 8 weeks in the UK.
In terms of diving accidents verses biking I would say that I have seen far more bike related injuries than I have dealt with dive related issues. Unfortunately many dive fatalities are due to poor fitness of the diver especially since self medical certification became the norm. So many people lie on those forms!