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Diving
Officer’s Report - April 2001
Divers
have been under attack over the last year or so, leading to
BSAC’s ‘Respect our Wrecks’ campaign. We must do all we can,
as individuals, to preserve our right to dive on wrecks, whilst
being sensitive to the feelings of families of those who may
have lost their lives on these ships. Branch Policy is now one
of ‘Look, but don’t Touch’-more of this as the season progresses.
An amnesty for reporting ‘finds’ expires today - I was interviewed
by Radio Humberside recently about this, so the awareness of
the general public is increasing. The longer-serving members
will remember the problems between divers and fishermen, when
divers gained a reputation for robbing lobster-pots. This led
to diving being banned at places like St. Abbs and a certain
amount of animosity at Seahouses (Farne Islands). It doesn’t
take much to alter the balance. I’m pleased that some members
have taken advantage of the amnesty - anyone who hasn’t taken
advantage of this amnesty will not get much sympathy from me
if they suddenly get a surprise visit from the office of Receiver
of Wreck.
I
feel, personally, that diving during this last year has been
a little disappointing. The coastal conditions were pretty poor
in general, which has led to fewer diving opportunities. Even
the ‘Wreck Attack’ weekend suffered from the weather, leading
to both days being cancelled. However, it was pleasing to note
that this event was reasonably well supported.
The
St. Abbs trip, in May, turned out to be well-supported-22 people
making the trip.
This
year’s trip is, at the moment, full up (24 people) and will
see some trainees getting their first sea-dives. There were
several other trips organized by various members, including
John Fuller and Brian Smith.
The
Raft Race took a while to get off the ground but proved to be
an enjoyable day – pity someone pulled the plug out of Lee and
Dean’s bathtub.
There
have, however, been some bright spots-the number of log-sheets
have increased over the year (even if some have been rather
creative!), and one member has finally got round to registering
his dive-trips and people involved, with the D.O. prior to the
event (even if he phoned me from the water’s edge at Stoney
one Sunday morning!) – and submitting a log-sheet afterwards!
This
is part of the discipline of safe diving. Anyone who doesn’t
accept the need for disciplined diving should consult the BSAC
Incident Report book. Don’t forget, it is the Diving Officer
who is ultimately responsible for all diving and training activities
within the branch. It would be the D.O. who has to go into Court
to explain why you couldn’t be bothered to do the job properly!
On
the training front, the pool has been utilized to varying degrees,
but we are starting to see new trainees appearing – one or two
as a result of the small (but perfectly formed) try-dive at
The Schultz Centre. This event seems to be waning in popularity,
however. We may not be able to use this venue in the future,
which is a shame as it makes a useful addition to our choice
of venue.
I
believe that we could make things more efficient in the pool,
a point that the new DO will doubtless consider.
Qpen-water
training is still the barrier to a successful club. However,
we have made big strides towards improving the situation over
the last couple of years. More open-water training has taken
place on a formal basis, but the situation still needs to improve.
The sense of disappointment may have resulted from my overly-ambitious
targets – It must be remembered that we are a voluntary organization.
I
believe that we have we have an excellent instructional team
– my feelings were borne out during a recent visit to Stoney,
where I had opportunity to observe other groups being trained/assessed
– and this branch offers brilliant incentives for people to
become instructors, whilst we have gained agreement from the
branch committee that Instructors, who take part in club training
dives, are entitled to have their expenses met by the trainees.
The
BSAC is progressing towards a situation whereby all open-water
instruction/assessment is carried out by the equivalent of an
Open-Water Instructor. It is obvious that we will need to be
able to comply with that requirement – Trevor Jones and Ian
Sibley-Calder have done the course, with Gary Cooper (fresh
from his success at Club Instructor level) aiming to do the
course. This will add to our stock of Open-Water Instructors
(Chris & Liz Storey and John Dunwell being the others).
All
instructors in the pool (except Mike Bonning, who is doing it
this year) have completed the Instructor training course.
My
initiative for a ‘Train the Trainer’ day didn’t materialize,
although there was overwhelming support for the idea. This is
one thing that I would strongly recommend the new D.O. to implement.
Several
members have attended Skill Development Courses, including the
always-needed Boat Handling Course, the practical day of which
saw the snow falling horizontally in a strong wind. Fortunately,
it was postponed and the second attempt saw near-perfect conditions.
Combined Nitrox, Practical Rescue Management, First Aid for
Divers, Oxygen Admin and ITC’s have been attended by branch
members.
I
would like to see most of the SDC’s run in-house – for this
we need accredited SDC instructors and that is one area for
future development.
There
may be opportunity to harness the training requirements of the
people working for ‘The Deep’, but I would advise caution –
it could stretch our resources beyond the limit, to the detriment
of existing members.
All-in-all,
the branch had 33 new members over the year, 24 of whom required
full pool training. The remaining 9 required the in-house life-saving
– 7 of these were from agencies other than BSAC.
There
were 65 Club diver lectures, 20 Sports and 20 Dive Leader lectures
given over the year, whilst 27 Club Diver exams, 8 Sports, 3
Dive Leader and 4 Advanced Diver exams were taken during the
period.
A
two-day coaching scheme was organized for pupils at South Hunsley
School in August, which taught them Snorkelling and Aqualung
skills. The Branch received a cheque for £240 for this.
The
Branch was also invited to clear debris from the pump intake
of a market-garden complex in Gilberdyke. Initial questions
regarding insurance were resolved and this project is still
ongoing.
I
would like to take this opportunity of thanking all the instructors
for their hard work and commitment over the last two years,
and to Trevor Jones in particular, for his renewed enthusiasm
for Open-Water training (and the stats for this report!).
Congratulations
should also go to John Dunwell for his appointment as Regional
Coach, and Chris Storey for his appointment as Area Coach. As
you are aware, Chris takes over as Hull Branch 14 Diving Officer
as from tonight.
It’s
been an enjoyable and interesting, if sometimes frustrating,
couple of years. I knew that it would take more than the allotted
three years to complete the changes needed, but I hope that
I have started to turn things in the right direction.
Phil Frecknall
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