Event – BSAC Instructor Crossover June
Historically BSAC was based on a branch system. Unlike other diver certification agencies, BSAC members enter a local community of divers. This means BSAC members are more active divers, and have greater allegiance towards other BSAC Branches and Dive Centres.
There are large numbers of active BSAC Members in the UK, Middle East, Japan, Korea and Thailand. By becoming a BSAC professional you’ll have unrestricted access to market your training and trips to these tens of thousands of BSAC Members, through channels not available to non-BSAC schools.
BSAC Training is the choice of the UK Armed forces, plus universities in the UK and Thailand. By becoming a BSAC professional you’ll have access to large markets not available to non-BSAC schools.
Many hundreds of thousands of divers have trained with the BSAC over more than 50 years.
Diver training has evolved but BSAC philosophy has always been to produce highly competent self-reliant divers with excellent knowledge and practical skills and with safety considerations uppermost.
And BSAC doesn’t stop at diver training. BSAC has a rounded curriculum encompassing all activities of diving and seamanship, such as boat handling, chart work and navigation, oxygen administration, engine maintenance, compressor operation, technical diving and more. The breadth and scope of BSAC Training is unrivaled.
If you want to be the best, you’ll want to be with BSAC.
Course Overview
The requirement for attending the BSAC Instructor crossover course is that you are an Instructor from any agency other than BSAC and working in a centre where BSAC courses are to be offered. Knowledge of other diving agencies and how they work is useful as it will give you a greater understanding of how elements fit in across the different agencies.
It must be emphasized that the crossover course Instructor examiner, is not there to assess your instructing ability but rather to acquaint you with BSAC methodology and knowledge so that you will have the tools to be able to deliver BSAC diving courses; mainly Ocean Diver, Sports Diver and Dive Leader.
The course duration is 2-days and covers the following elements
6 Theory lessons
2 Practical lessons
The course starts with a series of orientation lessons which introduces the Instructor to, the BSAC and how it operates, Diver grades, BSAC dive tables, BSAC teaching methodology etc.
In the latter, there will be a series of theory classroom lessons. In these lessons, the Course Instructor will demonstrate a typical classroom presentation; showing you how to breakdown the lesson contents into small manageable steps; making complex topics simple to understand. You then will have a chance to present a 15 -20 minute classroom presentation using the prescribed method
Practical Sessions
The first practical session will be run by the course instructor, who will demonstrate a set of skills and how to progressively break them down. You may not have seen some of these skills as they may not be in your agency’s training programme.
The second practical session, which will normally take place on day 2, is for you to have a go at a mini-teach of a skill you have seen previously. It is not uncommon for some of the ‘students’ to have not been in the water for a while and so it is a good refresher and ‘hands-on’ approach.
Typical skills which will be demonstrated in ‘Sheltered Water’ include:
1 Control Buoyant Lift (CBL – some dive agencies do this skill completely differently so a good skill to learn)
2 AS (Alternative Source) using different applications
3 DSMB Deployment (Not taught in other dive agencies)
4 Distance Line Laying (relocating the shot line)
There will be an emphasis on breakdown of skill, close proximity; double demos where necessary, surface control using SMB.
At the end of Day 1 you will be asked to plan and prepare 2 lessons to give on Day 2 as a confirmation of the course. The lessons will be short; about 10 minutes.
The types of lesson are outlined below and all will have been taught or demonstrated on Day 1 by the Course Instructor.
1. CBL (Covered in Ocean Diver training)
2. PADI CBL (Good for everyone to see a different way of doing it)
3. DSMB Deployment (Covered in Sports Diver training)
4. Line Laying (Covered in Sports Diver training)
5. AS (Covered in Ocean Diver Training)
6. Rescue Breathing
Materials
Each student will receive their own comprehensive course support pack which will include,
• The Diving Instructor Manual
• Course Instructor Manual CD Rom
• A set of BSAC Nitrox and Air Decompression tables
• Qualification Card
• 1 year Instructor fee
• A set of Ocean Diver – lesson prompt cards
Course Entry Level
All candidates must produce proof of their instructor qualification from one of the following diving agencies
• CMAS
• PADI
• NAUI
• SSI
2009 Promotion
On all 2009 Instructor crossover courses candidates will also receive training and instructor qualifications in two of the BSAC Skill Development Courses. These courses are
• BSAC Oxygen Administrator
• BSAC Nitrox Instructor
Closed-Circut Divers Australia & MV Trident’s Gulf of Thailand Virgin Wreck Expedition
The MV Trident usually operates out of Koh Tao and considering the distance we had to travel to get to these wreck sites the boys decided to take the boat to Koh Samui, so we all made our way there to join the boat.
That afternoon had us assembling our equipment pumping tanks and generally settling in for the week ahead. That evening around 7.00pm we slipped the lines and we were on our way and motored all night and into mid morning before we arrived at our first mark. We arrived on the position all very excited with most of us in the wheelhouse glued to the sounder looking for the big red lump protruding from the normally flat sandy bottom of the Gulf.
The shot went down and not long after a diver followed it to tie on and shoot a bag if it was a wreck worth diving or he would just surface if it was a pile of junk and we would move on. We all waited anxiously, some guys even got into their equipment hoping to be one of the first to dive this, hopefully, virgin wreck. After what seemed like hours the lift bag appeared and it was time to get kitted up and go take a look at it.
We had a full boat of divers, consisting of 6 Open Circuit divers and 5 Closed Circuit divers (1 Sentinel, 1 Inspo-Deep Pursuit Hybrid, 1 Meg, 1 Hammerhead Meg, 1 Pelagian). We were arranged into buddy teams and our team consisted of 3 CCR divers as we had all dived together previously on another wreck diving trip in the Philippines the year before and were comfortable diving with each other. We met up at the downline at 6 meters and went through our checks before descending down the wreck below. It was later identified as a Japanese Coastal Tanker the Kinrei Maru by the Japanese crockery, size and configuration and more importantly it was not far from the location where the US Submarine the USS Hammerhead had marked her as sunk… Continued
