Club diving!

[RickM]

I am not a member of any dive club at present, but dive as part of my job, and occasionally with a couple of friends.

My question is, I am aware of many other divers at work, and have recently thought it would be great if I could compile a list of names to form an informal dive club, where we just took off on weekends diving. None of us, as far as I am aware are qualified instructors or DM's. How would we stand on liability and insurance? Is it sufficient for us to ensure we have our own insurance? Do we need to sign an indemnity form?

This is just for fun, so that people who may not otherwise have a dive buddy can come along with us. I intend to keep it open only to work colleagues.

We are based in the UK.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Rick

 

[scuberd]

Liability would be the same as anytime you went out diving with friends. Rules like "a DM must be present on all club dives" are set up by the club or organizing body. But if it were an informal gathering of friends who called themselves a club then, legally (I hope I'm right here) it would still be just a group of friends.

hope this helps

 

[Adrian Kelland]

Rick

I think Scuberd is basically right. Under UK law you will each have a duty of care towards each other. If you do any dive, you should keep to the limits and recommendations of your training. If your buddy had an incident while diving with you outside these recommendations, you could be found in breach of this duty of care. All dives have a leader, someone is in charge. You dont have to be an instructor to lead a dive, but appropriate training would be required. I don't know what being a DM really means. If it means managing group of say six divers on a dive, you can pretty much forget it in UK waters. It can be hard enough to see your buddy. I'll let someone else correct me on this.

**Have just read your profile, I think that you don't need telling most of the above! Others may read this, so I have left it. However you must of heard about the policeman from Wales whose trainee died in South Devon while he was instructing as a sideline.**

As to an indemnity form, whose form with what indemnity would you be signing?

I am a BSAC member, and have no experience or knowledge of other organisations. It is possible to join BSAC directly and get their 3rd party insurance as part of the fee. However this would mean diving under BSAC rules, which might not suit.

Do the other divers involved belong to any club as well? That could be another route. You could of course form a BSAC special branch. No pun intended

Adrian

 

[MikeFerrara]

I don't know about the UK but here most clubs have insurance.

 

[kelpmermaid]

That's news to me, Mike. We are incorporated as a non-profit and have a minimal treasury, although that is not deliberate. There is nothing to insure. We do have people sign waivers, not that it would stop a suit from being filed. Of course, they could always go after us as individuals, club or not.

 

[budgy]

Hi Rick, When you dive at work, the HSE requires one of you to be appointed as the contractor which has legal obligations regarding safety and health duties.
On a recreational club dive, one of you is the dive organiser. As such, it is possible that the organiser or club could be held legally responsible for not carrying out basic safety standards and procedures that resulted in an accidental damage to property or injury. Although recreational diving organisations such as BSAC teach and expect the branches to carry out certain prescribed health and safety procedures. These clubs often have trainee's and young people in the water, which is perhaps why they feel having 3rd party liability is essential. At the same time this is a grey area legally, for there are no legal obligations or HSE standards for individual recreational divers at present in the U.K.

 

[MikeFerrara]

kelpmermaid once bubbled...
That's news to me, Mike. We are incorporated as a non-profit and have a minimal treasury, although that is not deliberate. There is nothing to insure. We do have people sign waivers, not that it would stop a suit from being filed. Of course, they could always go after us as individuals, club or not.

That's why you need insurance. I wouldn't even think about being an officer in a club that wasn't insured. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know how much protection being incorporated gives individuals.

 

[Spectre]

RickM once bubbled...
This is just for fun, so that people who may not otherwise have a dive buddy can come along with us. I intend to keep it open only to work colleagues.

Have you looked at the NDI chapter here? UK Wreck Ferrets