Help improve diver training — 4-minute anonymous survey (student research)

[Edward3c]

Many BSAC clubs run optional refresher sessions in April when at the start of the U.K. dives season. Where rescue and DSMB skills are practiced.

When I joined on overseas BSAC club for one of their holiday trips, I encouraged them to practice deploying their DSMBs on the first day. It turned out many hadn’t practiced for a few years, relying on dive guides.

 

[boulderjohn]

See the regulations here, it’s past of the written risk assessment.

I was unable to find the part with the specific depth limits. I found only this on page 15:

(5) Guided dives which require specific qualifications, such as nightdiving, wreck diving, may only be carried out if each individual client has the appropriate qualifications, including speciality certification or equivalent logged experience or when an instructor with the appropriate qualifications or experience is responsible for the dive and for leading it underwater​

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Could you please point me to the specific location of those limits?

 

[Edward3c]

I was unable to find the part with the specific depth limits. I found only this on page 15:

(5) Guided dives which require specific qualifications, such as nightdiving, wreck diving, may only be carried out if each individual client has the appropriate qualifications, including speciality certification or equivalent logged experience or when an instructor with the appropriate qualifications or experience is responsible for the dive and for leading it underwater​

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Could you please point me to the specific location of those limits?

The way the Maltese do it, once you've been charged you have to prove you're innocent. As BSAC is in partnership with the Maltese Tourist Authority, they know BSAC qualifications have a maximum depth limit over which our insurance will not apply (unless rescuing someone). The prosecutors will apply the same logic for other agencies. The world of legislation is never straight forward.

20m = Ocean Diver
40m = Sports Diver (following post depth progression dives with an instructor)
50m = Dive Leader (following post depth progression dives with an instructor or experience Dive Leader)
50m = Advanced Diver (following post depth progression dives with an instructor or experience Dive Leader)

These are independent of an instructor qualification, for example if an instructor hasn't logged the depth progression dives beyond 40m then that is their limit.

 

[boulderjohn]

The prosecutors will apply the same logic for other agencies. The world of legislation is never straight forward.

Perhaps I am a poor reader, but what I got from this is that they do not publish any depth limits for divers, but they will prosecute you if you have an incident while violating those secret limits.

 

[tursiops]

Perhaps I am a poor reader, but what I got from this is that they do not publish any depth limits for divers, but they will prosecute you if you have an incident while violating those secret limits.

I've been to Malta three times, many years ago, not for diving....although my first OW dive (trained but not certified) was in a canal just off the apartment we were in. It does not sound like a very good diving location, given the many issues with Maltese authorities.

 

[tursiops]

I see no reason to scuba dive in Malta. The Risk/Reward ratio is not favorable.

 

[boulderjohn]

based on what is considered standard safe diving practice.

Notice the passive voice. Considered by whom to be safe diving practice?

It seems to me that Malta's judicial system is very intent to find some way to prosecute divers. Here is one story.

Divers outraged at Malta dive death court ruling

Divers in Malta have expressed 'grave concern' after a diver was found guilty of the involuntary homicide of his dive buddy, Christine Gauci

divemagazine.com

The story does not mention that the decision was based on the court's appointed expert witness, an expert witness who was not himself a scuba diver.

At the end of that story, it refers to an earlier incident. In that earlier incident, two divers died of immersion pulmonary edema while on a challenging dive in Malta. Another diver on the dive was charged with involuntary homicide because he failed to rescue them. He was chosen to be charged rather than any of the others because he was the most qualified diver in the group and was therefore deemed to be responsible for the safety of all the others.

 

[tursiops]

The court’s decision relied on the opinion of an expert with no diving experience, leading to a misjudgment of the incident’s context.
In the Malta case, two divers died from immersion pulmonary edema, and a third — the most experienced — was charged with involuntary homicide.
His qualification alone was used to assign him responsibility for the others’ safety, though he was not the dive leader.
Both cases reveal a clear disconnect between legal reasoning and diving reality.
They highlight the need for qualified diving experts in judicial investigations to ensure fairness and technical accuracy.

@Knauf Your posts would be more understandable if you quoted what you are referring to, rather than embedding your remarks into the previous text.

 

[Ranga]

@Knauf Your posts would be more understandable if you quoted what you are referring to, rather than embedding your remarks into the previous text.

All of their comments read like AI generated restatements of earlier comments with some very general comments. Some posts in other threads even had the tell-tale emojis.

 

[tursiops]

All of their comments read like AI generated restatements of earlier comments with some very general comments. Some posts in other threads even had the tell-tale emojis.

Two of us have already reported him as a bot. Perhaps you could pile on!