"Riding your Computer Up" vs. "Lite Deco"

[DevonDiver]

.BSAC claim to be a club. I don't see "Instructor" anywhere in the acronym. Is it possible for a non-instructor diver to "belong" to BSAC?

It's a club. More accurately it's a 'club of clubs'.

You join a specific local club and pay an annual membership fee to them. That local club has its own voted-for committee, it's own budget and controls its own activities.

The success and quality of a given club is defined by its own efforts. The politics can be horrendous in some instances...

Instructors in that local club provide, voluntarily, tuition for club members. The club certifies divers, not the instructor.

The club has significant autonomy on how it operates, who it qualifies and what dives it allows own members to undertake (on club run activities).

Local clubs, in turn, pay membership to BSAC HQ. The HQ provides training syllabus, club operating framework, policies and procedures etc. BSAC HQ also run regional events and training that members may attend (paid for).

There are also BSAC 'schools'. These provide bought and paid for courses, much more akin to how other agencies operate.

 

[Edward3c]

...The club certifies divers, not the instructor.

This bit I must correct.

Diver certifications are signed-off by the BSAC Branch's 'Lead Instructor' under the authority of the National Diving Officer.

 

[Edward3c]

Www.bsac.com

...
BSAC claim to be a club. I don't see "Instructor" anywhere in the acronym. Is it possible for a non-instructor diver to "belong" to BSAC?

Yes, in fact the percentage of instructors to none instructors is around 30%, for active instructors the number is nearer 10% (depending on the definition of active).

It's possible for a none instructor to be a Director of BSAC as the board is elected by the membership. For more info on BSAC have a look at our website (it is a bit old fashioned and clunky and due a facelift)

I have people in my BSAC Branch I haven't seen in years, but they go off diving all over the world.

Disclosure: I'm a BSAC Director (Honorary Secretary),

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I briefly mentioned the dive buddy I had who made a panicked ascent when he saw his computer was getting near deco. I wonder how many fatalities were caused when people saw they had reached their NDLs and had to get to the surface in a hurry to prevent the horror of straying into deco.

Years back I was doing a dive with a fellow on a local wall. The dive profile on this particular wall can easily exceed recreational limits if you want it to, and people often go over NDLs. We're kicking along at roughly 120 feet when he suddenly takes off up the wall. I chased him to the top of the wall ... at about 40 feet ... and stopped as he continued up a shallow slope toward shore. I was showing a 2 minute deco obligation at that point, and wasn't going to push it any more than what I would consider a way-too-fast ascent to this depth from 120 feet. After waiting a few minutes I slowly headed upslope toward our entry point. At about 20 feet I encountered my dive buddy heading back down. He signaled to me that we should go back down. I waggled my finger and indicated that we should stay right here for a few minutes, then gave him the signal to head back to shore.

When we surfaced I asked him why he took off like that. He said his computer was telling him to go to 10 feet for 3 minutes, and so that's what he did ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

When we surfaced I asked him why he took off like that. He said his computer was telling him to go to 10 feet for 3 minutes, and so that's what he did ...

I think we can fill a very long thread with stories of people not understanding what their computers are telling them.

 

[Bennno]

When we surfaced I asked him why he took off like that. He said his computer was telling him to go to 10 feet for 3 minutes, and so that's what he did ...

There is an easy fix for that. Do a briefing and/or don't do deko and deep dives with people you don't know and have never been in the water with.

 

[scubadada]

The discussion regarding BSAC training and the BSAC 88 tables has been very interesting. It appeared to me that the BSAC table decompression times were considerably shorter than I was used to seeing, so I did a little research.

As a simple example, I looked at a single, clean dive to 100 ft (30 m/98ft) on EAN32. It is not perfectly easy to directly compare Buhlmann 100/100 to the BSAC 88 table, but the following is reasonably close. The Buhlmann NDL is 25 minutes and for BSAC it is 28 min. For a bottom time of 50 minutes, the Buhlmann deco obligation is 12 minutes @10 ft. For a dive time of up to 53 minutes, including ascent up to 6m/20 ft, the BSAC deco obligation is 6 minutes @6m/20 ft.

BSAC 88 has been used for many dives over many years and has proven safe. This is another good example of decompression algorithms with different profiles falling within the general bounds of safety. I don't think all the specific details regarding the derivation of the BSAC tables have ever been available, however, the model is significantly different than the majority of decompression algorithms we are familiar with.

I would certainly appreciate comments from @Edward3c @KenGordon or others very familiar with BSAC 88

 

[Storker]

There is an easy fix for that. Do a briefing and/or don't do deko and deep dives with people you don't know and have never been in the water with.

Have you dived with many instabuddies? You can never know how they're going to react, and you can never know how calm and rational they'll be if just a small amount of bovine manure hits the rotating ventilation device.

 

[Bennno]

Have you dived with many instabuddies? You can never know how they're going to react, and you can never know how calm and rational they'll be if just a small amount of bovine manure hits the rotating ventilation device.

Yes, I have dived with instabuddies. A LOT actually. As you said, you don't know how they react and what they know and that's the reason you do a briefing outlining the profile of the dive. I also don't do a deep/deco dive as the first dive. That's pretty standard, IMO.

 

[Storker]

As you said, you don't know how they react and what they know and that's the reason you do a briefing outlining the profile of the dive. I also don't do a deep/deco dive as the first dive. That's pretty standard, IMO.

Do you seriously believe that a pre-dive briefing will tell you how they'll react if the crap hits the fan (or if they think that the crap is hitting the fan)?