Diving

All diving in the UK, including paid instruction of sports diving but excepting amateur dives, is regulated by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), and the key legislation is the Diving at Work Regulations 1997. It is regarded as a high-hazard activity (24 people suffered fatal accidents between 1996 and 2004) and people undertaking it are advised to have a medical check first, even when it is not mandatory to do so.

There are two separate, although linked, areas of diving: commercial and sports. Commercial diving is about underwater activities that are part of a business. Sports diving is simply exploring the undersea world for enjoyment and personal challenge, although many of the people managing the facilities and running the sport clubs are doing so as a business. Many individuals progress from sports diving into commercial diving, including sports diving instruction, or do both.

HSE divides all diving into:

• offshore
• inland/inshore
• scientific and archaeological
• media
• recreational
• Police and Armed Forces.

All require different levels of training and areas of expertise, and candidates have to pass a stiff medical. While HSE regulations do not apply to unpaid tuition given to one individual by another, responsible organisations have their own certification, which ensures that instruction is provided by properly qualified people. Anyone diving at any level should check the certified competence of their instructor.

Diving in the Services

The Defence Diving School is where all military divers (RN and Army only) are trained. Some RN divers are full-time, but most of them, and all Army divers, have primary jobs and only dive when it is required.

All the School’s courses lead to an HSE-approved qualification, although some additional training may still be required to achieve commercial certification at the higher end of the market, and vocational qualifications may also be awarded. Links with sports diving organisations are strong, and the School is a BSAC (see later) school in its own right. Individuals are able to gain civilian qualifications there for a relatively small investment in time and training.

A number of Service units have sports diving clubs, where novices and enthusiasts alike can gain qualifications and progress through the various grades. However, only the Defence Diving School teaches those elements of military diving that are relevant to commercial diving.

Commercial diving

Overview

With the discovery of North Sea oil in the mid-1960s, the offshore industry needed divers. Currently the oil and gas industry is one of the largest employers of divers in UK waters and in most other parts of the world. Other projects that require divers are:

• harbour repair and construction
• demolition and salvage
• search, recovery and survey
• remedial work in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, canals, and so on
• fire and rescue services.

Managers/supervisors and specialists may need to dive on these projects to inspect or participate in the work, so they must also be properly qualified. Generally, instruction and certification in the commercial diving area is carried out by HSE-recognised people who hold current assessor and verifier qualifications as well as the relevant experience. Commercial diving can be split between offshore and inshore activities.

Offshore diving is associated with the exploration and exploitation of subsea oil and gas resources worldwide. The industry tends to be dominated by a small number of huge, internationally based companies with diving operations usually subcontracted. Few contractors maintain a large permanent diving workforce, so appropriately qualified and experienced individuals move from field to field.

Inshore divers are usually employed in ports and coastal regions, in jobs associated with marine civil engineering. Contracts tend to be relatively short ‘one-offs’ and so offer less security than offshore work. However, harbour repairs, the construction of new sewage outfalls to comply with EC regulations, film-making and an upsurge in scientific and archaeological work all provide opportunities.

Qualifications

Typically, individuals have some diving experience with sports qualifications. Mechanical and engineering backgrounds can be useful in the handling of compressors, cutting equipment and associated plant welding. Formal commercial diver training is a must.

There are essentially two classes of diver in the UK: SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) divers, working at shallower depths and usually inshore or close to land; and surface supplied divers. The first qualifies people for scientific, archaeological and fish farming diving, and so on. The second is the minimum working qualification for inshore divers, who then undertake tools, burning and cutting training, with further training required for closed bell diving.

Training is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding, and costs between £6,500 to £8,500 for a 10- or 12-week residential package, although many professional divers will progress through the system in phases.

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)

Some people working below the sea’s surface are ROV technicians, using machines developed to recover objects lost at depths where divers could not operate.

There are two types of ROV: work and inspection. Work-class vehicles are giants capable of lifting a tonne or more with the ability to do engineering work using robotic arms, and controlled from the surface by the operator, or pilot, watching the robot’s TV camera display. Inspection-class vehicles are used for observation tasks and as support to diving operations. Both are complex machines, which cost up to £2 million or more to build and operate.

The main users are construction engineers who use commercial divers to depths of 50 or 100 metres, but at 200-plus metres the robot has the lower risk and better commercial return. Divers and ROVs often work together to complete complex tasks safely and cost effectively.

Sports diving

Overview

The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) are the two leading authorities in the training and qualification of sports divers and sport diving instructors. Most instructors will hold BSAC or PADI qualifications, or both, while members will be working along a route towards more challenging dives and leading expeditions. Many of their qualifications are interchangeable, particularly at the lower levels.

BSAC and PADI are rivals, although they work closely together in the development of standards and safety. Essentially, the former is an amateur organisation teaching people to enjoy diving on a not-for-profit basis, while the latter teaches people to become paid diving instructors at varying levels.

BSAC

The BSAC has a worldwide network of clubs, schools and resorts in the UK and overseas, taking more than 100,000 students each year. It has a total of over 45,000 members at around 1,000 branches and 200 schools (branches are totally amateur, but the schools are commercial operations). Most sports divers in the Services will be BSAC members, having been taught their skills through local branches, starting as an Ocean Diver.

Having become Sports Divers people can advance to Dive Leader, Advanced Diver and First Class Diver through training and experience. A Dive Leader may attend the Instructor Foundation Course. Once qualified as Dive Leader they may take the Theory Instructor exam, followed by the Open Water Instructor Course and Practical Instructor exam. They can then progress to Advanced Instructor and National Instructor. There are also specialist and skills development courses available.

Newly qualified instructors earn the minimum wage but can gain significant experience by offering their services to schools and branches. After a season or so, UK rates of pay range from £50 to £110 per day; overseas the figure tends to be around £70 to 90 per day.

PADI

PADI has about 4,700 dive centres in 175 countries, and has certified over 10 million divers in the last 40 years. Its 100,000-plus members take 500,000 new certifications every year.

Military diving qualifications can enable people to cross over into the PADI system of diver education. For example, a Ships Diver with first aid training may be eligible to enrol directly on to a PADI Rescue Diver Course. For those who are not already divers, it is possible to move from entry level through to becoming an instructor in a year, because certification is based on competence not time spent in training.

Novices start as Open Water Divers (with an introductory course available), moving through the grades of Speciality Diver and Rescue Diver to becoming a Divemaster – the minimum qualification to begin Instructor training. Instructor progression is through the grades of Assistant Instructor, Open Water Scuba Instructor, Master Scuba Diver Trainer, Staff Instructor and Master Instructor to Course Director. Pay is similar to that earned by BSAC instructors.

Contact details

Health & Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS Tel: 0845 345 0055 Website: www.hse.gov.uk

British Sub Aqua Club, Telford’s Quay, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH65 4FL Tel: 0151 350 6200 Website: www.bsac.com

Professional Association of Diving Instructors International Limited, Unit 7, St Philips Central Albert Road, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0PD Tel: 0117 300 7234 Website: www.padi.com

Association of Diving Contractors (inland and inshore commercial diving trade association), 83 Boundary Lane, St Leonards, Ringwood, Hampshire BH24 2SF Tel: 01202 855648, Website: www.adc-uk.info

International Marine Contractors Association (offshore commercial diving trade association), 5 Lower Belgrave Street, London SW1W 0NR Tel: 020 7824 5520 Website: www.imca-int.com