Diving

All diving in the UK – including paid instruction of sports diving but excepting amateur dives – is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the key legislation is the Diving at Work Regulations 1997. These cover all dives during which one or more divers are working. It is regarded as a highly hazardous activity and recent figures suggest that, on average, there are three fatal diving accidents a year. Many of these are members of the public undergoing recreational diving training with paid instructors. However, the risks can be significantly reduced by adhering to regulations and adopting established good practice. Those undertaking training are advised to have a medical check 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 to commercial diving, including sports diving instruction, or do both.

DIVING DIVISIONS
The HSE divides all diving into:

offshore
inland/inshore and fish farming
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 skills gained in the Services
The Defence Diving School is where all RN and Army divers are trained. Some RN divers are full-time, but most of them, and all Army divers, have primary jobs and dive only 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 below) 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 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 into 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, with the HSE having four assessment standards of commercial diving competence: SCUBA Diving, Surface Supplied Diving, Surface Supplied Top Up Diving, and Closed Bell Diving.

SCUBA stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, where the air supply is in cylinders worn by the diver, and is generally used at shallow depths.
Surface supplied divers receive their air supply via an umbilical (hose) from the surface.
To dive offshore on surface supplied equipment, divers must also undertake a Surface Supplied Diving (Top Up) assessment.
Closed bell divers use mixed gas in order to dive deeper than 50 metres. They can spend up to 28 days working (and living) in a compression chamber complex, transferring to the work site in a diving bell. To be eligible for a closed bell diving qualification a diver must have experience using surface supplied diving equipment and techniques.

Training for all types of diving is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding, and costs between £8,000 and £10,000 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, and can cost £2 million or more to build and operate.

The main users are construction engineers, who use commercial divers to depths of 50–100 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
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 sports 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.

The BSAC and PADI are in competition to some extent, 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 network of facilities, including more than 1,100 clubs and branches worldwide (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, and then take specialised skills development courses. A Sports Diver may attend the Instructor Foundation Course. Once qualified as a Dive Leader they may take the Theory Instructor exam, attend the Open Water Instructor Course and take the 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
With over 40 years’ experience, PADI has 135,000 PADI Professionals and more than 5,800 dive shops and resorts worldwide. 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), progressing to Advanced Open Water Diver, possibly also attending speciality diving courses. The next step is Rescue Diver, which can lead to Master Scuba Diver and/or to becoming a Divemaster – the minimum qualification to begin Instructor training. Instructor progression is through the grades of Assistant Instructor, Open Water Scuba Instructor, Speciality Instructor, Master Scuba Diver Trainer, Staff Instructor and Master Instructor to Course Director. Pay is similar to that earned by BSAC instructors.

DIVE 2010

DIVE 2010 – the one-stop shop for diving information, advice and inspiration – is due to place on 30–31 October 2010, at the NEC, Birmingham. To find out more about this event – one of the highlights of the sporting calendar for both experienced and wannabe divers – turn to page XX of ‘Despatches’.

KEY CONTACTS

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

British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC), 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 (PADI), Unit 7, St Philips Central, Albert Road, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0PD Tel: 0117 300 7234 Website: www.padi.com