I recently did an Instructor Foundation Course, it blew my mind.

Hard work and no time to catch a breath, and so much to learn, in such a short period of time, and the fear that I'll forget everything I've learnt (its there and comes back as and when you need it). Nice people and well motivated students and lecturers both. I had a great time.

At the end of the course the luscious blond (slurp slurp, dribble dribble) in charge, with brains, beauty and ability, (she ain't no blond bimbo) gave her closing speech, "The Way Forwards." In it she mentioned in passing that the BSAC, HQ, were having "the great debate!" It seems that some of our branches, don't use ribs, but only use hard-boat day charter's, for their dives. In their view, they don't, therefore need to do any boat handling, seamanship or navigation courses. After all, the professionally certified charter boat captain, professionally certified officer's and qualified crew, can take care of their safety and well-being. They are after all, "council licensed" boat's, and that makes them safe (doesn't it!!) Their request seems to be, that the BSAC should accommodate their demand for a dangerous drop in skill levels in the BSAC curriculum, to a potentially disastrous low level of acceptable mediocrity. Their opinions are obviously formed in ignorance and based on their foundation of certainty in their ignorance. This was a headquarters debate and it seemed to me that feedback from the membership wasn't sort after.

After losing myself, deep, deep into those gorgeous eyes, of that wonderful woman who saved my soul and ego from self-destruction. That's why I remained silent at the time, but it's too important a subject for anyone to remain silent on, if you have an opinion to voice.

Dives are getting deeper, and farther out from the land all the time. Around our dangerous coast, we have some of the most variable and dangerous weather and sea conditions in the world, just count the wreaks. In a perfect world, the day dive boats we hire ought to carry the following crew-members; Captain, First Mate, Engineer, Radio Officer, Doctor and at least two Able seaman. Hand's up all those who regularly dive on a boat with the above crew compliment? In a room full of sports and above qualified divers, no hands would go up, any contradiction?

With the BSA C skill development courses, we can supplement the crew's lack of skill and ability in an emergency situation, first aid, oxygen administration, read the symptom's correctly, and act on them. In a room full of sport and above qualified diver's, hand's up all those with the above abilities and qualifications, every one!! We can now, dump the Doc!!

In a room full of sport, and above qualified diver's, hand's up all those with a radio operator's licence, this includes the ability to rebuild or repair broken sets and to send and receive Morse code rapidly and accurately. You also need to be able to do running repairs on the new radio system too. Every one!! Core ain't we good!! We can now, dump the Radio Officer!!

With the BSAC and the RYA courses available to us. In a room full of sport, and above qualified divers, hands up all those with Engineering qualifications that cover's the type of engine in the boat your going diving in; (I don't mean "I can change the spark plug's, I'm good, ain't I") Every one!! Core, we're on an Ego Trip. We can now, dump the Engineer!!

In a room full of sport, and above qualified diver's, hand's up all those with a First mate's (Department of Trade and Industry) qualification? OK, I'll make it easy, or an RYA Certificate of Competence as a Day Skipper or Coastal Skipper or as a full Yacht master? Every one!! If I were a betting man, I'd put money on the fact that no other diving organisation in the world, has such a vast amount of highly skilled, trained diver's as us. We can now, dump the First mate!!

In a room full of sport, and above qualified diver's, with all these extra qualifications we don't need the Able-bodied seamen either, do we? Let's dump them too!!

We can't dump the Skipper because it's his boat! And he wants lot's of money from us to use it for our dives, he knows where all the wrecks are too, and we don't (rat's).

In the real world of commerce and economics, the crew of a day boat usually consist of; the Skipper, a very experienced man, not necessarily with a paper qualification, and a school boy/girl or student on their summer holiday job.

So how about this for a scenario; You're on a dive site; your first up and the boat are just sitting there in the distance, and no one answers your signals. Your knackered, but you and your buddy swim over to the boat and climb the ladder onto the deck. The youth is there, talking gibberish. You get him to help you and your buddy to get your kit off, and try to make sense out of what he's saying. The Skipper's injured in the cabin. You go see what's up, he's lying on the cabin sole (what? you don't know what I mean by cabin sole? So much for your expertise!!) in the recovery position. He's unconscious, but breathing regularly, you do the first aid bit and make him comfortable. All the other diver's are popping up, and you signal them to come to the boat. You're not going to pick them up, because you don't now how too!! The boats full of grumbling diver's " I can't get a signal on my mobile so I can't call for help. They all agree that the mobiles are dead. They've all dragged their mobiles out to try in desperation, to call for help, because when the Skipper fell he grabbed anything he could, so smashing the G P S, and hitting his head on the radio smashing that too.