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csfb1!phantom!wrolf@uu*.uu*.ne* (Wrolf Courtney) writes: > What is in practice done in Britain? How are conditions different, and how > do they affect the procedures? The BSAC manuals have some details, but > they do not seem to be quite complete. I do not quite understand how the > "breakers" work - what size/strength line is used as the weak "breaker"? I can only speak about the diving that I've done with my BS-AC club, perhaps other UK divers can contribute to their experiences. I'd guess that an SAA or SS-AC club will be fairly similar, unless they practice more "adventurous" diving, but I have no idea what the UK PADI diver does, unles they own a boat, or club together to hire a boat ... I also suspect that there is a lot of variation within BS-AC clubs (How adventerous and safety concious the Diving Officer is, etc) Club diving can have advantages in access to equipment, and regular buddies, but also have disadvantages with the style of diving that that particular club adopts. We don't dive wrecks if theres a current flowing. The max. that I've ever dived on a wreck is 1 knot. If theres any danger of a current running, we try to dive it at slack water. Sometimes this only gives us a 25 minute window to dive! Most of our dives are non-stop dives - decompression dives are not routine. Water tempertatures vary from perhaps a low of 8C (46F) to a max of perhaps 15C (59F). visibility can vary tremendously from less than a metre (3') to more than 15! (50') It all depends on how much rain and wind we've had, once "May waters" are over & done with. Most of my diving has been done on the South Coast of England where the depth (on wrecks) is usually in the 20m-30m (66'-100') range, sometimes up to 40m (132'). There are deeper wrecks, but we just don't dive them. The wreck will be located (by whatever means, echo sounder, magnetometer, bearings, dragging the anchor, whatever you have), then a shot line will be deployed. This is usually a heavy lead weight, and fairly heavy duty line with a large bouy attached. Some people use the boat anchor & chain with a bouy, detaching it from the boat. It's not normal to anchor the boat to it. Most of the wreck diving at the club level is from 4-6m (13'-20') inflatables or RIBs. Hard boards are quite often chartered by clubs or individual groups for special weekends (eg. bank holidays). There are a few large diving centres who run a regular hard boat shuttle service throughout the summer. Although I've seen the pictures in the BS-AC manuls, I've never used a breaker on a downline. (or seen anyone else use it). The club that I dive with has a 4.8m (16') Bombard inflatable and a 4.8m Humber RIB. Both have full tool kits, Oxygen, flares, etc. and a radio. Usually theres is a dive marshall appointed who logs all the divers in & out, checks air and times, etc. The BS-AC insist on clubs keeping these records. In our case, the DM is the usually the person on the boat who isn't doing anything at that time! I've only once ever clipped my reel onto the shot line, and that was in 0.5m (1.5') vis at 32m (103'). Most of the time if I'm diving with someone who I am happy with and know that they can do a normal ascent without a shot line I don't wory about it and will quite happily make an ascent off the shot line if I can't get back to it again. (No current, inflatable standing by on the surface, not anchored) On the way up, a 1 minute safety stop at 6m (20') is a fairly common thing to do. Outwith my club, diving with friends from other clubs, or on one of the hardboat shuttles (where you can turn up without a buddy and be assigned one for the day), I've performed much more adventurous dives involving some short deco. stops. I'm going to do a nitrox course next week, but alas, the BS-AC and my club diving officer won't let me use nitrox on a club dive ... Gordon -- Gordon Henderson is gordon@me*.co*.uk* O Meiko Scientific Ltd. Dive Safe, o 650 Aztec West, Bristol Surface Sound ____ o England UK (_/\_) .
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