Training

Campbeltown SAC follows the training schedule laid down by the Scottish Sub-Aqua Club. Training for beginners consists of weekly swimming pool sessions, usually on Thursday evenings over the winter along with lectures.

The first step is to pass a swimming assessment. The swimmer must be able to:

1. Swim 200m on your front without stopping.
2. Swim 100m on your back.
3. Swim 50m wearing a weight belt.
4. Float on back for 5 minutes with minimal hand and leg movement.
5. Tread water for 30 seconds with hands and forearms clear of the water.
6. Recover three objects, one at a time, from a depth of between 1.8 m and 3m.
7. Swim a distance of 15m underwater.

The next step consists of instruction in the use of basic snorkelling equipment, including fins, diving mask and snorkel. Once these are mastered, you can progress onto actually using scuba equipment.

You will be trained in (and assessed on) the following:

1. Equipment setup
2. Submerging
3. Removing and replacing regulator
4. Neutral buoyancy
5. Mask clearing
6. Equipment removal and replacing
7. Rolls
8. Supporting a fully kitted diver
9. Boat Entry
10. Alternate air source
11. Air sharing
12. Blacked mask
13. Rescue
14. Simulated Dive

Alongside the practical training, you will have the following lectures:

1. Basic equipment, signals & surfacing drills
2. Ears, sinuses and effects of pressure
3. Burst lung and ascent in emergency
4. Aqualung use, buoyancy control, description and use of buoyancy aids
5. Respiration, hyperventilation, anoxia and hypoxia
6. Exhaustion, protective clothing and hypothermia.
7. Rescue life saving and artificial respiration.
8. Principles of aqualung, air endurance and air cylinders.
9. Maintenance of equipment and diving accessories.
10. Open water diving and dive procedures.
11. Basic decompression, hazards and avoidance.
12. SSAC organisational structure.

Once you've finished all that, which takes most of a winter session, you get out into the open water:

 

Open Water Training

Carry out at least 10 dives in sequence at five or more different sites on five or more different days. Each dive to have a duration of not less than 15 minutes. No more than two dives are to be carried out in one day. These dives must include at least seven dives in seawater, and at least two dives from the following list:

(a) Shore dive along a sloping seabed.
(b) Dive in moving water (with a current less than 2 knots)
(c) Low visibility (less than 2metres)
(d) Dive in cold water (10C or less)
(e) Dive in fresh water

The first four dives are to be between 6-10m and the following seven each to be between 10-20m and no deeper. Until the Sport Diver award is completed, trainees must not dive deeper than 20m.

Candidates must log at least 5 hours of underwater time before being awarded the Sport Diver certificate.

The following training assessments to take place during open water training:

1. Buoyancy Control
2. Mask clearing
3. Regulator clearing
4. Regulator sharing
5. Oral inflation
6. Entry into water
7. Compass
8. Snorkel swim
9. Assisted ascent
10. Rescue

After all that, congratulations! You get the award of Sport Diver.