Pecten Sub Aqua Club

BSAC Qualifications

BSAC branches are self organised and non-profit making. All BSAC Instructors are nationally assessed before they can teach in order to maintain a high standard.

BSAC Diving grades are detailed in the following table:

Qualification	Description
Ocean Diver	The entry level BSAC qualification awarded after initial pool and theory training. The Ocean Diver training course concentrates on carefully preparing you for open water diving in the safety of a swimming pool. This also gives you the opportunity to practice safety skills in the company of a qualified instructor or experienced diver.
Sports Diver	Awarded after further open water and theory training, including rescue drills and decompression dive training. This permits diving to a maximum depth of 35m.
Dive Leader	Able to organise all aspects of a dive and supervise other Divers. With extensive training on leading others, a Dive Leader will develop greater confidence, experience and enjoyment as a diver.
Advanced Diver	Experienced diver, qualified to organise and lead all aspects of branch diving activities, experience will have been gained in using small boats, chartwork, navigation and many other related skills. The BSAC consider this grade as being a fully trained diver.
First Class Diver	The highest grade, awarded nationally to a divers with a significant amount of experience covering all aspects of diving.

There are also four grades of instructors:

Qualification	Badge
Assistant/Club Instructor
Open Water Instructor
Advanced Instructor
National Instructor

To further enhance an existing diving qualfication, Training and the award of BSAC diving qualifications (up to Advanced Diver) can be undertaken within the club. BSAC qualifications are recognised worldwide and are particularly suited for people who intend to dive in more temperate waters such as Northern Europe and those who wish to be more self sufficient e.g. to organise their own diving.

BSAC-qualified Divers
If you are already a member of the BSAC, we would encourage you to get your branch membership changed to Pecten SAC. Please contact the Secretary for details on how to do this. If you have gained the BSAC entry level qualification abroad, you will probably be an Ocean Diver. This is equivalent to Ocean Diver with the exception that you are unlikely to have used a drysuit which is an essential feature of diving in the UK.

Divers Qualified under other Agencies
Divers who have learned to dive with other agencies such as PADI are welcome to dive with Pecten SAC. However, you will need to provide evidence of third party insurance. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to join BSAC which also brings other benefits with it. Diving qualifications awarded by other agencies are considered to be equivalent to BSAC qualifications as shown in the table below. This means that – subject to having a valid medical certificate (see Join US!), insurance cover and the approval of the Pecten SAC Diving Officer – you may dive with us as if you hold the BSAC qualification. The diving officer will assess an applicants log book looking for experience covering the kind of diving we do in the UK and may recommend that an applicant acquire additional training or experience, most of which we can provide.

Other Agency Qualification	Equivalent BSAC Qualification
‘Entry level’ qualifications which do not usually include rescue skills; NAUI Scuba and Advanced Scuba Diver PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water SAA Open Water Diver	Club Diver or Ocean Diver
‘Second level’ qualifications which must include rescue training; NAUI Scuba and Advanced Scuba Diver PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water SAA Open Water Diver SSAC Third Class Diver	Sports Diver
‘Third level’ qualifications which must include dive leadership training; NAUI Divemaster PADI Divemaster SAA Dive Leader SSAC Second Class Diver	Dive Leader
Any higher level of qualification e.g; SAA Dive Supervisor	Advanced Diver

If you are a complete beginner to diving then there are other BSAC Branches in Aberdeen that maybe more suited to your requirements than our club, in addition other training schemes such as PADI are available but they are more tailored towards the holiday, warm water diver and are certainly a more expensive way of learning to dive in the UK. If you are only interested in holiday/tropical diving, you are probably best to do a course while on holiday somewhere – contact any of the Committee Members for more details.

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