Jim Watson presents BSAC data at the RoSPA( Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) National Water Safety Conference
or boots of their suit, resulting in loss of buoyancy control, inversion and / or a feetfirst ascent to the surface.
The results showed that consistently across 25 years of data, around 2-3 % of reported incidents contain examples of divers losing control of their buoyancy through their drysuit in mid-( May to August) and late season( September to December) diving. In the years up to 2020, this rate of incidents is higher in early season( January-April), around 3-4 %. However, somewhat concerningly, in the last five years the rate of early season( January – April) instances of drysuit inversion has almost doubled to 7 %.
The 2025 report goes further to identify the interaction between diver trim, drysuit fit and buoyancy management, and that an inversion is rarely caused by a single factor( in common with most, if not all, incidents).
The report comments that with the benefit of 25 years’ worth of data, nothing has fundamentally changed in the mechanism of inversion and loss of buoyancy control. However, it reiterates the appropriate steps divers and instructors can take to minimize the potential.
Benefits of narrativerich synopses
The above two examples illustrate how the written narratives in the published report synopsis can be interrogated to develop meaningful insights into incident trends.
Recently, BSAC was invited to present on the topic to the RoSPA National
Water Safety Conference in Birmingham. On Wednesday 7 October, Sophie Heptonstall and I delivered a well-received presentation during the‘ Data, evidence and insight’ session of the conference.
BSAC use of this narrative-rich description of each incident is a longstanding feature of the report. Much emphasis is often placed on the analysis at the start of the report. However, I strongly believe that the real power of the report lies in the detail for each individual incident published within the synopses. As the report acknowledges:
“ We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the following for their assistance in its production and in ensuring its completeness … all of those divers and other sources who have taken the trouble to complete incident reports and share their learning experience with others.” �
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