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Each month we feature a selection of your letters
Send your letters to simon @ scubamagazine. co. uk
Eastbourne RNLI and BSAC link up
I AM A BSAC ADVANCED DIVER AND Chair of Eastbourne BSAC 0513 – Sovereign Divers. In January 2024 I decided to join Eastbourne RNLI as crew. While I was training for both Eastbourne’ s lifeboats, the inshore and the all-weather boat, I realised how little the crew really understood about divers and how basic the crew’ s training was when it came to divers.
Don’ t get me wrong – the RNLI does a fantastic job and they cover all sea sports – but they can’ t be expected to go into massive levels of detail in each of them. Their crew handbook on diver training consists of two pages of A4 only.
I took it upon myself this year to introduce the Eastbourne Lifeboat crew to Sovereign Divers and carry out some collaboration and joint training exercises. The events were accepted with open arms and so we started by meeting all the crew and bringing along a load of our equipment to their boathouse. We ran a PowerPoint presentation while showing them equipment first hand.
The presentation started by talking about training and qualifications, we then went onto discussing Eastbourne tides specifically and how we dive on the slack water. We discussed how we shot the wreck, and how we use rule of thirds for our air, we continued by explaining about cylinder sizing and dive time calculations based on cylinder sizes. We chatted about fitness and factors affecting diving and air consumption. This lead us nicely onto what the crew might come across and the symptoms they may encounter.
We then discussed dSMBs and SMBs, and how they are used. Interestingly, a few of the crew had experienced the recovery of a dSMB on a recent diving incident and not fully appreciated that a diver may well have been on a safety stop, potentially 6m below.
A few days afterwards, we carried out an exercise in confined water, in which the lifeboat crew recovered two( acting) unconscious divers and their equipment from the surface. This exercise showed the crew how awkward the kit can be and how heavy some of it is when not in the water.
The final part of our joint exercise took place in the pool two weeks later, when Sovereign Divers hosted 10 of the crew for try dives and let them experience the equipment first-hand.
In September, I passed out as Tier 2 crew for both Eastbourne’ s inshore and all-weather boats. With this collaboration between the RNLI crew at Eastbourne and Sovereign Divers, any diving related incidents in Eastbourne will be responded to with a little more knowledge and better understanding. facebook. com / sovereigndivers TONY WARWICK, Chair, Sovereign Divers, Eastbourne
Treasures in Bracknell
IN OCTOBER, BRACKNELL BSAC 434 invited the Nautical Archaeology Society to give a talk about underwater archaeology followed by a practical experience, performing underwater surveys in the pool. A variety of‘ treasures’ were planted underwater and divers of all ages and experience practiced plotting and surveying their finds. It was a great way of bringing the club together for some fun learning at the start of the off-peak diving season.
The Nautical Archaeology Society is a Plymouth based charity. Since 1972, their mission has been to research, record and protect the threatened underwater and coastal heritage through education, research and publications. nauticalarchaeologysociety. org NIC HALLETT, Bracknell BSAC 434
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