FAVOURITEKIT
It’ s a toss-up
“ between my O’ Three drysuit, which is really comfortable, and my Suunto Eon Steel dive computer, which has a great colour-coded screen that gives you a clear picture of what’ s going on.
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SKILLSTIP
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It always surprises me how many dive managers, even some quite experienced ones, become focused solely on wind strength when planning a dive and forget to consider things like swell, or whether the land will give them any shelter. One of the things we try to instil is to look at the conditions holistically.
Teaching boat handling skills
TEACHINGHIGHLIGHT
”
It’ s a silly little thing but when
“ teaching boat handling, seeing a student master slow-speed manoeuvring, and in particular, turning the boat around in its own length, brings me great satisfaction.
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the committee as a non-exec in my second year with the club and spent much of the next 30 or so years filling various roles: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Equipment Officer.”
“ This is my third stint as Diving Officer at Totnes. It’ s great to try and help the club develop and adapt to the changing requirements of the membership and, most importantly to enable people to do some great diving – after all that’ s why they joined.”
Totnes is a busy club with two boats – a Shogun 4WD towing vehicle, a compressor and other kit. Allen is also Diving Officer at a second club, Pilgrims, which doesn’ t own any kit and is mainly about hard-boat diving and trips away.
His volunteering doesn’ t stop there. Allen is Treasurer for the Kernow Dive Festival, an annual gathering of BSAC clubs in Cornwall to go diving and raise money for Plymouthbased DDRC. The latter which supports the diving community with 24 / 7 emergency
Expedition diving in Alaska with wife Sarah
Hardboat diving in Cornwall on Red Alert
advice and hyperbaric facilities, medical training, medicals, research and education.
Allen is also Chair of IMASS, which organises the annual International Shipwreck Conference in Plymouth, and a Director of the SHIPS project, a volunteer not-for-profit organisation that undertakes research and exploration of maritime historical sites and events, both on land and underwater. Previously he was BSAC’ s South West Regional Coach.
Does he have a tip for club members who want to volunteer?“ Embrace it,” he cheerfully replies.“ It can be hard work at times, but it can also be incredibly rewarding,”
Allen’ s advice for a newly qualified diver looking for a club to join gives clubs looking to attract new members some pointers too:“ Find your local branch and go and talk to them, get a feel for the‘ buzz’ and perhaps do a guest dive to see if you like the way they operate. Most importantly, do they make you feel welcome?” �
Become an Instructor!
Sports Divers and up( for scuba) and 16 + year olds( for snorkelling) can start instructor training.
Scan for more info
Reviewing voyage planning on a Diver Coxswain assessment
Or visit bsac. com / instruct 51