Welcome
In a changing world, it’ s reassuring that some truths remain the same. Marmite divides the nation, tea unites it and... the best time to train divers is from autumn to spring. Admittedly, that last one is limited to our own corner of British life, but winter training is central to UK diving culture.
With the introduction of BSAC’ s new My BSAC( Sport 80) IT platform, the club is eager for us to use it to plan our training. It has been acknowledged that the transition to the new system has seen a few glitches, so in this issue of SCUBA we’ ve included a two-page update which should help everyone getting their courses booked( Learning Curve, page 18).
The important thing is not to fall behind with your progression. BSAC diving is all about self-improvement, refining our skills and helping others develop theirs. It’ s an evolutionary process that started in 1953 and has been working for us ever since. As it happens, BSAC has just released the latest dates for all its Instructor Training Scheme and Skill Development courses for the rest of 2025 and 2026; there’ s no better time to check out the many flexible options available to you.
If you want to keep diving beyond autumn, take a look at this issue’ s Two Sophies( page 26). Our National Diving Officer Sophie Rennie and Head of Diving and Training Sophie Heptonstall have plenty of useful advice for anyone not ready to mothball their dive kit just yet.
A quick update on our writing competition, A Dive to Remember. We’ re still going through the entries, and no winner has been chosen yet. Sorry to keep you waiting; we received more stories than I had anticipated and the judging process has had to churn away in its own time. We’ ve published four tranches of your inspirational stories so far, but we’ re taking a break this issue in order to catch up with other stuff and maintain SCUBA’ s variety. I hope to publish a few more entries in the December issue.
Until then, stay warm, keep it fluffy and enjoy this packed issue of BSAC goodness.
Simon Rogerson – Editor simon @ scubamagazine. co. uk
Cover photo: Divers explore the Tabarka shipwreck, Scapa Flow, by Simon Rogerson.
3