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“ I’ ve got a fantastic team, who are all working hard behind the scenes and I’ d just like to say thank you to the HQ staff, NDC, lead project members and all the volunteers that give their time,” Sophie added.
Strategy report
As the BSAC Council lead on strategy, Vice Chair Yasmine Thorn provided an update on its progress during 2025. Echoing Andy’ s situational analysis, she Yasmine Thorn expanded on the aim of the BSAC strategy in light of challenges currently not only faced by BSAC but other membership organisations and the scuba marketplace.
This, said Yasmine, means we have to ask how we want to operate in this changing market.“ What parts of our operating model do we need to adapt? Do we need to change in order to better function? There are lots of things in BSAC that we all love and that we all value highly. And we don’ t want to lose those aspects of BSAC. We don’ t want to lose who we are at our core.”
Ordinary and Special Resolutions
The meeting also saw the voting results of two resolutions. An ordinary motion was passed to appoint and set remuneration for auditors, Johnstone Howell & Co. Meanwhile, a Special Resolution proposing changes to the BSAC Council structure garnered 352 votes( 81.01 %) against.
2026 Council Election results
BSAC also welcomed its newly elected Council Officers, following the results of the recent 2026 election. Both BSAC Vice-Chair Yasmine Thorn and Honorary Secretary Emma James were elected unopposed and, along with three Council Members – Catherine Smith, Carline Deal and Alexander Denny – took up their new positions following the 2026 AGM. Voter turnout for this year’ s election was 7.1 %, up by 0.1 % on last year.
Emma James
Carline Deal
Catherine Smith
Alexander Denny
Research into women in diving
LONDON-BASED BSAC CLUB HOLBORN DIVERS HAS RELEASED ITS PRELIMINARY findings following the 2025 launch of its grassroots pilot study into how scuba diving impacts on women.
As a club-based citizen science project, the study aims to understand the impact of physiology and equipment design on female divers, and to identify trends. It has been co-designed by the club’ s Diving Officer, Mia Scaggiante with Holborn members Zoé Diderich and Mark Diderich Brill, and involved two separate surveys. Both were completed anonymously online by divers regardless of gender during the 2025 diving season.
At the time of the pilot launch in early 2025, Mia outlined the survey’ s intention.“ We were inspired by the excellent book‘ Invisible Women’ that laid out the problem of data largely ignoring women in all areas of their lives – everything from product design to health. As a club, we thought that maybe we should look to see if this could also apply in scuba diving.”
Over 180 surveys have since been completed, collated and analysed to produce Holborn’ s pilot report, with the topline findings of the 2025 survey indicating that many women found scuba equipment less suitable than men. Holborn now hope that the survey and its results will start a conversation around inclusivity.
“ Scuba diving is quite a niche sport, so asking to redesign all of the kit is a big ask. However, some small adjustments could make things better,” Mia explained.
“ At Holborn Divers we are discussing these issues with our women members and making changes where possible. It’ s something that we would encourage other clubs to do, whether it’ s having a conversation about the right equipment or encouraging members to contribute to our research.”
You can read the full report on Holborn’ s 2025-2026 survey findings at www. holbornscubalondon. co. uk / invisible-divers
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