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A divemaster (DM) is a role that includes organising and leading recreational dives, particularly in a professional capacity, and is a qualification used in many parts of the world in recreational scuba diving for a diver who has supervisory responsibility for a group of divers and as a dive guide. As well as being a generic term, 'Divemaster' is the title of the first professional rating of many training agencies, such as PADI, SSI, SDI, NASE, except NAUI, which rates a NAUI Divemaster under a NAUI Instructor but above a NAUI Assistant Instructor. The divemaster certification is generally equivalent to the requirements of ISO 24801-3 Dive Leader.
Recreational diving or sport diving is diving for the purpose of leisure and enjoyment, usually when using scuba equipment. The term "recreational diving" may also be used in contradistinction to "technical diving", a more demanding aspect of recreational diving which requires more training and experience to develop the competence to reliably manage more complex equipment in the more hazardous conditions associated with the disciplines. Breath-hold diving for recreation also fits into the broader scope of the term, but this article covers the commonly used meaning of scuba diving for recreational purposes, where the diver is not constrained from making a direct near-vertical ascent to the surface at any point during the dive, and risk is considered low.
The British Sub-Aqua Club or BSAC has been recognised since 1954 by UK Sport as the national governing body of recreational diving in the United Kingdom.
Advanced Open Water Diver (AOWD) is a recreational scuba diving certification level provided by several diver training agencies. Agencies offering this level of training under this title include Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), and Scuba Schools International (SSI). Other agencies offer similar training under different titles. Advanced Open Water Diver is one step up from entry level certification as a beginner autonomous scuba diver. A major difference between Autonomous diver equivalent Open Water Diver (OWD) certification and AOWD is that the depth limit is increased from 18 to 30 metres.
CMAS one-star scuba diver is the entry-level diving certification for recreational scuba diving issued by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS).
The World Recreational Scuba Training Council (WRSTC) was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to creating minimum recreational diving training standards for the various recreational scuba diving certification agencies across the world. The WRSTC restricts its membership to national or regional councils. These councils consist of individual training organizations who collectively represent at least 50% of the annual diver certifications in the member council's country or region. A national council is referred to as a RSTC.
The European Underwater Federation (EUF) is an umbrella organisation representing the interests of scuba diver training organisations operating in both the not for profit and for profit sectors within Europe.
Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques is an international federation that represents underwater activities in underwater sport and underwater sciences, and oversees an international system of recreational snorkel and scuba diver training and recognition. Its foundation in Monaco during January 1959 makes it one of the world's oldest underwater diving organisations.
A Diving certification or C-card is a document recognizing that an individual or organization authorized to do so, "certifies" that the bearer has completed a course of training as required by the agency issuing the card. This is assumed to represent a defined level of skill and knowledge in underwater diving. Divers carry a qualification record or certification card which may be required to prove their qualifications when booking a dive trip, hiring scuba equipment, having diving cylinders filled, or in the case of professional divers, seeking employment.
Open Water Diver (OWD) is an entry-level autonomous diver certification for recreational scuba diving. Although different agencies use different names, similar entry-level courses are offered by all recreational diving agencies and consist of a combination of knowledge development (theory), confined water dives and open water dives (experience) suitable to allow the diver to dive on open circuit scuba, in open water to a limited depth and in conditions similar to those in which the diver has been trained or later gained appropriate experience, to an acceptable level of safety.
The BSAC London Branch is the original branch No.1 of the British Sub-Aqua Club. The branch continues as an active, member-driven club to train and undertake scuba diving within the UK and around the world. The branch is currently located in the basement of the Seymour Leisure Centre in Marylebone, central London. The branch meets weekly at 7pm on Tuesdays and retires to the Thornbury Castle nearby after training or playing Octopush in the swimming pool.
Diver training is the set of processes through which a person learns the necessary and desirable skills to safely dive underwater within the scope of the diver training standard relevant to the specific training programme. Most diver training follows procedures and schedules laid down in the associated training standard, in a formal training programme, and includes relevant foundational knowledge of the underlying theory, including some basic physics, physiology and environmental information, practical skills training in the selection and safe use of the associated equipment in the specified underwater environment, and assessment of the required skills and knowledge deemed necessary by the certification agency to allow the newly certified diver to dive within the specified range of conditions at an acceptable level of risk. Recognition of prior learning is allowed in some training standards.
A diving instructor is a person who trains, and usually also assesses competence, of underwater divers. This includes freedivers, recreational divers including the subcategory technical divers, and professional divers which includes military, commercial, public safety and scientific divers.
British Underwater Sports Association (BUSA) is the British affiliate of the Sports Committee of Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS).
Dive leader is the title of an internationally recognised recreational diving certification. The training standard describes the minimum requirements for dive leader training and certification for recreational scuba divers in international standard ISO 24801-3 and the equivalent European Standard EN 14153-3. Various organizations offer training that meets the requirements of the dive leader standard. Some agencies use the title "Dive Leader" for their equivalent certification, but several other titles are also used, "Divemaster" may be the most widespread, but "Dive Supervisor" is also used, and should not be confused with the very different status and responsibilities of a professional diving supervisor. CMAS affiliates certifications which meet the requirements of CMAS 3-star diver should meet the standard by default. The occupation of a dive leader is also known as "dive guide", and is a specialist application of a "tour guide".
The history of scuba diving is closely linked with the history of the equipment. By the turn of the twentieth century, two basic architectures for underwater breathing apparatus had been pioneered; open-circuit surface supplied equipment where the diver's exhaled gas is vented directly into the water, and closed-circuit breathing apparatus where the diver's carbon dioxide is filtered from the exhaled breathing gas, which is then recirculated, and more gas added to replenish the oxygen content. Closed circuit equipment was more easily adapted to scuba in the absence of reliable, portable, and economical high pressure gas storage vessels. By the mid-twentieth century, high pressure cylinders were available and two systems for scuba had emerged: open-circuit scuba where the diver's exhaled breath is vented directly into the water, and closed-circuit scuba where the carbon dioxide is removed from the diver's exhaled breath which has oxygen added and is recirculated. Oxygen rebreathers are severely depth limited due to oxygen toxicity risk, which increases with depth, and the available systems for mixed gas rebreathers were fairly bulky and designed for use with diving helmets. The first commercially practical scuba rebreather was designed and built by the diving engineer Henry Fleuss in 1878, while working for Siebe Gorman in London. His self contained breathing apparatus consisted of a rubber mask connected to a breathing bag, with an estimated 50–60% oxygen supplied from a copper tank and carbon dioxide scrubbed by passing it through a bundle of rope yarn soaked in a solution of caustic potash. During the 1930s and all through World War II, the British, Italians and Germans developed and extensively used oxygen rebreathers to equip the first frogmen. In the U.S. Major Christian J. Lambertsen invented a free-swimming oxygen rebreather. In 1952 he patented a modification of his apparatus, this time named SCUBA, an acronym for "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus," which became the generic English word for autonomous breathing equipment for diving, and later for the activity using the equipment. After World War II, military frogmen continued to use rebreathers since they do not make bubbles which would give away the presence of the divers. The high percentage of oxygen used by these early rebreather systems limited the depth at which they could be used due to the risk of convulsions caused by acute oxygen toxicity.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:
Diver organisations are membership based organisations where the membership is wholly, or at least in large part, underwater divers, and the organisation is intended to further a mutual interest related to underwater diving or the aquatic environment as it affects divers or diving activity. Some organisations have more than one focus of interest.
Recreational scuba certification levels are the levels of skill represented by recreational scuba certification. Each certification level is associated with a specific training standard published by the certification agency, and a training programme associated with the standard., though in some cases recognition of prior learning can apply. These levels of skill can be categorised in several ways:
References
- ↑ "Federations, Sub-Aqua Association". CMAS. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
- ↑ "Members". CMAS Europe. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
- ↑ "Follow your dream: Rockbottom". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ↑ "Sub-Aqua Association". Diver magazine. October 2001. Retrieved 21 November 2008.[ dead link ]
- ↑ Intute: Social Sciences: Sub Aqua Association
- ↑ SAA Website - Qualifications Archived 6 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ CMAS List of Affiliated Organisations
- ↑ "C.M.A.S. Diver Training Program" (PDF). Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques. 18 January 2005. pp. 4, 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2009. 1 T 10 and 1 P 6 cover rescue.
- ↑ "Diving club members banned". British Broadcasting Corporation. 20 January 2004. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ↑ British Diving Safety Group website
- ↑ "CMAS Europe Articles of Association, 25 June 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ↑ "(JNAPC) Membership". Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
- ↑ "Project Partners". Seasearch. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ↑ "Concern over sea dredging licence". British Broadcasting Corporation. 16 August 2007. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ↑ "Underwater gnome threat 'returns'". British Broadcasting Corporation. 14 February 2005. Retrieved 22 November 2008.
- ↑ Roberts (October 2004). "AS/A2 Physical Education (Units 2564 & 2567) - Outdoor and Adventurous Activities: Sub Aqua Diving" (PDF). Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
- ↑ "House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Written Evidence". United Kingdom Parliament. March 2004. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
