Simon Campbell

Planning a club trip: Summary - Top ten tips

A major benefit of club diving is getting the chance to leave the crowds of pay-as-you-go divers to head off in small, specially tailored club trips. This article gives you a basic starting point for planning a successful expedition.

• Get some excitement into your diving: Tell your boat skippers what YOU want to dive
• Do a trip a year to a place the club has never been before and dive something different
• Plan your expedition meticulously: it will save you time and grief in the long run
• Delegate ALL the responsibility in the critical areas to well qualified and reliable team members
• Make sure you have a list of everyone on the trip with their qualifications, current BSAC membership details, recent experience, skills (such as VHF operator / Oxygen Administrator etc), mobile phone, allergies and emergency contact details
• Use your dive management sheets: Make sure your dive manager of the day checks everyone in and out of the water
• Know the capabilities of your divers and match that against the objectives of the trip
• Make sure you have all the equipment you need and it’s well serviced and reliable
• Check the weather before the expedition sets off
• Think safe: Undertake a risk assessment for every dive or series of dives and then, if necessary, change things to make the dives safer

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“Planning a club trip”

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• Summary - Top ten tips

A major benefit of club diving is getting the chance to leave the crowds of pay-as-you-go divers to head off in small, specially tailored club trips.

Club expeditions cover all sorts of diving, from day trips to inland sites to lengthy underwater adventures searching for new sites in remote parts of the country. However, organising a club trip for the first time can be daunting. According to the experts, a successful dive expedition is all about planning, delegation, enthusiasm of the group and luck with the weather.