No one forgets the thrill of their first open water dive.  Here's a quick guide to getting started.

Try dive

If you have always wanted to experience the thrill of diving, or simply want to find out if diving is for you, we can easily arrange a ‘try dive’ at one of our weekly pool sessions.  This gives you an hour-long session with a qualified instructor who will introduce you to the water with a set of club equipment.  After a short briefing, you will learn to breathe underwater, how to fin and have your first taste of what it feels like to be a diver.  Try dives cost £20, which includes one-to-one tuition, the hire of equipment as well as your use of the pool.  All you need to bring is a towel, a swimming costume and a sense of adventure.  To organise a try dive, please contact our membership secretary.

Training for open water

If you’ve already done a try dive, maybe with another club or when you were away on holiday, you may have decided you want to learn to dive and are keen to get started.  Most years CSAC runs a training course for complete beginners to teach them to be competent divers in UK waters.  The course, which is usually run over the winter months, is known as the ‘Ocean Diver’ course and comprises a series of evening lectures, pool sessions and open water dives.  The course is demanding and requires a considerable commitment, but it is great fun.  If you are interested in learning to dive with CSAC please contact our training officer.   The course syllabus can be found at the BSAC Website .

 New Divers

Once trained as an Ocean Diver, you will be qualified to dive in open water as a club member.  Your depth and the sorts of diving that you can do are limited until you complete the next stage of training as a ‘Sports Diver’.  CSAC will continue to provide you with this training and there is usually opportunity for Ocean Divers to go diving with the club while they progress through the next stage of their training.

After Sports Diver, you may wish to further your skills and the scope of your diving and the BSAC diving grades are:

*Instructors must reach a minimum grade of Dive Leader to progress from Assistant Instructor

Cross over from other diving agencies

A large number of CSAC’s members were originally trained with other organisations such as PADI, SAA or other recognised associations.  Some continue to dive under the umbrella of their existing qualification (e.g. PADI Rescue Diver) and choose not to cross over because they have no desire to progress any further with their diver training.  Others who have joined the club have crossed over to the BSAC equivalent of their current qualification and have subsequently continued their training as a BSAC diver. Cross over training is organised on an ad-hoc basis, and can be limited; if you are interested in joining us via this route, please contact the training officer.

Skill development courses

A variety of skill development courses (SDCs) are organised within the club on a regular basis.  These courses enable members to enhance their diving skills by completing specially organised one- or two- day courses for which separate certification is provided.  Recent SDCs have included Oxygen Administration, Boat Handling and Practical Rescue Management.

 Professional not commercial

As part of the BSAC, our training is offered on a not-for-profit basis.  Unlike commercial diving organisations, our diving instructors are volunteers, and are not paid for their time.  There are two consequences of this approach: diver training is cheaper than with a similar commercial organisation; and the volunteer instructors expect a higher degree of motivation and participation from their students than in a commercial organisation.  We expect students to actively participate in the organisation of their training.

CSAC has a large number of instructors with a wide range of interests and experience.  Some enjoy teaching complete beginners to become qualified divers, some enjoy teaching specific skills such as boat handling, and others favour teaching more advanced skills.

All our instructors have been examined by the BSAC in order to qualify to teach people to dive and bring a greater level of enthusiasm than they might if teaching were a full time occupation!