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Meet BSAC A guide to how BSAC is organised and managed. Meet a Branch Learn how a BSAC Branch operates, its activities and organisation. Meet the members Hear what it's like to dive as a BSAC member. Meet BSAC HQ Meet the staff at BSAC HQ and learn about their roles. Meet the Coaches A tour of the regions with BSAC - meet the Regional Coaches. Meet the Diver Training Centres Take a tour of the BSAC Diver Training Centres. Meet the Resort Centres Take a tour of the BSAC Resort Centres. Contact BSAC Who to contact at BSAC. |
Meet Naomi TolleyI made a wish several years ago, while wondering along the white sand shores of Perentian Kecil, an island in the South China sea. I longed to learn how to dive. There were dozens of divers staying on the tiny tropical island who would wade out of the clear waters, chattering about coral gardens and the abundance of marine life. "It's like another world," I heard them say. And it certainly seemed like an unobtainable world to me.As a recently graduated backpacker I was verging on penniless and affording the extortionate costs of two-day diving courses was nigh on impossible. But my love for outdoor sports and an aspiration to glide gracefully through deep waters and marvel at marine activity never died. Three years later, I am now 25, and a trainee Ocean Diver with BSAC's Totnes branch in South Devon. The dream began to come to fruition while working as a journalist for a regional, daily newspaper. I was invited to take part in and write a first person feature about a "try dive" with Totnes BSAC. "The underwater gambol had gone flippers up but I was hooked," I wrote. I immediately signed up for the Ocean Diver course. 
The past three to four months have been spent on in-pool training, mastering basics and the arts of mask clearing, equalising, achieving neutral buoyancy, in addition to weekly theory lectures ranging from health and safety to the function of the lungs.The course has also proved to be financially feasible, with options of splitting payments over a three month period. There is no need to dish out lump sums of cash for kit as the club has helped with the temporary free loan of essential equipment. The club's busy and varied social scene simply compliments these assets. I cannot praise the help and voluntary support of all the instructors and club members enough. They have been encouraging from the word go - with their help and positive criticism all of the trainees, of various ages, have passed their Ocean Diver theory paper, their swimming pool assesments and are fit for open water. 
As I prepare for my first open water dive off the South Devon coast, I feel confident that I, and the other trainees, will soon gain our Ocean Diver qualification. An achievment I hope will take me on to qualify as a Sports Diver. I am off on my travels again later this year, on a sailing expedition from the Virgin Islands to Antigua. Only this time I hope I'll be able to use the skills that Totnes BSAC have taught me and take the plunge into the watery world of the Caribbean.I have also enrolled on the club's Life Saver course and I hope to continue as an active member of Totnes BSAC for as long as I'm living in Devon. |
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