Programme of webinars

Week beginning 12 April

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Advanced Diver

AT2
Advanced diving

BSAC
Delivered by National Instructor, Steve Batt
Contact DRT

Booking Closed

Non-BSAC members Booking Closed

Special interest

The relevance of WWII oxygen experiments to today's rebreather divers
Driven by wartime operational requirements, following a series of diving accidents, some of which were fatal, in the early 1940’s the UK Royal Navy undertook an extensive programme of manned oxygen toxicity diving experiments to determine ‘safe’ oxygen exposure limits. Eight decades later, these experiments still stand today as the defining work in oxygen toxicity in man. The presentation examines the key findings of these experiments and their relevance for today’s nitrox / rebreather diver.

Booking Closed

Non-BSAC members Booking Closed

Historical Diving Society

The salvage of the Dixilan Field 83 rig
The Dixilan Field 83 was a 6,500-ton three-leg jack-up rig on contract to the Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) of India. She was working on the former Bombay High field, 80 miles from Mumbai when the starboard leg 'punched through' the seabed causing the DF83 to rapidly lose stability and roll over.

Fortunately for the crew, the vessel did not capsize completely at that time and the crew were all able to evacuate. Shortly afterwards, the starboard leg collapsed and the entire vessel sank to the seabed in 240ft of water.

Mike was the Diving Superintendent responsible for running the diving operations throughout the 104-day demanding offshore salvage operation. The operation involved a 3,000-ton heavy lift crane barge, 1,000-ton A-frame lifting barge, three heavy-duty tugs, and many days spent underwater cutting, rigging and lifting, as well as penetrating the wreck and coordinating heavy crane lifting all before the monsoon season arrived.

Mike O'Meara, HDS Chairman

Booking Closed

Non-members Booking Closed

Week beginning 19 April

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Safety Seminar

Diving Safely - Skills Refreshing

Jim Watson will present further detailed guidance for divers and Instructors on how they can plan and conduct skills refresher activities when returning to diving following a break. Fran will cover similar content but focus on refreshing essential rebreather skills. The seminar will draw on key messages that relate to the current preparation for a return to diving program.

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.

Special interest

Traditional chartwork (two parts)
If you are interested in the Chartwork and Position Fixing course then these webinars will prepare you for the course by providing a basic understanding of an admiralty chart; teach you how to recognise some of the symbols and abbreviations; measure a distance and direction; and work out positions in latitude and longitude. 

A practice chart RYA No 3 is a prerequisite for the Webinar and can be purchased online from WHSmith, Hive and Co, or Book Harbour for £5 (or borrow one). You will also require a pencil and a straight edge, either a ruler or straight-edged sheet of paper. A notepad would also be useful.

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.

Advanced Diver

AT3
Organising diving from different platforms

BSAC
Delivered by National Instructor, Steve Batt
Contact DRT

Book nowBuy pack

Historical Diving Society

The disappearance of Commander Crabb - what really happened?
On 19 April 1956, Commander Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb, former Royal Navy Clearance Diver, carried out a secret spying mission for MI6 under a Soviet warship in Portsmouth Harbour. It was carried out against the express direction of the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. The dive went disastrously wrong and Crabb did not return from the dive. A cover-up was hastily attempted and the government imposed an immediate embargo on disclosure of the facts.

Daily Mail reporter Peter Marshall was first to expose the deception, followed by a host of others representing the press, radio and television. The cover-up inevitably led to a raft of speculation and a host of claims and theories about what happened to Crabb. When the classified information was due to be released, the ban was extended to cover 100 years from the time of the incident. Why?

Without an official account of the covert operation and consequent events, speculation continues to fuel the mystery. This talk examines the facts and attempts to explain what really happened.

Ann Beavan, Commander Crabb expert

Member booking: £3Non-member booking: £5

Week beginning 26 April

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Advanced Diver

AT4
Review of diving conditions and on-site first aid

BSAC
Delivered by National Instructor, Steve Batt
Contact DRT

Book nowBuy pack

Historical Diving Society

The raising of the Kursk
The Kursk was a Russian nuclear-powered Oscar class submarine. She left her home base of Vidiayevo on 10 August 2000 with a total crew of 118 to participate in military exercises in the Barents Sea. Tragically, she sank as a result of an onboard incident on 12 August, killing all 118 personnel onboard.

After some internal delays, the Russian authorities requested international assistance, however, the initial delays in reporting her loss combined with inadequate early intervention caused lot of opportunities for successful lifesaving intervention.

Mike will share his experience as part of the three-man team hastily mobilised at short notice to travel to St Petersburg to negotiate and plan with the Russian senior naval command, as well as the first stage of the salvage operation.

Mike O'Meara, HDS Chairman

Member booking: £3

Non-member booking: £5

Week beginning 10 May

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Special interest

How to be found at sea
During your training, you will have learnt how to use an SMB, designed to help the skipper find you at sea. What if the weather has closed in? What if you get caught in a drift that takes you beyond the visual range of the skipper (e.g. round a small Headland or island or even if the weather has picked up and the waves are high)? During this presentation, we will take you through the various options that are available to you beyond the trusty SMB, including PLBs, EPIRBs and AIS MOBs.

Lisa Shafe, Neil Withers & Nick Fecher, RNLI

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.

Week beginning 17 May

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Special interest

SCUBA, robotics and 3D imagery - what's not to love?
This talk will highlight part of my PhD research conducted recently at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Oban. This work compared surveys conducted by SCUBA and Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs), testing 3D photogrammetry as a potential method for managing commercial shellfish species.

What you will learn:

• What are Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs)?
• What are king scallops (Pecten maximus)?
• What is 3D photogrammetry and how it could be used in marine management?

Karen Boswarva, BSAC Marine Environment Specialist Scotland

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.

Week beginning 7 June

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Special interest

Holiday medicines for scuba divers
Why take a few simple medicines away with you on a diving holiday? Let's look at simple medicinal tips to manage 10 non-severe conditions. These are medicines for pain, indigestion, diarrhoea, nasal congestion, sea sickness allergies, fungal infections, insect bites & jelly fish stings, sunburn, fly spray and plasters. These medicines are available over the counter.

Hugh South, Advanced Instructor & Pharmacist

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.

Week beginning 28 June

Date

Type

Topic

Host

Special interest

Photogrammetry on SS Thistlegorm
This webinar will focus on photogrammetry and its use on the SS Thistlegorm which led to the Science Photographer of the Year award 2020. This will cover the method and application of photogrammetry in some depth. All of the wreck site is covered at 2mm per pixel. With this level of resolution you can zoom in and measure things, often which have been hiding in plain sight for years, like the port side Stanier 8F locomotive. Simon will also talk about Metashape software and his training courses through AccuPixel.

Simon Brown, Director of AccuPixel and Science Photographer of the Year 2020

Member booking

Non-BSAC members should email drt@bsac.com to gain access to this webinar.