Please remember the following points when planning a trip and when diving

Anything you take/wear when diving affects your buoyancy. Most things are negligible, however torches and tanks can make a crucial difference for example:

A Kowalski torch can be 500g negative, so if it is not taken on a given dive, compensation needs to be made for the reduction in weight.

A 15l tank is heavier out of the water, however it is not (generally) more negatively buoyant in the water! The lightweight Faber 15l tanks in the club hut (weighing ~16KG) are approximatly 500g more positively buoyant when empty than the 12l (13.2KG) tanks. This means you need to add weight, not remove it.

Please remember, this also needs to be taken into account for pony cylinders and twins...

To work it out for in detail, have a look at: http://www.subaqua.co.uk/cgi-bin/cylinder-buoyancy.cgi

If you have lost your buddy, the safest place to be is on the surface.

1) On the surface: If you have not made contact with your buddy before descending, wait at the shot.

2) Descending: If you have lost contact while descending a shot, they are likely to be on the shot. If they are not where you expect them to be, go to the surface and wait by the shot.

3) Descending: If you have lost contact on a free descent and are near the surface, inflate a DSMB and surface

4) Descending: If you have lost contact on a free descent and are near the bottom, descend and perform the lost contact procedure

5) During the dive: if you separated from your buddy during a dive perform the lost contact procedure.

6) Ascending: If you loose contact while ascending, continue to ascend as normal, putting up a DSMB if not already done so and performing any stops required.

1. Stop

2. Look around you, ie spin around, looking up and down. (it may be useful to turn on a torch - aka lighthouse effect - your buddy may find you!). Remember to look over rocks and the other side of obstacles.

3. If you can go to where you last saw him and it is not very far, have a look

4. If you do not have an SMB and are not at the shot, deploy your DSMB.

5. Ascend to the surface, carrying out any MANDATORY stops.

6. At the surface notify the Dive Marshall/Skipper immediately if you cannot see your buddy

In the words of BSAC, 'Where two or more dives are being made the same day, it is good practice to carry out the deepest dive first'. Sometimes it is not possible. Where the deeper dive is carried out second, the depth should not be significantly deeper than the previous. I am very nervous of people performing reverse profile dives, especially if people are not aware of the above point. Both of the incidents we have experienced on previous ET's occurred as second dives, where the second was deeper than the first and a reverse profile is very likely to have been a contributing factor...

You are covered by BSAC's 3rd party liability Insurance on all diving (private or club), as long as you follow BSAC's Safe Diving Practices - http://www.bsac.org/techserv/sdp.htm and dive within your ability/qualification.

An official Club Trip is where any of the facilities, which are provided by OUUEG are used as part of the Trip. This can include diving equipment, minibuses and other resources, such as the mailing list! It does not include personal emails and personal kit. A Club Trip is also where the name of the Club or the University are used in any booking. The DO must be informed about all Club Trips.

The DO or his representative plus the Sports Fed Office http://www.sport.ox.ac.uk/sports-federation/safety must be informed about all Club trips, and the Sports Fed Risk Assessment Form http://www.sport.ox.ac.uk/sports-federation/safety/risk-assessments must be filled in and submitted seven days before date of departure.

The DO does not need to be informed about personal trips. However, as DO I would like to be informed of all diving by Club Members, so that I am fully aware of the amount of OUUEG diving activity. Therfore the information which I require is:

1. Where are you going?

2. Who are you diving with (name of Boat/shop)?

3. Who is on the trip - if non-OUUEG divers are included, more info is useful?

4. Your Dive Plan - this is what you expect to do. If the situation changes, change the Plan and let me know the changes afterwards?

The first thing to do in an incident is to endeavour not make the situation any worse!

# All Sport Divers should have some awareness of Diver Rescue and Basic First Aid.

# Make sure the Skipper/Boat Handler and Dive Marshal is aware what is going on!

# Make sure someone is in control and manages the incident. This is likely to be the Skipper/Boat Handler or the Dive Marshal.

# Take useful notes, ie. note down the time things happen. If you are involved in the rescue/incident make sure any information you have is relayed to whoever is making the notes.

# All diving incidents should be communicated to the Coastguard if it is possible that their services will be required. It is better to say that you may require their services so that they are prepared, rather than call them in at the last minute with a Mayday!

# After the incident, the DO and the University need to be contacted. (OU Control room is: 01865 289999)

# After an incident, it is useful for all involved to write down what happened as soon as possible. This should be given to the DO who will help the DM complete the Incident Report Form.

# Make sure you treat those involved for shock!

Finally, in reality, I hope that I am telling you all to suck eggs!

Please take the information above on board, and remember - Safe diving!