BSAC

Founded by Oscar Gugen, Peter Small, Mary Small, and Trevor Hampton in 1953, BSAC (which stands for British Sub-Aqua Club), was one of the first organisations offering scuba diver training. You can find BSAC instructors all over the world, however they are most prevalent in the United Kingdom.

BSAC operate very differently to most other scuba agencies. BSAC training tends to take place in a club environment, and the instructors are often volunteers rather than full time paid employees. BSAC are the largest dive club in the world, and have trained hundreds of thousands of divers since their first club branch opened in London in 1954. In 1957, they reached a major milestone by opening their first overseas branch in Kingston, Jamaica.

While BSAC’s worldwide growth has been slow, they continue to be the most important dive organisation in the United Kingdom; televising diver training and many universities and colleges have BSAC clubs to introduce students to the sport. They have pushed for marine protected areas to be established around the UK, and they recently unveiled their five year strategy to get more people from around the UK into scuba diving.

As they are based and mainly focus on diving in the United Kingdom, the BSAC curriculum spends a lot of time focussing on diving in difficult conditions such as low visibility, cold water, and strong currents. BSAC place a very heavy emphasis on training rescue skills right from the beginning of diver training, and because of this, many divers regard BSAC as one of the most comprehensive diver training organisations in the world. BSAC offer courses in almost any field related to diving, which is another thing that sets them apart from other agencies.

Apart from offering courses in both recreational diving and technical diving, BSAC offer certifications in areas such as boat handling, equipment servicing and compressor operation. Their programs ‘Advanced Diver’ and ‘First Class Diver’ are considered the highest non-professional recreation diver level in the world, and to obtain these certifications, the diver must hold numerous different certifications and lead dive expeditions.

Did you know? The current president of BSAC is Prince Charles; the Prince of Wales. He is an active diver and has been diving all over the world, even ice diving in the Arctic Circle.