Simon Campbell

Planning a club trip: Part two

A major benefit of club diving is getting the chance to leave the crowds of pay-as-you-go divers to head off in small, specially tailored club trips. This article gives you a basic starting point for planning a successful expedition.

Expedition planning – where do you start?

• I always start with assembling a team that has the knowledge and practical skills to make it happen. By delegating the tasks of assistant dive manager, equipment manager, boat manager, gas manager, basic life support manager and finance manager it makes life a lot easier. I have made the mistake in the past of trying to do it all myself which is an absolute killer…

When should you plan the expedition?

• Really depends on what you are doing and the safety considerations that result from that.
• If you are doing a wreck you probably want slack water and therefore the tidal calculations and passage plan have a bearing on the date and time you are going to dive. As you look at a site, select the neap tide weekend when you want to dive, then work out the time of slack water. You may find that there are perhaps only two days in the whole season when it’s diveable at the optimum time which, of course, never fit in with holidays!

How do you work out a budget?

• This is one of the key issues but not difficult to do. Boats and accommodation are the primary considerations unless of course you are renting compressors and J-bottles of Helium!!
• You can (nearly) always get a fixed price from hotels and guest houses and always from charter boats. I always build in a 10% cockup factor into the calculations which prevents any ugly scenes or ill feeling during or after the trip. There is nothing a diver likes better than to get a refund at the end of a trip!
• Matt, our treasurer, has devised a fiendishly clever excel sheet which calculates everything down to the last penny. Put all the figures in and it spits out a per person charge.
• With RIB diving the person towing the boat can get short changed. Its really important to make sure they get back the difference between ‘towing’ miles per gallon and the mpg they would have achieved without the boat on the back of their vehicle.

What’s the best way to keep costs to a minimum?

• The only really three major variables on a trip are accommodation, food and drink. Using caravans can be very cost effective and great fun. PROVIDING you sort a rota for washing up and cooking.
• For me CAMPING is one of the many enemies of the diver (did I tell you I was writing a book on this) as not sleeping properly and being permanently damp and cold is not my idea of fun

How do you work out what equipment you will need?

• There is nothing worse that arriving with an essential piece of kit missing. So once you have finished the expedition plan with all the sites you are going to dive, passage plans etc, VISUALISE each day.
• Spend a half hour, with your eyes closed, thinking what is going to happen during the trip and the equipment required to fulfil the task. Write down what you think and send it to your equipment & boat manager so they can check it. Once you have the list, make sure you check it all in and out. My memory is appalling so I have numerous lists and bags packed permanently with items of stuff…

What other factors do you have to consider?

• If you want to know the whole story, book on a Dive Planning & Management Course!
• If there is one other thing it has to be the weather. It’s pointless setting out on the expedition if the weather is forecast to be bad. It can also be a safety issue as once everyone has travelled six hours to get to a site it takes a strong dive manager to say: ‘sorry chaps we can’t dive’.
• Weather forecasts are becoming a great deal more reliable and there are many websites out there that predict wind (another enemy of the diver) and system movement. You just need to look and make sure everyone RINGS you the day before to check it’s all still on.

Perhaps a brief bit on each of these???

Local information

• Vital sources of this are the Diving Officers of BSAC branches local to the area you are diving
• Nautical Almanacs that tell you marina telephone numbers and specific detailed port harbour information which is essential. Tidal predictions and charts are vital for sea diving, OS maps are really useful for inshore diving.

Getting there

• Plan your route taking into account atmospheric pressure. Remember it’s not the height of the hills you go over on the way there/back, it’s pressure differences. In a severe depression (low pressure) you may have to dive on level 2 BSAC tables at sea level!!!
• Make sure you keep well hydrated and take breaks on the way to the dive site.

Health and medical advice

• Make sure your divers are fit to dive and don’t have any medical conditions you need to be aware of. Keep a fully stocked first aid kit!

2 comments

1. Hayley McDonald on 22/05/08 at 1106 hours

   All the tips and advice you will ever need to plan a successful and fun dive trip.
   I will be using this sterling info to plan our next trip to St. Abbs. cheers!

2. Simon Campbell on 22/05/08 at 1216 hours

   Excellent stuff.

   If its well planning it will be successful…

   Simonski

You are currently reading:

“Planning a club trip”

Chapters

• Part one
• Part two
• Summary - Top ten tips

A major benefit of club diving is getting the chance to leave the crowds of pay-as-you-go divers to head off in small, specially tailored club trips.

Club expeditions cover all sorts of diving, from day trips to inland sites to lengthy underwater adventures searching for new sites in remote parts of the country. However, organising a club trip for the first time can be daunting. According to the experts, a successful dive expedition is all about planning, delegation, enthusiasm of the group and luck with the weather.