BSAC

The second BSAC Ireland Regional Conference was held at the Underwater Ireland 2007 event in Drogheda, Ireland on March 3rd & 4th.

 

Our thanks go to CFT (the Irish Underwater Council) who facilitated the Conference and in particular to Don, Cathy, Finbar, Keith and Louise for again organising a very successful and memorable weekend.

 

A large and varied exhibition/ trade area was complemented by several big name speakers including Innes McCartney, Bob Cole and Jaime Burns, although the hard-working Regional Team saw very little of this side of things!!

 

The Team gave presentations including an update on what has been happening within the Region; the Instructor Training Scheme; Skill Development Courses and the updated Diver Training Programme among others. An interactive discussion ensured that the Members who gave up their time to attend were hopefully able to get their questions answered and these questions/ answers will be listed shortly on the Regional website (http://ireland.bsacregions.org/) for all to see.

 

Phil Clifton, the Coaching Coordinator based at BSAC Headquarters, had traveled over and talked about several subjects including Project Neptune and the upcoming Membership Survey. Phil was kept very busy for the entire weekend, as we had also arranged for him to host a Pilot course/ workshop for Instructors on Automated External Defibrillators (AED) to allow the Region to roll out the AED course to our Members when the course goes live later this year.

 

Headquarters will, in time, make 4 training AEDs available to the Region for one month and any Branches interested in hosting an AED course should contact Franklyn, the Regional SDC Organiser as soon as possible.

 

A Theory Instructor Examination took place and we would like to congratulate the Region’s newest Instructors – Brendan Lilley (Enniskillen SAC) and Tom McVeigh (Lisburn SAC) who both put in very strong performances – notice the Candidates’ smiles when the examination had finally ended!!!

 

Andy Thompson and Sarah Reid led Nitrox workshops while over 30 people were able to get wet in the Rebreather try-dive pool.

 

Mike Rowley, BSAC Technical Chief Examiner, had kindly accepted our invitation to hold several Technical Instructor workshops and a busy weekend for both Mike and the candidates followed. Mike and his fellow members of BSAC Technical Group should be very proud of the new courses, as it is very obvious that a huge amount of time and effort has gone into their development. Despite being offered continuous liquid bribes, Mike stood his ground and "insisted" that we actually do the work but all involved agreed that it had been very worthwhile. Congratulations are due to the Region’s three new Extended Range Instructors and two new Inspiration/Evolution rebreather instructors. Any Members interested in these courses should contact the SDC Organiser. Many thanks to Mike for taking the time and making the effort to start the ball rolling on what will hopefully be the start of the BSAC Ireland Technical Instructor Team.

 

Items from the BSAC Mailshop were on sale, allowing Members to save postage charges, and these will be available for one more week at the Conference prices – please contact the Regional Team if interested.

 

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped out and also to the Members and Branches who attended.

 

Greg Hanna
6^th March 2007