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A BSAC Snorkel Dive Marshall is a person who is trained to organized and oversee Snorkeling activities. He or she will have knowledge and experience in all areas of snorkel dive planning and is able to conduct snorkel dives for groups of snorkelers who are diving from different dive platforms, including boats. The Snorkel Dive Marshall is also trained in Rescue Management Skills and Basic Life Support skills.
This course consists of 3 - theory lessons and 5 - open water dives. The Snorkel Dive Marshall must also successfully pass the BSAC Snorkel Lifesaver Award.
The entry requirements for this course is as follows, · Must be rated as a BSAC Advanced Ocean Snorkel Diver · The student must have completed a self - declaration ‘Fitness to Snorkel’ and this should be signed by their parents or guardian, if under 18 years of age.
The duration of this course is 3 – days (which includes 1- day for the Lifesaver Award Exam)
The first lesson starts with a look at the roles of a Snorkel Dive Marshall. A dive Marshall’s duties and responsible will cover choosing the dive site or sites in order to achieve any objectives of the group and to also cater for every level of the divers qualifications within the group. He or she will assess the weather and diving conditions in order that all the dives can be carried out safely, organize buddy pairs, while considering their individual interests – Photographers diving together etc, The dive Marshall is also a leader of dives and we will cover dive leadership in this lesson.
He or she will also plan to ensure that all snorkel dive safety protocols are followed and will take overall charge in dealing with any incidents or problems that may arise.
Lesson 2 relates to the Leadership of Snorkelling activities. We will start by looking at the role of a snorkel dive leader, which will cover personal attitudes and qualities, their experience, both theoretical and practical dive experience. A dive leader’s role is to ensure the dives all goes to plan and that they are enjoyable and safe for everyone involved in the diving.
The Snorkel Dive Marshall should give an effective briefing to all members of their group. This briefing should cover, the task of the dive, the overall dive time, point of interests any hazards that the divers should be aware off etc. You will learn how to give an effective brief and debrief which will cover Safety, Exercise, Equipment checks, dive discipline and will review snorkeling dive signals
Underwater he or she will lead the group on the dive using the ‘One up’ ‘One down’ procedure. This means that there will always be one buddy – on the surface at all times, who will be acting as a standby snorkel diver just incase their diving buddy needs assistance.
All these topics and more are covered in section 2.
Finally, section 3 is all about open water dive planning. Effective planning is essential if everyone in the group is to have a successful and safe days diving.
One important factor in planning dives in open water is the ‘Tides’ and ‘Currents’. With this in mind the first step in this lesson is to have some basic understand of how tides occur and the depth of water that can be expected once on the dive site. As tides move from their lowest point to the highest, and visa versa, there will be water movement – i.e. currents. This lesson will show you how tides occur, how to predict tides and currents in order that you can plan to dive when the current are least or are stopped.
We will also show you how to accurately predict the depth of water at any time by using a method called the ‘rules of twelfths’
The next step in the planning phase is choosing the correct dive site. Diving from an unknown sandy beach with no corral or rocky reefs to look at is going to be a somewhat a boring dive. By looking at and knowing how to read sea charts will give you some ideas of what type of seabed you can expect at the site. In this section, we take a look at sea charts and the relevant symbols; symbols that indentify reef, wrecks, rocks, underwater pinnacles etc, all of which will offer some interesting snorkel diving.
On completion of the above theory lessons, the instructor will conduct a short theory assessment in order to check you current level of knowledge at Snorkel Dive Marshall level.
The assessment consists of 10 – multi choice questions.
In addition to the Snorkel Dive Marshall assessment, there is an oral theory assessment in the BSAC Snorkel Lifesaver Award, in which these questions are specific to this course.
For more information on this course please click on the Lifesaver Award tab
The students will conduct 5 - open water dives with a duration of each dive being a minimum of 20 minutes. These five dives will be in addition to those dives conducted for the Advanced Ocean Snorkel Diver grade.
Each of these above dives should be conducted at 5 different dive sites. On two of the dives, you will demonstrate to the Instructor both your dive planning and organizational skills and your ability to effectively lead other snorkelers in your group
On successfully completing the Snorkel Dive Marshall program you will be awarded the BSAC Snorkel Dive Marshall qualification.
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BSAC Snorkel Dive Marshall
Course overview
