DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA FEB 2026

size is three: the instructor, an assistant in the water and another assistant on land or a boat. The assistant in the water, who must be a qualified Rescue Diver, gives the instructor a second pair of eyes and looks after the other divers if the instructor’s attention is diverted by the need to take care of one of them. The in-water assistant is also there to step in and deal with the emergency if the instructor gets into difficulty during the dive: hence the requirement for at least a Rescue Diver qualification. The other assistant can help the instructor in a whole host of ways, both before and after the dive, but their primary job is to arrange and supervise the removal of an unconscious casualty to a point of safety. For this reason, they should have First Aid and CPR qualifications and be able to use oxygen administration equipment. This legislation was brought in after an official enquiry into a series of accidents. The investigators concluded that, left alone, the scuba diving world would not act on its own to create and enforce procedures that, it seemed to them, were just a matter of common sense. What made the investigators draw this conclusion? Why do dive centres not always assign people to help instructors when they teach? After all, it is easy to see the sort of problems that can occur when a dive operation is understaffed and how difficult situations could be prevented or dealt with more easily, just by the addition of more manpower. Quite apart from the moral obligation to keep people safe, dive accidents are very costly, both economically and in terms of the damage that can be done to a dive centre’s reputation. My best guess is that, in these days of cost-cutting competition, it is often the case that safety issues are ignored in favour of economic considerations. If fewer staff are employed for a task, then costs are lower, lower prices can be offered, and cost conscious shoppers will buy, ignorant of the compromises that have made these low prices possible. This is another area where divers need to look closely at how dive operations run fun dives and training dives, assess the risks, consider the potential consequences, and choose wisely.

Y ou can subscribe to Scuba Conversational. Latest issue is: Episode #73: Essential Literature for Divers You can learn more about my books and read my Scuba Solutions blog on my website www.simonpridmore.com If you want to subscribe to Scuba Conversational and receive future issues and podcasts in your inbox.

Simon Pridmore is the author of Technically Speaking, a short series of books on Technical Diving, the second of which has just been published.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #416 February ‘26‘

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