LUSAC is a BSAC-affiliated club. We offer nationally recognised training from Ocean Diver through to Sports Diver and beyond.
Our instructors are club volunteers who are passionate about sharing the sport. Training takes place at our local pool sessions and on organised club trips.
LUSAC membership is open to:
You must register through the Athletic Union to be insured to train and attend trips. We welcome members aged 18+, from complete beginners to experienced divers.
We open applications to new trainees every September, with training beginning in mid-October. You can sign up via:
Spaces fill quickly — early sign-up is strongly recommended.
To ensure high-quality, safe training, we limit numbers based on instructor availability.
Once you complete the sign-up form, our President or Training Officer will contact you to organise your sessions.
Not sure yet? We offer free try dives in early October, supervised by one of our qualified instructors. This is a great opportunity to experience scuba diving before committing.
All exact dates are communicated after sign-up. This leads to your BSAC Ocean Diver qualification, with opportunities to progress to Sports Diver and beyond.
If you are qualified under another agency, you will complete a minimum of 2 pool sessions:
After induction into the club, you can continue progressing through BSAC grades.
Before beginning training, all members must complete the BSAC self-declaration medical form. If you answer “yes” to any medical questions, you may need clearance from a medical referee before diving.
We work hard to keep diving as affordable as possible for students.
For comparison, the equivalent PADI Open Water qualification costs approximately £711 at a local quarry training site, and does not include long-term access to club equipment, ongoing training, or a lifelong dive community.
Take a DEEP DIVE ;) into the training and outcomes of each qualification level
The Ocean Diver qualification is the first grade in the BSAC training pathway.
It is equivalent to PADI and SSI Open Water Diver. However, our course includes:
These are included as standard — not optional extras.
An Ocean Diver is qualified to:
The qualification prepares you to dive safely within a structured club environment and provides a strong foundation for progression to Sports Diver and beyond.
There are 3 aspects to your training, theory, pool and open water lessons.
Once you’ve joined the club, you’ll be allocated a pool cohort on either Tuesday or Friday evenings, with whom you’ll complete a minimum of 7 pool sessions:
You will also complete 8 theory sessions, which run every Tuesday evening during semester 1, comprising:
Finally, before qualification, you must complete:
Your open water training dates will be arranged based on your availability and that of a suitably qualified instructor.
To qualify as an Ocean Diver, you must:
Some trainees may require additional pool, theory or open water sessions before qualification.
We are committed to ensuring every diver reaches qualification safely and confidently, and we do our best to provide additional training where needed.
Once you’ve completed your Ocean Diver, you can progress onto doing your Sports Diver qualification with us. In addition, you can unlock a variety of Skill Development Courses to get involved in, including:
The Sports Diver qualification is the next grade in the BSAC training pathway that we offer. It is equivalent to PADI rescue diver, and is a mandatory requirement to certain Special Development Courses (SDCs), alongside a prerequisite to doing your Instructor Foundation Course (IFC), the first stage on the BSAC instructor training pathway.
A Sports Diver is qualified to:
The qualification provides the foundation for many SDCs, alongside allowing you to take greater responsibility within the club, either as an assistant dive manager, or assistant instructor (or both!)
There are 4 aspects to your training: theory, surface practical, pool and open water lessons.
We do not currently offer Sports Diver theory training in person, but this is something we are hoping to implement from the 2026-27 academic year onwards. Instead, BSAC offer an e-learning version, where you can go through the 6 lectures in your own time.
The rest of the training is as follows:
To qualify as a Sports Diver, you must:
Once you’ve completed your Sports Diver, you can progress onto doing your Dive Leader qualification with us. In addition, you can get involved in various SDCs, and start your instructor and technical diving journey. Courses unlocked by doing your Sports Diver include:
The Dive Leader qualification is the grade in the BSAC pathway above sports diver. It is a mandatory prerequisite to becoming a nationally certified open-water instructor.
An Dive Leader is qualified to:
Once a dive leader has completed their required instructor training, they are also allowed to instruct unqualified divers without supervision in open-water.
There are 4 aspects to your training: theory, surface practical and open water lessons.
We do not currently offer Dive Leader theory training in person, but this is something we are hoping to implement from the 2026-27 academic year onwards. Instead, BSAC offer an e-learning version, where you can go through the 6 lectures in your own time.
The rest of the training is as follows:
To qualify as a Dive Leader you must:
Once you’ve completed your Dive Leader, the next dive qualification is Advanced Diver. In addition, you can continue your instructor journey by doing your Open Water Instructor Course, and your instructor exams to become a nationally recognised instructor.
Enhance your diving with specialist training.
All open water instructors are also certified to teach the Oxygen Administration course. The course itself is a mandatory prerequisite to achieving your dive leader qualification, and it goes through the various ways of administering oxygen, and what to do in a variety of first aid scenarios.
The course is taught over a day, with a mixture of theory content and practicals using first aid equipment. We aim to run the course once or twice a year, depending on demand.
All open water instructors are also certified to teach the Buoyancy and Trim workshop, but we like our instructors to be supervised by an experienced instructor for the course for the first time they teach it. The workshop is a competency test, with a result of gold being a prerequisite for all technical diving SDCs.
The course is taught over a day, with two dives. On the first dive, your buoyancy and trim will be tested as you are taskloaded (e.g. mask clearing, deploying a DSMB). Feedback will be given from your instructor over the surface interval, and you’ll have a second opportunity to practice again on the second dive. After the second dive, your grade will be awarded depending on how much your buoyancy changed during the task loading, according to the following metrics:
We have one instructor who is qualified to teach the ADP course within the club. The course allows participants to use oxygen rich gas mixes for accelerated decompression. Sports Divers and above can enrol on the course, and they have to have depth experience to 35m, alongside a Buoyancy and Trim level of gold. The course is taught over two days, with two dives. On the first day, you practice using decompression mixes without requiring them, alongside other skills such as gas switching, turning cylinders off and DSMB deployment. On the second day, you’ll practice the skills and using the mixes having entered mandatory decompression time. We aim to run the course once a year.
We have one instructor qualified to teach the BSAC snorkel diver course. This course introduces you to the basics of snorkelling, including correct use of equipment, buddy checks, techniques for duck diving and finning, rescue techniques and how to plan snorkel dives safely.
The course is taught over a couple of evenings, through a combination of theory lectures and in pool lessons. We aim to run the course once a year, depending on demand.
This is the first course required to start your instructor journey. It runs over 1 day in a regional location, where BSAC members from across the country will attend.
There is some prelearning and reading to do about the basic of instructing, and on the day you’ll receive some lectures, alongside lots of small group work. You must be a Sports Diver or above to do the course.
The IFC prepares you to teach both theory and practical lessons, so in small groups you get the opportunity to do both.
You’ll have to prepare a short theory lecture on a randomly selected topic, alongside being given a demonstration of a pool lesson, and then providing a lesson on a pool skill.
Once you’ve completed your IFC, you are allowed to teach in the following scenarios:
If you are a dive leader or above and complete your IFC, you are allowed to teach Ocean Diver and Sports Diver open water modules with onsite supervision with the permission of the DO.
Once you’ve done the course, you are defined as an assistant diving instructor.
Within the club, we allow you to teach in the pool on a weekly basis, alongside delivering theory lectures and open water lessons under supervision.
You’ll spend a couple of weeks observing and shadowing one of our experienced instructors in the pool for one cycle of training, before taking on a cohort of trainees of your own with support from our instructors.
In addition, if you are committed to developing on the instructor journey for at least a year, the club will offer you half the IFC course fee.
This is the second course on the instructor pathway, and is for Dive Leaders and above. It runs over 1 day in a regional location, where BSAC members from across the country will attend.
There is some prelearning and reading to do about the basic of instructing, and on the day you’ll receive some lectures, alongside lots of small group work.
The OWIC prepares you to teach in open water under onsite supervision by giving you opportunities to observe and prepare your own open water lessons in small groups.
Once you have completed it, you can instruct in open water under on-site supervision, and you are defined as an assistant open-water instructor.
Similar to with the IFC, if you are committed to instructing on a regular basis for us, we will contribute half of the course fee.
The final state of your journey to becoming an open water instructor is to do your theory and practical exams. This is for Dive Leaders and above who have completed the OWIC.
Practical Instructor Exam (PIE)
The PIE is a half day practical exam, where you will be given a skill to demonstrate a lesson on the day, and you’ll have to prepare and deliver it in 45 minutes in the water.
In addition, you’ll be assessed on your skills by demonstrating a rescue skill, also decided on the day.
Once you have passed it, you’ll be designated a practical instructor, and can teach in sheltered and open water without supervision.
Theory Instructor Exam (TIE)
The TIE is a half day theory exam, consisting of a combination of a multiple choice exam on all diving theory up to Dive Leader (including related to instructing), and a short oral presentation, lasting 10 minutes on a topic given to you.
Once you’ve passed it, you’ll be designated a theory instructor, and can teach theory lectures and dry practical sessions without supervision.
Once you’ve passed both the PIE and the TIE, you’ll be a qualified open-water instructor.
As a club, we will contribute half to your OWIC, and your first attempt at the PIE and TIE as long as you are committed to instructing for the club when you’re available.
We aren’t just a dive club, we’ve also got a very active Octopush/Underwater Hockey team. We attend both student and alumni nationals every year, and are aiming to submit a team to ladies nationals in 2027.
What is Octopush?
Octopush is a fast-paced non-contact sport played at the bottom of a swimming pool. It is essentially ice hockey but underwater - a weighted puck sits on the bottom of the pool, and you use sticks to try score the puck into the goal. Each player has a snorkel, allowing them to come up to breathe as and when needed. There are 6 people on each team.
Our Training Sessions
Our push team trains every Tuesday and Friday evening from 8:30 - 10. We usually spend the first 15 to 45 minutes doing skills related drills, warm ups and practicing puck skills. Often an experienced member of the team sets up small drills for the inexperienced members, and if there are any brand new players, an experienced player will spend the first half an hour teaching them the basics.
Once we’ve spent some time working on our skills, we go into a full pool game. Teams are decided before the session by our push captain, and we have 2 or 3 teams, with 2 teams playing at a time.
We allow our members to borrow all required kit other than swimwear (mask, fins, snorkel, hat, glove, stick), and we can also support you with advice if you’d like to buy your own kit.