Organising a Dive

The best way to have a guaranteed spot on a trip is to organise one yourself. All dive trips within Unidive are organised by members who are volunteers who put in their time and effort to organise a trip.

How to organise a trip

  1. Put your name on the white board in the shed next to the trip you want to organise (or talk to the dive officer if you want to make a new trip).
  2. Advertise the trip via e-mail and at the club on Thursday evening.
  3. Ask any interested members to provide you with dive experience details and deposit.
  4. Organise to logistics (e.g. transport and accommodation) with participants well ahead of trip for your own convenience. Every trip has its particular characteristics which are partly described in the individual trip plans of each dive site.
  5. Before the trip check with boat handler or dive operator if trip is safe to go.
  6. During trip ask the most experienced diver to be dive supervisor and take care of dive log and dive briefing.
  7. After trip: calculate the trip costs and collect the money, organise for the tanks to be filled, have somebody write a trip report for the website and return completed dive logs to dive officer.
  8. If you have questions about organising a trip, ask dive officer or any other experienced divers such as: Maggie Watts, John Holmes, Chris Roelfsema, Gavin Bott, Andy Mason etc, etc,

Helpful documents

Outline of the process:

Before the Trip:

  1. Find a boat handler or book the charter. If the trip will use the Undive boat you will need to find at least one boathandler that is approved to go to that site. If the trip is on a charter vessel you will need to ring the operator and make the booking.
  2. Advertise the trip over the maling list and at club meetings. N.B. Collect deposits for the trip - usually the deposit should cover the upfront costs you have paid on the trip (e.g. barge, accommodation, or for commercial charters, total cost of charter). Without deposits people will invariably drop out leaving the rest of the participants with extra bills.
  3. Fill in Pre-trip Participant Details.
  4. When choosing divers for a trip bear in mind:
    • All club divers must have a safety sausage (these can be purchased at the shed) and have a means for measuring time under water (e.g. a computer or dive watch).
    • If the club boat is being used, you need to have at least one person other than the approved boathandler on the trip who has a recreational shipmasters licence and is comfortable with staying in the boat whilst the approved boathandler goes diving.
    • Experience levels of your dive. The Undive definition of an "Experienced diver" a diver who has advanced certificate or equivalent, 30 dives or more of which at least one in the last 6 months, and have dived at least ten different dive sites. If a member has not been diving for longer than 12 months please contact the Safety Committee for advise in regards to a refresher course. If you are unsure, ask the Dive Officer or one of the safety committee members about who your potential divers are so we can ensure that the level of experience on the dive is appropriate.
  5. In the week before the trip remind all participants that they need to go to the shed to select their gear on Thurs from 6-6.30pm. It is useful if the trip organiser attends the gear shed to ensure all participants turn up, and this is a good time to check diving certs and log books. Warn participants that if they are late for the meeting the trip will leave without them.

On the Trip:

  1. On the day of the trip, meet at the shed, load all the gear into cars and leave a copy of the Pre-trip Participant Details at the gear shed.
  2. At the dive site ensure that people know who their buddy pairs are and fill in the trip dive logs as soon as they return from a dive. Ensure that safe dive practices are followed. If you do not feel comfortable with running the diving side of the trip, ask one of the more experienced members on the trip to do so.

After the Trip:

  1. At the end of the day, fill in the Trip Costs Reconciliation form.
  2. Ensure that all gear is washed correctly. When the gear is returned to the shed, tick off the items on the gear hire form so the shed slaves know that the gear has been returned.
  3. If there have been a safety incidents, fill in the form.
  4. Appoint someone to write a trip report and get them to send it to the newsletter editor.
  5. Submit any money owed to the club to the Treasurer.
  6. Send the Dive Officer a list of all divers and the number of dives done.