FAQs

Here you will find some of the most common questions we get asked about our training and diving with our club:

The ocean diver course teaches you:
  • How to use basic dive gear
  • Control you buoyancy underwater
  • How to plan and manage your diving
As a qualified ocean diver, you will be able to dive to a depth of 20m and use nitrox.
The sports diver course teaches you:
  • Diving at an altitude
  • Recovery of an unresponsive diver
  • Basic life support
As a qualified sports diver, you will be able to dive to a depth of 40m on nitrox.
The dive leader course teaches you:
  • Leading inexperienced and experienced divers
  • Dive management
  • Rescue management
As a qualified dive leader, you will be able to plan and manage diving at sites known to the club.

We run the ocean diver and sports diver courses twice a year. Tickets are released in September at the start of academic year and in January at the star of the second semester.
There is no set time the dive leader course is run, it can be started at any time, you just have to ask instructors when they will be free to run an open water lesson with you.

The ocean diver course teaches you the basics of diving. It consists of 6 classroom lessons, a multiple-choice theory exam, 5 pool lessons and 4 open water lessons.
The sports diver course builds on your previous diving knowledge. It consists of 6 classroom lessons, a multiple-choice theory exam, 1 pool lesson and 6 open water lessons. You will also have to complete shore marshalling and additional classroom sessions in first aid and dive planning.
Due to the low demand for the dive leader course, instead of having classroom lessons, the theory consists of an online eLearning course, 5 open water lessons and 3 practical lessons.

Typically, a course can be completed within the year. If the weather is right and there are enough instructors, then a course can potentially be completed within a semester.
During the first week of the Easter holidays, we run our annual trip to Cornwall where we get the majority of the training done for the year, this is the easiest way to get your open water training done, so if you can, come along!
If you can’t make this trip there are plenty of times throughout the year where training can be completed at the weekends.

The ocean diver pack costs £150. This includes the club membership, kit hire, pool hire and instructor costs.
The sports diver pack costs £80. This includes kit hire, pool hire and instructor costs. You will have to buy a club membership separately which is £45.
You will also have to buy a BSAC membership and a BSAC course pack. A BSAC student membership costs £42, an ocean diver pack costs £48, and a sports diver pack costs £45.

If you have never dived before then you will need to sign up to the ocean diver course.
If you have completed the ocean diver course or an equivalent qualification, then you can sign up to the sports diver course.

If you have already learnt to dive with another diving agency then don’t worry, you will not need to start your training all over again!
On the BSAC website you can find what your course is equivalent to and then you are free to sign up to the next qualification level.

The date and time of the course ticket release will be announced on our WhatsApp, Instagram and monthly news bulletin so make sure to keep an eye out for that!
Tickets can be bought on our SU page. It’s first come, first served so make sure to get one as quickly as you can once they go live!

Once you’ve bought a ticket you will get an email from the clubs Training Officer. In this email it will give you all the information about the course, which packs and memberships to buy, how to join the group chats and upcoming theory and pool sessions.

Of course! We do a lot of fun diving throughout the year, whether that be a day trip, a weekend getaway or even a full week trip!

Unfortunately not. You will need to have completed the ocean diver, or equivalent, course to be able to go fun diving.

Yes of course! At a small cost you will be able to hire all the kit you will need to dive from the club. This ranges from regulators, cylinders and BCDs to wetsuits, boots, hoods and gloves.

You can go diving as much or as little as you like! People regularly do day or weekend dive trips throughout the year, just sign up when you want, people regularly advertise trips on our WhatsApp group.

Yes! We run one international dive trip a year, in the most recent trips we travelled to Egypt, Mauritius and Gozo.

We have several ways you can get into contact with us. You can email the whole UBUC committee on the Contact section of the website or you can email individual committee members using the emails found on The Committee website page.
You can also contact us on our Instagram page or join our WhatsApp group chat and pop a message in there.

There are many different ways to find out what is coming up in the club. If you join our WhatsApp, sign up to our month news bulletin and follow our Instagram then you will see all our announcements!

If you are not a member of UoB but want to get involved, then pop a message to one of our committee members and we will be happy to chat with you.

Due to safeguarding, only those over 18 years old are able to join the club.