The path to BSAC Advanced Diver

Yo-Han Cha tells the story of his friend Kay Dewhurst and her journey to BSAC Advanced Diver status.

There’s apparently a lot of determination required for any diver to complete their Advanced Diver training. I wouldn’t know how much exactly as I’m still a Sports Diver, but I’ve spoken to many a Dive Leader who has started their Advanced Diver (often years ago) and have yet to finish it. My friend Kay Dewhurst of Manchester University Sub Aqua Club however, has recently become an Advanced Diver. For reasons that will become apparent, it hasn’t always been an easy journey. 

Kay’s Advanced Diver journey started back in 2015, with theory sessions organised by BSAC. Her club then took over the majority of her training and it’s worth mentioning and thanking Adam Rhodes for doing the vast majority of it. The range of experiences required for Advanced Diver have taken her from Shetland in Scotland to the Azores in Portugal. It’s also involved a range of settings and depths, from shore diving off Anglesey to diving the Rondo shipwreck down to 50m in the Sound of Mull. She has also completed her Twinset and Accelerated Decompression Procedures SDCs on her Advanced Diver journey. 

I’ve spoken to many a Dive Leader who has started their Advanced Diver (often years ago) and have yet to finish it

The Advanced Diver qualification hasn’t been a box-ticking exercise for Kay. She’s found that one of the highlights of her training has been learning a broad range of skills from different people. She’s really enjoyed picking the brains of more experienced divers on everything from knots to wreck diving. She also highlighted Helen and Hazel of Orkney’s Valhalla liveaboard helping her a lot with her navigation. This experience has helped her with other diving interests, like Seasearch, which she says she now carries out with an Advanced Diver mindset. She describes this as being more curious about what she sees while diving; she makes more observations and questions what she sees, ultimately resulting in more comprehensive Seasearch forms.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s not always been plain sailing for Kay. Finding an Advanced Instructor to sign the relevant skills and experiences off hasn’t always been easy, and her biggest hurdle was organising a dive trip to an unknown site. Her first attempt was out of Anglesey, but the bad weather forced her to cancel it. Kay had another attempt out of St Abbs, but Covid caused that trip to be cancelled. Then Covid reared its head again for an abortive trip to Jura on the Honeydew liveaboard. At which point, if Kay had given up, I don’t think anyone would have blamed her! 

Kay was understandably a bit glum after these thwarted project trips. In an effort to try and offer some encouragement and support, I asked if she had ever been to the Azores before. Well, I just happen to know an Advanced Instructor in the Azores. I had also been promising Gary and Lindsey Fell of Twin Peaks Diving Centre that I’d come and visit for years, so, Kay, would you like to organise a dive trip to the Azores? I’ll come if you do… I didn’t have to try very hard, the Azores was an easy sell. And so, in September 2024, nine years after embarking on her Advanced Diver course, on a trip that wasn’t affected by Covid or called off because of the weather, Kay Dewhurst finally completed her final requirement and qualified as an Advanced Diver! 

Article ‘Making the grade’ by Yo-Han Cha first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 152 January/February 2025.