As the new Snorkelling Instructor for 2010 I would just like to say that I am really looking forward to hopefully taking on a few new members through snorkelling and parents joining as dive or social members.

On the weekend of the 13 and 14 February I carried out a snorkelling instructor course at Radley Sports Centre in Abingdon.

Over the first part of the weekend we learnt to become a Snorkel Diver which involved learning the basic skills through theory and practical work which included fitting equipment, finning techniques, snorkel use, mask clearing, entries and exits into the pool and surface dives.

That evening I had to prepare a practical lecture on surface dives for 10 minutes (thank you to Colin for the loan of the slate!)

The following day started in the pool with demonstrations by each individual member of the group with an instructor on hand assessing the overall lesson. Further theory classes followed and from this we started to prepare for our theory presentation. This was completed by a further multiple choice theory exam which we were given 30 minutes to complete.

BSAC is promoting Snorkelling by working alongside Sport England and Cayman Islands and giving the opportunity for clubs to hopefully take on new members.

This scheme is known as Try Snorkel 2010 and will be running across the whole of the UK from 22 March to 2 April.

As well as general promotion through clubs and on the BSAC website they have linked up with BBC Thrill-seeker to promote individual clubs who wish to participate in this scheme.

Thrill-seeker gives a varying amount of people to try an adventurous activity that they have never tried before and possibly take up the sport as a hobby or pastime.

So if you have read this and thought I would love to 'Try Snorkel' then email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.