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Club Rules

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The LUUSAC committee reserves the right to amend the LUUSAC rules at any time and any amendments will take immediate effect. This is the latest edition of LUUSAC rules (updated May 2010 by Christopher Barr); all former versions are revoked.

Definitions:

• "LUUSAC" and "Club" both refer to the Leeds University Union Sub-Aqua Club.
• "BSAC" refers to the British Sub-Aqua Club, the governing diving body of LUUSAC.
• "LUUSAC trip" refers to any trip that has been approved by the DO following the completion of a pre-trip brief.
• "Club kit" refers to any LUUSAC-owned kit.
• "DO" refers to the LUUSAC Diving Officer.
• "DM" refers to the Dive Manager of that trip appointed by the DO.

Equipment

1. Club Kit may be hired by any Club member on a Club trip.
2. Members must care for LUUSAC kit at all times. Failure to do so may incur a fine and/or repair costs.§
3. Kit hire costs must be paid in advance at stores when collecting kit.
4. Fines must be paid immediately and may increase.§

General Diving

4. BSAC safe diving practices must be adhered to.
5. BSAC '88 Decompression Tables or other suitable tables or dive planning software must be used to plan all LUUSAC dives.
6. No drugs or excessive amounts of alcohol are to be consumed on LUUSAC trips.
7. Divers must surface from all LUUSAC dives with at least 50 bar in all cylinders. ^*
8. Ocean Divers must not dive deeper than 20 metres.
9. Sports Divers must not dive deeper than 35 metres.
10. Any dive over 50 metres is not recognised by either BSAC or LUUSAC without appropriate Qualification.
11. Both the maximum depth and the maximum time for a dive that are set by the Dive Manager/DO must be adhered to.
12. All dives must end with a safety stop at 6 metres for a minimum of 3 minutes.
13. All divers conducting LUUSAC dives to a depth greater than 30 metres must have suitable redundancy^** (e.g. pony cylinder, twinset etc.) and must be competent and experienced in the use of the form of redundancy.^**
14. All incidents must be reported to the DO as soon as possible and an incident report questionnaire must be completed and submitted to the DO within 2 weeks of the incident occurring.
15. A member must not dive without an in-date medical (this includes the pool) or current BSAC membership.
16. Post 20m, depth can only be increased provided that the individual is competent diving to that maximum experienced depth, normally a minimum of 4 dives to that depth. Note that drysuit and wetsuit, UK and non-UK diving are independent experiences when considering depth experience.^*
17. Depth increases will be by no more than 5 metres of that of the least experienced diver in the buddy group.
18. When using a dry suit for the first time, the first and second dives must be carried out in sheltered water to maximum depths of 8 metres and 15 metres respectively.
19. A DSMB and reel and a method of monitoring dive depth and time must be carried by each diver on all sea dives and all non-training fresh water dives. ^*

Trips

20. Any trip that fails to abide by the following rules will not be recognised as a LUUSAC trip.
21. All trips must be authorised by the DO.
22. The Expeditions Officer should be informed of all trips.
23. A copy of the Next Of Kin details must be placed in the marshalling pack. In addition a copy must be emailed to the union with a copy of the pre-trip brief and a site specific risk assessment.
24. A Pre-trip brief must be completed and approved by the DO and must be in the possession of the DO so that there are 3 full days before the diving on the trip commences. E.g. by midnight on Tuesday for weekend trips.
25. All trips must be managed by a dive manager appointed by the DO.
26. Marshalling sheets will be entered on the LUUSAC website in the trip planning section as soon as possible following a LUUSAC trip. The DO must be notified when this is completed.
27. All LUUSAC trips must be registered on the database.
28. All LUUSAC trips must have provision for adequate surface cover.
29. A non-refundable deposit must be collected from every person intending to go on a trip. How much and when will be at the discretion of the trip organiser or Chairman.
30. The entire amount of money for a trip must have been collected at the latest by the Thursday before the trip runs. Failure to abide by this may mean exclusion from the trip and loss of moneys paid.^†
31. Both a LUUSAC O₂ and First Aid kit must be present on a LUUSAC trip wherever possible and must only be used by LUUSAC members who possess the relevant BSAC qualification of administration.
32. All trips must include the attendance of an Advanced Diver or a Dive Leader.^*
33. All trips must include at least two competent Dive Marshals capable of managing incidents.^*
34. Following the end of a LUUSAC trip the Dive Manager must report back to the DO by phone a.s.a.p. (not by SMS).

Miscellaneous

34. The DO has authority to exclude any member from any LUUSAC diving if he/she has reasonable grounds to do so.
35. The Chairman has authority to exclude any member from any non-diving LUUSAC activity if he/she has reasonable grounds to do so.
36. The Chairman, with the agreement of the majority of the committee, has the authority to expel any member from LUUSAC if he/she has reasonable grounds to do so.

Dives Over 35m

37. Divers must have suitable redundancy. In general this means a twinset of appropriate capacity.
38. Divers must be experienced in using the kit they plan to use for the dive.
39. Each diver must carry 2 DSMB and 2 reels; where called for in the dive procedures a yellow DSMB should also be carried.
40. All surface signals (including those using DSMBs) should be defined in the dive procedures and the Dive Manager must be fully briefed.
41. The followung DSMB signals are those typically used:
1. The deployment of a single red DSMB will indicate that a diver has commenced the ascent phase of their dive.
2. The deployment of a yellow DSMB will indicate that the diver requires more gas.
3. The deployment of a second red DSMB up a single line may indicate that divers will be in the water beyond their planned dive time. In the absence of a yellow DSMB this may be used as an alternative out of gas signal.
42. An accurate dive plan and run time should be submitted to the DM before entering the water.
1. This should take into account all planned decompression including deep stops.
2. To allow an accurate plan to be submitted the dive should be planned and conducted using either BSAC tables or other preferred dive tables or planning software e.g. Ddplan, vplanner.
43. Each diver must carry a minimum of 2 methods of monitoring depth time and decompression. (Either 2 computers or one computer + dive timer and dive planning slate.)

LUUSAC Rules Summary

Before organising or participating in a LUUSAC trip, please read the full LUUSAC rules which can be found at www.luusac.co.uk

1. BSAC safe diving practices must be adhered to.
2. No drugs or excessive amounts of alcohol are to be consumed on LUUSAC trips.
3. All trips must be authorised by the DO.
4. All trips must be managed by a dive manager appointed by the DO.
5. Members must care for LUUSAC kit at all times. Failure to do so may incur a fine and/or repair costs.
6. All trips must include the attendance of an Advanced Diver or a Dive Leader.
7. All trips must include at least two competent Dive Marshals capable of managing incidents.

† at the discretion of the Chairman
* at the discretion of the Diving Officer
** agreed and approved by the Diving Officer
§ at the discretion of the Kit Officer or Assistant Kit Officer