BSAC Level 4: Snorkel Dive Marshall

SNORKEL DIVE MARSHAL is a person who is trained to organise and oversee snorkelling activities. He or she will have knowledge and experience in all areas of snorkel dive planning and is able to conduct snorkel dives for groups of snorkellers who are diving from different dive platforms, including boats. The Snorkel Dive Marshall is also trained in Rescue Management Skills and Basic Life Support skills.

Theory Training

• Section 1: Roles of the Snorkel Dive Marshall - A dive Marshall’s duties and responsibilities will cover choosing the dive site or sites in order to achieve any objective of the group and to also cater for every level of divers’ qualifications within the group. He or she will assess the weather and diving conditions so that all the dives can be carried out safely, organise buddy pairs, while considering their individual interests – photographers diving together etc.

• Section 2: Leadership of snorkelling activities - We will start by looking at the role of a snorkel dive leader, which will cover personal attitudes and qualities, their experience, both theoretical and practical dive experience. A dive leader’s role is to ensure the dives all goes to plan and that they are enjoyable and safe for everyone involved in the diving. He or she will also plan to ensure that all snorkel dive safety protocols are followed and will take overall charge in dealing with any incidents or problems that may arise. The Snorkel Dive Marshall should give an effective briefing to all members of their group. This briefing should cover, the task of the dive, the overall dive time, point of interests any hazards that the divers should be aware off etc. You will learn how to give an effective brief and debrief which will cover Safety, Exercise, Equipment checks, dive discipline and will review snorkeling dive signals. Underwater, he or she will lead the group on the dive using the ‘One up’ ‘One down’ procedure. This means that there will always be one buddy – on the surface at all times, who will be acting as a standby snorkel diver just in case their diving buddy needs assistance.

• Section 3: Open Water dive planning - Effective planning is essential if everyone in the group is to have a successful and safe day diving. One important factor in planning dives in open water is the ‘Tides’ and ‘Currents’. With this in mind, the first step in this lesson is to have some basic understanding of how tides occur and the depth of water that can be expected once on the dive site. As tides move from their lowest point to the highest, and vise versa, there will be water movement – i.e. currents. This lesson will show you how tides occur, how to predict tides and currents so that you can plan to dive when the currents are less or absent. We will also show you how to accurately predict the depth of water at any time by using a method called the ‘rules of twelfths.’ The next step in the planning phase is choosing the correct dive site. Diving from an unknown sandy beach with no coral or rocky reefs to look at is going to be a somewhat boring dive. By looking at and knowing how to read sea charts will give you some idea of what type of seabed you can expect at the site. In this section, we take a look at sea charts and the relevant symbols; symbols that identify reef, wrecks, rocks, underwater pinnacles etc., all of which will offer some interesting snorkel diving.

• Theory Assessment (10 multi-choice questions) 

BSAC Snorkel Lifesaver Award

The primary aim is to examine, under open water conditions, lifesaving proficiency specifically applicable to snorkel divers. 

The Exam

• Basic Life Support (BLS) assessment – demonstrate to the examiner the effective administration of Basic Life Support, which will be performed on a mannequin doll. You start off this exercise by correctly diagnosing cardiac arrest of the casualty. This scenario assumes that the casualty is both unresponsive and not breathing, and therefore the need for immediate Basic Life Support should commence. The examiner will expect you to do the following steps: Check the casualty for circulation, properly positioning your hands on the casualty chest while performing effective chest compressions combined with rescue breaths at the correct ratio. We will probably be treating the casualties that have been involved in a snorkel-related incident and this incident might have involved water inhalation, which can cause the casualty to vomit. The examiner will ask you to demonstrate the correct actions for a vomiting casualty. In the case where the casualty has a ‘near drowning’ experience; depending on the circumstances of the incident, there may be a chance that the casualty can be revived by performing effective BLS. In this case, the examiner will ask you to put the casualty in one of two recovery positions. The recovery position used will depend whether you are on land or on a boat.     

• Theory assessment, conducted orally - Throughout the above BLS assessments, the examiner will ask you questions relating to Basic Life Support issues. You will be expected to answer 4 out of 5 questions correctly. In addition to this, in the Rescue Practical below, you will also be asked on the spot, questions relating to Lifesaving topics. Again you need to answer 4 out of 5 questions correctly.

• Practical Snorkel Rescue Examination - This part of the exam starts with a throwing exercise. The exam assumes that a snorkeller has fallen into the water without snorkeling equipment. As a Rescuer you will consider several options before the need to actually enter the water. A couple of the options available to you in this assessment are to throw the casualty 2 objects.

• In the first exercise, you will be asked to throw the casualty a rope. The distance to throw the rope will be a minimum of 10 metres. Once the casualty has caught the rope, you will need to instruct them on what you want them to do, before pulling them to safety.

• The second task is to throw the casualty a buoy object. These objects will be those that may be found on the beach or in a boat. Typically, these objects could be plastic containers, footballs, mooring buoys etc. You will need to throw a maximum of 3 objects; again the distance will be 10 metres. Unlike the rope throw, where you can pull the casualty to safety, in this exercise you will need to enter the water-fully equipped. You will then need to swim out to the casualty and tow them back to safety using a non-contact tow.

• Snorkel Rescue assessment. This rescue assessment is based on rescuing another snorkeler who is deemed unconscious and is not breathing. The casualty will be about 10 metres away and is floating face down in the water. The rescuer needs to enter the water, whilst at the same time keeping visual contact on the casualty at all times, and then the rescuer will swim out to the casualty; in full snorkeling equipment. On approaching the casualty you will be expected to turn the casualty so that his or her face is clear of water. Your first step would be to make sure the casualty remains positively buoyant at the surface. This is usually achieved by inflating the casualty lifejacket – either by activating the lifejackets CO2 inflation cartridge or by oral inflation. After calling for assistance, you then remove the casualty’s mask and snorkel and then commence rescue breaths. At the same time as giving rescue breaths you will tow the casualty a distance of 100 metres. The rescue finishes with the landing of the casualty either onto the beach or boat. On landing the casualty, you will start to administrate normal Basic Life Support. 

Qualifying Dives

The students will conduct 5 open water dives with a duration of each dive being a minimum of 20 minutes. These five dives will be in addition to those dives conducted for the Advanced Ocean Snorkel Diver grade. On two of the dives, you will demonstrate to the Instructor both your dive planning and organisational skills and your ability to effectively lead other snorkellers in your group.


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Information provided by BSAC Thailand.