101. Training
To the best of my knowledge there are no training courses for bottle diving. However there are formal training programmes in ancillary diving areas which, taken in combination, do represent a fairly comprehensive treatment of the subject. Here are the ones that I have found to be of most relevance:
Solo Diver: There are surprisingly few people who enjoy rooting about for junk in tracts of grotwater. This means that the bottle diver is almost certainly going to be a solo diver, at least in U.K. inland conditions. Diving without a buddy requires special training and a very different approach to dive planning and risk management. For this reason I regard the solo diver course to be the methodological underpinning of this discipline.
Public Safety Diver: P.S.D. courses are the sort of training that the police and fire brigade undergo. I went on a couple of them a few years back. Both were held in the United States since the equivalent U.K. courses are indeed only available to members of the emergency services. American departmental divers tend to be drawn from civilian life, a bit like an old-fashioned posse, and on both occasions I was able to blag my way in. I was particularly fortunate in that the courses were held in wintry Minnesota and rainy Pennsylvania, where the site conditions were naff enough to approximate Blighty. One of the courses was specifically aimed at blackwater search and recovery, while the other dealt with underwater crime scene investigation. Most of my techniques are derived from blackwater training, and the equipment I use, and its configuration, have changed only in detail since.
Search and Recovery Diver (S.A.R.): This is the closest thing to a "Bottle Diver" course that most recreational diving agencies have to offer, though I have heard of a PADI "Golf Ball Diver" programme which sounds interesting. It must be said that recreational S.A.R. techniques often assume the presence of a buddy, and usually fail to address serious blackwater conditions. Nevertheless I have found that there is much that can be adapted. The methods that I use when conducting an initial survey are largely drawn from this recreational type of training.
By the way, I have to point out that I am not an instructor. The content of this site can never be anything more than a summary of my own experience and opinion. The only advice I am prepared to offer anyone on the subject of bottle diving (if I have any advice to give at all) is to build experience as slowly and conservatively as possible, and with a constant view towards mitigating risk.
