Advanced dive planning
Objectives, site characteristics, team organization, depth, gas, decompression, entries and exits, surface support and emergency arrangements, considered together rather than one at a time.
BSAC Advanced Diver · Expedition Level · Hurghada
The grade BSAC calls the fully trained diver. Planning, organizing and managing complete diving operations, from a day boat to an expedition: seamanship, search techniques, diving with no clear surface and advanced decompression, taught by Red Sea Diving across the reefs, walls and wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea.
The BSAC Advanced Diver course is the fourth full grade of the British Sub-Aqua Club training program, the level at which a Dive Leader learns to plan, organize and manage complete diving operations rather than a single dive. In Hurghada it costs €650 per person for the training, with BSAC registration, membership, eLearning, materials and certification fees charged separately. Candidates must hold BSAC Dive Leader or an accepted equivalent and be at least fourteen. The program covers expedition and dive management, underwater search techniques, diving with no clear surface, an introduction to mixed-gas diving, advanced decompression planning, finding and diving an unknown site, and seamanship with small boats, chartwork and navigation. Red Sea Diving runs it across the Egyptian Red Sea as a BSAC training center.
Moreover, the €650 covers what happens here: the instruction, the planning and management exercises, the training dives, the boat, the tanks and the transfers within Hurghada. Therefore we explain in writing any BSAC fee that applies to your status before you confirm. The program follows the standards published by the British Sub-Aqua Club, which considers this grade the fully trained diver.
| Course | BSAC Advanced Diver, the fourth full grade of the BSAC program |
|---|---|
| Price | €650 per person, training only |
| BSAC fees | Registration, membership, eLearning, materials and certification, charged separately where they apply |
| Level | Advanced leadership, expedition planning |
| Prerequisite | BSAC Dive Leader, or an accepted equivalent through the BSAC crossover route |
| Minimum age | 14 years |
| Focus | Planning, organization, leadership and management of complete diving operations |
| Theory | BSAC eLearning and theory sessions with your instructor |
| Practical | Dry practical sessions, open water lessons and experience dives across varied Red Sea sites |
| Diving skills | Search techniques, no clear surface, mixed-gas introduction, advanced decompression, unknown-site diving |
| Seamanship | Small boats as diving platforms, chartwork and navigation |
| After qualifying | First Class Diver; Advanced Instructor route for Open Water Instructors |
| Location | Hurghada, Red Sea Governorate, Egypt |
| Booking | Written confirmation of inclusions and BSAC fees before payment |
| Operator | Red Sea Diving, a BSAC training center in Hurghada, diving since 2000 |
Dive Leader teaches you to lead a dive. By contrast, Advanced Diver teaches you to run the whole operation: the divers, the site, the weather, the boat, the gas, the logistics and the emergency plan. Consequently the training moves off the reef as much as onto it, into chartwork, small-boat handling, expedition planning and the judgment to cancel a dive before conditions make the decision for you.
Furthermore, the diving itself widens. Advanced Diver introduces underwater search techniques, diving with no clear surface, such as a wreck penetration, an introduction to mixed-gas diving and more advanced decompression planning, so that the person organizing the trip is also the most capable diver on it.
In short, there is no direct PADI equivalent. The nearest comparison is the organizing side of a PADI Divemaster, although that is a professional rating for working in a dive center, whereas Advanced Diver is the club diver who plans the expedition.
Objectives, site characteristics, team organization, depth, gas, decompression, entries and exits, surface support and emergency arrangements, considered together rather than one at a time.
Assessing divers, organizing buddy teams, briefing a site, monitoring the diving and coordinating it safely. Above all, adjusting when conditions change.
Destination, sites, transport, boats, cylinders and gases, accommodation, weather, medical facilities, communications and who does what, because a good trip is planned long before the first dive.
Small boats as diving platforms, chartwork and navigation, so you can put divers on the right spot and recover them from the wrong one.
Underwater search patterns for a lost object, a lost diver or a site nobody has dived before, run and recorded properly.
Likewise, the discipline for diving without direct access to the surface, such as a wreck penetration, where the line, the gas and the plan do the thinking for you.
In addition, more advanced decompression planning and an introduction to mixed-gas diving, as knowledge and judgment rather than a technical qualification.
Diver recovery, first aid, oxygen, communications, evacuation and local procedures, prepared for the situation that may never happen.
Finally, reading weather, wind, current, visibility, experience and gas before they become a problem, and knowing when a dive should move, change or stop.
However, Advanced Diver is not a technical diving course. In other words, it develops an experienced diver who can make sound decisions and organize safe diving; technical diving needs its own specialist training.
To begin with, we review your certification, training agency, logged dives, maximum qualified depth, recent diving, rescue and leadership experience, Nitrox and any specialist qualifications, so the route is set before you begin.
Then the BSAC eLearning at home, followed by theory sessions here on expedition planning, seamanship and advanced decompression, because holiday time belongs on the water.
Next, chartwork, dive-management exercises, emergency planning and a full expedition plan on paper, critiqued by your instructor before anything goes to sea.
Afterward, you manage real diving days: site assessment, briefing, small-boat positioning, search exercises, a no-clear-surface dive and rescue scenarios, each debriefed individually.
Finally, experience dives across different sites and conditions, the continual assessment and your Advanced Diver grade.
However, the exact schedule depends on your existing experience, your progress, the weather and the current BSAC standards. Consequently we confirm the day-by-day plan once we have reviewed your training record.
Not there yet? The BSAC Dive Leader course is the step before this one, and Sports Diver the one before that. Moreover, if your certification is from another agency, send it to us first, because we confirm eligibility before we confirm the program.
Therefore your written quotation shows the training price and each applicable BSAC fee as separate lines. In fact, that is why the headline says €650 rather than a vaguer all-in figure.
Hurghada is a working port with a working fleet, which is exactly what an Advanced Diver candidate needs: real boat operations, real logistics, changing conditions and a different site every day. Consequently the planning exercises are not theoretical, because the boat you plan for in the morning is the one you dive from after lunch.
Moreover, the variety within one day’s range covers the syllabus on its own: sheltered reefs for search exercises, walls for advanced decompression profiles, wrecks for no-clear-surface work and open water for chartwork and navigation. However, wildlife encounters are natural and therefore never guaranteed.
Furthermore, our daily diving and liveaboard operations give the whole course an operational context, and our procedures are set out on the diving safety page.
Gallery
The Thistlegorm and the Abu Nuhas wrecks: no-clear-surface planning, current and a schedule that depends on the weather. In other words, the syllabus afloat.
By contrast, offshore reefs with walls, current and no shelter, where gas planning, surface support and the decision to cancel are the whole point.
Then Ras Mohammed, Fury Shoals and St. John’s: long transits, remote sites and expedition logistics from the first day to the last.
However, completing Advanced Diver does not automatically qualify a diver for every site or itinerary. Individual certification, experience, depth qualification, conditions and operator requirements still apply. Overall, the BSAC route runs: Ocean Diver → Advanced Ocean Diver → Sports Diver → Dive Leader → Advanced Diver → First Class Diver.
Why us
Above all, training activities change whenever conditions require it, because good leadership includes knowing when not to dive.
Indeed, more than two decades of diving and liveaboard operations out of Hurghada, on every Egyptian route.
Furthermore, we run eight boats and the liveaboard routes ourselves, so the logistics you plan are the logistics we live with.
Moreover, the objective is judgment and organizational ability, not simply completing exercises or collecting another card.
In addition, the €650 training price and every applicable BSAC fee are explained in writing before you confirm.
Likewise, we help you plan the whole route from Ocean Diver to First Class Diver, with BSAC or PADI steps where they fit.
Questions
The Red Sea Diving training price is €650 per person. However, applicable BSAC registration, membership, learning materials and certification charges are separate.
No. We charge applicable BSAC fees separately from the €650 Red Sea Diving training price, and we confirm them in writing before your course.
At suitable locations around Hurghada and across the Egyptian Red Sea, according to the program and the conditions. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee specific sites, because we choose the environment that fits the training.
Possibly. However, we must review your certification and experience against the current BSAC crossover requirements before confirming entry.
The normal prerequisite is BSAC Dive Leader. In addition, we may consider equivalent qualifications according to the current BSAC crossover requirements.
Fourteen years, subject to current BSAC requirements.
No. Dive Leader develops dive leadership, whereas Advanced Diver progresses into the planning, organization and management of more complex diving activities and expeditions.
No. Advanced Diver is an advanced BSAC diver grade, not a technical diving qualification, although it introduces mixed-gas and advanced decompression knowledge. Therefore technical diving still needs its own specialist training.
Yes. In fact, dive management and organization are the core of the grade, alongside expedition planning and seamanship.
Yes. The planning, leadership and organizational skills are valuable on demanding Red Sea routes. However, individual liveaboard itineraries keep their own certification and experience requirements.
Yes. Seamanship is part of the grade: using small boats as diving platforms, chartwork and navigation, so you can position divers correctly and recover them safely.
The highest BSAC diver grade is First Class Diver. Meanwhile, an Advanced Diver who is an Open Water Instructor can progress to Advanced Instructor.
Send us your full name, your age, your current qualification and training agency, your number of logged dives, your maximum qualified depth, the date of your last dive, your leadership and rescue experience, your Nitrox and any specialist qualifications, your arrival and departure dates, your hotel in Hurghada and your equipment requirements. Then we review your experience and confirm the appropriate program in writing, including any applicable BSAC fees. For liveaboard diving in Egypt see also redsealiveaboard.net, and read the current fitness guidance from Divers Alert Network.
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Red Sea Diving, Madares Street, Hurghada 1, Hurghada 84511, Red Sea Governorate, Egypt. Diving and training here since 2000.
This page was last reviewed by the Red Sea Diving instructor team in September 2026.
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