Dive leadership
Planning and leading dives suited to your buddy or team: objectives, depth and time, gas, communication and knowing when to change or end the dive.
BSAC Dive Leader · Leadership · Hurghada
The grade that turns a Sports Diver into someone who plans, leads and manages dives. Advanced planning, rescue management and dive leadership, taught by Red Sea Diving on the reefs and walls around Hurghada, with progressive depth to 40 meters and planned decompression.
The BSAC Dive Leader course is the third full grade of the British Sub-Aqua Club training program, the level at which an experienced diver learns to plan and lead dives, manage diving activities and run a rescue. In Hurghada it costs €750 per person for the training, with BSAC registration, membership, eLearning, materials and certification fees charged separately. Candidates must hold BSAC Sports Diver or an accepted equivalent, be at least fourteen and have the logged experience the current syllabus requires. The program combines eLearning theory with a theory assessment, dry practical lessons, open water lessons and experience dives in varied conditions, and after qualifying, depth builds progressively to 40 meters with planned decompression. Red Sea Diving runs it on the reefs and walls around Hurghada as a BSAC training center.
Moreover, the €750 covers what happens here: the instruction, the leadership and rescue 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 for this grade.
| Course | BSAC Dive Leader, the third full grade of the BSAC program |
|---|---|
| Price | €750 per person, training only |
| BSAC fees | Registration, membership, eLearning, materials and certification, charged separately where they apply |
| Level | Advanced, leadership |
| Prerequisite | BSAC Sports Diver, or an accepted equivalent through the BSAC crossover route |
| Minimum age | 14 years |
| Logged experience | Minimum logged dives since Ocean Diver and Sports Diver, confirmed against your logbook |
| Theory | BSAC eLearning with a theory assessment |
| Practical | Dry practical lessons, open water lessons and experience dives in varied conditions |
| Depth | 40 meters with planned decompression, built progressively after qualification |
| Beyond 40 m | Optional BSAC Deeper Diver course extends Dive Leaders to 50 meters |
| Rescue | Rescue management, casualty assessment, Basic Life Support and emergency oxygen |
| 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 |
Both teach you to lead certified divers, and both sit at roughly the same experience level. By contrast, they lead somewhere different. PADI Divemaster is a professional rating: you can work for a dive center, assist instructors and earn a living. BSAC Dive Leader is a diver grade inside a club system: you plan and lead dives for fellow members, manage the day and run a rescue, without commercial work being the point.
Furthermore, the diving itself goes further on the BSAC side. Dive Leader includes planned decompression and progressive depth to 40 meters, whereas Divemaster stays within recreational no-decompression limits. Consequently a Dive Leader is often the more capable diver, while a Divemaster is the one with the job.
In short, choose Dive Leader if you dive with a club and want to lead it. Otherwise, if you want to work in diving, Divemaster is the route, and we run both.
Planning and leading dives suited to your buddy or team: objectives, depth and time, gas, communication and knowing when to change or end the dive.
Depth, bottom time, gas consumption, decompression, Nitrox, current, visibility and entry and exit procedures, so the plan is realistic rather than theoretical.
Reading experience, equipment and confidence before the dive, because a plan is only as good as the divers it is written for.
Recognizing a diver in difficulty, recovery, surface assistance and coordinating help. Above all, staying organized while it happens.
Casualty assessment, Basic Life Support and emergency oxygen administration, followed by handing over to professional care.
Assessing site conditions, grouping divers by capability, briefing the plan clearly and preparing for emergencies before anyone gets wet.
Likewise, the gas planning and decompression discipline for dives to 40 meters, built up progressively rather than in one jump.
In addition, leading a group around a site and deploying a DSMB cleanly, the two skills every buddy notices first.
Finally, the part no exercise can fully teach: understanding the dive, the divers, the environment and what to do when the plan needs to change.
However, leadership underwater requires much more than being the diver at the front of the group. In other words, your instructor assesses judgment and decision-making continually, alongside the skills and the theory exam.
To begin with, we review your certification, training agency, logged dives, maximum depth, recent diving, rescue and Nitrox qualifications and medical declaration, so the right route is set before you begin.
Then the BSAC eLearning at home, followed by the theory assessment here, because holiday time belongs in the water.
Next, rescue management, casualty assessment, Basic Life Support and dive planning on dry land, until the procedures are automatic.
Afterward, you lead: briefing, leading the group, DSMB deployment, rescue scenarios and progressively deeper profiles, each dive debriefed individually.
Finally, experience dives in varied conditions, the continual assessment and your Dive Leader grade. Meanwhile, depth progression toward 40 meters continues on recorded dives after you qualify.
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 Sports Diver course is the step before this one, and the two can run in the same stay if your logbook allows. 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 €750 rather than a vaguer all-in figure.
Hurghada gives a Dive Leader candidate what the grade is really about: variety to lead through. Sheltered reefs for the rescue scenarios, walls that drop well past 40 meters for depth progression, drift sites for current management and daily boat diving, all within one day’s range. Consequently every leadership exercise runs in conditions that actually change.
Moreover, the international mix on our boats means you brief and lead divers of different experience and languages, which is exactly what a Dive Leader does at home. However, wildlife encounters, from turtles and eagle rays to barracuda and groupers, are natural and therefore never guaranteed.
Furthermore, our daily diving is where you actually log your post-qualification depth progression, and our procedures are set out on the diving safety page.
Gallery
The optional course that extends a Dive Leader from 40 to 50 meters, with the option of weak trimix on the training dives. Above all, it is about risk-based planning rather than depth chasing.
By contrast, the next full grade: organizing diving at new sites, small boats, chartwork and navigation, and diving with no clear surface. BSAC considers this the fully trained diver.
Then the Instructor Foundation Course, which opens the road to Assistant Diving Instructor and beyond for a Dive Leader who wants to teach.
Overall, the BSAC route runs: Ocean Diver → Advanced Ocean Diver → Sports Diver → Dive Leader → Advanced Diver → First Class Diver. Meanwhile, a liveaboard week is the fastest way to log the experience dives, and Nitrox earns its keep on every one of them.
Why us
Above all, depth, weather, diver ability and actual sea conditions come before every training dive, and safety always outranks a particular dive, depth or schedule.
Indeed, more than two decades of diving and liveaboard operations out of Hurghada, on every Egyptian route.
Furthermore, the objective is better planning, judgment, awareness and leadership, not simply another certification.
Moreover, you lead genuine Red Sea dives from our own boats, with real divers, rather than treating leadership as classroom theory.
In addition, the €750 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 Advanced Diver, with BSAC or PADI steps where they fit.
Questions
The Red Sea Diving price is €750 per person. However, applicable BSAC registration, membership, eLearning, materials and certification charges are separate.
No. The €750 is the Red Sea Diving local training price. Therefore we charge applicable BSAC fees separately and confirm them in writing before your course.
No. The €750 does not automatically include Nitrox fills during your Hurghada dives, although we can add them.
At suitable dive sites around Hurghada in the Egyptian Red Sea. Nevertheless, we choose sites according to the training requirements, the weather, the sea conditions and your experience.
The normal BSAC progression is from Sports Diver to Dive Leader. In addition, you need the logged experience the current syllabus requires, which we confirm against your logbook.
Possibly. A diver with an appropriate recognized qualification may enter BSAC training at the relevant level, although we review your certification, experience and the current BSAC crossover requirements first.
Fourteen years, subject to current BSAC requirements. Age can also affect permitted depth progression.
Through BSAC eLearning, which you complete before you arrive, followed by a theory assessment here. Consequently your holiday time goes into the water.
Yes. In fact, rescue management, casualty assessment, Basic Life Support and emergency oxygen form a core part of the grade.
Not on the grade alone. Since the 2023 syllabus, Dive Leader depth progression reaches 40 meters, and the optional BSAC Deeper Diver course then extends a Dive Leader to 50 meters.
Yes. Dive Leader planning covers dives with planned decompression stops, together with the gas planning that goes with them.
The next BSAC grade is Advanced Diver. Meanwhile, a Dive Leader can take Deeper Diver or start the Instructor Foundation Course.
Send us your full name, your age, your current certification and training agency, your number of logged dives, your maximum logged depth, the date of your last dive, your rescue and Nitrox qualifications, your arrival and departure dates, your hotel in Hurghada and your equipment requirements. Then we review your diving background 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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