Experience review
To begin with, your logbook against the BSAC requirements: dives since Advanced Diver, dives past 30 meters, conditions, leadership and the six SDCs, so we name the gaps before we name the program.
BSAC First Class Diver · Highest Grade · Hurghada
The top of the BSAC ladder. First Class Diver is not a course but a national assessment of expedition planning, leadership, seamanship and advanced diving. Red Sea Diving prepares suitable Advanced Divers for it across the reefs, walls and wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea, where the deep dives and the expedition logistics are real.
BSAC First Class Diver is the highest diver grade in the British Sub-Aqua Club training program, awarded by BSAC’s most experienced instructors through a national assessment rather than taught as a course. Candidates must hold BSAC Advanced Diver, have logged 100 dives in a range of conditions since qualifying, at least 20 of them deeper than 30 meters, and have completed six Skill Development Courses. The assessment has three separate parts: a theory knowledge examination, an advanced expedition plan and a two-day practical diving assessment. Red Sea Diving offers a preparation and development program in Hurghada for €900 per person, with BSAC membership, assessment fees and prerequisite courses charged separately. The €900 prepares you; it does not award the grade.
Moreover, every candidate arrives with different gaps, so we adapt the program to your experience rather than fixing its length. Therefore we review your logbook and qualifications first, and we explain in writing any BSAC fee that applies before you confirm. The requirements follow the standards published by the British Sub-Aqua Club for this grade.
| Qualification | BSAC First Class Diver, the highest BSAC diver grade, awarded by BSAC after national assessment |
|---|---|
| Preparation price | €900 per person, Red Sea Diving preparation and development only |
| BSAC fees | Membership, registration, assessment fees, prerequisite courses and certification, charged separately |
| Prerequisite grade | BSAC Advanced Diver |
| Experience | 100 dives in a range of conditions since Advanced Diver |
| Deep experience | At least 20 of those dives deeper than 30 meters |
| Required SDCs | Chartwork and Position Fixing, Diver Coxswain, Oxygen Administration, Practical Rescue Management, Advanced Lifesaver, First Aid for Divers |
| Assessment 1 | Theory knowledge examination |
| Assessment 2 | Advanced expedition plan |
| Assessment 3 | Two-day practical diving assessment |
| Duration | Not fixed; we adapt the preparation program to each candidate |
| Focus | Expedition planning, leadership, dive management, seamanship and advanced diving |
| Location | Hurghada and the Egyptian Red Sea |
| Booking | Logbook and qualification review first, then a written program and quotation |
| Operator | Red Sea Diving, a BSAC training center in Hurghada, diving since 2000 |
Advanced Diver is a course with a syllabus. By contrast, First Class Diver is an assessment of what you have become since: a diver who can plan and lead safe but challenging national and international expeditions. Consequently there is no fixed program, no set number of days and no guarantee that paying for preparation results in the grade.
Furthermore, the entry bar is experience, not enrollment. BSAC asks for 100 dives across a range of conditions after Advanced Diver, twenty of them deeper than 30 meters, plus six Skill Development Courses, before you can even register for the assessments. In other words, repeating the same easy dive a hundred times does not qualify; variety of sites, depths, conditions, boats, teams and leadership situations does.
In short, since 1953 only a little over a thousand people have earned it. That is the point.
To begin with, your logbook against the BSAC requirements: dives since Advanced Diver, dives past 30 meters, conditions, leadership and the six SDCs, so we name the gaps before we name the program.
Drafting and critiquing a full advanced expedition plan: objectives, sites, team, boats, gases, decompression, weather, communications, medical facilities and contingencies.
Running real diving days on our boats: assessing divers, grouping teams, briefing, monitoring and adapting when the sea changes its mind.
Above all, the judgment BSAC examines: communication, organization, decision-making and the response to a situation that changes mid-dive.
Coordinating a response rather than performing a single skill: recovery, surface assistance, oxygen, casualty care and evacuation planning.
Likewise, chartwork, position fixing and small-boat operations, because expedition diving happens from boats you must understand.
In addition, supervised dives past 30 meters on the Red Sea walls, planned and logged the way the assessment expects.
Advanced decompression, gas planning, diving physiology, safety and expedition theory, at the depth the knowledge examination demands.
Finally, a rehearsal of the two-day practical format, so nothing about the assessment itself is a surprise.
However, the €900 is a preparation and development service. In other words, it develops real capability toward the assessment; only BSAC awards the grade itself.
To begin with, we review your BSAC membership, Advanced Diver date, total dives, dives since Advanced Diver, dives past 30 meters, SDCs, rescue and boat-handling experience and expedition history.
Then a written development plan: which experience, which SDCs and which assessments you still need, and in what order, because each candidate’s list is different.
Next, theory preparation for the knowledge examination, and the drafting of your advanced expedition plan with critique from an experienced instructor.
Afterward, managed diving days and deeper dives on the Red Sea walls, logged toward the 100 and the 20, with leadership and rescue scenarios built in.
Finally, a rehearsal of the two-day practical assessment and confirmation of your readiness, so that you register for the BSAC assessments with a plan rather than a hope.
However, there is no normal duration. Consequently the schedule follows your existing experience, and the official assessments are taken separately with BSAC, at your own pace.
Not there yet? The BSAC Advanced Diver course is the grade before this one, and the experience dives can be logged on our daily boats and liveaboards long before you register. Moreover, First Class Diver should never be treated as a one-week holiday certification, because it is not one.
Therefore your written quotation shows the preparation price and each applicable BSAC fee as separate lines. In fact, that separation is deliberate: the grade is BSAC’s to award, not ours to sell.
Hurghada is a principal base on the Egyptian Red Sea with daily boat diving, wrecks, walls that drop well past 30 meters and liveaboard routes north and south. Consequently the two things a First Class Diver candidate needs most, deep varied experience and genuine expedition logistics, are both on the doorstep.
Moreover, the northern wrecks, the Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone, Fury Shoals and St. John’s are exactly the kind of remote, current-swept, weather-dependent destinations an advanced expedition plan is written for. However, none of them is automatically included in the €900, and every route keeps its own certification and experience requirements.
Furthermore, we run eight boats and the liveaboard operations ourselves, so the logistics you plan on paper are the logistics we live with. Our procedures are set out on the diving safety page.
Gallery
A broad, advanced examination covering decompression, gas planning, physiology, safety, rescue, seamanship, dive management and expedition diving. Above all, it tests whether your knowledge can support challenging diving.
By contrast, a written plan for a complete advanced expedition: objectives, location, sites, team, boats, transport, equipment, gases, decompression, weather, communications, medical facilities, evacuation and contingency planning.
Then two days of diving under BSAC examiners, assessing personal diving ability, leadership, teamwork, planning, organization, judgment, communication and the response to changing situations.
Overall, you take the three separately and at your own pace, and BSAC conducts them nationally. Meanwhile, the BSAC route that leads here runs: Ocean Diver → Advanced Ocean Diver → Sports Diver → Dive Leader → Advanced Diver → First Class Diver. Afterward, development continues through the BSAC instructor, technical and expedition pathways.
Why us
Above all, challenging diving does not mean unnecessary risk. A planned dive changes or stops whenever conditions make that the right call, and 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, real boats, real routes, real weather and real logistics, which is what an expedition plan is supposed to describe.
Moreover, the objective is real capability toward the assessment, not another certification collected.
In addition, we explain the €900 preparation price and every BSAC fee in writing, and we say plainly that the grade is BSAC’s to award.
Likewise, both operations under one roof give the whole preparation an operational context that a classroom cannot.
Questions
The Red Sea Diving preparation price is €900 per person. However, official BSAC fees, prerequisite courses and assessments are separate unless your quotation specifically states otherwise.
No. The €900 is Red Sea Diving’s preparation and development price. Therefore we charge applicable BSAC fees and assessments separately and confirm them before the relevant event.
No, unless a specific liveaboard is explicitly included in your individual quotation. In fact, liveaboard costs are normally separate.
No. The official assessment belongs to BSAC. Therefore the €900 program prepares and develops you where appropriate, and it should never be confused with the final BSAC assessment.
Yes. Candidates must have completed BSAC Advanced Diver before enrolling in First Class Diver development.
BSAC requires 100 dives across a range of conditions after qualifying as an Advanced Diver. In other words, variety matters as much as the number.
At least 20 of the qualifying dives must show experience deeper than 30 meters, conducted within your qualifications and the applicable regulations.
Six: Chartwork and Position Fixing, Diver Coxswain Award, Oxygen Administration, Practical Rescue Management, Advanced Lifesaver and First Aid for Divers.
No. BSAC does not prescribe a fixed training program. Instead, candidates develop the required experience and prepare for BSAC’s assessment process at their own pace.
Three: a theory knowledge examination, an advanced expedition plan and a two-day practical diving assessment, each taken separately.
No. It requires extensive experience after Advanced Diver, the prerequisite qualifications and success in the BSAC assessment process. Nevertheless, a week here can add real deep and expedition experience toward it.
First Class Diver is the highest BSAC diver grade. Afterward, experienced divers continue through the BSAC instructor, specialist, technical and expedition pathways according to their goals.
Send us your full name, your age, your BSAC membership details, your current qualification and the date you completed Advanced Diver, your total logged dives, your dives since Advanced Diver and your dives deeper than 30 meters, your Skill Development Courses, your rescue, boat-handling, expedition and dive-management experience, any Nitrox or technical qualifications, the date of your last dive and your preferred dates. Then we review your diving background and propose an appropriate preparation program in writing. 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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