Dive Briefing Checklist: What a Good Briefing Covers

What is a dive briefing?

It is the moment the plan for a dive becomes shared knowledge. ISO 24803, the service standard for recreational diving providers, requires that before every diving session clients are told the identity and role of staff, the emergency procedures, their buddy or group assignment and the conduct expected of them. For guided dives it adds a safety briefing, buddy assignments, the operational limits and an environmental briefing.

The UK's Health and Safety Executive takes the same line for dives where at least one person is at work, such as an instructor or guide. Its code of practice says the dive plan and the arrangements for foreseeable emergencies must be clearly understood by everyone involved, and that this is normally done in a pre-dive briefing.

Length matters less than people think. Francois Burman, writing for DAN, puts five to eight minutes as about the limit of a diver's focus, and suggests splitting information across several shorter briefings (arrival, boat safety, the dive itself) instead of one long one. The rest of our safety articles are collected in the safety guides.

What a good dive briefing covers

PADI's guidance for divemasters lists ten parts: site name, site description, the guide's role, entry and exit, dive procedures, emergency procedures, signal review, roster and buddy check, environmental orientation and the predive safety check. The site description alone should cover topography, points of interest, hazards, conditions, depth, compass headings, facilities and emergency equipment.

ISO 24803 asks the operator to assess, before each in-water activity, water movement, depth, visibility, temperature, pollution, entry and exit methods, restricted zones, hazardous marine life and the emergency action plan. What the operator assessed is what you should hear. The table sets the two lists side by side with what a useful answer sounds like.

Depth, time and turn pressure: the numbers you should leave with

Three numbers should come out of every briefing: a maximum depth, a maximum time and a gas rule. ISO 24803 requires an agreed maximum time for each group entering open water, with a search triggered if it is exceeded. That is why the briefing time is not a suggestion.

The gas rule is where briefings are most often vague. "Be back on the boat with 50 bar" says nothing about when to turn. A better briefing gives a turn pressure, or lets each pair work one out. Here is how our gas planning calculator does it for an out-and-back dive to 18 m (60 ft) with a 12 L cylinder filled to 200 bar, assuming two divers breathing a stressed 30 L/min each while sharing one cylinder:

• Rock bottom, the gas two divers need to get from maximum depth to the surface with a safety stop: 666 L, or 55.5 bar in a 12 L cylinder, rounded up to 60 bar.
• Usable gas: 200 bar minus 60 bar leaves 140 bar.
• Turn when half the usable gas is gone: 140 ÷ 2 = 70 bar, so turn at 130 bar.
• Whoever reaches 130 bar first turns the pair around.

Signals and the lost-buddy procedure

Signals get their own slot because not everyone learned the same ones. In a DAN Alert Diver column, instructor Eric Douglas describes nearly failing a dive during his instructor exam because the examiner, a cave diver, signalled OK with a closed fist instead of the thumb-and-forefinger ring. Air pressure is worse: he describes one system where a hand held sideways means 500 psi plus 100 for each extended finger. His advice is to agree the signals with your buddy before you descend. The HSE code of practice makes the same point for working dives: the supervisor decides on a common system of signals and makes sure everyone knows it before the dive.

The lost-buddy rule should be said out loud, because agencies differ on the timing. BSAC's Safe Diving Guide says to make a brief attempt of about 30 seconds to relocate your buddy, looking behind and above first, then surface. DAN describes the Open Water rule as searching for one minute and then surfacing, and in one case summary credits that rule with reuniting two scientific divers separated in surf and low visibility. Either works if both divers use the same one. On drift dives, where the group may surface far apart, see our drift diving basics for what to carry.

The emergency plan: oxygen, first aid and who calls whom

ISO 24803 requires a first aid kit, a way to alert emergency services and an emergency oxygen unit able to deliver at least 15 L/min of pure oxygen for at least 20 minutes wherever diving takes place. Each site must also have a written emergency plan covering casualty recovery, resuscitation and evacuation, use of the oxygen, a diving emergency hotline and the nearest medical resources, including whether a recompression chamber is available.

The briefing is where you learn the parts that apply to you. On a boat, ISO 24803's vessel briefing covers emergency equipment and protocols, the chain of command, roll call, entry and exit, and communication such as signals and delayed surface marker buoys. Burman's DAN article puts the location of emergency equipment in the arrival briefing, so ask if it was skipped.

DAN's guidance on emergency action plans adds one step that is yours, not the operator's: tell your buddy and the dive staff about allergies and medical conditions, or keep them written in a sealed envelope.

• Where is the oxygen, and who on this boat or beach is trained to give it?
• Where is the first aid kit?
• What number or radio channel is used first, and where is the nearest chamber?
• How are divers recalled from the water?
• What is the maximum time before a search starts?

Marine life rules: does the environmental part change anything?

Mostly yes, and the quality of the briefing seems to matter. ISO 24803 asks providers to include environmental and underwater cultural heritage points in briefings and to use mooring buoys where possible.

A 2016 study in the Philippines followed 100 recreational divers: 88% touched the reef at least once per dive, at a mean of 0.12 contacts per minute. Divers from operators with high compliance with the Green Fins programme, which includes a pre-dive briefing stressing no reef contact, touched the reef significantly less. The authors review earlier work: briefings reduced contact in the Florida Keys and the Red Sea, while a study in St Lucia found no effect from simply asking divers not to touch. Their reading is that the content and quality of a briefing matter, and that briefings may work better in small groups.

A useful environmental briefing names the local rules (no gloves, no feeding, distance from turtles) and the fragile spots at this site, instead of a general line about respecting the reef.

How to brief yourselves when there is no guide

Buddy pairs diving on their own need the same content, just shorter. Burman's first stage is the self-briefing: the dive professional works through a personal checklist before speaking to anyone, and a buddy pair can do the same thing with the list below. BSAC's guide says that when three or more divers dive together, a plan understood and agreed by all of them before entering the water is essential. DAN's comment on the separated scientific divers makes the same point: communication starts before the dive with agreed emergency protocols, especially with a new partner or in a new environment.

Run it standing next to each other, kitted up, and finish with the equipment check in our buddy check guide. The whole thing fits inside Burman's five to eight minutes.

• Site: where we go in, which way we swim, where we come out, and the backup exit.
• Conditions: current direction now and later in the dive, visibility, anything that has changed since the last dive.
• Limits: maximum depth, maximum time, turn pressure, pressure at the safety stop.
• Roles: who leads, who follows, who carries the SMB and who deploys it.
• Signals: show air pressure, turn, problem and "let's go up" to each other now.
• Lost buddy: how long we search (30 seconds or one minute, pick one) and where we meet on the surface.
• Emergency: where the oxygen and phone are, who shore cover is, what time they call for help.
• Environment: what not to touch here and any local rules.

Red flags in a poor dive briefing

A thin briefing is not proof of a bad operator, but it tells you what questions to ask before you roll in. Measured against ISO 24803 and PADI's own list, these gaps matter most. For the wider picture, see how to choose a dive centre.

• No numbers: no maximum depth, no maximum time, no gas rule.
• No emergency procedures, or "just follow me" in place of a lost-buddy plan.
• No mention of current on a site known for it, or of how and where to exit.
• Buddy pairs not assigned, or a solo guest left to "stay near the group".
• No roll call method: nobody says how divers are counted back aboard.
• Oxygen and first aid never mentioned, and nobody can say where they are when asked.
• Signals not reviewed with a mixed group from different agencies or countries.
• Hazards described in general terms ("be careful") instead of named.