The least forgiving part of the week

Water is where good programmes take the most care and where improvisation is never acceptable.

Qualification is not optional

Water sessions require properly qualified supervision at the ratios the governing body sets, and those ratios assume competent participants in suitable conditions. Nothing in these notes substitutes for that, and no programme should run a session without it.

Brief before the kit goes on

Instructions given once everyone is in buoyancy aids and excited are not heard. The briefing that works happens on dry land, seated, before equipment is issued, and ends with the group repeating the two things that matter most.

Cold is the real hazard

In most settings the danger is not depth but temperature and the shock of immersion. Session length should be set by how cold the group is getting, not by how much time was allocated on the timetable.

Count constantly

Head counts before entering, at intervals during, and immediately on exit — out loud, by a named person. It feels excessive and it is the practice that catches the one occasion something has gone wrong.

Have a dry plan

Water sessions get cancelled more often than any other activity. A programme without a prepared alternative turns a cancelled morning into an unsupervised one, which is its own problem.