The new Sports Code - News from the President of the CTN

The number of questions concerning the new Sports Code is enormous and it goes without saying that I try to answer all the questions that you, your instructors and your members may have. There are 3 questions that come up very often and I enclose some answers.

1) The appellations PE1 to PE4 and PA1 to PA4 (Appendix III-14a)
These appellations correspond to skills allowing to "classify" the divers according to their aptitudes and to allow them to dive in zones of depths corresponding to these appellations in autonomy or framed.
Divers coming from other horizons than FFESSM, ANMP, FSGT, SNMP and CMAS can in this way dive legally in France in areas corresponding to their abilities within the limit of 40 M.
These are not diplomas or patents and therefore one can not deliver a PA2 or a PE3.
However, the CTN is currently studying the possibility of creating additional qualifications in the Autonomous Diver style at 20M or 40M or diver framed at 40M but these are only additional qualifications that will not replace the N1, N2 or N3 ( referenced in the appendix III-14b compared to the famous aptitudes) which will remain the backbone of our system and which will remain obligatory to accede to the Guide of Palanquée N4.

2) The 3 levels, their formation and their prerogatives.
In the appendix III-14b one specifies that the level 3 is in the grid at the level PA4 and if one looks at the zone of evolution of the PA4 one sees well that it can evolve in autonomy in the zone 40 - 60M.
The question about the prerogatives of the N3 does not arise, nothing has changed. Regarding the formation of an N3 today the annex III-16a is again extremely clear, it specifies that for the zone of 20 to 40M an E3 can form divers PE2 or PA2 in the course of formation towards the aptitudes PE3 or PA3 and at the top of the column it is specified that are the minimum skills of divers. An N3 (see Technical Training Manual) is trained in 40M by an E3 and we have always extrapolated the skills acquired to 40M to allow it to access the autonomy of 60M, nothing has changed. An E3 can always conduct an N3 training from the beginning to the end and then graduate on the FFESSM website. The article 322-84 is on the other hand a novelty "repairing an injustice remaining in the order of 1998" it specifies that; In a technical training course leading to the PE-4 skills mentioned in Appendix III-14b, the team may move in the 0 space to 60 meters, under the responsibility of an 4 level teacher (E4) mentioned in Annex III-15b. We can but we do not have to ......
As soon as you want to take advantage of this opportunity, it is an E4 that brings the team.
It is of course recommended as before not to go independently in the area of ​​40 - 60M following an N3 training without having made an incursion into this boxed area.

3) CMAS divers.
The Ministry made the decision to no longer allow divers 3 *** CMAS to be Guide de Palanquée in France. Indeed the appendix III-15a specifies that to be Guide of Palanquée that one must be monitor ** CMAS, which of course is largely more than GP, ​​but actually includes the competence of GP in its definition of post.
It goes without saying that this table is not a table of equivalences but of references.
This Ministerial decision is based partly on the lack of readability between the *** French and the *** foreigners and secondly on the total lack of rigor in the attribution of the certificates of divers 3 *** by some CMAS member organizations. Despite numerous warning letters sent to CMAS in recent years, among others by the FFESSM, concerning the disparity of diving certificates *** from one organization to another, CMAS has never homogenized the issuance of these divers 3 ***.
The result is that nowadays we find *** divers who are barely autonomous at 40M or who have obtained it after a single training weekend or even worse on the internet.
Unfortunately, CMAS organizations that rigorously applied CMAS's official training and certification plans fall victim to this measure taken by the Department. This is for example the case of our Belgian friends trained and graduates within the FEBRAS.
The CTN has been very responsive to this problem and has already implemented the Associate Scale Guide (4 level diver) patent to integrate in the FFESSM *** patented divers in most CMAS federations. This measure should be applicable following the approval of the CDN consulted urgently on this subject.
Regarding the Belgian self-supervised clubs, our President Jean Louis Blanchard, is already in contact with the President of the Belgian Federation Jean Rondia to study the most suitable way for their divers *** to obtain Ipso facto the map of Guide de Palanquée Associate FFESSM.

Jo VRIJENS - President of the FFESSM National Technical Commission

Order of the 18 June 2010 amending the regulatory provisions of the Sport Code (Orders)