Canadian Association of Diving Contractors

This year’s recipient is Captain Bruce Banks (of CADC associate member: DIT).  …. the citation for the Lifetime Achievement Award states that it is for individuals whose dedication and accomplishments have significantly contributed to the Canadian underwater industry.

Bruce Banks is chairman of the Jamestown Marine Services Group consisting of Jamestown Marine Services, a naval architect and salvage engineering company, located in Mystic, Connecticut, and Jamestown Marine Offshore, a specialty company providing marine biological and environmental restoration services, located in Jamestown, Rhode Island.  He is also the owner of the Divers Institute of Technology (DIT), a commercial diving school providing graduates to the offshore and inland diving community, located in Seattle, Washington. I will return to this aspect shortly…

Bruce’s extensive background in diving includes 26 years service in the U.S. Navy including tours as the Executive Officer, U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) and Commanding Officer, U.S. Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center.  As a former UK Royal Navy diving officer I can say that both these naval units are internationally known and extremely well-respected.  In particular Bruce’s leadership as the XO at NEDU was crucial in establishing it in Panama City, Florida, where it was a new entity to the area.  

Not so well known – and this is the core point – is the fact that Bruce has been a superb supporter of Canadian diving standards for many years.  It was Bruce’s involvement with diver training, as owner of DIT, which first brought him into contact with the Canadian diving standards.  These standards, which make up the Z275 family of standards, are developed by committees of volunteers working under the guidance of the Canadian Standards Association.

In 2002 Bruce decided his school should be brought up to these Canadian standards in order that his graduates would have the greatest possible opportunity to work anywhere in the world.  At first Bruce worked with WorkSafe BC then, realizing that he needed national recognition in order to gain international recognition, he approached the Diver Certification Board of Canada.  He also joined the diver competency and diver training sub-committees of the CSA Z275 family of standards.

But Bruce did far more than just join the committees.

Since 2003 both he and, under his direction, the DIT team have led by example and helped to develop and refine the standards.  His tremendous support even went so far as assigning two of his employees to edit and effectively re-write the Canadian diver training standard.  From the day that he purchased DIT, Bruce worked tirelessly towards establishing an internationally recognized standard with well-defined outcomes that the graduates of his school would be trained to and measured against.  He has remained an enthusiastic and active CSA member ever since and he continues to provide resources to support the diving standards. The North American diving industry owes Bruce a lot.

Outside his school and committee work Bruce’s insistence on adopting the CSA standard for his dive school in Seattle once again led the way by example for other American dive schools. Now, thanks to his example and leadership, six more US schools have adopted the CSA standards and have become accredited as Diver Training Establishments by the DCBC.

Bruce has been a director of the Diver Certification Board of Canada since May 2011 and will remain so for 3 more years.  During this time not only has he provided US diving and diver training perspectives but he continues to provide sound counsel to all discussions and decisions of the Board. I was particularly grateful for his inputs – at times quite forceful (!) – during my tenure as Board Chairman. 

Above all Bruce is a long-standing and respected member of the North American diving community. He has spent a lifetime supporting occupational divers and championing the cause for diving standards.

(Ed Note: The preceding is the Nomination Speech by Jonathan Chapple, Vice-President of Aqua Lung Canada and former Chairman of the DCBC)