Why I learned to Dive

[Alan Taylor]

I saw a film on TV on Monday afternoon that reminded me of why I took up Sub-Aqua diving, it was called Underwater, clear water,coral reefs,sunken ships, bars of Gold and oh yes Jane Russell in a cozy. Oh well back to the shot lines in Capernwray and give us another blast of oily air,

Whu did YOU learn to dive?

Keep on fun Divin'
Alan

[Andy Wade]

I saw a film on TV on Monday afternoon that reminded me of why I took up Sub-Aqua diving, it was called Underwater, clear water,coral reefs,sunken ships, bars of Gold and oh yes Jane Russell in a cozy. Oh well back to the shot lines in Capernwray and give us another blast of oily air,

Whu did YOU learn to dive?


Monsieur Cousteau, and his Conshelf experiments.
Living underwater? - mind blowing stuff at its time.


Keep on fun Divin'


Indeed.



.

[Paul Oliver]

Well,

I had far too much money and wanted to get rid of it all.

Plus growing up watching The Silent World with Capt Jack, and a bit of 007 i suppose.

Regards

Paul

[Tony Dwyer]

I was born into an Irish fishing family, so the sea is in my blood! I avidly watched the Hans und Lotte Hass TV programmes back in the fifties (before my teens) and knew then that I was going to dive.
I read ANY book that had diving in. I scoured the local libraries. I saw 20'000 leagues under the sea when I was 8 and knew that there was colour down there. It wasn't all black & white!
By my early teens I was an able snorkeller and did my first dive on SCUBA at 21. That was 34 years ago! God I was young then!

[Melanopterus]

The top four out of five items in the BBC program last night 50 Things to Do Before You Die were diving related. None were in Britain. Goodbye 990 Magazine! Hallo divernet travel section.

[neil carter]

Got a feeling this thread is going to reveal threadees ages.

For me,
1) Jacques Cousteau
2) Hans & Lotte Hass
3) Lloyd Bridges/Mike Nelson
not necessarily in that order

Did a try dive in a tank aprox 2 metres square at the old Ally Pally Great Hall late sixties, but then left it until 90/91 to join BSAC, so approx 30 years good diving opportunities washed away in the tides of time.
Just spent family holiday without diving, but several crystal clear snorkels, including snorkelling in a cave with a seal (!!!) and can't wait to strap the tanks on again.

It's a disease with no known cure, and I hope they never find one.

Neil Carter

ISIS Divers

[Steve Walker]

Alternative viewpoint: why WOULDN'T you want to be able to dive?

Think my earliest memories (~ 1964) of thinking "I wanna do that" would have been while playing with my Action Man c/w black scuba outfit : ))) Of course the Bond films are a big influence, "Voyage to the bottom of the sea", Stingray/Thunderbirds etc ah...happy days

[vice-chairman]

My wife wanted me out of the house!

Seriously, I was living in Singapore at the time and it really was gin clear water, colourful fish and tigre beer

Allan

[John Bantin]

Equally seriously,

It is quite difficult to persuade anyone that they should take up diving even when the water has colourful fish and gin-clear easy conditions. It requires so much commitment of time and looks so complicated.
Here in the UK,the quest to encourage more people to take up diving seems almost impossible at times. Does anyone really want to give up valuable holiday time to learn something? Do they really want to spend uncomfortable hours learning here?
I had a go at skiing. I had a go a white-water rafting. I had a go in a canoe. I had a go at dinghy sailing. etc. I may be no good at any of them but I can hold my own in a conversation and I have an understanding of what they are about.
Diving was something I always wanted to do but never did until I was way into my thirties. It needed too much commitment and there seemed no way I could have a go. It was a resort course in the Caribbean that caught me in the end.
Even now, friends who have seen me loading the boat and later unloading it (but not actually doing the activity because I do it out of sight) ask me if it worth all the trouble!
Just some thoughts but no ideas on how we can make diving more easily attainable.

[David Leon]

As well as a fascination gained from Cousteau, for me initially it was a means to an end. I was a keen potholer and read about Martyn Farr's exploits, exploring the Blue Holes of Andros and the many cave extensions being discovered by divers. But once I'd completed my training, open water diving had so much to offer, and I gained a healthy respect for the dangers, that I never pursued cave diving (probably why I'm still alive today!). I love being able to spice up family holidays with a few dives, and being an active member of a club and training others is very rewarding - I just love water, being in it, on it and under it!

David

[jens hucke]

Capitain JYC did it for me. The Oceanographic Museum was nearby, so was the sea, and at 11 I was fortunate to get my first dives, then getting my first( 2nd hand) twin hose in my early teens. Unfortunately I never did get a matching silver wet suit like early JYC and had to be satisfied with a t-shirt. Guess it looks better on Lara Croft anyway.

Totaly of main topic, I know, but a topic of conversation: why make diving more attainable?

Economy of scale has meant that at the entry level things are a lot cheaper due to mass market forces, be it gear, travel, or courses,... but at the upper end, prices are still just as high, and if you want to avoid the crowds you have to travel so far that it is still nearly as expensive as ever.

What is the case for making diving more attainable?

regards
jens

[Bren Tierney]

Dude,

You might as well ask 'why teach more people to drive'??

It's gonna happen, much as we might dislike it, so best we train them in the best possible way with best practise, right?

Dive safe,

Bren.

[John Bantin]

When I first lived in Mallorca there was no dive centre nearby and no-one dived. In order to go diving I had to buy a set of tanks, a compressor and a RIB. Total cost at the time was about ?20,000 which was quite a lot in the early ?80s. Today, in Mallorca, I can do a dive for about 20 Euros.
The cost of diving is relative to the number of people who do it. That?s the reason to encourage people to learn to dive.

[jens hucke]

Dude,

You might as well ask 'why teach more people to drive'??


Scuba is something I choose to do. Driving IMVHO is something our society pushes you into doing. However I agree that if people are wanting to do it, then proper training is a good thing.

[jens hucke]

When I first lived in Mallorca there was no dive centre nearby and no-one dived. In order to go diving I had to buy a set of tanks, a compressor and a RIB. Total cost at the time was about ?20,000 which was quite a lot in the early ?80s. Today, in Mallorca, I can do a dive for about 20 Euros.
The cost of diving is relative to the number of people who do it. That?s the reason to encourage people to learn to dive.

Different setting in the South of France in the mid 80's, but while we had to buy the basic gear, we were fortunate to have a commercial diver working in a nearby harbour who let us have air fills. There were clubs, inevitably run by ex-Cousteau team divers (or so they claimed) but it felt on occasion safer to do your own thing than be part of a club...but that's another story.

Compared to 20 years ago, things have changed, and I agree often for the better. But at the same time, I think diving is now already "easy" enough not to make it even more attainable. Eventually when an activity becomes too popular, it becomes dangerously close to needing excessive controls. The sites and destinations may be cheaper, but the enviroment is being put under stress.

I think we are now easily at the stage where things are cheap enough, and were it is more important to concentrate on the quality of the diving, training and site preservation rather than on a numbers game in order to make it even cheaper. But I take your point.

thanks and kind regards
jens

[Alan Taylor]

As well as a fascination gained from Cousteau, for me initially it was a means to an end. I was a keen potholer and read about Martyn Farr's exploits, exploring the Blue Holes of Andros and the many cave extensions being discovered by divers. But once I'd completed my training, open water diving had so much to offer, and I gained a healthy respect for the dangers, that I never pursued cave diving (probably why I'm still alive today!). I love being able to spice up family holidays with a few dives, and being an active member of a club and training others is very rewarding - I just love water, being in it, on it and under it!

David

Nice one David
Its still good FUN in a club
Alan