How I learned to dive.
Part One – My Introduction to Diving.
Many years ago a friend took me to a free try diving session because a buddy of his 
was a member of the local BSAC club. We sat in a classroom for 3 hours, got thoroughly bored by talk of decompression, logistics, how kit works, boat safety etc so by the time we got onto nitrogen absorption, tissue compartments, and US Navy dive tables my brain had gone to another place far far away. All this was for a 45 minute try out in an 8 ft deep pool! Eventually we got into the water and I was astounded by the experience. It was terrific..... even though we were in the local swimming pool.
The after dive talk was obviously about recruiting new members and my dreams were immediately dashed when I discovered that my dive training would take 12 months and necessitate me buying gear that would cost me the equivalent of 6 months’ salary. If dive training was still like that there would not be many divers in the world!!
Fast forward 10 years and I am in the Bahamas enjoying a holiday. I sign up for a Padi Discover Scuba Diving experience at the hotel PADI centre. The day before, there is a major storm so the dive is postponed for 2 days. Eventually the day arrives and all the deck chairs and other debris have been removed from the pool so we can prove that we can swim. Not only is the water ridiculously cold but there is a wind blowing. With only 3 days left before leaving, this is my only chance. After a short classroom session, off we go to the training pool for some practice. I am loving it but the water is so cold my teeth are chattering and by the time we are finished I feel like the “brass monkeys’ brother!!
The next morning my perseverance pays off as we have a fantastic dive in the warm sea, all signs of the storm have gone and I am in my element. I am mesmerised by the fish, the coral takes my breath away and I realise that I have found something I can really, really enjoy. I am beginning a new adventure which is going to last the rest of my lifetime.
Part two – Open Water Training.
Back to the UK, I start to research dive training and discover PADI. Winter
is approaching, but with a cruise holiday coming up in March I decide to “take the plunge”.
The pool sessions are once each week for 4 weeks, the classroom is 2 Saturday mornings and the open water sessions are 2 Sundays at Stoney Cove, Leicestershire.
All goes well in the pool. I am exhausted after every session but I am enjoying it until I have to remove my mask. I get water up my nose and shoot for the surface. Two pool sessions later, after lots of panicky episodes and coaching, my Instructor takes me into a corner and says “Terry, if you do not do this skill tonight you will not be able to complete the open water sessions in 2 weeks time”. So it is “last chance” and suppressing lots of panic I finally complete the skill. Not comfortably you understand but I do it sufficiently well to “pass” the test. I will always thank Simon Platts my Instructor for his patience with me.
I learn that the mask removal will be the 2nd weekend of the open water so that gives me 3 weeks to practice. And practice I do - in the bath, every chance I get. Also I am away from home a few nights. And the hotel has a pool. So there I was, “the crazy guy” sitting in a hotel pool taking off a scuba mask and popping up to the surface, usually coughing and choking.
Open water arrives and we are at Stoney Cove at 6am on a Sunday Morning. June, my wife, has come with me for 
moral support and a good thing too because at the end I was too exhausted to drive the 70 miles home. It is February, the air temp is 8 C (46 F) and the water temp is 6 C (43 F), visibility is 1 metre (3ft) and we dive to 6 metres (20ft) for 20 minutes. Dive 2 is for 30 minutes. I have the time of my life. I have so much neoprene on I can hardly move my arms, and so much lead weight I have trouble climbing out of the water. I am frozen to the bone and so totally exhausted. I do not have the energy to remove my wetsuit on my own. My logbook is full of words like “fabulous”, “amazing” and the following week cannot come quick enough. Back at Stoney Cove a week later the water temperature is now down to 5 C (41F) but the weak winter sun is shining through. Amazingly the mask skill I complete first time without panicking (but only just) and my lasting memory was waiting in line to do the CESA and thinking “I have to do this first time because then I can get out of the cold water and get warm”. I was so proud to get my Padi Open Water C Card, little was I to know where it would lead!
One Caribbean holiday and 8 dives later I am seriously hooked and wondering where I can dive next. Back to Simon, and a couple of months later I am doing my PADI AOW course, this time at Capernwray in Lancashire. Water temp is up to 12C (53F), Vis is 3-5 metres (15-20Ft) and I do 5 dives over the weekend, the final one being my Dry Suit qualification dive, so no more “Michelin Man”for me and I am so much warmer.
The summer and autumn is spent with new buddies diving on the English 
coast interspersed with visits to Capernwray and Stoney Cove. Winter approaches but the diving does not stop. Along the way I take a couple of PADI Specialty courses and begin to meet many people who are to become lifelong friends. A holiday in the Red Sea is one of the many highlights of the year.
My second year as a diver arrives and I now have most of my own kit. I have made lots of new friends and have enjoyed untold hours of underwater beauty, wonder and excitement. I am also fitter and healthier than before. I have been lost underwater, scared occasionally, cold and wet (especially when my dry suit filled with water), but I have never, ever been bored. A live-aboard holiday in the BVI is planned, along with diving the HMS Scylla and The James Egan Layne off the Plymouth Coast.
One of my new friends Lynda, who is a recently qualified Instructor, has also qualified as an EFR instructor. I am persuaded onto the course to “make up the numbers”. This creates quite a laugh at home as I am well known for fainting at the sight of blood! What fun, what a great course, and guess what, more new buddies. Then I find out that I am the only one not signed up for the PADI Rescue Diver course. A great sales pitch Lynda, and one that is going to change my life some more.
Continued ……. How I became a PADI Instructor
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