SCUBA Diving

I loved it. I was up to Divemaster. I was diving in warm waters though. Vietnam, Hawaii and lots in Port Douglas on the Great Barrier Reef and beyond.

It seems like a distant dream now as I stopped around 6 years ago.

Where would you be diving? I thought the dive Communtity was great. You turn up to a place and bam you have a group if friends to hang out with.

 

I've not used my ticket for a while now but i am a HSE Commercial Diver, I've been toying with the idea of doing a PADI crossover course but never seem to have the time...

 

Last time I dived was in the Red Sea in 2006... Will have to get back into it, although I don't miss the aching ear holes!

 

Only reached, advanced open water, and tended to dive warm waters only. Last dive (s) was a couple of years ago, and included a couple of dives on the Thistlegorm, Red Sea. Know it's a bit of a tourist trap, but, enjoyed my first wreck dive.

 

BSAC qualified but haven't dived for 15yrs or more , got fed up with the clarity of local waters and fast tides . Plus a close call was enough for my enthusiasm to wane, had to make a free ascent from 100ft and shot out of the water like a porpoise

 

I used to do loads when living in London. I was the Diving Officer of Manta Divers BSAC 953 based in Tooting. That was where I met the current MrsH. Every weekend we'd be off down to the South coast with other members of the club.

I have done thousands of dives - mainly deep mid-channel wrecks but also a lot around the world. I progressed to trimix closed circuit rebreathers and am technically still a BSAC Advanced Instructor though since moving down to the SW ironically our diving has vastly reduced. The local BSAC branch didn't have the same vibe and with the kids getting to school age it became more difficult.

We still have all the gear (cylinders years out of test!) but now we just do the odd shallow, warm-water bimble when on holiday. Having said that, next year both our girls will be old enough to do it themselves so we will teach them and may end up doing more again.

 

BSAC advanced diver and SAA Dive supervisor/instructor but not got wet for 3 years due to other commitments

 

im a PADI open water instructor, i made the big mistake of making my hobbie my job , did it for a couple of years full time at a local diving school but got fed up with my boss making me train totally unsuitable students and it all came to a head when i was told to pass a father and his simple daughter who came from a different school and just needed to do the final test but were so dangerous in the water i had to stop the final open water test as they could not do the basic tests and were a danger to them selves and any body else diving with them .
so i don't dive much mainly go spear fishing instead

 

Ditto pretty much. I can't be bothered to dive in the Lake here - a bit of a come down after the Maldives.

When I had some money, I used to go on a diving holiday per year. When I have some money again, I'll go back to doing it. I do miss diving. I consider it just a temporary hiatus.

 

Padi Rescue

Again no money to go anywhere warm and I hate getting cold so lapsed the last few years and would need to start over - bike takes all my time and money :smile:

 

I stopped at BSAC Sport Diver because of club politics but the only reason I did it was because I was starting cave diving at the time and having the Sport Diver qualification meant I could avoid some of the tedious training involved in joining the CDG so once I'd done that I just progressed with the CDG instead.

I used to piss off my BSAC club by refusing to take them to do even a simple cave dive until they'd done at least 20 trips underground and they didn't seem to understand that you can take anyone and teach them to dive in a pool then a flooded quarry but you can't just throw someone into zero visibility and expect them to cope unless they've got a reasonable understanding of what they might find in a flooded passage.

I gave up when I'd logged over 200 cave dives and just became bored with caving in braille

 

Hence the adage - Pay And Die Instantly - PADI.

BSAC Advanced Diver and Instructor. I actually got scared more when diving with PADI divers than at any other time. Logged many many dives all in this country/UK basically moved onto another sport after about twelve years scuba.

 

BSAC Sport Diver many moons ago in a club environment and dived regularly for several years.

PADI worried me also, it appeared to be for people who did diving whereas I considered myself to be a diver.

I stopped around the time that dive computers were being introduced (I did say it was a long time ago) and well before trimix and rebreathers etc muddied the waters. The gadgets to my way of thinking increased complexity and complexity is what kills amateurs.

Around that time I took out my last life insurance policy and I declared diving, hang gliding and mountaineering with ropes. Mountaineering was no problem, hang gliding was ok after a bit of a discussion but no way were they going to accept diving, and I think they were right in assessing the relative risks of those sports.

 

As an aside.... has anybody got any 3L or 7L bottles they want to sell? Preferably still within test for a while. I've just taken up air rifle shooting again and will need a dive bottle to fill my PCP rifle.

 

I'm not a diver but I went on a honeymoon to Bonaire earlier this year and tried diving for the first time (plus a lot of snorkelling) and I'm definitely interested in doing it again :smile: but probably will stick to recreational diving in warm waters.

 

I briefly considered admitting to cave diving, rock climbing, mountaineering and racing bikes but decided against it but I've often wondered which one would rattle them most. In reality it shouldn't have been cave diving because that was the only one where I'd had a lot of training and hadn't just gone out and done it regardless but I suspect they wouldn't see it the same way as I did.

 

Does muff diving count?? done plenty of that.
But only done two scuba dives on holiday in Mexico. Had trouble equalising both times and won't be doing it again.

 

If all you lapsed divers want to rekindle your appetite for the sport, how about a get together in some warm water?

My kid brother has a dive school, with 25m/80ft live on-board boat for dive 'safaris' on a small island in the Philippines called Boracay, often voted one of the top dive locations in the world
Boats

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