Today I lost my virginity...

I realised that, but you got it wrong, is all.

No?

 

But not in a plane doing aerobatics.

 

I'm so old I got my first diving qualification at 16.

BSAC with the New Cross branch. Third class diver!

All paid for by the school I went to.

After a long break I contacted the BSAC via email letter and phone to
see if my qualification was still valid. That was local and national
branch level.

Never got a reply.

Talking to Ned Middleton (BSAC) in person he said he wasn't surprised.
Ned is a fascinating guy to listen to if you get a chance to go to one
of his lectures. Another high up in BSAC intimated that a lot of records
had allegedly been lost years ago.

Any way I redid the lot with PADI on the grounds that they were the only
local outfit that bothered to answer my requests and I wanted to do it
on a "NOW" basis. I started from square one as the gap with no diving
had been several years.


PADI Master SCUBA diver and Diver Master.

 

Two PADI divers and a BSAC diver are off shore in a boat.

The two PADI divers start to discus signals for the dive.
The BSAC diver doesn't bother to listen when questioned he replies
"I know them all."

Then the two PADI divers start doing a pre dive buddy safety check on
each other. The BSAC guy doesn't join in and says
"I know I've assembled my equipment correctly."

Then one of the PADI guys realise he has forgotten his under water
camera and has left it on the beach. "We better go back and get it." he
says.
Don't worry says the BSAC guy climbs out the boat and looks like he is
walking on the water all the way to the beach and back and climbs in to
the boat.

OK says the PADI guy, you keep saying you know everything but how did
you know that under water coral reef was there to walk on?"

"What coral reef?" replies the BSAC diver.

 

Yes, outside septic-land it's _done_ in metres, but originally devised
in feet.

 

Same with me in Tobago.

I think we may have 'interpreted' the rules at a few points, as I've a
feeling we went deeper, and I rememebr there being a bit of current
for one of the dives, which was fun.

If only we had warm water near home I'd do some more.

 

One request was to the secretary of the local group. He drank at my pub.
He got no reply back from central office. He also resigned soon after
muttering a lot.

I lost lots of things including a very nice tool collection after a
divorce years ago.

Absolutely!
The PADI guy who taught me was excellent I cannot speak more highly of
him. He started out with BSAC but there was a lot of inter club wars
going on with his club so he left along with many others who now dive
with him.

Ding! But I had the previous experience to cover the courses so I did
them.Diver Master is a year or more of "Dogs body" to an instructor to get
the experience. One in pool session and one open water day per week.

You know the thing, shepherding students.

Counts 1, 2, 3, 4 ? where is the 5th one. Looks up, 5th one's on the
surface again.
Bugger go and get him.............

I don't know if I exude experience or I look past it and a safe bet, but
the good looking young ladies always wanted me to buddy them in
training.......

 

Last dive I did in the Red Sea the current went from 1 to 2 knots to
about 12 in under 5 seconds.

The dive leader gave me the "abort dive" signal and disappeared into the
distance in front of me.

I'm strictly dry suit in the UK with lots of thermals underneath.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Kevin Weller

Not in Mick's case.

S&M diving, it's the way forward.

Apparently.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

I have already made the greatest contribution to the fight against climate
change that I can make: I have decided not to breed. Now quit bugging me and
go and talk to the Catholics.

 

WOT?

 

43m works for me.

 

My initial training was with FAUI. PADI barely existed then from
memory (which is fading with the years).

 

In the North Sea that's dark and cold and short bottom time on 15 ltr.

 

What year was this Champ?

I started diving in Tasmania in 1977 and there were no instructors
here so we read books and mags and learned from that and took it
carefully. A couple of years later a FAUI course was available so we
did that. It was rare enough here at the time that we got a call from
the police one night in the pub asking if we could get to a small town
about 20 minutes away as there was a car in the river and they wanted
divers really quickly but the only police divers were in the state
capital which meant they were 3 hours away. Diving in a cold river at
night with low vis into a submerged car hoping like hell you were not
going to find a dead body in there was an interesting experience.
Thankfully the car was empty.

Anyway, I digress.

The FAUI days here in Oz were definitely in feet, not metres. I moved
to Melbourne in 1984 and switched to PADI and did the whole
advanced/rescue/divemaster/instructor sequence. I'm pretty sure we
were still running in feet then. Or am I mixing my flying and diving
up? It was 25 years ago after all . . .

 

Reminds of an early dive of mine in the late 70s / early 80s. In
Tasmania at a place called the Cataract Gorge. It is the convergence
of a couple of rivers and forms a natural amphitheatre with sinkhole
in it called The Basin. Diving at midday in midsummer on a warm day,
you drop through a thermocline at around 10m. The thermocline takes
the water temperature from around 14C to 4C. Visibility drops from 10m
to about 10cm with a torch on full bore. Quite spooky. The bottom is
around 30m. Early days of my diving and I was wearing a 4mm second
hand suit with a hole in the crotch which would send a squirt of cold
water onto my nads with every kick. Wonder why I never had kids?

Didn't take me long to switch to a semi-dry suit.

 

I did that off Tasman Peninsula here in Tasmania on a wreck dive. I'll
never forget it. Visibility was 43m. We dropped into the water and
could see the boat. I recall thinking "This thing isn't 43m away, and
isn't it supposed to be bigger?"

Oh yeah it was 43m away and it was quite large. The viz was amazing.
Mind you, hanging off the deco lines on the way back up watching a
shark circling us while we look like tasty bait morsels and thinking
"Is that a really big shark a long way off or a small shark fairly
close?" and deciding it was a really big shark and that if it turned
towards us that I was going to take my chances with the bends was a
bit of bum clencher.

 

I learnt in in Queensland (Airlie Beach) in 1989.