Mission Accomplished!

Clue to a Previous Life

I took my first faltering steps (at 43 yrs of age) into SCUBA diving with Melovan Galea in MALTA in 1988. Mel is very well known in the Maltese islands and has introduced a great many people to the wonders of the undersea world. Having had a taste of that world I returned to the UK and searched for a dive school. I found White Horse Diving, run by Mark Horton, in the hamlet of Uffcott just south of Swindon. A dive school on a farm... we did wonder! My son, Simon, and I took the PADI Open Water Diver course at Easter in 1989. We did it the best way - an intensive, one-week straight run, including Certifying in the world famous (and at that time less-refined) Stoney Cove.

The standard run of PADI courses followed. Advanced was done in Malta with Meldives. Rescue in the UK and Divemaster too. To this day I maintain I did it the right way - LOTS of diving between courses to broaden experience. No point in "fast-tracking" just for the paperwork.

For the first six years I dived only the UK, apart from 2 trips to Malta. The Red Sea beckoned in 1995 when we went to visit (again - less refined than today) Camel Divers at Sharm. I took my Instructor Course and exams in November 1996 and certified my first OWD students while visiting our ex-White Horse man Bob Cozens at Hurghada in 1997. Now I teach only the PADI Photo and Video courses in the UK

I have dived in the following locations over the years, and some I will revisit soon (I hope)

Vancouver - the Straights - Giant Pacific Octopus are something to see!

Antigua - pleasant diving, good novice area, not up to Red Sea standards for fish varieties etc but can surprise you..

Hurghada - good base for the Red Sea Wrecks

Sharm (Naama Bay) - Ras Muhammad Park - still good today

Marsa Alam - effectively the Southern Red Sea - fairly new and worth the effort

Florida - Atlantic Coast - West Palm Beach - if you like fast drift dives!

Florida - Crystal River and the gentle Manatees

California - Catalina Island - wrecks and kelp forests

Malta - you need to pick the right people - there is life in the Med!

Altinkum/Bodrum - a good first destination,

Scapa Flow - not for the faint-hearted but excellent wreck sites!

The Lizard in Cornwall - unbelievable colours and fish varieties - Sunfish, Basking Sharks,

Stoney Cove, Vobster Quay, Lyme Bay, Plymouth, Beer, Teignmouth, Portsmouth , etc...

In 2000 I got the Video bug and in 2003 the Photo bug. That's all I really want to do now - record that very special world - a world we are threatening with our pollution every day - and show others how to record it too. Record the sea-life, record the wrecks, record the underwater "landscapes". All of it has beauty, sometimes a harsh beauty, but nevertheless an intensity that must be seen... why not by you?

Diving is one of those sports that you can selectively control.

If you want easy diving - you can have it. If you want extreme diving - you can have it

Warm water, cold water, fresh water, sea water, under ice... do it because you want to.

No peer pressure... just like-minded individuals.

What may surprise some of you is that UK diving is still my favourite. I like cold water!

I am still associated with White Horse Diving after 18 years. We founded the White Horse Dive Club and later the fully independant Seahorse Dive Club to encourage continuing interest in UK diving.

If you have a passion for Nautical Archaeology contact the NAS in Portsmouth:

UK DIVING IS GREAT!