the diving and the divers - in the beginning

Portland
Originally uploaded by Auswomble

In the mid to late nineties my then girlfriend Rose decided that I needed a hobby. Can't remember the details. At the time I was working in Victoria, London at PA Consulting - my first proper job. Rob worked there too, or maybe he worked in the Cambridge office; can't remember. He was a diver. Again, the details are sketchy. But between talking to Rose and Rob, and having to spend the odd few days in the Cambridge office, and having a work trip to Australia on the cards I decided to start scuba diving. I'd tack some holiday on the work trip and go to the reef. As it turned out I also dived in Sydney, with Rob.

I learnt to dive in a brick pit near Peterborough called Gildenburgh. I combined the PADI Open Water Course with Certifice IV in Learning and Development which dropped the price because it was part government funded. Go figure. I was driving a 2.5ltr diesel engined CJ7 Jeep to the office in Cambridge and claiming my mileage, earning more than the car drank. Accommodation on-site was, well, basic. But cheap. I learnt to dive pretty much for free. On the downside, I learnt to dive in April. In a pit. In Peterborough. Damn near froze myself to death, some students bailed early and we all shivered barely-controllably in our ill-fitting 7mm semi-dry suits. We kneeled on wooden platforms anchored at various depths in the cold, green, crap-filled water to perform our skill drills. I saw a bus. Our open water dives comprised of following ropes attached to the platforms at one end and the wreck of a bus at the other. I was supposed to see an airplane cockpit, but I was not first to get there and instead I saw clouds of light-obscuring silt. I saw no fish. It was fun in a masochistic kind of way. I think the water was between 4 and 6 degrees centrigrade. I must have removed and replaced my mask, removed my reg, done my fin-pivots and hovers, but I don't remember much. On one skills dive I was at the very end of our kneeling line of students. I did a skill first - mask removal, maybe - and then had to wait what seemed like forever for the rest to complete the skill. Cold and green. I remember cold and green. I know I did a giant stride entry from a platform about 7ft above the lake surface. And it rained a lot on both of the weekends over which I competed my course. But complete it I did and I became an Open Water Diver.

My first dive after getting my PADI Open Water cert was on Queensland's Barrier Reef. The water was 26 degrees and felt like a bath. I think I drained half a tank laughing at how preposterously warm and clear the water was compared to Gildy. That is all I remember of the two dives I did. I did another dive or 2 in Sydney, with Rob. All I remember about that was a long drive to Palm Beach, and that we did one dive off of the Barrenjoey Headland. If I didn't now live in Sydney I'd have forgotten those details long ago.

I must have enjoyed it because some time not-too-long afterwards I bought a compete set of gear from a tattooed, pierced dude running Diving Leisure London in Battersea and also booked myself on the Advanced Open Water course. Once again, only sketchy details. We dived under a pier at night. The navigation dive was off of Chesil Beach, where the water on the day was incredibly clear and I could see where I was headed, 15m away, without needing to use the compass. Good job too, as my compass use was awful and I needed to redo that dive in Portalnd Harbour to get my Advanced open Water Diver c-card. I remember driving my 1979 Porsche 924 (the 1982 jeep was gone) from the Chesil Beach to Portland carparks in my dive suit. I must have looked a complete tool, but would've though I was king-shit. I loved that car; also loved the 6.5mm mares semi-dry, a very nice suit indeed. I may still have my first regulator, and I think I have my original BC which I only wear when teaching or assisting. Everything else was upgraded as it became worn out or as I discovered it was a bit on the crap side.

My UK diving career sort of ended there, though I later returned to the UK and spent many more weekends in Portland. I was going to be made redundant in 1999 and was moving to Sydney. One of the reasons I wanted to move to Sydney was the unrivalled opportunities to dive right on my doorstep, and one of the reasons I was looking at redundancy was that my company were only prepared to look at a transfer to Melbourne from London where my job was for the chop. Don't get me wrong, Melbourne is a lovely city, but without diving on the doorstep. And besides, Rose's sister was a recruitment consultant in Sydney.

I got to Sydney and stuck with diving for far longer than I stuck with Rose.

Namecheck time. Through one of the few wonders of Facebook I am still in contact with Rob. And, from my PA days, Mark who did move to Melbourne, Scott, who I once took a chopper ride with en route to a chamber, Alan (my big-boss) and his wife Helen who ran the work-gym and was probably responsible in large-part for my attitude to exercise and hence my running.