How many of you are also SCUBA Divers?

How did you learn to dive?

  • Total voters
    97
  • Poll closed .
LadyInBed

LadyInBed

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I learnt to dive in 1972 when I was in the Army (BSAC special branch in Germany). I did it for 14 years but gave it up as a 'full time' sport when I bought my first sailing boat, now I just go sailing :-(
I was lucky that, as an Army Diving Supervisor, they paid for me to dive in Norway, Belize, Bermuda, UK and NI (plus the mud holes, quarries, rivers and lakes in Germany and Holland).

Did you learn to dive before taking up sailing or the other way round?
Do you still dive regularly?
 
I was a BSAC 2nd class diver back in the 80's then moved away from the coast - didn't fancy diving in gravel pits. Still snorkel and 16 year old daughter wants to learn to dive, so maybe will get a chance to go back to it.
 
Apparently took up paddling in the sea < 12 months, swimming with buoyancy aids < 2 years, swimming unaided < 4 years, sailing at about the same time. Snorkelling regularly by 6 years, single-handed dinghy sailing by 7, SCUBA for the first time at about 11 (with a home built wetsuit), and the rest is history.

Oh... and potty trained by 13 and dry at night by 15. :D
 
I consider myself an ex-diver, although I believe all my kit is still in my parents' shed.

My dad learnt to dive on a work trip to Belize; as a young teenager I then got into it too so that we could dive together. Did the BSAC Novice (and later Sport Diver and then Dive Leader) course with Andark. We mostly did shore dives as a pair, though I did join the local BSAC club for a while and went out on a couple of trips with them.

I always preferred sailing, and the diving just sort of faded out. We did combine them for a few years, taking diving kit on flotilla and bareboat holidays, but eventually stopped bothering.

Pete
 
I'm both BSAC and PADI qualified - I used to run a dive school and had both.

Got rid of BSAC as they adore black rubber,second hand junk kit and promote masochism. Oh, and they tend to be fat, balding and clubby. The female of the species is the same..
( what did towing a brick in a bucket up and down a swimming pool have to do with diving?)

PADI sell diving and the dream. Their marketing is very goal driven and appealing to the learner diver. Which makes sense to a commercial operator- they are also a world wide network so it makes dive holidays easier to organise.

BSAC probably train a better diver and I'd love to see the stats of dive accidents and compare the rate between both organisations - I'd guess BSAC have a lot more fat , beardy blokes in dodgy shorts, Tevas and awful toe nails still staggering around than PADI does.

( can you guess why I got out of the business?)
 
Have cut many ropes off props, including several at sea when responding to pan pan calls, and been promised more beers and bottles of whisky that I can count... have never received any of 'em. :mad:
 
I was a BSAC 'gravel pit & Bovisand diver' back in the 70's until a diving holiday in Malta. Never much fancied cold water and poor vis after that. Still got me Fenzy and Cyklon octopus rig - happy days.

Then took up sailing, which makes a lot more sense in terms of the time you spend actually doing the activity, vs. the cost involved. A weekend at Bovi would involve a 500 mile round trip, for what ? 4 x 15 min. dives. Someone once commented that - hour for hour - diving works out more expensive than flying a light aircraft ! Still, it's the only legitimate way blokes can get to wear head to toe wet-look rubber in public ...
 
Went through a period of having **** round the prop., picking up marker buoys, a loose anode etc and found it very difficult to stay underwater long enough to make a difference .

Now have a Mini B which is a brilliant bit of kit ... stows nicely down below ... easy to put on ... quality gear.

The training was a bit of an eye-opener though! When I was at school I never thought that knowing Boyle's Law would be a life saver :rolleyes:
 
Do a try-dive...

BSACTri-Dive.jpg


Then take your pick of PADI or BSAC instructors...

PADIvsBSAC.jpg
 
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Scuba diving got me in to sailing after enjoying going out in the dive club RIB as much as the diving itself. First dive was a PADI course in the Red Sea, followed by joining a BSAC club in North Wales to further my training.

Most memorable dive was a 'drift dive' off Puffin Island at the northern end of the Menai Strait in North Wales where we came across a wooden wreck not marked on charts. Actually, more memorable was losing all my air at a depth of 50 metres, due to a faulty regulator, in Dorethea Quarry. It took 11mins to surface whilst sucking air on my buddy's octopus (spare regulator).

I've not dived from our yacht, must try it this season.

Colin.
 
I freedive and spearfish. I've done a few scuba dives (with an instructor) but never subscribed to a course- I have too many conflicting interests after my time and money (sailing amongst them, of course :D )
 
moodyNick said:
I did a PADI Open water course whilst working in Grand Cayman in the 80's. Went diving, down to 70feet, once after that and hated it so never been again since.

I wouldnt trust myself to try it again now.
Click to expand...


Nor would I if you haven't dived since the 80's... :D
 
I did my first dive on a reef out of Cairns. My second dive was then in a flooded quarry in Lancashire. I've been committed to BSAC ever since. I was once actively involved in the instructor training scheme and have taught in places like Cyprus and Jordan on behalf of the club. For me, diving led the way into sailing. I don't dive as regularly as I once did but I still like to call myself a diver. Sailing and diving compliment each other well, imho.
 
Learned to dive in the 70s BSAC 2nd class and club instructor, got serious about it in the early 80s when I used to run a RIB and was what was then described as a wreck ferret:D. I rarely dived with anyone other than one guy who is still diving on mixed gas at 100M+ and is 62, I gave up diving in the early 90s after starting to dabble into technical diving but, bought a sailing boat and simply did not have the time for both sports. Strangely enough I have just given the last of my old kit away, a couple of kit bins, Scuba Pro stab jacket and air 2, US Divers Conshelf Supreme regulator, several bottles, shot weight belt and one of the first generation of dive computers.
 
I do hope this thread doesn't develop into a PADI v BSAC testosterone-fest like the one on RtoR.
I have dived with both, although my qual is PADI, and both have their strengths. I started with the Army in Belize (Hunters Cay), unqualified, and signed up with a local BSAC branch with my son to get the paperwork. After six months neither of us had even seen any equipment. Each time we turned up at the local pool we got a different instructor who inevitably said we would have to go back to scratch; "just to be sure".
Fed up with that I signed up for a PADI Open Water course in Malta doing the training in the sea after an intensive classroom session each morning. I have gone back to the same school (Meldives) over the years to get the Advanced, and modules; Rescue, Wreck, Navigation etc. I never bothered with Technical but have used tri-mix.
In the interim I have continued to dive with BSAC branches in Cyprus and the UK but found it easier to dive further afield with PADI; Arabian Sea, Western Med etc.
I still get a splash now and again at home in Scotland but keep kit in Malta. In my dotage it is more pleasant to feel the sun on my back.
 
Personally I have never had a problem having my BSAC quals recognised anywhere in the world. If there are any raised eyebrows a quick wave of the log book usually settles any issues. The prob is normally the other way around... I sometimes end up getting paired off with very junior divers and get rather fed up acting as an unpaid instructor. When I'm instructing that's obviously fine, but when I'm on holiday and paying for the privilege it's a bit of a liberty. I have been known to produce an old lower grade qual card on occasion to prevent that. :rolleyes:

And yes I'm not a PADI vs BSAC die-hard... there are good divers and bad of all faiths ;)
 
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