The Last dive log in my little red book was dated 1995. It didn’t seem that long ago but the date suggests otherwise! Then in early spring my neighbour (Graham), who I knew to be a BSAC diver, gave me a load of Dive magazines to browse.

You know how things tend to go once you start reading, so yes: I was soon dragging my old dive bag out of storage. Most of it was delivered to local dive shops for servicing and I bought a few items such as an octopus (these weren’t common practice in 1995; buddy beathing was taught) plus a few sessions on ebay.

After Google-ing my old BSAC club: Calshot Sub-Aqua Club, I started turning up at the weekly meetings. Almost all of the members were unknown to me but they definitely have the same friendly welcoming outlook that the club has always had.

As a result of this I have restarted diving with the club, thoroughly enjoying it, and looking forward to more during the rest of the season.

If anyone reading this hasn’t dived in a while then I definitely recommend contacting Calshot Sub-Aqua Club!

Following our recent Try-Dive advertising we were lucky enough to have Nadine Dukeson from BBC Radio Solent attend for a try dive in Hounsdown swimming pool. Nadine, along with 3 other prospective trainees, were given a brief initial introduction to the Calshot branch and the British Sub-Aqua Club before being shown the more practical side of diving and the equipment involved.

Once changed everyone completed a short swimming test (damn those insurance requirements!) and then progressed to snorkel, where they got to grips with straight leg fining and using standardised hand signals to communicate. Once everyone was happy we moved onto the heavy kit, 12kg cylinders and a few extra kilos of lead to make sure we went down and stayed there - finally we were really diving!

As soon as we reached the deep end of the pool, Nadine was attacked by the smallest battery powered penguin you can imagine! You know the type, small bullet type body and an exposed plastic propeller that just loves to wrap hair around itself. The penguin still works, and Nadine didn’t mention the hair pulling on the radio – so I think we got away with it! From then on things settled down, forward and backward rolls, break dancing, buddha balancing and messing with the underwater frisbee all of which caused no further injuries.

Nadine’s report was broadcast a few days later on Jon Cuthill’s morning program on Radio Solent.

Listen to a snippet of the BBC Radio Solent broadcast made by Nadine after her Try Dive.