One of my favourite dives took place in Gozo, at the Inland Sea. You make a shore entry, swim through the tunnel out into the Med, turn left and follow the wall, ending the dive surfacing in the nearby Blue Hole. At least, that was what we did on the second attempt. A couple of days earlier our attempted dive was less than successful. We'd arrived to find very rough conditions and half our group, very wisely, decided not to dive. Our group leader told us it would "be fine" and we let ourselves believe him. Our desire to do the dive made us ignore the evidence of our eyes.

We attempted to descend at the entrance to the tunnel. I heard my buddy say, "Where's Robbie?" and then descend before I could say anything. I went after her but soon found myself alone in the dark at 16m. I shone my torch around but it was just black all around me. Just for a second I started to panic but, remembering to Stop, Think, Act, I realised I was okay. I was next to the wall so I knew which way was out and which was back, I knew which way was up and I had a full tank of air. I slowly ascended up the wall and could soon see daylight. Another member of our group then appeared and eventually everyone reunited on the surface.

The lesson I learnt that day was to never be afraid to call a dive. We let our desire to do the dive override our common sense. There might have been an element of macho pride for some of us as well. You need to objectively evaluate the conditions and decide if you feel it's safe to dive. There's no shame in saying you don't want to do a dive and, as a wise man once said, it's better to be on the surface wishing you were in the water, than in the water wishing you were on the surface.

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I'm sitting here bored so I thought I'd stick a few more images up. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of artists, while very talented, obviously don't know much about diving.

On this cover from 1964, Veronica finally gets Archie away from Betty using some very strange scuba gear. Art by Dan DeCarlo.

 

I hope artist Steve Dillon never tries to go diving with a mask like that. Ouch! Mask squeeze! From The Punisher, 2003.

 

Now everyone knows that giant green sea-monsters have five digits on each "hand", not the four shown here. (okay, this was just an excuse to show this gorgeous Wally Wood cover from 1967!)

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As long as I've been diving, one of the longest-running controversies has been over the qualification Advanced Open Water Diver although, admittedly, those with the most to say on the matter usually seem to be divers from other agencies. The nub of the matter is that dreaded word "Advanced". If you're a BSAC Advanced Diver for example, then you're an experienced diver with a lot of training under your belt. However, you can be a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with only nine dives so there's an obvious disparity in the use of the word advanced. I've often thought it would be simpler to have Open Water I and Open Water II, or to upgrade Adventure Diver, but then, why should we change because of what other people think? Besides, the current status quo is probably too well established to change it now.

Still, even if we disregard what other people think, you can have two newly-qualified AOW Divers with significantly different experience levels. Is it better to do your AOW immediately after your OW or should you go out and just go diving for a bit? Ultimately there's no right answer; what's right for one diver isn't necessarily right for another. The important thing, to finally get to the point of this post, is to remember the context of the word advanced as used by PADI. I always take great pains to point out to my students that, while you've advanced beyond the basic Open Water qualification, chances are you're still very much a beginner, especially if you only have nine dives in your log book. I know when I did my AOW I was anything but "advanced"! (Hopefully I've come on a little bit since then.)

Unfortunately there will always be people who think they know it all when they clearly don't, but I like to think that at London Scuba we turn out divers who are aware of their limitations, seek to build their experience gradually and understand which rung of the training ladder they're on.

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This comes from a facts page in a 70s summer special.

 

Gordon Tracy has an exciting encounter with a giant squid in an issue of TV21 from 2068 (OK, 1968, but they used to have the cover date 100 years in the future). Drawn by the great Frank Bellamy.

 

After three tryout issues of the anthology series Showcase, The Sea Devils got their own comic in 1961. Dane, Nicky, Judy and Biff (!) entertained readers for 6 years and 35 issues. Drawn by Russ Heath.

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It's been a long road to get to where we are with the website, and there's still more to be done. But I though you might like to hear a little about how the site got to be where it is now.

London Scuba has had a company website for a number of years now but back last year a group of us started to build a London Scuba Club website. The idea was that it would provide a central point for all of the members of the club to share ideas, socialise and see what was available. It proved to be a big hit with the members but only really reached those people active it in the club.

Earlier this year I started talking to Ian about linking the club website into the main site and adding new features for all users of London Scuba. From there this idea of this site was born. Several months of planning and hard work from a number of people including Ian, Steve, Simon and Fraser and here we are.

We now have an active forum and blogging platform, and our new and shinny Divebook social networking system so we can keep up to date with what's happening in and around the dive centre. Please do make use of these systems, whether your a long term member of the club or a new diver just starting out, update your profile, add a picture and let us know what you think.

We are kee to add new ideas and make this site even better. We know there are a few bugs, which we are working hard to correct over the next week, but if you spot anything please do let us know.

Safe diving and keep helping us to make this site even better :-)

Tags: London Scuba, Website, Dive Club