Each month we feature a selection of your letters
Each month we feature a selection of your letters
We ’ re still looking for a new prize for a Star Letter , so please bear with us for a while longer . It ’ s a difficult time for the diving industry , so sponsorships are a tricky proposition at the moment .
ChatSend your letters to simon @ scubamagazine . co . uk
The race for the wooden spoon
IT ’ S ALL THE BIG STUFF , THAT ’ S WHAT Camel Divers of Sharm El Sheikh told us . June is the time when big fish arrive to spawn at Ras Mohammed . The air temperature may be 40 ° C , but there ’ s plenty of beer in the bar to cool your evenings .
Tiran was fairly shallow diving , no more than 18 metres ; and Gordon and Jackson reefs were picturesque , with lots of big morays and crocodilefish . Ras Mohammed was a different story . Our guide knew exactly were to take us , thanks to his knowledge of the currents . I have never seen such big shoals of fish – awesome !
In our branch we have a ‘ Plonker of the Year ’ award given to the diver who has made the biggest faux-pas . While waiting to board the outward flight , one of our group discovered he had his wife ’ s passport – could he be top of the list ?
Not necessarily . You see , we had arrived at Camel at 11pm to be confronted with a bill of € 2,000 ... I had forgotten to pay the balance for the group ! If that wasn ’ t bad enough , I jumped in on a drift dive and had forgotten my integrated weights . I ’ m the Diving Officer of the branch but have a terrible feeling my name may well be on that wooden spoon .
Many thanks to Camel – great set up , great boat , great diving , awesome fish life ! DAVE PLUMB , The Monday Club , BSAC 2606
Memories of family diving
I READ WITH FOND MEMORIES AND A SMILE THE LETTER ‘ Twinning-up ’ in SCUBA ’ s April issue . I had the pleasure of teaching our two daughters to dive back in the early 1990s when they reached 14 , the age our club in Grimsby allowed juniors to join and learn at that time .
Our eldest daughter , Caroline , reached 14 in 1993 and was absolutely chomping at the bit to start learning to dive . Although I was a qualified BSAC instructor , I chose to ask a fellow instructor to undertake the early pool training .
In those days , the training started with novice qualification . I also thought it would deflect any suggestion I would ‘ go easy ’ on the training or indulge in any nepotism . The real reason was I didn ’ t want any arguments away from the swimming pool , as they were typical teenagers .
That said , I did train them for Sports Diver and Dive Leader , which went well . I did the same for our youngest daughter Gemma when she reached 14 . We all dived together for many years until they went off on their separate journeys to university .
It wasn ’ t easy having three members in my club from the same family , three lots of membership fees , three sets of gear to maintain . They grew out of diving suits at an alarming rate .
As for any nepotism or going easy , it was just the opposite ; everything had to be flawless , I was very strict , probably over critical and maybe unfair to them . Diver rescue training was done with a burley six foot policeman who was diving with the club at the time and happy to help . I always dived with the girls knowing they could cope with any emergency should it come along . I knew I could get them to safety and they could do the same for me if I ever got into trouble . Fortunately , it never happened .
The last time we dived together was in Cuba in 1998 on a newly sunken Russian frigate near Varadero . We knew it would probably be the last dive we would have together , so we paid to have the dive recorded on video . Here is a photo taken on that dive from my old 35mm underwater camera .
Happy memories . PHIL THURTLE , Grimsby & Cleethorpes BSAC
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