My Story, by John Carmichael

At the tender age of 41, following a Try-A-Dive, I joined Stourport Divers in September 1998, prior to the try-a-dive I had only done a little snorkeling whilst on holiday and knew nothing about the sport of scuba diving, I was one of a group of 7 that joined that month and I can remember with some fondness the fun and excitement enjoyed by all of us as we went through the basic pool training.

Running concurrently with the physical skills training at pool in Stourport were the associated theory lectures designed to giving me the important technical knowledge necessary to ensure I knew how to stay out of trouble, All of my group were pleased that both the pool training and the lectures were conducted in a relaxed and friendly manor which to my mind played a large part in forming the close friendships between my fellow students and between us and the existing members. My training continued during the winter months till the early part of December when my fellow students and I passed our pool assessment and theory exams.

With snow on the ground and exceedingly low temperatures it was decided to delay our first open water dive and assessment for a few months, and so, during the first part of the new year we would spend our time practicing our new found skills and helping the instructors with the second batch of students and occational Try-A-Dives.

Come March 1999 the winter had broken sufficiently for us to make our way to the safe inland dive site known as Stoney Cove where our instructors introduced my group of buddies and myself to the exciting world of open water scuba diving, as much as the instructor tried to reassure me, I can’t say there wasn’t apprehensive as I entered the water, but with the comfort of the pool training and technical knowledge to fall back on my fears soon dispersed as I marveled at the new environment in found myself in, as I started to feel relaxed in my new under water environment I was well and truly bitten by the scuba bug.

With my open water assessment out of the way I leapt at the chance of my first dive weekend at Brixham during Easter of 1999, after a few experience building sea dives and demonstrating that I had mastered the basics of scuba diving it wasn’t long before my qualification book was being stamped up to “Open Water Diver”.

During the remainder of the year my log book recorded dives over a  range of sites, depths, durations and included various open water skill assessments, this record of dives and skill coupled with another half dozen lectures saw me awarded with the next step up the scuba diver ladder to “Club Diver” ( a "Club Diver" deemed capable to dive with any other club diver and above), 1999 also saw me take a powerboat handling course allowing me to take the controls of the club dive boats.

In The millennium year there was an explosion in my diving activities, I jumped at every opportunity to get in the water and found myself diving such locations as Weymouth, Salcome, Plymouth, Penzance, Scapa flow and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, the year 2000 was also the first year I was elected to stand on the club committee and take an active part in helping to run the club.

During the next 12 months my log book entries rose to over 100 open water dives including additional sites such as Swanage, Lyme regies, Fowey, Malta and Menorca, Along with my duties as club secretary 2001 was also the year I was awarded my first instructor qualification “Assistant Instructor” which allowed me, under the supervision of the club instructors, to pass on my skills on to other students and to give basic lecture,

2002 saw another 50 or so dives added to my logbook including additional sites such as West Bay, Teignmouth and Oban, I also maintained my position as club secretary,

In 2003 I changed committee position to try the job of chairman, took further course to upgraded to “Club Instructor” and following more lectures and open water skills achieved “Dive leader” status and thus deemed capable of leading open water dives and looking after new student divers, additional dive sites visited this year included the world famous wreck of The Zenobia in Cyprus (see my pic on the welcome page) and a return to Egypt.

In 2004 the qualification of “Open Water Instructor” was achieved allowing me to take students for their first open water dive and to instruct open water skills, further lectures and skills were also started this year which would put me on track to achieving the qualification of “Dive Supervisor”, additional dive sites included Isle of Wight, Tenerife and Jordan, a change of committee position sees me taking back the job of secretary and adding the job of dive project organize.

This year (2005 as I write this) along with retaining the two committee jobs of secretary and project organizer I have been required to demonstrate on a number of occasions my ability to plan, organize and execute dive trips which should enable the qualification of “Diver Supervisor” to be awarded to me in due course.

In conclusion, over the years of being a member of Stourport Divers I have been transformed from knowing nothing about the sport to being near the top of the dive qualification ladder with additional skills like powerboat handling, navigation, VHF radio operator, Open water instructor, and life saving skills like O2 admin, CPR & Heart start. I have dived many of the best dive locations in the world, have a small collection of items recovered from the sea bed, seen numerous amazing sights and even had some of my photographs published in a Scuba magazine, all this with the added benefit of making lots of new friends, meeting loads of very interesting people, having a great bunch buddies to go diving with and a lot of good socializing on dive trips and club events. Through my work on the committee and as an instructor I’m so please that I’ve been able to repay some of the time spent on me as I went through my training and I can thoroughly recommend the benefits of the club structure to others looking to learn an exciting enjoyable and rewarding new sport. Joining Stourport Divers has been and remains one of the best thing I’ve ever done and would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone from 12 to adult.

John Carmichael