New Divers

Can you remember the first time that you got under the water. It seems such a long time ago for me but I can still just about remember the sense of excitement tinged with a bit of concern. I can also recall thinking very quickly as I swam around the pool in a hotel in Kenya how great it felt and then how I wished I had learnt so much earlier.


Nowadays I constantly encourage my daughter to think about going all the way to Instructor so that when the time comes she can go on a gap year and teach her way in some fantastic location. If I am honest that is partly because I wish that I had done that, though I hare no regrets about what I did get up to in my early twenties.

On Friday I started another Open Water course with the H team, Hilary and Helena, Mum and daughter. Helena has already completed the Seal team with us and is making the step up. She is going to breeze through the skills and it is already obvious. The confidence and abilities gained through the Seal team are plain to see and there remains a part of me that almost thinks that every diver should work their way up through this process.

Mum on the other hand appeared to have the same apprehension and interest that I recall. She had watched the seal team progress from the sidelines and now had to face getting in and experiencing first hand what it is like to breathe underwater.

I am pleased to say the look of quiet satisfaction was fairly obvious as the first session grew to a close. Both Mum and daughter took to the skill tasks easily. I really love the fact that we have a Mum and daughter team going through the programme diving is such a good activity to do with your children and I suspect that Hilary and Helena will have many rewarding experiences to look forward to as a result of this course. I personally can't wait to hear about them in years to come.