Sunstar Sub Aqua Committee Members

John Cook, Chairman

I got into diving in 1991 by joining this same club, then called the BT Research Sub Aqua Club, and affiliated to the SAA rather than BSAC. I joined with Frances because we had got bored with just swimming having taken adult improver swimming lessons from the council for a few years on account of being virtual non-swimmers! It took us over a year to complete our pool training partly I suppose because we weren't very good students, but mainly I am sure because the club and the training programme was a pretty ad-hoc affair in those days. Obviously we did eventually finish and went on to go diving...

Over the intervening years we have done rather a lot of diving all over the world and enjoyed much of it, both in the UK and abroad in California, British Columbia, Florida, Mexico, Caribbean, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Malta, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. As a result it's hard to say which was my best diving experience, but there have certainly been some memorable ones. I remember a day off Felixstowe when we went out on the club boat and the sea was literally flat and mirror calm (Force zero) and the sun was shining. We had a rather ordinary dive if I remember, but it was a fantastic experience nevertheless. Then in Norfolk we did a dive on a paddle steamer, again from the club boat, and again on a perfect day, but on that occasion the dive too was magical with the viz so good we could see one paddle from the other of the steamer, both full of fish.

In Northern Ireland we dived on a wreck that was full of tame congers, taking a net bag full of fish to feed them. There were dozens of them and they were not at all shy, coming out of everywhere and swimming round our legs and snatching bits of fish out of our fingers. That is the only dive I've done to a maximum depth of just 21m where I managed to run into deco time. It was fascinating.

I really love shoals of fish; they are fascinating to watch. The best experience of this type was with a shoal of pilchards off the coast of Mexico. It was massive, so massive that as we swam under it it darkened the sky, and then looking up there was a round tunnel through it caused by the fish avoiding our bubbles, and the sides of that tunnel glistened with sun light being reflected off their bodies.

In Indonesia, off the island of Maratua we did a dive in truly fantastic viz so that a huge vista of coral reef was visible at once, and in the vista within sight at the same time were reef sharks, turtles and a shoal of barracuda.

In the Coral Sea off Australia we did a shark-feed cage dive, but the operators did not deem it necessary for us to be inside the cage until the climax of the feed, so during the build up to the feed, we were just on top of the cage and literally hundreds of reef sharks turned up and swam round and round in front of us waiting for the feed. They were passing within inches of our masks and occasionally even bumped into divers or had to be pushed out of the way. Awesome.

Of course there have also been some bad experiences along the way, some of them admittedly very bad indeed. In the end it is the people involved in the sport that will help you enjoy the good times and also help you through the bad times. Overall diving has definitely been a positive experience in my life and I wouldn't want to do without it, which is why I'm still doing it. I intend to keep doing as much diving as possible for as long as I still can.

Pete Young, Secretary

My first dive was an Experience Scuba in Bermuda, in 1990. Amazingly I survived and couldn't wait to get along to Fore St Baths to sign up for the training programme under the eagle eye of Ivor the Diver Durrant. Fast forward to 2008 and I've now logged a paltry 600 or so dives, qualified as an OWI and Trimix Diver and held several positions on the Sunstar committee including DO and Membership Sec.

Best diving experience is a toss-up between our trip to Norway in 2003 and scootering around the Empire Heritage, weaving in and out of the Sherman tanks. Worst diving experience, either minus one foot vis off Eastbourne at 40m, where 100W Halogen lights looked like a candle in a brown ale bottle, or watching Ken Gould eat a raw scallop underwater.

Chris Hall, Treasurer

I got hooked on this diving lark about 5 years ago when I saw a bright orange / blue fish in Cornwall. I've spent far too much time and money on the whole thing, but the appeal just keeps on growing. I don't care where the diving is, as long as I get to wear a drysuit. There's nothing so bad as cold, horrible water. My best dives were done under the ice in the Russian arctic and in the tunnels of an old quarry in the Lake District. I'm also partial to a bit of warm water from time to time. I like going diving, and if you want to spend some club money to encourage the club to dive more, then give me a shout.

Raj Mistry, Diving Officer

My first experience of diving was in 1988 in Jamaica. I paid £25 for a PADI dive experience and boy was it an experience! The briefing was brief - you put this over your eyes, you breath out of this and you use this to go up and down. I knew nothing about equalising pressure and I hadn't even heard of buoyancy control. About ten minutes into my dive I had a mask leak which caused water to go up my nose, that in turn made me cough, which caused me to "spit" my DV out of my mouth and all this action was happening at 10m. The dive guide must have had a fit as she brought me back to the surface sharing air (an octopus was not standard issue on a reg in those days). Fortunately for me I didn't panic. I had just gulped a jug full of seawater before indicating I had lost my mask and DV. Once back on the surface I insisted on getting my £25 worth and went back down. On returning to shore I promised that I would learn to dive properly but it was a few years before I joined this club in 1994 which was then known as the BT Research Sub Aqua club.

I qualified as an Open Water Instructor within 3 years of joining the club and Advanced Diver the year after. I have held the posts of Assistant TO, TO and DO in the club as well being involved with instructing and running SDCs.

My passion is UK wreck diving when I can get out. I have also done some blue water diving in Australia, the Caribbean, Red Sea, Mombassa and more recently South Africa (best place to see sharks). I also dabble in under water video and still photography.