Sunstar Committee

Dave Lock, Chairman

First started in 1968 as a natural progression from competitive swimming and water polo. The early days of the sport were quite exiting as the equipment was unreliable and often home made. In fact the first boat that I part owned we made from hypalon sheets, plywood and lots of glue! Things have moved on since then with the introduction of dry-suits, reliable regulators, RIBs and rebreathers. I've gained lots of experience and moved steadily through the diving and instructing grades and at present I'm National Instructor 208 and First Class Diver Chief Examiner. This means I get to run courses in exotic locations such as Ascension Island but also end up in a school swimming pool in Pimlico!

Best diving experience has to be a dive on HMS Price of Wales in the South China Seas. We swam the length of the wreck, 250 metres, and back during the dive. Total in-water time was 4.5 hours but what a dive, a massive battleship sunk in 1941 as part of Force Z and now lying upside down in 70 metres.

Worst experience has to be my first open water dive off Chesil Beach when I was left alone in the surf with a dodgy regulator and unable to breathe very often. At least in those days you passed to the next grade - if you survived!

David Parkinson, Secretary

A Caribbean holiday in 2002 which included the possibility of some diving prompted me to take the plunge in late 2001 - since when I haven't looked back. I just wish I'd started years ago! I'm slowly working way around the UK and various sites abroad.

The best dive so far? The Chikuzen off Tortola in the BVI. The worst? A featureless muddy bottom off Dorset.

Adrian Barker, Treasurer

I got into diving in 2007 by way of some impromptu shore dives on the South Devon coast. Coming across a friendly cuttlefish in the first 5 minutes of my first dive, I was instantly addicted , sucked down about 200 bar of air and decided to get to the pool and do things the right way.

I completed my OD & SD training within 12 months and am currently half-way through Dive Leader training. I've had some great diving with the club & elsewhere so far: spending time with the aforementioned calm and placid cuttlefish, catching my first lobster on the wreck of the Conway, diving the wreck of HMS Scylla off Plymouth and befriending grey seals at 15m in the Farne Islands all rate very high! My worst experience to date is having to look at Joe in his amazing technicoloured drysuit before 9am and my first coffee of the day...

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.

Toby Hope, Training Officer

I started diving a couple of years ago. I've always had an (un)healthy fascination with sea-life and spent many happy hours as a child poking about in rockpools on family holidays. Diving was a natural progression from this and something I wish I'd started doing much earlier.

I think Sunstar's a great club and I've had some really cool experiences diving with other members - probably my favourite memories so far are of my first trip to the Red Sea - absolutely breathtaking..

Dave Lock, Boat Officer

See under Chairman.

Paul Mann, Expeditions Officer

Worst diving experience; becoming entangled with a rope at Gildenburgh whilst changing to my pony DV and, after being freed by my buddy (Matt), a less than controlled ascent.

Best diving experience; usually my most recent dive, a day diving the Baygitano and a drift dive collecting 50 or so Scallops and 3 crabs at Lyme Regis, followed by a night dive under Swanage pier will take some beating though.

Simon Steward, Equipment Officer

I got into diving by entering 'clubs in Ipswich' in google and Sunstar came out at the top, I thought "That looks interesting" and since then I've never looked back. Diving has given me the opportunity to combine my love of travel (and beer and curry) with a fabulous hobby, plus the craic is great.

I started diving in 2007, and completed my Sports Diver training in October 2008. It's been interesting for me to see how my confidence in my diving has built over 2008, which in no small part is due to the people I dive with in Sunstar.

Best dives - a fast drift dive off Swanage (what a rush), and the 'Rosalie Moller' and 'Thistlegorm' wrecks in Egypt.

Worst dive - any dive where Raj wants me to do mask clearing in freezing cold water (sorry Joe).

David Parkinson, Communications Officer

See under secretary.

Adrian Barker, Minibus Officer

See under Treasurer.

Chris Nixon, Social Secretary

Awaiting words

Mikael Berntzen, New Members Rep

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