New Bird on the block

[dogsbodydiving]

Excellent site! Just wanted to say Hi All to start with. Got loads to say & ask but need to work out what & how to say it, I'll get back to you on that. Read most of what's been posted and we have had a giggle. Please bare with me I'm the mediator for my father (VINTAGE). He's so vintage he can't use a computer and my grammer and spelling's not that good. The Queens Engish bypassed me when I was born. Catch you all later

Kim

[1969ivan1]

Welcome to the board Kim. Don't worry some of us don't do English very good niether ;D.
We look forward to hearing about your Father and his early days in diving.
Rob

[nemrod]

New here also, just wanted to say hello. I hope to learn a lot here. Read most of the posts. Thanks for the great site. Diving since 68, trying to get my vintage gear going again and of course getting more! Nemrod

[SeaRat]

It's good to have you two here. I'm looking forward to a few stories of early diving, of how he got into diving, where, etc.

Don't worry at all about grammer. It's the content that we enjoy so much.

I started diving in '59, got my gear by picking strawberries and beans in the summer. Now, I'm reclaiming some of the old stuff I had grown up with, and getting it back into shape at least for the pool.

Anyway, we look forward to those "thrillin' tales of yesteryears."

John

[dogsbodydiving]

Hi again. Thanx for the replies. I'm Deffinately going to have to do this in stages. As you may or may not know we are from the UK. My dad was a BSAC instructor for some years. I remember my sister & I having to sit in a car somewhere in the East End of London with only the comforts of a bottle of coke, a bag of crisps & the background music of Neil Sedaka on 8 track, while dad was upstairs in the Hammers Public house which was the clubs venue at the time. (I believe we know all the words to his songs now & we do a wicked karaoke).
Think we still have the 8 track if anyones interested.
I was about 8yrs at the time and wanted to follow in dads footsteps so thought ok I'll go training with him. The fact it was in an open air lido in the middle of winter didn't faze me. Did loads of lengths above & under water, picked up bricks, did the put on weightbelt at depth..fine. Then it was SCUBA bearing in mind at the time you had to be 14yrs..I was priviledged.

[bigdave]

Welcome to the board - if you have any photos of yourself or your dad in the old gear, be sure to send them along to be put up on the photo pages!

BD

dogsbodydiving said:

Hi again. Thanx for the replies. I'm Deffinately going to have to do this in stages. As you may or may not know we are from the UK. My dad was a BSAC instructor for some years. I remember my sister & I having to sit in a car somewhere in the East End of London with only the comforts of a bottle of coke, a bag of crisps & the background music of Neil Sedaka on 8 track, while dad was upstairs in the Hammers Public house which was the clubs venue at the time. (I believe we know all the words to his songs now & we do a wicked karaoke).
Think we still have the 8 track if anyones interested.
I was about 8yrs at the time and wanted to follow in dads footsteps so thought ok I'll go training with him. The fact it was in an open air lido in the middle of winter didn't faze me. Did loads of lengths above & under water, picked up bricks, did the put on weightbelt at depth..fine. Then it was SCUBA bearing in mind at the time you had to be 14yrs..I was priviledged.

[dogsbodydiving]

I was standing in the shallow end of the pool all kitted up ready for the off... sort of excited. Then came the time to take the plunge. Sorry to say that I hated it and from then just stayed on the surface doing my swimming. Our annual holiday was always down the south coast in Weymouth, where the wives & kids spent the days on the beach while the divers spent a whole week on a wreck called the Salsette.
After time dad took his hobby one step further, we moved from London to Essex he had decided to go into made to measure wet suit manufacture with one of his buddies. At first all the work was done at home but then it started getting a bit cramped, so they rented a small shop which had enough space for a cutting out bench a gluing up bench. There was also a window that could hold a display they put in a mannikin with a wet suit on, a twin set, mask, fins & snorkel. These would only be in the window during the week as it was their own kit so they had to strip it when they went diving.
We soon moved to a larger shop which catered for the suit side and also the the new venture of diving equipment. We had several BSAC clubs in this area and not many shops so business picked up nicely. I had left school so spent most of the time here making suits we were now making dry suits as well, clearing up and listening to the stories of the divers as they passed through.
Dads hobby was now work and took over any spare time and sad to say he hasn't dived for years, but still collects, mainly Siebe, we bought the remaining spares from the UK Nemrod agent when he retired several years ago but loads of other bits & pieces. We've been here well over 30yrs now and still going. In 1999 I went to Weymouth not to sit on the beach, but to dive the Salsette..Touching that wreck was magic. Dads face when I told him was a picture.