Scuba Diving as I always say to anyone starting a course wether it be the PADI Open Water Diver Course in Cardiff, or the PADI Advanced Course on the beautiful coastline of Swansea is not a sport, infact If you look at many Divers they are very unsporty you might say. This is why Scuba Diving is so great pretty much anyone can dive and experience the Seas and the Oceans of the world with all its amazing wonders and amazing sights.
I always say as well even to Open Water Divers starting their new journey that they can instantly have a better dive than me or anyone of my instructors, diving is a feeling, an emotion it is humbling and a priverlage. To hang with neutral buoyancy in the water is a un explainable pleasure wether in the Quarry in Chepstow or the Indian Ocean it is the same feeling. its hard to explain the emotion of seaing your first shark, dolphin, turtle, reef, whale, moray, plankton, sea horse, crab, lobster, nudibranch the list is endless and just keeps giving and expanding.
In a life time though their are certain Diver's who as I mentioned last week are Pioneers, Adventure's, mavericks of the art of Diving. One such man is Dr Dan Manion who is the only man in the world to reach 155 meters on pure air 21% Oxgyen and 79% Nitrogen. This is a feet In my personal opinion which is the equivalent of Climbing Mount Everest with No Oxygen, wearing flip flops and Carrying Christopher Biggins on your back! The fact that only one person has only ever done this and the great Bret Giliam tried on several occasions and said it was the limit for a human being to survive underwater gives further weight to my claims.
You don't have to be Dan Manion, David Hasselhof or Neptune to Scuba Dive, it is all about the experience and the wonderful environment we are allowed to enter which many people may never witness in a lifetime, but as Divers we must give a though to the people on this planet who advanced the levels and increased our awareness and knowledge, the true watermen and women of the world.