In too deep

YOU'VE seen that oft-repeated James Bond movie, where 007 straps on his underwater gear and slices through the balmy waters of the Caribbean to thwart the supervillain and whisk a lovely in a fetching wetsuit into the sunset.

He certainly didn't end up toppling over underwater, thrashing his arms around and desperately trying to right himself, as Blofeld's henchmen carried on destroying civilisation as we know it.

But then, this wasn't the Caribbean - fortunately. Instead it was the swimming pool at Archbishop Holgate School in York, and I was taking my first steps - if that's the right expression - towards learning how to scuba dive.

The opportunity for a "try dive" had come about because it is the 50th anniversary of the British Sub Aqua Club and one of the clubs in the city, the York Sub Aqua Club, decided to invite a journalist along to see what getting underwater is all about.

So there I was, in old T-shirt and shorts, faced with the necessary "gear". This included a mask and flippers (fins), familiar to anyone who has been snorkelling.

Less familiar was the scuba equipment itself. This consisted of a tank, or bottle, containing ordinary air, attached to a sort of waistcoat, which was strapped on to the diver.

The equipment attached to the bottle included, vitally, the mouthpiece, which I clamped tightly between my teeth, remembering not to try breathing through my nose.

But that wasn't the only use for the air in the tank, as my instructor, the ever-patient Cathy Moore, pointed out. A separate control, grasped in the left hand, pumped air into the waistcoat, and also deflated it, depending on whether I required buoyancy or wanted to descend further.

We started off in the shallow end, and the first challenge was sinking to the bottom and just breathing down there. That was more tricky than it sounds, but then, having got to the bottom, I decided to try pumping a bit of air into the waistcoat.

What I didn't appreciate was that the effect would be delayed, so I ended up pumping too much air in.

The result was that I shot to the surface, then when I tried to correct myself only succeeded in turning upside down! That was all very embarrassing, but Cathy remained encouraging.

"When you get used to it you find you can move in '3-D', it's the nearest thing to being in outer space," she enthused.

Sure enough, after a relatively brief time I started to get the hang of staying underwater (but not stuck to the bottom), and moving using the "fins" only.

So I graduated to the deep end, avoiding other trainee divers and instructors en route - discovering that, armed with the ability to breathe underwater, I could just slip underneath them, instead of trying to find a way to the left or right.

So what Cathy had told me was true, I could move in more than two dimensions. After this exhilarating discovery, the hour-long training session just flew by.

As well as the training sessions, the York Sub Aqua Club organises a full programme of diving each year.

One of its most popular destinations is around the Farne Islands off Northumberland, as well as the east coast, launching from Bridlington or Whitby.

This year it has also had weekend trips to the east and west coasts of Scotland, the Lake District, around the Tyne, long weekends to Mull and Plymouth, and a week diving beside Second World War wrecks around Normandy and the Channel Isles.

Club members were due to be out on the River Ouse in their distinctive bright orange boats today from 1.30pm celebrating the 50th anniversary.

Fact file

Anyone who would like to arrange a try dive or who would like more information about York Sub Aqua Club should contact club chairman Ian Salmons on 01904 426866.

Updated: 09:34 Saturday, September 27, 2003