As both a new member to the club and a new diver ( 1 year of experience), I was both nervous and excited about what is known in the dive community as a ‘live aboard’ experience.

I’d never heard of it before. We flew fly into Hurghada, got picked up from the airport, taken straight to the marina and boarded the boat.

I’d describe the trip as a diving cruise. Eat, sleep, dive, repeat is not a cliche. It’s highly accurate.

During my first year of scuba diving with the local scuba diving club in Leamington and Warwick, I’d been to Plymouth to explore the wrecks, the Farnes Islands to play with the seals and the training centre at Stoney Cove every month to learn the skills needed for safe and fun diving with my fellow club members, but those were only ever weekend trips.

A week at sea was a big deal in itself. Never mind being stuck on a boat with a relatively small number of people (24 in total). Once you are on there, you can’t get off!

Would I get sea sick? What is it like diving 3 or 4 times a day instead of the usual two? How deep are we going? What about the sharks?! All these thoughts whizzing around my head.

It was a big step to take, but I’m so glad I did.

What a great bunch of people. So much laughter and such a fun experience. Never a dull moment and every dive is a different experience for everyone.

Some people love the wrecks, their history, the world war connections.

Some people love the colourful fish, others love the tiny critters that look like aliens.

So many incredible sights, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

You have to experience it to appreciate it.

You never know what you’ll fall in love with or will find on any given dive.

Every one of them is an adventure.

There’s at least one warm weather trip every year for club members. Lanzarote early in 2024 is upcoming.

I love travelling for wildlife on land, but the underwater wildlife is just so alien to us generally. It’s like being on a different planet.

I started Scuba Diving to see the vast parts of the world that we never even think about.

If you’re adventurous and at all interested, I’d recommend you give scuba diving a try.

It hadn’t crossed my mind until my wife forced me into it.

It’s great even just to add a couple of dives into your existing holidays.

In our first year of diving we’ve managed to squeeze a couple of dives in Costa Rica and Cyprus.

Once you’ve researched the best dive centre, you just tell them the day you want to dive and they’ll take care of it. It’s super easy and generally only around £60 a dive including hiring all their kit so it’s great value for money.

The memories you’ll make are priceless as they will last a lifetime.

(I’m the one in the trilby hat on the back row, Anthony, stood next to my wife Julia).

Happy diving and hope to see you down the club on a Wednesday night soon