News article extracted from the Northern Echo

THE Bond movies make it look so simple. Man dons suits, flippers and tank, jumps in and glides effortlessly through the water, fending off sharks and sharing bubbles with beautiful ladies on the way.

The truth is not quite so glamorous... but good fun nonetheless.

I've never been the strongest of swimmers, so it was with some trepidation that I agreed to try sub aqua diving.

A healthy fear of drowning lurked in the back of my mind as I arrived at Bishop Auckland Sub Aqua Club, only to be added to by instructors outlining the numerous ways you can be killed in the sport.

Burst lungs and other such gory accidents are thankfully very rare though. And it's fair to say they usually happen when diving a little deeper than the two metres of the town's swimming pool at Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre.

In shorts and T-shirt, I slowly donned the kit, which has been developed over thousands of years, since ancient Greek divers went underwater in a bell which contained the air needed to survive.

An air tank fits snugly into straps on

the back of an inflatable jacket, weights are strapped around the waist, a mask covers the eyes and nose. A pair of flippers is added - James Bond never waddled like this, did he?

A host of appendages with a variety of vital jobs hang from the air tank, leaving me vaguely resembling an octopus, but doubtful of being able to recreate such the creature's underwater grace.

Teamed up with a "buddy", the technical term for a diving partner upon whom your life could one day depend, and an instructor, I lowered myself into the pool and prepared to go under for the first time.

I half expected to get a choking feeling or to panic when I tried out the breathing apparatus for the first time, but it actually feels quite natural. After a buoyancy test, and my first prolonged sub aqua experience, I was given the opportunity to do my first Flipper the Dolphin impression. My swims got longer and longer, eventually finishing with double lengths of the pool alongside my two companions.

It's a novelty in the pool, but once you have joined a club and trained - free with the British Sub-Aqua Club branch at Bishop Auckland the deep blue sea is the limit.

Many members of the club take trips to various exotic locations to dive among reefs and other sights, while others find there is enough to see on the region's coastline, which has more wrecks per square mile than any other in the country.

The club has a membership of around 45 people (75 members - Oct 2001), of mixed ages and abilities, and shares a clubhouse with Bishop Auckland Rugby Club. It also has two dive boats and an air compressor, something many clubs lack.

There are opportunities to do scenic diving, underwater photography, wreck diving and underwater archaeology, and there are also a number of social events throughout the year. The drinking's all done on dry land though.

Make mine a martini, shaken, not stirred....

Written by Paul White and published in the Northern Echo after participating in an Experience Scuba Session