Meet the team

I’ve always been a keen swimmer, but wanted something more. Back in 1981, a friend suggested a Try Dive, and I was immediately hooked: the freedom, like being able to fly, was such an incredible experience.

40 years and over 4500 dives later, the sheer thrill of diving is stronger than ever. I started off in the UK, before discovering other, more exotic seas.  Now all my diving is abroad, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, photographing the myriad of amazing creatures, from sharks to the weird and unbelievable macro critters.

I feel so lucky to be able to experience the wonderful underwater world that most people will never see.

Back in 2017 my daughter wanted to learn to dive. As she was under 18, I had to chaperone her so started coming along on Friday evening club nights and on the various trips to the local diving quarries and places like Plymouth and Weymouth. I got to know the dive instructors and the other divers and found them to be a really friendly bunch and so generous with their time. I became a member of the club with a view to one day doing my snorkelling qualification.

My daughter no longer needs to be chaperoned, but I still went on the club trip to Scotland this year and while they dived, I walked; a good time was had by all!

I was delighted to become the club secretary on October 21 and I am looking forward to working with the other committee members to help run this enthusiastic and friendly dive club.

About 22 years ago, my son wanted to learn to dive, as he was under 18 I decided to join as a snorkeller at the same time as it made chaperoning him much more fun; I could swim or snorkel whilst he was training!  Also, when taking him on dive trips I knew the other divers too and used to have warm drinks and the occasional bacon butty ready when they surfaced.

My daughter also learnt to snorkel with the club when she was old enough, but both have since grown up and moved away.

I stayed on as the club was so friendly, and have now served on the committee in various guises for around 20 years, currently Membership and Welfare Officer. 

I learnt to dive with the club and it’s a great to be able to give something back to the club by serving as the treasurer on the committee. I’m a BSAC Dive Leader and I enjoy diving in the sea around the south coast of England, and at inland sites during the winter months. I am an archaeologist in my day job and I’ve a particular focus in maritime history, so my main interest is in diving on shipwreck sites. I’m looking to become an instructor in the not too distant future. I look forward to diving with you soon.

I have been hooked on diving since I learned to dive in Kenya on my honeymoon; every dive is like a trip to a different world.

I am an Open water Instructor and Advanced Diver.  I mainly dive in the UK with few trips to the Red Sea and the Maldives thrown in along the way. I’ve dived all around the UK, having been fortunate enough to dive around Shetland Islands, diving the wreck of the E 49 properly most Northerly UK wreck to diving in the Far south of the UK diving the Isles of Scilly and lots of places in between. Even after over 20 years there are still loads and loads of new places to find and dive.

I love wreck diving, it gives the best of both world’s history and artificial reefs with loads of sea life to watch and enjoy. Although I love to find new places to dive I do like go back to a few favourites. The James Egan Lane was my first wreck dive that was really recognisable as a ship, I love to go back and see how it’s changed over the years.

I enjoy being an instructor taking new people into dive and watching them develop into divers and instructors to keep the club system running. I do also enjoy finding new places to dive plan the trip and then dive there with the club.

I hope to see you are one of our trips soon. 

Hello,

My name is Baxter and I co-ordinate training at Cirencester.

I’m currently a BSAC Advanced diver, open water and ADP instructor. I’m a Mod 2 CCR diver and can teach sidemount and backmount open circuit configurations.

I’ve been diving since 2015 and in that time I’ve been lucky enough to dive in some fantastic locations around the UK and overseas and I’m happy to jump into pretty much any body of water anywhere, anytime.

My preference in diving is maritime history (aka wrecks) as I find them utterly fascinating along with the back stories that accompany these wrecks and how they came to be.

I can be persuaded now and again to have a look at marine life-especially when seals want to play however!

I was lucky enough to learn to dive at the age of 12 whilst living in Egypt, and spent my teenage years being spoiled by the wonders of the Red Sea. Fast forward a few years and I was living in the UK: I realised that if I wanted to dive regularly then I’d have to brave chilly British waters! Several years on, I am a true convert to the delights of UK diving and the secret world of these temperate seas.

I am presently an Instructor for the club and a keen (but very amateur!) underwater photographer.

I am a BSAC Open Water Instructor and hold technical diving qualifications from TDI, but am as happy pootling in 5 metres of water off Torbay as hitting deep wrecks on trimix – it’s all diving at the end of the day!

Barry (a.k.a. ScubaBEW) here, I’m a BSAC Advanced Diver and Open Water Instructor.

Keen on underwater photography & videography and have invented two underwater
sports for divers (Golfin – u/w golf) (ScubaDarts – u/w darts) because Octopush is too tiring!!!

Have dived Great Barrier Reef (Aus), Ningaloo (Aus), Monterey Kelp Forests (USA),
Sulawesi, Mediterranean, lots of Red Sea sites (Egypt) and a host of UK sites.

I enjoy 4m under Swanage Pier as much as 40m on the Eddystone Lighthouse Rocks because all dives have their own potential to be fun.

I started diving many years ago and it is still my passion whether it’s jumping into a quarry or sailing to dive any of the many offshore dive sites our coast has to offer.

Over the years I have managed to dive in most areas of  British waters from the Shetland Islands in the far north to the Channel Islands in the south and most areas between.

I have dived overseas in the Med, Red Sea and Caribbean but my diving preference is still UK temperate climate waters.

At times diving in UK waters can be quite challenging but that adds to the experience and satisfaction.

I dive throughout the year from the depths of winter through to the warmer sometimes too warm summer months.

I can still vividly remember 40+years ago the first time I donned an aqualung and enjoyed just being able to breathe underwater – I was hooked from that very first minute.

I am an Advanced Diver and Advanced Instructor and still thoroughly enjoy introducing new “would be divers” to our wonderful underwater world.

Most of all  I have done this via the club system which offers a wonderful network of like minded people all with varying amounts of experience, knowledge and know how.

Add to this the social side and camaraderie that comes with being a member of the club it’s the perfect place to be and to enjoy this wonderful sport.

Derek

I started diving with the club when my daughter wanted to learn prior to a holiday that we were planning. I thought I’d learn to dive with her and we’ve both continued to keep learning through to today. One of the great things about scuba is that there’s always something new to learn and currently I’m Dive Leader / Open Water Instructor and happy to help those new to the sport get going.

I like exploring the under-water world; it’s revealed slowly with unreal features, ethereal light and weird alien-looking creatures. You can dive at one location and it can be a completely different experience next time you go underwater.

Hello, I’m Steve and I am Assistant Instructor with Cirencester Dolphins and I started diving in 2016. I initially trained with PADI and moved over to BSAC and joined the Dolphin Club in 2018.

Most of my diving has been overseas however since joining Dolphins I have been diving more in the UK. I am currently completing my Dive Leader course and have been awarded my Foundation Instructor course.

I enjoy all diving although my preference is definitely for warmer water and the beautiful wildlife found in places like the Maldives.

I am a BSAC Sports Diver and Assistant Instructor working towards Dive Leader and Open Water Instructor. I took a try dive shortly after my 12th birthday and was instantly hooked. I have dived in a number of UK inland sites as well as in the sea around Sicily and the SW coast of Sweden, finally diving in the UK sea very recently.

I look forward to helping new divers develop and enjoy the underwater world.