[Phil O]

Since I started diving I have been flitting in and out of my local PADI dive club - Divercity in Milton Keynes. I'm not sure if it is a typical PADI dive club but at least the membership is free. We meet monthly for a beer, have a few trips around the UK and generally plod along. Just recently though we have started to arrange presentations by divers on their specialist subjects and although we have only had 2 they are going down a storm.

Last week we had a great presentation and I must admit that when I asked the speaker to come along it was with some trepidation as I wasn't sure how well it would be received. The speaker was Clare Gledhill and the topic was Cave Diving. Now I know that Clare is nuts about her diving but I didn't realise just how much. She spoke with eloquence and passion about her cave diving experiences and captivated the audience for over an hour talking about the different caves she has dived. Everybody I have spoken to since has told me how much they enjoyed the evening .....especially watching the 3 volunteers following line tied around the room. I doubt if the evening will suddenly create a rush towards Cave Diving from Milton Keynes divers but it certainly made a few people sit up and think about a different sort of diving and to understand a bit more about GUE. For me though, it has re-ignited a desire to cave dive so will start talking nicely to my wife.

We charge a small amount to come to these presentations so that we can hire a room (if I can't get a freebie from the hotel my wife works at) and cover the travel expenses of the speaker with the balance going to charity. £52 was donated to the DDRC in Plymouth as a result of last weeks talk.

Our next challenge though is to find more speakers for future presentations which is where YD comes in. Does anybody know of people willing to come along to talk about there diving experiences??