By Jack Morrison and by courtesy of Scottish Diver magazine.
(photos:Keith Waugh)

Fifty years ago I was a spotty faced fourteen year old who had been mad about the sea and diving since I was eight. I was delighted when a notice appeared in the local paper calling for anyone interested in joining a diving club to a meeting in the library. As it happens my cousin Ian Caldwell was already a diver and member of Glasgow Branch and he and some friends from the Clydebank area decided to start their own branch. At that first meeting the President of ScotSAC, Peter Bell, told us the history of the organisation and how quickly the sport was growing. Arthur Laverty and Frank Galloway showed slides and films all taken in Scottish waters and showing the activities at joint outings as they were then called. An interim committee was formed and Clydebank Branch was born. We had no money, no equipment but we had a pool session and endless enthusiasm. Those who had come from Glasgow branch were already trained and the rest of us were trainees, except me, I was too young, I had to wait another year till I was fifteen before they would let me start training. They did let me come out on Sunday dives and for those first two years I, and others, did snorkel cover in a pair of denims a white polo-neck jumper and a yellow woolly hat. The divers all wore two piece Dunlop dry suits that had a tube on the chest which you sucked all the air out with thus getting a seal. Not very comfortable and it led to a lot of bruises and welts especially if you dived to 100ft (30m). Training was tough as the equipment was crude and basic. Cylinders were either ex-fire service single 40cubic foot or twin tadpole’s ex-RAF with a working pressure of 1800psi. Regulators were single stage twin hose with free flooding tubes, this meant when you removed your mouthpiece the tubes filled with water and you had to hold the mouthpiece above until air bubbled out then roll it into your mouth and blow then perhaps you might get some watery air. Buddy breathing was akin to torture and many of us were physically sick having swallowed half the pool during a training session. Those were the days when it was acceptable to put your foot on top of a trainees head to help him with the part that said “hold your breath for thirty seconds underwater” PC meant police constable. Despite occasional difficulties like the treasurer making off with the funds the branch grew and by the late 1960’s we peaked at 129 members. This was a boom time for diving and our success was largely down to the enthusiasm and dedication of a handful of, well characters. Characters like Eddie Docherty; Eddie was a physical training instructor in the army and was amazingly fit. As BDO he had us all doing circuit training during the winter. He was always pushing us to improve our skills for instance one of the open water exercises we had to do was free ascent, mouthpiece out and ascend quickly breathing out all the way to the surface. Eddie encouraged us to go ten feet deeper every week until we were doing them from 100ft (30m). However his biggest asset was his inherent enthusiasm, training was hard then and Eddie always knew just what to say to make you feel better and try harder. We all had nicknames then and after two DCI hits Eddie’s was “double bubble” Then came Jimmy Duff,(right & top) Jimmy was one of those people who led by example. When he was BDO he never missed a training night or a Sunday dive. He expected everyone who took on the job to do likewise, his equipment was a disaster, never washed and held together with elastic bands and araldite, nickname “safety officer”. Tam Sneddon(above left with glasses) a true gentleman who had endless patience with trainees his legacy is the Tam Sneddon Award given to reward a member for their contribution to the branch. Alan McCormack(above left with Accordion) who went on to become NDO had his first underwater experience on D-day when he and his fellow soldiers were dropped off their landing craft a bit too far from the shore. Instead of the 1m depth they were expecting it was 4m, Alan made it ashore some did not. All of these characters had war stories but it took half a bottle of scotch before they would tell them. There were many other characters Adam Curtis who was editor of SD for many years and a very effective Chairman, Alan Hubbard, Keith Waugh, Peter Farrell, John McBeath, Bill Harris the list is almost endless but Leo Fisher (below right) stood out he had a big van, a boat and a generosity of spirit that was unforgettable. Throughout the 70’s Clydebank was the biggest diving club in Scotland with 130 members. Clydebank members formed spin off branches Glasgow West and Allander with a friendly rivalry between Allander and Clydebank. By the eighties Clydebank had settled down and under the quiet leadership of Gordon Downie we spread our wings and started going abroad to Gozo, Lanzarote, Eilat and Sharm. From the start we spent the winter months at Ardgarten where we hired the lodge with a big fire at each end it was the perfect place for training. There was an open invitation to all branches to join us and many did especially for our soup and sausage sizzles, well you can’t have a BBQ in winter. Talking of Ardgarten, another character was Ali Abubakar (above left) who read a book about artificial reefs and decided they were a good idea, so he collected some old tyres, tied them together and put them down at Ardgarten thereby creating Ali’s reef. Its first inhabitants were congers so it became known as Conger Alley although in those days it was Conger Ali. The last ten years have seen the branch membership drop just like most branches however it is climbing back and we are almost at 30 with a healthy number enjoying pool training at present. Clydebank over the last ten years has been fortunate to have several enthusiastic and selfless members. The real driving force is Michelle Morgan who keeps everyone in line and doing what they say they are going to do. We have an excellent diving officer in Brian Tierney, always smiling and endless patience. In the background our two equipment officers Joe and Gordon keep the cylinders full and the gear up to date.  There are a few promising new members, Gerry Regan and John McGregor with an insatiable appetite for diving who give us hope for a bright future. We have our own premises courtesy of West Dunbartonshire Council with a lecture room and an equipment room that houses our compressor, 6m RHIB, drysuits, cylinders, regulators everything down to a selection of snorkels. We plan a series of social events to mark our 50^th starting with a dinner as close to the anniversary as we can then later in the year a dinner dance with as many older members as we can round up. Over the years Clydebank has given ScotSAC three NDO’s a treasurer, two editors who have also been chairman and many members of General Committee and NDC. I still can’t believe it has been fifty years since I sat enthralled listening to Frank and wondering what it was really like to go underwater. I remember the thrill of my first dive hovering weightless watching fish swim over the seabed and looking up to see the surface above. It is still a thrill today, one I hope to enjoy in the company of the next generation of Clydebank Branch divers.

Gerry Regan’s Aussie Dive Trip
Over Christmas and New Year, Gerry had the good fortune to visit Western Australia. Below is his report and photos:

Western Australia can rightly be considered a divers paradise with Busselton Jetty one of the jewels in its crown. The 145 year old Victorian pier extends 1.8 km into the Indian Ocean originally to facilitate the exploitation and export of timber from South West Australia. The Jetty is now a major tourist attraction with the inevitable visitor centre, tourist train and underwater observatory.

Unfortunately on the date we were there the Jetty (under major reconstruction) had passed into receivership so access to a dive via a 2km train ride was sadly denied.

However although the Jetty was a partial building site one enterprising dive company ran a boat from the nearby Busselton Marina to provide access to the site. Expat Peter McDonald ran the Dive Shed and was skipper of the Manta Magic. The 10 min trip to the Jetty in 35 degree heat, flat calm(thank god),and applying sun cream was in stark contrast to my last boat journey to the Little Cumbrae. After partnering up we waited for the good captain and dive leader to provide a dive plan and he did not disappoint "get wet and bloody enjoy yourself".

As this was to be my first wetsuit dive for 30 years I was slightly daunted, however as soon as we hit the water the swimming poolesque vis and the abundance of fauna dispelled any fears. Although a shallow dive (max depth 10m) the serried ranks of the wooden Jetty pillars provided an incredible variety of habitats and the overwhelming  impression that you were swimming through a submerged forrest. With the sound of the cellos playing that two note refrain receding, we were able to settle down and enjoy the myriad of life forms too numerous to annotate. Several species do stand out, the large number of inquisitive Puffer fish, shoals of Zebra fish, the baitball of juvenile squid, and the ghostly forms of the Rays swimming beneath you.

After what seemed like 5mins we retraced our way back along  the Jetty and found the boat. Once on board a bit of music, sunbathing, and a few beers just like the sunny Clyde.

AS TIME GOES BY
by Alan Hubbard

"Spawned" is possibly a less than appropriate word for a salt water based club, but from the old Clydebank Pool and its training arose, at the time,  130 active members (note ye of little faith) and later the branches of Allander and Drumchapel., quite an achievement!

Like so many other pastimes, diving in Clydebank and elsewhere moved with equipment development –or some may say:-“lagged “.Ha, the ‘Twin Hose’, beautifully illustrated in the reading matter and manuals through to the nineteen seventies:- ‘spaceman style’, a tube each side of the mouthpiece. Older members will recall the technique of lying on one side and squeezing the exhaust tube to clear valve flooding. For the less fastidious, ‘DRINKING  DOWN ‘ the residual water could be tried.; good for stomach upsets, even if the pool filtration was working or open waters declared unpolluted. Stick to alcohol, which one New Year we did, passing round a bottle of Whisky underwater at ‘Allies Reef’- slightly  diluted on the final ‘dram’.

The ‘Single Hose’, so much easier to use, was at first rather reluctantly adopted especially when a crab was observed at Tarbert clinging determinedly to an air hose to the detriment of the user. But what are ‘Buddies For’, he survived? Club training practices for a number of years sustained the use of the ‘twin hose’. Sharing with the ‘TWIN’, became almost an act of conceit; but also a great confidence builder for open water, except for the’ sensitive stomach brigade’. Apart from ‘rebreather’ and other ‘full face mask’ procedures, most development for the leisure diver has followed single hose practice, but what next?

How brave we all were in our ‘wet suits, often fitting where they touched, and How Cold! Many were made in expanded neoprene from standard patterns by members before the commercial suits became affordable. The Forestry Hut at Arrochar had an uncertain air of romance with non diving wives and girl friends stoking up the log fire, for the ‘steaming strip off’.

The ‘Dry Suit’ began to appear and apart from some surplus Royal Navy suits –quickly snapped up-there was a far from general switch over –expense  again.  But climate triumphed and complete with ‘woolly bear’ and additions such as walking socks and even ladies panty hose warmth came into its own, with yet another adjustment to the ‘Training Schedule. for Buoyancy Control

At this period the ‘Horse Collar’ buoyancy aid was in general use as the final floatation resource or ’bale out’. Good dry suit practice was deemed to be:- “ use the dry suit’s own air expansion or ‘dumping’ on rising” and keep the HC’s buoyancy for emergency. We could have added ‘And Avoid Possible Strangulation! Thankfully the.

‘Stab Jacket’ (nothing to do with street crime) removed that fear!

Inevitably the computer age has come in on us. Those of us accustomed to reading the Naval Decompression tables (or not, as visibility failed), the emergence of the ‘wrist computer’ caused a predictable risk controversy. The writer having used Naval Tables for 26 years only surrendered to the computer in 1995 on a trip to the Red Sea., and even then with an eye on the original tables. So let development be your guide but SAFETY FIRST!

                                                            A.W.H.