There is something about water that makes it attractive, especially to a small boy: damming streams, catching things, swimming, diving, boating....
Water play
Up to the age of four, I lived in a cottage near a forest. I painted my wooden toys with water, took "horsey" (a wooden horse on wheels) swimming in a nearby duckpond,....
Then we moved to Western Avenue in Newport - where a small stream emerged from a culvert nearby. This could be dammed, stones could be upturned, water snails dislodged.....
I do remember finding tadpoles on my way back from school on a bomb site in what must have been a cellar - this bomb site was where my grandparents, among others, had lived and been forced to leave by the damage.
There was a disused canal branch in water not too far away - but that was reserved for accompanied walks. The only boat trip I remember was a Campbell's Paddle steamer day trip from Newport to Bristol.
When seven years old, we moved to Whitchurch, a suburb of Cardiff. Again there was a stream - Whitchurch brook - where minnows and bullheads could be trapped with a net. There was again a disused canal branch in water - and I remember catching newts to put in a big old bath.
My grandparents (mother's side) lived near Roath Park Lake. This had big attractions: motor boat trips, rowing boat hire, model yacht sailing, fishing with a net. There were at one time small boxy hand operated paddle boats that could be hired for a period in a restricted shallow area.
I learnt to row on that lake. I also learnt a little bit about sailing - the lake was so big that a model yacht had to be sailed with string attached which impaired performance a bit.
The nearest river was the Taff - but in those days it was black with coal dust and nobody went near it.
Swimming
I was taught to swim by my mother - in the sea on our summer holiday on the South Coast. I remember lying face down on a stool practising breast stroke leg movements.
The nearest swimming baths were a very Victorian complex in Guilford Crescent in Cardiff (built 1886). As I recall they had a smallish men's pool, a larger mixed pool and a women's pool. The changing rooms were arrayed around the pool - and the whole place smelled of rotten wood. I was always trying to swim across the pool under water or similar, rather than just doing lengths. In 1958 (two years before I left Cardiff) the much superior Empire Pool opened.
In those days open air swimming was still popular. Cold Knap (part of Barry) had a huge sea-water open air pool which I enjoyed. I recall that my interest in underwater swimming led me to buy a snorkel, mask and fin set from Woolworths. I tried it out in the sea at Cold Knap - and banged my head on the seabed without seeing anything. The water is very silty there. The snorkel had a rather thin diameter tube which I found restrictive - and this put me off using a snorkel for many years.
I could swim quite far using breast-stroke and I remember swimming out to the holiday island of Sveti Stefan with Tanya Fabergé (CERN Theory Division secretary) among others.
Boating
Cardiff was a seaport, ships in the Bristol Channel could be seen from Penarth, Barry and Porthcawl, we went on trips by paddle steamer (to Ilfracombe on holiday and day trips to Weston-super-Mare and Bristol). Later I crossed the Irish Sea and the English Channel on Passenger Ferries also. I explored Cardiff Docks on my bike and Penarth and Barry Docks by taking a train there. I remember being shown big liners alongside (at Southampton and at Le Harvre).
I remember being taken to near Porthcawl to see the wreck of the Samtampa, which had been driven ashore in 1947 with big loss of life.
My uncle was a ship's captain (Tankers) and when I stayed overnight in my grandparents' house, I stayed in his room with memorabilia of training (Conway, etc) on the wall.
Apart from rowing boats (on Roath Park lake and the boating pool in Cold Knap) and sit-on kayaks on the Normandy beach at Etretat on holiday (périssoire), as a boy I had no experience of boating myself (other than with a model yacht) and never imagined that I would own a boat. I do remember designing a "camping boat" - based on a rowing boat with room to lie down - just a paper and pencil exercise...
As a student at Oxford, I was an enthusiastic punter. The college had an arrangement whereby punts could be hired for several hours and, with friends, we explored most of the waterways accessible by punt. Punting is quite skillful - it is only worth pushing if you are aligned properly and you can use the pole as a rudder to help...
I learnt to sail while at Geneva - thanks mainly to the CERN sailing club, Alan Irving and Penny Estabrooks. I also had some lessons with the Club Med on holiday at that time.
Moving to West Kirby in 1974, sailing was very much the appropriate activity. As well as crewing for Alan on his Fireball, I bought a second hand Mirror dinghy and joined WKSC to race on the marine lake with my son Nick as crew. I also used it off Anglesey and in the lake district.
An extended visit to Madison Wisconsin in 1979 allowed me to join their sailing club (Hoofers) and race on the lake. I entered a high level 470 race with my ultra-light crew (son Nick)- we were unexpectedly in the lead after the first day with light wind. Unfortunately for us, the wind was too strong for us the next day so we had to retire.
Mirror dinghy, Madison racing, Curlew.
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I was fascinated by wind surfing and hired a wind surfer on the marine lake to teach myself. In gentle wind, I got the idea quite easily and was able to rent windsurfers on holiday in Greece and on visits to the USA thereafter.
My power boating experience comes mainly from diving. The Liverpool Sub Aqua Club (LUSAC) had inflatable boats with outboard engines available. Mainly round Anglesey, but also on Easter trips to Cornwall, I built up my experience until I was confident coxing. I have always had an interest in maps, so I took readily to navigation with sea charts. This was the start of my fascination with wreck detecting.
Around 1987, I had lent the diving club some money to allow the purchase of a new boat. This led me to realise that I could afford to buy a boat myself. I was finding inflatable boats rather uncomfortable for longer trips and had been chartering larger boats (wooden trawlers) to reach the wrecks in Liverpool Bay. I decided to buy a small motor boat with enclosed cabin from which 4 people could dive. As Decca navigation was now affordable, it would be possible to locate wrecks offshore. CURLEW was a newish 23 ft Duver with a BMW petrol engine and outdrive leg. From 1989, I kept her at Liverpool Marina, being one of the first to make use of the marina.
CURLEW had an outdrive leg (which was unreliable at times) and petrol engine - both disadvantages. I decided to sell CURLEW (to another berth-holder at Liverpool) and buy a shaft-drive diesel boat. I looked at the French pêche-promemade boats but they were quite expensive for what you get. On a trip to Appledore (in Devon) to look at a Newhaven Sea-Warrior, I visited the area where boats were dried out over winter. A Mitchell 31 (Mark II) was being worked on and I commented to the owner that it looked good. He told me it was for sale - and at a price similar to the much smaller French boats. After inspecting a similar boat at Brightlingsea, I made an offer for MARLIN (named after the owner's daughters MARy and LINda) which was accepted. I took possession in 1999 and brought her up to Liverpool by sea. See more details
Diving
After a failed attempt to inspect the seabed at Cold Knap in South Wales, it was not until I was on holiday on the Mediterranean coast that I had a chance to use a face mask to see the life under the sea.
With two young children and a peripatetic life style, it was only when I was settled in Geneva that I had the time and money to think about diving with air supply. The CERN diving club (Club Nautique) held an open day at the Divonne pool (5metres deep) and I went along with Dennis Wray. We had a try-dive and a chat. This was promising and I decided to join up.
I bought a wet suit from a dealer who lived in an apartment near mine in Meyrin. With other gear from the Geneva dive shop, I was ready for the open water. Training dives were usually in Lake Geneva at Hermance. Here the bottom sloped down at a fairly steep rate to 60m plus. The bottom was silty and there could be a pronounced thermocline - meeting the 4 degree water at depth was challenging. I passed the certificate for Brevet Premier Echelon in 1971.
Hermance was quite a drive from where we lived and I found that the water depth in nearby Creux de Genthod was suitable. With another beginner, Lennart, a Swede working at CERN, and our wives, we hired a rowing boat there. With our wives rowing and two kitted-up divers at the stern we set off. Simultaneously we both rolled back into the lake, leaving our wives to follow our bubbles from the surface. This was my first boat dive.
As well as Lake Geneva and some mountain lakes, I went on trips to the Mediterranean (French Riviera, Spain). The French divers loved finding something to eat... One trip I remember was with just 4 divers (one French, one German, one Swiss and me) to the Association des Amis des Iles at Cap Croisette near Marseille. I recall that the hosts were perplexed that 4 divers were all of different nationality. Diving with the CERN club did a lot to help my command of French.
After moving to Liverpool in 1974, I joined Liverpool University sub aqua club. We dived mainly wrecks around Anglesey at weekends with an annual trip to near Land's End every Easter.
For the next 36 years, I dived in many parts of the world, latterly specialising in the wrecks accessible by boat from Liverpool. More details. List of sites dived .
Octopush
Underwater hockey was played by diving clubs as a keep-fit exercise in winter months. Liverpool University sub-aqua club was an early adopter, and I first played in 1975, soon after moving to Liverpool. With time, my skill improved and I was a regular member of the team (six people plus some substitutes). In the early years, a national ladder was set up - and, briefly, LUSAC was third in the UK.
On extended visits to the USA, I played at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) and in Seattle.
I retired from inter-club competition around 1990 and I retired from weekly friendlies around 2007 when my elbow and knuckles were taking too much time to recover....
Skiing
I first tried skiing in Southern Wisconsin in 1969. This is a fairly flat landscape - with a few ridges which could accommodate a small ski area. Tyrol Basin and Cascade Mountain, as I remember. It was fiercely cold and there was not much snow - more ice. Rope tows were in use - just grab a moving rope and try not to fall onto it...
When I moved to Geneva in late 1969, skiing was very much more attractive. I joined the CERN ski classes (Saturday mornings at La Faucille) and visited other local ski areas. I had a dreadful style: someone said I skied as if trying to read some small print on the tips of my skis. But I could go, more or less, anywhere -- which was great. I bought some skis second hand - in those days skis were long: mine were 200cm. Great for going straight, less easy to turn sharply.
From CERN, the Vallée Blanche was the most exciting and beautiful run, going from the Aiguille du Midi down to Chamonix: 2700 metres vertical height difference. In April 1970, there was enough snow to ski right down to Chamonix (rather than take the train from Montenvers) so I was able (with Chris Schmid) to do it twice in the same day.
We had family ski holidays in Champéry, Crans and Méribel while we lived in Geneva.
As the children got older, they enjoyed skiing a lot. We often went to a small ski area in the Jura (Les Jouvencelles) which had a selection of drag tows. Nick and David were light in weight - and sometimes were lifted off the ground by the tow. I came up after them and tried to pull down the wire to help. If they got spun off, we all got off and skied down to try again.