TDI

The ‘Polly-Gaff’ Gas Analyser

Technology has enjoyed considerable advances since the Polly-Gaff’ Gas Analyser was first announced – almost thirty years ago, in the May 1997 pages of Scuba Diver Magazine —————– The inherent problem with gas analysers is their frailty.  While primary diving… Read More ›

Old Bottles

For more than two hundred years, Sydney Harbour has been a focal point of Australian life.  For immigrants fleeing countries either torn apart by war, or facing economic collapse, arrival in Sydney Harbour marked the beginning of a new life. … Read More ›

‘Margaret’ and Me

In the early ‘seventies the heavy demand for divers to work on the North Sea gas and oil platforms exceeded supply.  Wages were high.  So was the diver mortality rate. Confronted by a harsh environment and difficulties not previously encountered… Read More ›

Vale John Whitehead

Death seems intent on proving itself to me to be life’s last ‘Great Adventure’. On the weekend of October 4th & 5th 2025, yet another of my closest – and longest lasting – friends died.  John Whitehead was a man… Read More ›

Selling Diving

Tarnished by an image that’s become associated with the high-pressure techniques of a used-car sales-person or the indifference of a poorly trained ‘phone-blower’, selling is often considered to be nothing more than a stop-gap vocation for people who happen to… Read More ›

The North Sea Bus

In the early ‘Seventies, the work-horse helicopter of choice for North Sea operations was the Westland Wessex – usually flown by former Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilots – with the pilot sitting higher than the cabin. Obliged to always… Read More ›