Photographs by Monty Halls
The power of the idea, that dawning realisation that you’re onto a cracker, and somehow, some way, somewhere, you absolutely need to make it happen. It’s a moment that, over the years, I’ve come to thoroughly savour. It’s a rare beast, or certainly should be, as the real belters don’t come along terribly often.
It applies to all areas of life, of course, not just diving, but what we do still has that slight whiff of the pioneering spirit about it. And so a diving idea really lights the blue touch paper, and gets us all scribbling away making plans and hatching plots. I’ll take you back in time if I may, to illustrate the point.
Twenty years ago, having left the Royal Marines and finding myself at something of a feckless, slightly rudderless stage of life, I was in a bit of a quandary about what to do next. And then, over a coffee (it’s always over a coffee by the way, that’s one of the rules of great ideas), I had a thought. How about a round-the-world diving project, covering the very best sites on the planet. I could write each destination up for the press, so each host dive centre got loads of PR. And as such they’d not charge full whack, which in turn meant that I could take a team along who would pay much less than normal for the adventure of a lifetime. And just like that, the first Full Circle Expedition was born, before the froth of that particular cappuccino had even cooled. With a team of 14 divers we did Belize, the Bahamas, Galapagos, Yap, Palau, New Zealand, the Great Barrier Reef, and South Africa. Not a bad old result from a random visit to Starbucks (other coffee chains are available).
I still remember it, that moment of inspiration and the accompanying surge of adrenaline that coursed through my body. A project of epic scale, of scope, of ambition, and something to lock onto over the next few months, a gimlet focus of creativity and effort. We ended up doing four of these projects in the end, with Channel 5 filming the last two, but nothing can match the memory of that moment of realisation, and the subsequent hurried exit from the coffee shop to crack on with the planning.
This time of year is fertile ground for these eureka moments. Dive kit sits idle, thumbs are twiddled, windows peered out of, and outboards are repeatedly tampered with. But such moments are when inspiration incubates, all it takes is caffeine and (in extremis) cake. What’s the latest one for me? Well, the current writing project is all about the raising of the commandos on the west coast of Scotland. In a wild and starkly beautiful place called Inverailort, where the sea braids itself into the land in a series of lochs and inlets, a new type of warrior was forged in 1940, one who could launch from the sea in the dead of night to wreak havoc in occupied Europe.
It’s some story, but it seems that no-one has done a decent dive survey of the shallow seas where they learned the dark arts of their new trade. Who knows what lies beneath – certainly on the land there are discarded pieces of equipment, empty shell cases, and momentos of when a continent was ablaze, and Britain remained an isolated outpost of freedom. But underwater? With a metal detector, a bit of knowledge of where to look, and a good team – who can say? Well, we can. So let’s get stuck in and see.
All I need for this one is a decent name. Operation Celtic Dagger? Churchill’s Locker? Commando Reef? Not quite there with that just yet, needs to be something suitably theatrical and grand – I’ll just order another coffee.
Good luck with your own moment of inspiration. The underwater world awaits.
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver Magazine
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