From Branch volunteers to Council members, we go behind the scenes to bring you the people who make the BSAC…

This month: SCUBA’s new editor and BSAC diver Simon Rogerson

• Lives: Wokingham, Berkshire
• Occupation: Editor of SCUBA
• BSAC membership: BSAC Direct
• Current diver grade: Dive Leader

What does BSAC diving mean to you? For me, the defining factors are the comprehensive training and the self-help ethos of the club system. I see BSAC as an organisation that enables thousands of people to discover and safely enjoy diving around the UK and all over the world.

When did you start diving and why? I was travelling around Asia as a 21-year-old and spent all my time snorkelling. I had been raised on TV nature documentaries and I always thought the underwater stuff was the most fascinating. I didn’t know you could just go out and see all this stuff and I got sunburned because I was so engrossed I was out there floating around for hours. So someone suggested I do a scuba course, if only to get me out of the sun. When I returned to the UK I wanted to continue diving so I did a BSAC crossover and my first UK dives were in Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula, then good old Stoney Cove.

Can you remember your very first dive? My memories of this are fuzzy, because the actual experience was fuzzy. I am extremely short sighted and didn’t get a mask with corrective lenses until I was about 70 dives into my career. So when I made my first training dive in a pool, I could barely see the instructor prompting me to do the basic exercises. He was asking me to clear my mask and I was just kneeling there in my own little myopic world, looking at my bubbles and thinking ‘cool!’. Eventually we established that he had to come a bit closer and I had to pay more attention.

When did you dive last (and where)? I did a shore dive at Lamorna Cove in Cornwall with some old friends a couple of weeks ago, and had a ball. I hadn’t been in the water for a bit so needed to get wet for the sake of my sanity as much as anything. If I don’t go diving I can get a bit twitchy so it was a much-needed dip.

What is your all-time favourite UK dive? Probably E49, the submarine wreck off Unst right at the top of Shetland. It’s a British war grave, so you’ve really got to dive it with respect. The sub is gradually sinking into this grainy white sand in a really remote location. I went there on MV Halton, a great liveaboard based in Orkney and skippered by my friend Bob Anderson. The conning tower has collapsed but its main features are still in place – you can see so much swimming around this wreck, helped by the fact that 20m visibility is the norm. This wreck is going to be in the first edition of SCUBA – the feature is not by me, but by a leading photojournalist who visited Shetland this year. I can’t wait to share it with the members.

What is so special about UK diving? Just as every wreck is different, so our reefs change according to their location and the local environmental factors and tides. In terms of life, we have everything from seahorses to basking sharks; the seasonal nature of our seas means we could dive the same site for the rest of our lives and it would be different pretty much every day.

Who, out of all the people you met when you first started, was your ‘diving hero’? Doug Allan, the BBC’s underwater cameraman and polar specialist. As a diver, he is as tough as they come. He can ignore cold, and he is as dedicated as they come. I admired his single-mindedness, and his ability to communicate his love of marine life through his work. As much as I like the TV presenters involved in diving or marine programmes, I think the people behind the cameras are the real heroes. They are the ones who bring our world to those who aren’t lucky enough to be divers.

You are the editor of BSAC’s soon-to-be launched new member magazine SCUBA, what does this role mean to you? In the first instance, a lot of work and a to-do list as long as a Pink Floyd guitar solo! I’m not complaining – it’s a privilege. I have to come up with a magazine that inspires, entertains and informs 35,000 very different people, from the 12-year-old Ocean Diver student who just wrote the first reader letter (thank you!) to the guys who live for their 60-metre mid-Channel wreck dives. BSAC is a very broad church, and I think the magazine has to reflect that diversity. As for me, all I want to do is help divers share their stories. Fundamentally, that’s the job.

What can BSAC members expect from SCUBA and why will it be different? It’s obviously going to have a very overt British content, and it will be more club focussed than any magazine that has been around for a long time. There are going to be a lot more ways for members to contribute to the publication if they want to, and more how-to information on skills and diver progression. I want it to be very much a people’s diving magazine, so it’s important to have sections that document and celebrate what the members are getting up to. There will be a feature every month on adventurous, problem-solving club diving, in addition to big features on UK destinations and in-depth articles on wrecks. At the same time, I want the magazine to challenge the readers, so we will run profiles and essays by people outside the BSAC mainstream, to bring in fresh perspectives. The first of these will be an essay by a field diving officer based in the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera base. We’ve got some great monthly columnists lined up, including the marvellous Nick Lyon, who will be offering his views on British diving and club life. Were going to be calling his column ‘Scuba Bloke’ because it is written very much from an everyman’s perspective. But is does beg the question – why don’t we have a Scuba Woman? So the search is on. We’re looking for a woman who is an active BSAC diver and who can write like a demon. We’re looking for a witty, entertaining writer who can talk about diving, the universe and everything. If you know someone or think you could do it, please drop me an email. (simon@scubamagazine.co.uk)  

What are you looking forward to most about working on SCUBA? Sharing divers’ stories. Giving the members something that reflects their lives and helps them enjoy their diving. It’s as simple as that.

What was the last piece of kit you bought? An Aquatica housing for the latest amazing Nikon DSLR, the D7000, from Cameras Underwater. It’s a natty housing, and its first outings have proven successful. After you’ve been diving for a while you tend to develop a special interest, and I gravitated towards photography. As a diving journalist, it’s definitely handy to be able to take decent underwater photographs. And a few indecent ones.

Do you have a diving ambition yet to be fulfilled?  Yes! I’d like to see an orca in UK waters. Next to a wreck, preferably, and in good viz. It could happen!

Three words to describe what diving means to you: Sets…me…free.