It is always a real honour to be asked to back to speak at the University you attended (ahem.. more than 20 years ago!!). So we were delighted to be invited for the second year running to do a talk about scuba diving and underwater photography at the University of Manchester. Our remit was to inspire a new generation of divers – so no pressure!
Welcome to the World of Diving
The Manchester University Sub Aqua Club (MUSAC) promoted the talk at Fresher’s Week so that new arrivals to the university could come and hear about the underwater world, why we love diving and why they should get involved. We were asked to talk about UK diving, as well as our overseas adventures, so that we could show just what amazing diving there is here in the UK, as whilst the talk was aimed at getting new divers to learn, it was also about getting existing divers to join their university club and dive here in the UK too. The talk included images from Capernwray, where MUSAC do their training, as well as all around the UK coastline, including seals, sharks and critters that we have encountered.
Alas. Nick was called away to Cuba at short notice, and so this year Caroline was on her own. As last year we had under-estimated the number of attendees and were left with people sitting on the floor and peering in from the corridor, this year MUSAC booked a larger room, which soon started to fill up. MUSAC offered free wine, served in compostable glasses, to help tempt in those that were unsure!
I talked about my life in diving, as an instructor and underwater photographer, my love of marine life (especially seals and sharks) and told tales of mine and Nick’s scuba diving exploits from around the world. I also brought in one of Frogfish Photography’s underwater cameras for everyone to have a look at at the end of the talk.
Virginia, one of organisers of the event said “Caroline’s talk entitled ‘Welcome to the World of Diving’ was the perfect mixture of inspiration, adventure and humour. Delivered at The University of Manchester to the next generation of young divers, Caroline spoke of her career as a globe-trotting photojournalist. Even though the fire alarm went off on the closing slide, we were inundated with students wanting to know the next steps in how they too can experience the underwater world. Thank you once more for sharing your incredible stories Caroline! Our work is now cut out training all the attendees!”
Just as the last slide was projected and the final question had been asked, the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the building. I was chuffed to see that most of the audience stayed and returned to the lecture theatre to sign up to learn to dive with, or to join, MUSAC. It was a real pleasure to see a new young generation of divers keen to get started on their own underwater adventure.
For more information about MUSAC click here.
For more information about Frogfish Photography click here.
