| What prompted you to write your book "DIVER"? | | | | lungs were already empty. Air hunger, or the urge to |
| I got a call in early 2007, it was the BBC. They said, | | | | breathe, is undoubtedly one of the strongest human |
| "We understand you kept diaries from when you | | | | reactions we have and you 'will' take extraordinary |
| were in the Falklands conflict but have not read them | | | | actions to encourage breathing again. Helped by a |
| yet?" I said yes I did, and I haven't read them, but | | | | large portion of adrenalin, induced by the probability |
| how do you know? They gave me the old, we don't | | | | of dying, I hit the surface going full tilt and removed |
| divulge our sources etc. | | | | my mask in one swift movement. In fact, the mask |
| Then they said, " We would like to come and film | | | | may even have been off before I broke surface. |
| you reading them for the first time and put it on | | | | Anyway it was in a thoroughly unprofessional manner. |
| TV." I really had never read them, in fact all I knew | | | | I was travelling so fast I reckon I came out of the |
| was they were in the loft somewhere. I thought | | | | water up to my waist. That first intake of breath, |
| about it for a while and discussed it with my wife | | | | that sweet taste of air and water was the deepest I |
| and decided I would do it. | | | | have taken so far in my 48 years. Gasp doesn't do it |
| They came and we did it and it went on BBC | | | | justice and I don't think you can write down the |
| Breakfast. | | | | noise I made. It was probably along the lines of the |
| When they left, the producer and cameraman said | | | | mating call of a randy caribou. The thing is, I hadn't |
| what a brilliant story it was, and I should really write | | | | counted on gravity taking a hold of me now I was |
| it all down, you know, fill in the gaps. Well I hadn't | | | | briefly out of the water again, but it did, and as I |
| ever thought about it. But I started that night and it | | | | came down from my breach, I went under again. |
| just flowed out of me. Day and night for about 10 | | | | This was becoming intolerable. |
| months, I wrote and re-wrote about my diving life. | | | | The divers on the quay saw this thing shooting out |
| About the intensive training the Navy required to | | | | of the water then disappear again, and without |
| become a 'Sneaky Beaky' attack swimmer. Getting | | | | pause for thought, three of them began pulling me in, |
| trained in re-breathers that give out no bubbles, | | | | hand-over-hand as fast as they could. |
| enabling you to sabotage ships, or work on mines | | | | The line I was attached to was tied in a bowline on |
| unseen and undetected. | | | | my shoulder, and with my weight-belt and bottles on |
| Have any writers influenced your writing? | | | | I took off at breakneck speed towards the jetty. |
| I do read a lot but I wouldn't say anyone influenced | | | | My speed was so great in fact that a bow wave |
| me. I didn't really plan it. I just happened and I found | | | | formed around my head and I found myself under |
| I could do it, I could tell a story. | | | | water and unable to breathe again. Only this time I |
| Do you dive recreationally, and if so which is your | | | | was at a loss as to what to do to remedy the |
| favourite dive site? | | | | situation. As I began to pass out I just hoped I |
| I have never done a recreational dive. Well that is not | | | | would soon be at the jetty. In fact I later found out |
| exactly true. I did drag my son around the swimming | | | | that it was my swift and un-cushioned arrival back at |
| pool in Thailand a few years back. That is it. But | | | | the concrete jetty that might well have knocked me |
| there is a reason for it, and that is, I've done too | | | | out. |
| much already. | | | | I came to lying in the recovery position and vomiting |
| In preparation for writing the book I broke out all of | | | | over some big boots. The chief diver was obviously |
| my diving logbooks, knowing full well I might depress | | | | worried about me and showed his concern by yelling |
| myself. I started adding up my hours in a saturation | | | | into my face, |
| chamber. Over a fifteen-year sat diving career, I did | | | | 'You've not equalised once yet! Why didn't you |
| around 900 days, or two and a half years, in | | | | equalise?' |
| chambers around the world. You can get less than | | | | 'I did clear my ears, chief.' |
| that for armed robbery. | | | | 'Not your ears, you muppet, your bottles, same as |
| That is 21,600 hours in a chamber you cannot walk | | | | we did in the classroom this morning.' |
| more that two or three paces in, with usually seven | | | | 'I wasn't ... HEEEAVE ... here this morning.' As the |
| other men who would, on occasion, smell and sound | | | | second helping of dockyard water and leaves and oil |
| like feeding time at the monkey sanctuary. Take | | | | came up and out of me all over the chief's boots, I |
| away say 100 days for decompression and bad | | | | could see the dawning of realisation move over his |
| weather. That leaves us with 19,200 hours or 800 | | | | face. 'This was my fault.' |
| working days. | | | | To give him credit, though, his attitude immediately |
| Say an average diving day of six hours, and that | | | | changed from one of anger to apologetic concern. I |
| gives us 4,800 hours or 200 full 24-hour days actually | | | | was wrapped in a blanket and given hot tea and |
| in the water. | | | | whisked off to sick bay, where I spent a day on |
| Six and a half months either blowing bubbles or in the | | | | bend watch, to see if anything developed, and three |
| bell. Six and a half months wet. | | | | days in hospital, throwing up dockyard flotsam and |
| Now I'm by no means the most prolific diver; there | | | | jetsam, and very nearly got back-classed from my |
| are guys out there that either can't get enough | | | | basic training unit to boot. If that happened, I would |
| diving, or money, and they would blow my hours out | | | | have to drop back two weeks and start again with a |
| of the water. None of those hours, days, weeks and | | | | completely new intake. I went back the next week |
| months even include the thousands of air and | | | | though and tried again, and every week for the next |
| mixed-gas dives I've done. Not that I wish I had | | | | ten weeks. Why? Because I was going to pass, is |
| done more. Not at all, that is quite enough for me. In | | | | the only answer I can give. |
| all that time, have I ever found a gold coin or a virgin | | | | Are you planning another book? |
| wreck? | | | | The new one is very nearly finished. Well, say |
| I've found a fridge in the middle of the Irish Sea that | | | | another 10,000 words. I'm on 111,000 as we speak. It |
| I was told, whilst donning my gear, was 'definitely, | | | | is a novel. I thought it was about time we had a Brit |
| 100% absolutely certainly a mine'. I've found Spitfire | | | | diving hero. Dirk Pitt has had it all his own way to too |
| engines in Greece, a Jeep in the middle of the South | | | | long. So, It's about an Ex Royal Navy Mine Clearance |
| Pacific, and fishermen and pilots still inside their craft, | | | | Diver, (Shock horror). |
| but I've not really found what I was looking for as a | | | | What are you doing now? |
| child. That bit of mystery is still there, maybe | | | | I still do some North Sea stuff, when I can't possibly |
| because I don't know what it looks like. I know I'm in | | | | avoid it. But I am obsessed with getting this new |
| the wrong industry. You are, after all, unlikely to find | | | | book finished. I am trying to get a literary agent at |
| anything mysterious in the oil industry or hunting for | | | | the moment. In fact I'm waiting to hear, 'Yae or Nae' |
| mines. | | | | at this very moment. If he says Yea, I will be trying |
| What was your worst diving experience? | | | | to write for a living. I have done a few talks to clubs |
| I've had a few 'worst dives.' This was my first ever | | | | and after dinner stuff, mainly about diving. My biggest |
| diving experience with the Royal Navy (which is in | | | | was to the BSAC annual conference. There were |
| the book). | | | | about 500 there. |
| I missed the morning class about how the air set | | | | About Tony Groom |
| worked and what to do in the event of running out | | | | Born in Hillingdon, Middlesex (UK) in 1959, Tony Groom |
| of air. Whilst getting a quick brief before entering the | | | | discovered his fascination with the sea whilst at |
| water I caught something about 'equalising'. I thought | | | | Monk's Park comprehensive school in Bristol. Started |
| he meant my ears. Alas, he wasn't concerned with | | | | with Sea Scouts, then sea cadets and finally |
| my ears at all. In the Navy if you are wearing an air | | | | requested to go to T.S indefatigable, a nautical |
| set you don't have a gauge on it. You start your dive | | | | boarding school in North Wales. In 1975 joined the |
| with only one bottle open and breathe normally until it | | | | Royal Navy to become a Clearance Diver (CD). (Many |
| goes tight and starts to run out. If you then open | | | | hundreds joined to become a diver in Portsmouth, |
| your other full bottle, the air between the two | | | | roughly only 1% make it through.) Qualified as a mine |
| 'equalises' - you can hear it very well under water as | | | | clearance diver in 1976. |
| a tinny hissing sound. The sound will diminish, and then | | | | "In 1976, I joined the Clyde submarine base clearance |
| you close the valve. Now you have two half-full | | | | diving team. Some parts of the team dived almost |
| bottles. You breathe down the one bottle again and | | | | every day. We dived on nuclear submarines, changed |
| do the same when it gets tight. Now you have | | | | their propellers, you name it, I spent a lot of time |
| 'equalised twice'; you have about a quarter of your | | | | wet! We would spend weeks touring the west coast |
| original air left and you come up. Simple! | | | | of Scotland, picking up, and blowing up, mines, bombs |
| Simple if you know this, anyway. I missed all that | | | | and all sorts of ordinance. The team also had an IED |
| because I was unable or unwilling to control the | | | | (improvised explosive device) commitment. By that I |
| weather, and was late. The opening of the valve | | | | mean, letter bombs parcel bombs, suspicious |
| action was never relayed to me. | | | | packages and cars. Mostly to do with the IRA." |
| I guess I was about 100 foot out on the end of my | | | | "In 1977. I had my first draft to the Fleet Clearance |
| life line when my air started to go tight. No, it can't | | | | Diving Team in Portsmouth. The team had to |
| be, the chief diver said it should last about an hour. | | | | maintain a 75 m deep diving capability, and be ready |
| An hour hasn't gone by already, has it, and anyway | | | | to depart to anywhere in the world within 24 hours. |
| they would call me up (four pulls), wouldn't they? At | | | | We would frequently get short notice trips around |
| this point my short life flashed before me. | | | | the world, either as part of NATO, or helping our |
| I am allergic to not breathing, so I did what all | | | | warships wherever they may be. Took part in some |
| rational, normal-thinking people would do in this | | | | very odd jobs including, collecting money out of the |
| situation. I panicked. | | | | River Hamble after a bank robbery had gone wrong, |
| I grappled around for my life line and finned and | | | | various recoveries of bodies, diving on wrecks, |
| pulled myself to the surface as quickly as I could. You | | | | recovering crashed fighter jets and helicopters etc." |
| are of course meant to breathe out on a controlled | | | | Involved in the Falklands invasion (1982). Left the |
| slow ascent or you may give yourself a bend or | | | | navy in 1985 and became a commericial diver until |
| burst a lung. But I had nothing to breathe out, my | | | | 2004. Is now concentrating on writing. |