My First Time – Mark Evans

All of us remember our very first dive experience, whether it was in a pool in the topics in a pair of speedos or in the North Sea in a borrowed suit 3 sizes too big. We caught up with some of our industry friends and team divers to discover more about their first dive experiences, their first kit, and why they value the kit they dive now!

What did you first learn to dive in?

Bearing in mind we are going back about 37 years….!I was in a 7 or 8mm wetsuit – long John sale with the old beaver-tail, and I think I had about 27kg of lead on, just so I could get down! I was in a plastic harness with a Fensi ABLJ with no direct feed – oral inflate only – its stuff that you would find in a museum now!

How was your first drysuit experience?

This was proper old-school drysuit – 7mm non-compressed neoprene, when you are stuck in the shape of the suit! It was interesting because I was dry, but the amount of weight needed to compensate was ridiculous! It shows how far things have come on from then!

At what point in your diving journey did you identify yourself as a “Diver”?

I probably hadn’t been diving that long before I considered myself a diver – I was probably about 15 and in my head I was “Yeah I’m a diver now” because I had my kit and I was diving, and since then, it’s been the thing that defines me as I’ve not been diving for fourth fifths of my life.

What’s your favourite piece of dive kit now?

My force fins. They are a marmite fin – people either love them or hate them, but I’ve really got used to the feel of them now, I can get the best out of them, my wife Penney and son Luke dive them too. Whenever I have to do a gear review on fins, it always feels like my ankle is going to snap off because they are so different! My force fins are part of me now!

What’s your favourite fourth element product?

Its my Argonaut Stealth Drysuit – I did love the Kevlar, but I love the Stealth too, although I’m a bit of a fourth element groupie and I’ve got the Xenos and Proteus wetsuits which I love too! I know some people say that the Proteus is sometimes a bit hard to get on but I’ve never had a problem with it – and it’s also the only wetsuit I’ve worn that you could class as a semi-dry at 3mm and 5mm, because with the neck seal down and the big long wrist and ankle seals, I get out sometimes and I’m hardly wet.

If there’s one thing that you wished fourth element made, that we don’t already make, what is it?

Fins that look like force fins??!!! But seriously, I think the natural evolution for fourth element should be to move into the hard goods, I think if fourth element did that, it would fly.

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Scuba Diver’s Editor-in-Chief Mark Evans has been in the diving industry for nearly 25 years, and has been diving since he was just 12 years ol. 30-odd years later and he is still addicted to the underwater world.

Mark Evans