Diver Dan... I met him on the fourth day of my holiday and we got on like a house on fire.
We got pissed together, had a laugh and parted company at the end of the night. I was rather disappointed but I didn't push it! Anyway I took up an offer by another diver to go for a dive intro the following day, hoping that I would see Diver Dan again
Well, I got three things from that Dive intro, 1) a perforated ear drum, 2) an amazing life-shattering experience and 3) more of Diver Dan.
I immediately signed up for more diving. There is a definite connection between the person that dives with you, for me it was all about trust. Dan was kind, gentle and above all patient. I felt completely and utterly at ease with him. I would ideally like to be like that once I become an instructor.
I knew him for a passionate three day romance...it was amazing....I left not knowing what to think, except for one thing, I did not want to leave!
For two months we kept in e-mail contact. I could not explain how I felt, I knew in the back of my mind that I had only known him for three days so it was crazy to be feeling so much. Looking back on it, I would say it was definitely the diving that caused a lot of the feeling, it opened me up and made me more receptive.
Plus, excellent sex... I was on another planet! Then he suddenly got this job in Iran which he decided to take, but he also came to visit me in London before heading off. After the first couple of days, (once we got out of bed), it became glaringly obvious that it was not going to work. I was with a completely different person now. Quiet, brooding, selfish, he made no effort at all. I almost felt intimidated by him. I told him what I felt before he left - it is always better to find out where one stands in situations such as these.
I do not regret the affair because he nurtured a love of diving which is growing daily, and I will never forget the time we spent together.
I will be far more cautious of future relationships with diving instructors, especially met in a holiday romance way. Let's face it, diving can be incredibly different every time you do it, but men will always be men!
To Diver Dan I have only one thing to say....'C'ya - wouldn't wanna be ya!' M anonymous

Nightmare
The last time I went diving my instructor very calmly led me into the water and into a nightmare trap.
Feeling his hands on my inner thigh as I struggled to swim away only to be held down by the enormous amounts of weights he had put around my waist I was convinced this was not the way I had been taught to dive previously.
I began to panic, my mask filled with water and I forgot to breathe.
Knowing that I needed to calm down and attempt to survive (well that's how it felt) I knelt at the bottom of the sea and began to clear my mask as he proceeded to pick me up and spin me round. In a whirl, choking and not knowing how to get out of the situation I froze in fear. I felt totally at his mercy in the alien environment although I managed to keep pushing him off me.
After a painfully long time we came back to the surface. Some strange thing in my brain cut off and I said thank you and left.
Sitting in the car on the way home I became numb realizing what had just happened and became infuriated with myself for not doing anything. Although I haven't been diving since I hope I'm not put off altogether from what should have been an amazing experience.
Sonya

Ooohh embarassing!
Sex and the instructor - yes it does happen!
Whilst staffing a PADI instructor Development Course (IDC) one candidate proved that she was fairly determined to Œsnog the instructor'.
The first attempt was when she asked me and another instructor to get the shower working in the womens changing rooms. While she was in there. Naked. She then asked if we would go back to her apartment to Œhelp with her theory'!
I declined (of course) but that night in the bar she was making advances in my direction big style, and was actually trying to remove my shorts ... while my girlfriend was stood on the other side of me getting most upset.
I made a sharp exit, and the girl in question had great difficulty looking me in the eye for a few days.
So if things had been different, would it have affected the outcome of the course?
No. As having to be totally impartial, I would have had to sleep with the other ten candidates as well. And some of those guys were bloody ugly...
So no, its not really a good idea to s**g the instructor, but if you must, at least make sure that their other half is in a different country, preferably a different continent!
Andy Hayhurst
PADI Staff and BSAC Advanced Instructor

"Diving is a passionate sport where you deliberately put yourself into alien surroundings and survive!
It's very intense. No wonder there is so much adrenaline about... I guess that's why there is so much sex and
wild affairs happening in diving."
PADI Instructor (anonymous)

SNOGGING without tears!
the Dive Girl guide

• Finish your course and get signed off first! Otherwise it puts both of you in a dodgy position.
  
• Spare yourself the embarassment - check out whether he or she is attached before chucking your bra across the bar and shouting ŒTake me now BABY'
  
• Be honest with yourself. If you're looking for a serious relationship then a flirtatious dive instructor at a holiday resort is an extremely unlikely candidate.
  
• They might look like a super cool dive god now, but as your diving skills improve you may find yourself sadly disillusioned.
  
• A dive instructor is in a position of responsibility and trust. If you feel they are abusing that position, STOP: end the dive, leave the course, complain.
  
• Grim reality! Your instructor will have to pay you lots of attention while you're training, but outside the training environment he or she is likely to be as uncommunicative and insensitive as the next person. Instructors are human too!
  But
  
• Having said all that, many people find their partner through diving - so if you're up for it, go for it!