I started diving with my brother back in about 1980, we saved up our lawn mowing money and bought a single 63cf tank and a second hand reg between us, and we used to dive using the ''buddy breathing technique''. One of us would tie the tank on with a bit of old rope and the other would swim alongside, passing the reg between breaths. We had a fair bit of trouble getting the tank filled on occasion so in 1983 we both did our open water tickets and were forced into buying another set of gear to keep the instructor happy [how things have changed] After leaving high school I deferred university and decided to go fishing for a year or two, which turned into ten and along the way a lot of dives in a lot of conditions were logged.

In 1987 cyclone Aivu swept the north Qld coast, sinking a lot of small boats in the Whitsunday area and some opportunistic friends and I made quite a few bob salvaging yachts and pleasure craft in the latter half of that year and pretty soon I found myself employed full time as a commercial diver. I worked in the New Zealand oil fields for a couple of years before travelling to Europe to further my qualifications and attempted to gain the coveted HSE Part 2 ticket [Deep Mixed Gas]. Unfortunately my "heavy bones" prevented me from passing the required medical so I decided to bum around for a year or six before returning to Australia and buying a hole in the water in which to throw money [charter boat]. In between Charters I like to find wrecks.

Trevor now skippers for Mike Ball charters in Cairns.