Times Series chief reporter Chris Hewett is training to become a British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) diver.

He will be recording his progress with the instructors from the Potters Bar Sub Aqua Club at the Furzefield Leisure Centre in a series of regular blogs.

It’s been several weeks since my first post, so I need to take you back in time to my second week of training to become a qualified diver.

Fins, not flippers, a mask, not goggles, and an air tank, not a gas tank. Just some of the technical terms a trained diver will use, rather than the inexperienced one I currently am.

Learning the proper names of pieces of equipment are as much a part of the training as the techniques and skills of becoming a good diver – a fact I’ve picked up pretty quickly.

Every pool session at The Furzefield Centre is preceded by an important safety check, commonly called the ‘buddy check’ among members.

This is a practice carried out before every dive, whether it is at five metres or 50 metres, and ensures correct safety checks are followed before entering the water.

Diving pairs check each other’s buoyancy control devices (BCDs), regulators (through which you breath)  and air levels, as well as checking the location of various clips so equipment can quickly be removed if a diver were to fall unconscious or run into other difficulties.

The aim is to quickly get the checks into a well-drilled routine. I’m not sure Ruth (who is doing the course with me) or I have quite mastered it yet, but we’re getting there.

If we can’t master the checks before we get in the water, I wouldn’t be too confident about our abilities in it after all...