Stan Holford
Stan belongs to: The Diving Centre Ltd
Stan became fascinated with diving from an early age from reading stories about the frogmen. He started The Diving Centre Ltd in 1959.
Stan was interviewed by Carl Greenwood on 7 November 2005. The interview took place at the Interviewee's living room and lasted 1 hour, 27 minutes and 45 seconds.
Training programmes
"In 1959, as I say, when people wanted to learnt dive, I formulated a diving programme, building it up into four courses"
In 1959, as I say, when people wanted to learnt dive, I formulated a diving programme, building it up into four courses, teaching people to breathe and teaching people how to use the equipment, giving them four lessons in the swimming pool prior to introducing them into the sea. And it worked, it worked to such an extent that, as per the rest of the country, which, people with the same ideas as me were, and with the same ilk as myself, had, they, they were starting diving and through magazine etc we got in touch and we formed an amalgamation of talents, if you want to use the word, of the country and we called it the Professional Association of Scuba Schools and we’ve formatted a programme using the same types of methods, which again was very successful.
And it wasn’t until, I would think ‘69, ‘70 that the American organisation called PADI, which doesn’t mean anything Irish, it’s the initials that they use- the Professional Association of Diving Instructors embraced the Professional Association of Scuba Schools.
Stan has 19 memories in the memorynet:
Stan's memories with a Childhood theme:
Stan's other memories:
Starting diving- Starting The Diving Centre
- Training programmes
- Early wetsuits
- Clammy death
- Commercial diving gear
- Training people to breathe properly
- Diving in the North Sea
- Sounds
Diving in Malta- Commercial diving
- Wreck diving
- Treasure Hunt
- Trail-a-boats
- Hard hat
- Freddy the Dolphin
- The Lobster Pot
- Waterskiing the English Channel
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