Martin Peake was in Mexico when he first spoke to The Local Answer.

The 65-year-old was on a diving holiday with his wife Alison, who is also a keen diver.

They were staying in Cancun and Peake said: “It was beautiful, it was nice, easy, scenic diving just on the edge of the Caribbean, it was 28 degrees in the water.”

Peake, who lives in Cheltenham, has been diving since 2008. He is a member of Cotswold BSAC 332, a scuba diving branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and the number is important because they were the 322^nd branch to be formed.

They are based in Cheltenham and were actually set up in 1969 so they are a well-established club.

“We’ve got about 30 members and we train in the pool at Dean Close School,” said Peake, who is an instructor at the club.

“We welcome anyone to the club, we accept people of all ages. We recently trained a couple of 13-year-olds.”

The club have a varied diving programme including quarry, beach and harbour dives, and soon after returning from Mexico, Peake was part of a club diving excursion to Cromhall Quarry Lake, near Dursley.

“That was 10 degrees,” laughed Peake, who is keen to attract more members to Cotswold BSAC.

Peake is qualified to dive 45 metres and has pursued his hobby in the Egyptian Red Sea and the Mediterranean as well as the Caribbean.

“The Red Sea is stunning, beautiful,” added Peake. “We’re planning a branch trip out there in early 2027. As a club we’re going to Oban in the summer and then Scapa Flow in September.”

Scapa Flow, off the north of Scotland, is where the German fleet was scuttled after the First World War and those wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally-acclaimed diving location.

“When you’re a diver you see things that other people don’t see,” said Peake. “When you go down to a wreck, you see the history and what happened to the ship, and you see all the marine life around it.

“It’s really interesting and it’s really peaceful too; it’s so quiet, it gives you an inner peace.”

So what makes a good diver?

“That’s a good question,” said Peake. “You need a calmness, you need to plan what you are doing but you’ve got to be prepared for something unexpected to happen.

“Most dives are completely routine and that’s where the training comes in. The more training you do the better diver you become.”