It was the fact that back then I hadn’t that much experience before I had to give it up. You know, newly married, buying a house, crap wages etc. It was a ‘luxury’ I could no longer afford. Plus, 35 years is a long gap. ABLJ jackets replaced with integral weight BCDs or Wings, Dive computers. Even my old J snorkel frowned upon now.. . (yes I still have it).
I got the opportunity to dive and begin scuba training with PADI whilst in the Caribbean last year and got the bug again and thought it was sensible to ‘retrain’ for safety’s sake. It was just logical to continue with PADI on my return home since their seem to be everywhere these days and is very readily recognised when booking dives abroad etc. I know what you gonna say, so is BSAC and that’s true. But, in all honesty, PADI was simply more convenient to me at the time.