Introducing Mark Evans – Editor of Sport Diver Magazine May 12, 2011 by lukesheppard

Hi everyone, my name is Mark Evans and I am the Editor of Sport Diver magazine, the official magazine of the PADI Diving Society and a ‘must-read’ for anyone interested in diving in the UK, both near and far abroad, keeping up to date with the latest new kit, reading how to improve their dive skills or just being entertained by some of the diving world’s top columnists.

I will be writing a blog for Simply Scuba over the coming months focusing on all and sundry, but I’d like to kick off with Britain’s Secret Seas, the new BBC series that was broadcast on Sunday at 8pm on BBC2. It was great to see a high-quality underwater-themed documentary series (there are four episodes in total) focusing exclusively on the diving around our shores. We’ve known for years what we have on our doorstep, but it always seemed the film-makers were tempted to look further afield for their inspiration. I have to admit I was initially a bit dubious, as this was the same team behind Oceans, which was a bit lame, to say the least. Thankfully, they have learnt from their mistakes, and now not every dive the team do is ‘extremely dangerous’, when they dive with marine life it isn’t the ‘world’s first sighting’. that sort of thing. Dive supervisor Richard Bull can’t help himself try and add drama to events on a couple of occasions, but otherwise this unwarranted sort of behaviour is kept in check.

Yes, I know they are appealing by and large to a non-diving market (which is great, as hopefully it will tempt lots of people to try UK diving, particularly if the glorious weather continues), but the spectacles on show(baskers, spider crabs and ruddy huge wrecks in the first episode) don’t need any embellishment – they are cool just as they are. So remember to tune in next Sunday for episode two, you won’t be disappointed (I have seen master copies of all four episodes and they are all equally watchable). Good work, BBC! Interested in subscribing to Sport Diver? Get a special subscription offer here.