Born 3 August, 1970, Blackpool, Lancashire
Lives Congleton, Cheshire
Life and career The owner of Cheshire's Deep Blue Diving, Stevenson is one of the UK's most active technical divers. Uncharacteristically, his entrance into the world was marked by a breathing problem. When he was born, he sucked in air instead of exhaling, drawing a mixture of blood and mucus into his lungs. Despite this early setback, he grew into an extraordinarily energetic child, and was sent to a boarding school for hyperactive children. While not academically inclined, he took full advantage of the range of sports and outdoor pursuits offered by the school. He ran for Lancashire County Schools, and became an adept climber, eventually leaving school at 15 to train in France as an Alpine guide. He enjoyed several years of climbing and skiing before returning to the UK in search of new challenges. He decided not to join the family printing firm, then run by his father, a successful businessman. Today, the business is run by Stevenson's brother Andrew, who is 28.
Stevenson finally found the right challenge in the form of a Royal Navy careers centre that boasted, somewhat perversely, that 75 per cent of Royal Marine recruits fail. Inside, he was greeted by 'a monster of a sergeant' who told him he was too skinny, and tried to dissuade him from joining up. Taking the bait, Stevenson persisted and was told to do five pull-ups on a set of bars. For a climber it was no challenge, so the sergeant urged him to keep going until Stevenson collapsed on the floor. 'You're exactly the sort of person we want,' his beaming tormentor said. In the marines, Stevenson's excess of nervous energy served him well on gruelling exercises during which the marines were deprived of sleep for days at a time. After 18 months he joined an elite regiment within the Royal Marines and was posted to Alaska, Belize and Brunei. In 1994, he left the navy in search of a new direction and took up diving as a recreational sport. Immersing himself in the new mixed-gas culture, he swiftly accumulated experience, including a 126m dive in the flooded Coniston mines with Mike Norwood, a trimix pioneer.
In 1997, he opened Deep Blue Diving, and rapidly established himself as a major player on the technical diving scene, combining cave and open-water technical diving. In addition to running his own dive team, Northern Gas Team, he is a member of the technical diving group Starfish Enterprises. Last year saw the launch of his liveaboard, the Loyal Watcher, which successfully carried out an exploration of Second World War wrecks in the North Sea, and is now fully booked for 2001.
Passions'My Ducati motorbike and anything else that moves fast.'
What prompted you to take up diving?
In a way, I've had two diving careers: the first was during my time with the Royal Marines, when I was involved in a fair amount of underwater operations. When I took up sport diving, it was the element of exploration that got me interested. It's like when you look down at the sea and want to find out what's there.
Where did you train and when?
I initially trained with the marines in Poole, Dorset back in 1990. It took a year to learn to be a marine diver, but it was still a pretty harsh learning curve! Before I started training, I did a try-dive while on holiday in Spain, which was good fun. Then in 1994, I trained at a BSAC school in Manchester. I progressed quite quickly through the system because I had a lot of dives already logged through my time serving in the marines.
What are your qualifications?
IANTD instructor trainer, IANTD rebreather instructor, IANTD and NACD cave instructor and BSAC advanced diver. My qualification in the marines didn't have a title, although, ominously, the word 'expendable' was mentioned!
How many dives have you done?
I log all of my own and my students' training dives for the HSE, but I don't log all my personal dives. Since 1994, I've spent about 80 per cent of the year in the water, doing perhaps one or two dives a day. At a guess, I've done between 1,500 and 2,000 dives.
What is your best diving experience?
Several stand out, so this isn't going to be easy. Seeing a pair of 12in guns on the HMS Invincible out in the North Sea this year was amazing. I found them with another diver called Doug Friday, and they were huge, pointing out into the void. The gun breeches were shut, so we could tell that they were still fighting when the ship went down. Then there was our dive on the Empire Heritage, an oil tanker that went down off northwest Ireland while carrying Sherman tanks. It lies at 64m, but we had such amazing visibility that I could see divers flitting in and out of the wreck as we got to 26m.
I love caves as well: three years ago I was diving the St Saveur system in France on my own, about 1,200m from the entrance, when I came out into the most, almighty room. It was a beautiful feeling. I've just come back from Mexico, where I had an excellent dive in a cave known as Chac Mol. I dived the downstream passage, and it was stupendous, with 4m long stalactites that grow incredibly slowly, something like an inch every 5,000 years. I've had so many great dives ... and I haven't even mentioned sitting under the bow of the Lusitania.
What is your worst diving experience?
Apart from diving the Stanegarth at Stoney? Seriously, my worst experience was when a friend had an oxygen convulsion in front of me at 26m during a rebreather dive. The whole problem was down to worn-out O2 cells in his unit. The typical theory is that oxygen convulsions will stop, but on this occasion they didn't, so I decided to carry out a controlled buoyant lift. I extended his airway by pushing his head back, then repeatedly punched his chest on the way up to get the gas out. Fortunately, he made a full recovery.
Where have you dived?
All around the UK, the North Sea, Scapa Flow, northwest Ireland, Menorca, Mallorca, Gibraltar, Italy, Alaska, Florida, the South China Sea, Thailand, Sipadan and Sri Lanka. I've dived caves in France, Florida and Mexico. I'm a UK diver first and foremost; I don't go diving abroad very much because there's just too much diving to be done in the UK.
Who is your regular buddy?
Zaid Al-Obaidi. He's from Iraq, but I first met him at Aquatech dive centre in Manchester and we're still mates. I take him everywhere, because he's so good in the water. He's one of the few people who can be 100 per cent aware of what's going on around him at any given moment. If I see a problem underwater, he'll know what he has to do simply by looking at me. He's been a tower of strength, and has backed me up in everything I've done.
Why do you dive?
It's always the burning desire to see what's under there. Without wanting to sound too flaming Arthur C Clarke, it's the thrill of the unknown. I enjoy the challenge of exploration, but the logistical side of planning is also exhilarating for me. I like to get it right - prevention of a diving accident is the best cure, as far as I'm concerned. Also, I'm kind of crap at everything else, so you could say I dive by default!
Where do you want to dive next?
Diving the wreck of the Carpathia is going to be the next big thing for the team. It's a very special wreck, as the Carpathia was the first vessel to come to the rescue of the Titanic survivors. We know exactly where the wreck is [it lies at 158m in the Atlantic, 200km off Fastnet], we've got a great skipper and the right boat, and we aim to make a thorough exploration. The wreck sits on the very edge of the continental shelf, and for me it's like a little tease, saying 'I'm here, come and dive me!'
What equipment do you own?
The Buddy Inspiration. It's light compared to open-circuit kit for deep dives, and it's the most simple piece of diving equipment I've ever used. We've all done deep open-circuit diving, but the deeper you go on open-circuit, the more the dives resemble bounce dives. We're not into shooting down lines, slapping the wreck and coming back: we want to explore. Closed-circuit rebreathers give 200 times more gas duration than open-circuit, and that makes diving a lot safer for us. If you happen to get caught in fishing net or [otherwise] delayed on open-circuit when your duration is so limited, you're in real trouble.
Which five songs would you put on a liveaboard compilation tape?
Californication and Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Porcelain by Moby, Body Groove by the Architects and Overload by the Sugar Babes, but only because I fancy them! I like it when Gavin Newman, a good friend of mine [well-known cave diver and underwater photographer] is on the boat, because he always has excellent rave tapes with him. Being the good Mancunian lad that I am, I like a bit of rave.
Have you a dive tip that has helped you?
Never let your ambitions exceed your abilities.
Which figure, living or dead, would you like to take diving, and why?
My bank manager, because he'd have a better understanding of what I spend the company's money on. He thinks we're all barking mad! I think what confuses him most is how a company that makes as much money as we do also manages to spend so much. But that's the way I like it: we are divers first and foremost, and a business second. These days, about 25 per cent of my time is devoted to teaching, with the remaining 75 per cent going to my own diving, and the balance is constantly tipping in favour of the latter.
What is the most interesting underwater animal?
Probably the lobster. I don't eat them, and if I ever see lobster pots with the lines cut, I let them out. Anything that can swim backwards that fast has to be seriously cool.
