The Story of Blue Island Divers ...so far...

Chapter 1, Our History

Aitch Liddle is the owner of Blue Island Divers. He and his wife Jayne have been running Blue Island Divers since 2000. Aitch loves to dive and research wrecks so the location of Blue Island Divers is perfect for him.

Being from a military family Aitch was born in the Mediterranean on the island of Cyprus. At the age of three his family moved him to Malta also in the Med. It was here that his love of the ocean was cultivated. He was snorkeling at a very early age and has no recollection of actually learning to swim or snorkel.

At the age of nine his family relocated back to England and he was not able to continue his love affair with the ocean until he was old enough to Scuba dive at fifteen (1975) he had completed all his extensive confined water training while he was fourteen and was ready for his first dive in Stoney Cove by the age of fifteen. His first dive was in March in a home made, badly patched second hand wetsuit and was about as cold as it gets. He must have had a deep rooted yearning for the underwater world because he continued to dive progressing slowly through the certifications of the BSAC with scuba diving competing (Usually successfully) with his school studies.

In an effort to rekindle the memories of travel in warmer climes he joined the Royal Air Force ready to travel the world and get qualified as an Aircraft mechanic. After training he applied for his postings to Hong Kong, Cyprus, Malta and anywhere else that may promise aquatic adventure.

Finding himself in Basingstoke and then Northern Ireland, his romantic vision of world travel began to fade. He continued to dive and carried out many expeditions while in the RAF to places like Gibraltar, Scotland, Bognor Regis, Farne Islands and many other sites around the UK and Ireland. After being posted from Northern Ireland to York he finally realized that world scuba traveling was not compatible with the RAF and so set about achieving his goals through other means.

He left the Air Force and took a job with British Aerospace in the Middle east, here he was able to dive extensively in the Red Sea and the Persian gulf as well as travel the world Scuba diving in exotic locations such as Great Barrier Reef, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Zealand, Maldives, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Egypt, Oman and the USA. It was here that he became a BSAC National Instructor and First Class Diver he was appointed as Area Coach for the dive clubs around Riyadh and helped to grow the sport of Scuba Diving through Scuba Clubs. During this time Aitch was lucky enough to meet his long suffering wife Jayne (A nurse and also a diver) who has supported him in his career since 1998. Aitch and Jayne spent 12 years in the middle east including the period of the first Gulf War.

After leaving the Middle East a break was in order so Jayne and Aitch bought a sailboat in the Caribbean. Starting from Grenada they cruised for a year looking for a dive business to buy and finally settled on a little Island in the Windward islands called St Thomas. Aitch's business partner Sean moved to St Thomas and they started breathing new life into the company. Sean decided to return to the UK after 2 years and Aitch took 100% control of the company.

The company has grown significantly and continues to improve. The goal of Blue Island Divers is to provide the sort of quality diving that scuba divers have the right to expect.

Too cold in England