Local diver plunges into a whole new world
Normalair Underwater Club diver Gareth Tresling explained what led him to diving, and finding the club.
After spending weeks searching online for an organisation he could practice his diving through, Gareth Tresling’s efforts lead him to Emmarentia-based Normalair Underwater Club.
“I loved that it has been around for as long as it has been, and the story behind it. So, I thought to come down one Friday. I also discovered their bar, which is pretty cool.” The bar features walls filled pictures of various divers and all the treasures previous dives brought to the surface.
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Diving, for Tresling, was something he always found fascinating and felt a great need to take part in. A self-proclaimed ‘water boy’, who has always loved the ocean and sees it as another world he can take a deep plunge into. He equated his first experience of diving to walking into a cathedral. “Everything is just big. The scale is huge, with massive sea life.”
@caxtonjoburgnorth Chairperson of the Normalair Underwater Club Mark Botha on June 21, 2025, as he sits on a bench he helped haul from the dam bed of Emmarentia Dam many years ago. #Northcliff #EmmarentiaDam
His first dive was at KwaZulu-Natal’s Sodwana Bay, and even while having experienced a plethora of dives since, this one remains one of his best. Normalair Underwater Club has divers who have been diving for over 20 years, and some, like Tresling, who have only been at it for less than five.
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They encourage community members to give the sport a try, as maybe their next bold adventure could be diving into the world’s expansive oceans, discovering a whole new world to conquer.
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