NEWS

An Interview with Barry Mc Gill

As part of our passion for building the best dive lights in the world, here at Cathx we are keen to share the stories of our friends and customers who love diving!

We recently conducted an interview with Barry McGill  who is a well known and respected diver both commercially and recreationally, particularly following his recent presentation at the Eurotek diving conference as somewhat of an expert in the whole area of wreck diving – particularly close to his home, off the shores of Donegal in Ireland. Wrecks have become his passion over the last number of years, including superb sites such as HMS Audacious - a King George V-class battleship which lies in 62 metres of water, and HMS Curacao which lies in 125 metres - both off the north coast of Ireland.

Barry has been diving since secondary school and ‘loved it straight away’. He first went diving on a family holiday, then took a job in a local dive store which gave him the opportunity to develop his expertise, and eventually his skills led to a career as a diving engineer. His passions are to discover and explore un-dived shipwrecks and to teach technical diving.

We asked Barry what he sees as some of the challenges for the industry and the sport and he highlighted the rapid developments in technical diving equipment and techniques which allow the limits and boundaries of what is possible to change on a continual basis. Much of the advanced technology and skills currently used for technical diving in particular would simply not have existed even 10-15 years ago – so no one can predict what will be possible in the next 10 to 15 years.

Favourite Wreck Diving Destinations

We asked Barry’s what are his favourite dive sites worldwide that he would recommend for great wreck diving:

1)       Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands in Scotland – a ‘mecca’ in the UK

2)       North Donegal – for pristine wrecks and some of the best visibility in the world. (For info on diving in the area, check out: http://www.rosguill.com/diving/)

3)       Cenotes Cave Diving on Mexico – ‘spectacular’ diving for a very different type of exploration

Favourite Diving Equipment:

As both a commercial AND recreational diver, we figured Barry would be a fairly discerning customer, and asked him what equipment he would recommend, and he talked through his top three pieces of kit. 

                1) His rebreather: An AP Vision Inspiration  

                2) His underwater camera: An Aquatica Housing with Nikon D200
                (Editor’s note: Check out this AMAZING shot taken with the aquatica)

3) His Cathx Ocean dive torch 

 

Despite assurances that he WASN’T required to talk about Cathx and the dive lights that we are so proud of, Barry very kindly and sincerely assured us that his Cathx dive light is the one piece of kit he uses on EVERY dive – whether for work or for pleasure. Barry talked about the performance in the water, saying that it is really in the water that you see the difference. The main reason is because it is so indestructible, critical when his gear gets such abuse in work. As his equipment is SO important, he assesses his equipment requirements annually. His Cathx dive light is the one exception he simply won’t change! High praise indeed. Thanks Barry!

                Future Diving

Looking ahead to 2011 and onwards, we asked what is next on Barry’s diving agenda, exploration dives on two previously  un-dived shipwrecks off North Donegal and a trip to Truk Lagoon  in Micronesia. (Editor’s Note: Click here to read an account of Truk Lagoon by Pete Mesley), another friend of ours who recently took his Cathx Dive Light there. A great dive experience to look forward to no doubt, and we think there is no better man likely to achieve his next dream holiday. We look forward to hearing all about it and seeing the photos.

Click here to see some of Barry's work and some great wreck diving shots of the HMS Audacious and HMS Curacao.

For info on diving in North Donegal in Ireland, check out: http://www.rosguill.com/diving