People ask me,
how can I still be out there running?
I don't think anybody can really explain that.
I had this urge to run, and I started running.
And then I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And now I'm 80
but I can run better now, and further distances now,
than when I was 15, 16 and 17.
It sounds crazy, but that is a fact.
The sort of life that I enjoy, is here on St Helena.
I can decide that I want to walk along the countryside
or just want to go for a swim down in the open ocean,
and I can do it.
When I think back on it,
without realising it, I've always lived a healthy life.
As a matter of fact people say to me,
You still diving? Do you know how old you are?
As if, and this is what makes me smile,
because after a certain age
people think you're not supposed to be doing these things anymore.
Why, I don't know.
1962 - when I first picked up scuba gear.
There were no wetsuits.
And we didn't have a gauge to show much much air
was left in our cylinders.
So when you started going
'hoo hoo' in breathing, you realised it was time to go back up.
And that's how it was.
Oh no they said, you're in the water so often, you must have gills.
I always say to people,
diving is probably a better way to get high
than smoking marijuana.
Diving for me, I suppose, is a passion.
I'm just happy to be under the water.
I have this closeness with nature.
Well, I enjoy just being able to stop on one spot.
And watching what goes on around me.
And just see how the fish live, and the different things they do,
and the other life that goes on in the sea.
There is something special about being underwater.
In truth, I don't know how many dives I've actually done.
In excess of 5000 dives I guess, scuba diving that is.
How many for sure, I'd never be able to tell anybody.
I've been very fortunate
because I've had a full life.
I've always felt that you can spend your life out there
trying to make a lot of money,
always saying that one day
I'm going to have a lot of money and enjoy myself.
By the time one has money to burn
the fire will have died out.
So you've got to enjoy your life from the word 'go'
and not trying to make money to enjoy life with.
And this is why I try to enjoy myself as I do.
Because I could make it hell here for myself on earth
or heaven.
Hell and heaven is here in your life now - it's up to you.
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