By Paul Tibbs "Lynn News reporter.

I HAVE to accept the fact that I’m never going to be an astronaut.

I’m never going to experience true weightlessness and the alien environment of outer space, hanging in suspended animation as the world floats by below.

I did, however, experience something very similar as close at your local swimming pool.

Descending just three metres into water has the same pressure effect experienced on a commercial airliner and the lack of oxygen means you might as well be in space.

Scuba diving has been around since famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan’s first development of a simple compressed air breathing set and is now widely enjoyed by many thousands of people around the world.

Breathing underwater is not natural, every instinct is telling you it’s wrong, and you do have a tendency to hold your breath as your head goes below the surface the first few times.

But with experienced instruction and the relative safety of a swimming pool, it’s the ideal place to begin.

You can very quickly become addicted. Gliding along almost without effort, you find yourself imagining the beauty of a tropical seabed – and that does take some imagination in the St James Pool but hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream. One day maybe.

West Norfolk Sub Aqua Club has been running  “try dive” sessions throughout April, and they can also be found at St James Pool, Lynn, every Tuesday evening (7.30pm-9.30pm) for anyone interested in starting.