Disabled Scottish diving instructor inducted into hall of fame

DISABLED diving instructor Fraser Bathgate from Edinburgh has become the first Scot to be inducted into the global industry’s hall of fame.

One of this year’s two recipients of the prestigious Reaching Out awards, wheelchair-bound Bathgate, 48, who was the world’s first fully-qualified paraplegic diving instructor, joins a hall of fame that includes Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his son Jean-Michel, and celebrity divers such as the actor Lloyd Bridges and author Clive Cussler.

The lifetime achievement Reaching Out award was presented on Friday night in Orlando, Florida, at the annual show of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA), which organises the awards and maintains the hall of fame.

Thousands of industry professionals attend the annual DEMA show, and hundreds of them packed the Rosen Centre Hotel’s Grand Ballroom to acclaim Bathgate and fellow recipient Peter Hughes, a leading marine conservationist. Bathgate said yesterday: “It is a very great honour.

“I really couldn’t believe it when I was told I was being nominated, and to receive the Reaching Out award in front of so many hundreds of diving professionals was incredible.”