TALK about taking the plunge! Well, that's precisely what Steve and Val Gibson did after the most romantic of proposals – at the bottom of the Red Sea.
This devoted diving duo found love literally in the deep end.
And what followed was a memorable proposal. Steve wrote "Will you marry me?" on a slate, 25 metres below the surface.
As Val nodded, Steve produced a box with a diamond ring.
And now the couple who found love second time around – Steve was widowed with three children and Val a divorced mother-of-three – are now delighting in teaching people of all ages in Sunderland how to scuba dive.
We met on a Wednesday night – their club night – at the poolside of Thornhill School, Sunderland.
Not only did they find one another by taking up diving, but Steve launched his own business, Sunderland Scuba Centre, based in Trimdon Street, Sunderland. And in seven short months, with Val's help – she's a head teacher at a primary school and a qualified diving instructor – he has established it as a leading diving centre in the area.
It was a risk quitting his job as a garage manager but Steve knew there was a need for a centre like his.
And all ages are discovering the thrill of becoming proficient divers and getting an Open Water certificate to allow them to dive anywhere in the world.
Another couple of romantics, Craig and Melanie Jordison, of Churston Close, Newbottle, couldn't resist renewing their wedding vows with a deep sea diving holiday in the Maldives.
Craig, 33, a sales manager, and Melanie, 34, are still on cloud nine after just returning from the most amazing trip of a lifetime.
Both are thrilled at the confidence Steve gave them to get their Open Water qualification to dive in the Maldives.
Melanie, a bus driver, says: "It's just like flying on your own and the sights are amazing, the sharks, mantarays four to five metres wide, black on the top and pure white underneath. It's unreal. I'm hooked now. It was the most amazing holiday."
Now she and Craig can't wait to go diving in the Red Sea this summer and as Melanie says: "It's far superior to this world up here, no litter. It's so beautiful, the corals, creatures of all shapes and sizes. The sharks were more frightened of us."
And Melanie is amazed that after being worried about taking up diving. She's taken to it like a fish to water and for £190 – the cost of her training with Steve – a whole new world is now open to her.
Steve and Val are also giving whole families the confidence to dive.
George Wright, 49, had dived before but his wife, Pauline 47, and their children Jamie,15, Justin, 16, and Chloe,12, hadn't until they trained with the Sunderland Centre.
It gave them the most wonderful family holiday last Christmas in Australia, diving by day and night off the Great Barrier Reef.
George, who owns Tubs and Shrubs garden centre at West Boldon, said: "I think it's the best thing in the world. Steve and Val bring confidence in people who are unsure."
Another family, Barry and Fiona Marshall and their daughter Annabelle,10, from Shearwater, Whitburn, are sold on scuba diving, thanks to Val and Steve and had a fabulous holiday diving off Mexico.
Fiona, 37, manager for a dental implant company, said: The sea life is amazing. It is just a different world."
She and her firefighter husband, reckon it's a fantastic sport for any family.
And sisters Vicky,16, and Rebecca Lapping, 11, of Cowdray Road, Hylton Castle, Sunderland, with their dad Kevin, 37, an advanced ambulance technician, are now looking forward to diving in the Red Sea after swimming with the dolphins in Florida.
Mum, Kirsten, 34, said: "I have a bit of a phobia about the water but I'm going to try because of the confidence my husband and daughters have now got and how the club has supported them."
Rebecca said: "It's a life-changing experience. I would recommend it to anyone."
Vicky added: "The first time I did it, it was really, really good. I came because I wanted to swim with the dolphins."
And Sandra Dickinson, 44, is thrilled that her daughter, Eve, 12, who has cerebal palsy, has become a real water baby since her dad, Mike, who has been diving for years, took Eve along to the club.
Sandra, of High Barnes, Sunderland, said: "They keep trying to persuade me but snorkelling is about my limit.
Youngsters between the ages of 10 and 15 can receive a Junior Open Water Diver certificate.
Graeme Cox, of Hendon, Sunderland, whose ten-year-old son, James, is loving the diving, said: "I'm trying to catch up with him."