Way back in the seventies 3 of us decided to go cave diving. We went to Namron in Sheffield and bought some cave diving things and dived in some caves, (thats how it was in the seventies) Then John Smith drowned in Merlins and Mike Nelson drowned in Ilam risings, we thought it might be worth getting the tickets.
We joined a BSAC club in Sheffield and spent an eternity in the pool treading water with our hands over heads and the like. we eventually had a go with some bottles, after a few months we were told to bring our wetsuits so we could work on bouyancy.
I turned up with with my trusty two piece unlined sharkskin suit, which had holes in the knees and in the backs of the knees where I had worn the trousers back to front rather than patch the knees up, the tenax studs had been replaced with string and the zip had to be closed with pliers.
So kit up, jump in, swim to the other end, surface, get banned from the club for dirtying the pool. all this took about six months and we never once left the pool. in the meantime we carried on diving until we realised we were sticking our necks out too far and packed it in
Wendy and I started diving in May last year, We did a Padi open water course, diving from a live aboard in Turkey, and have since been all over the place diving, Egypt, Maldives, Tobago. we have done further Padi courses since then. this is all in the space of a year.
So if you want to get on with it and dive in places where the water is warm & vizibility is good do a PADI course, (you can learn in the Red Sea for less than £400 including flights and hotels)
BSAC tend to dive mainly in the UK where the water is cold and murky most of the time and is probably more akin to cave diving but it will take a while to get into it
PS: As some one mentioned earlier its bloody expensive