The Mighty Bevan

Garry Bevan (born Garry Bevan somewhere in England in the late1940s, part-time guitarist and cruise director, currently residing in Bali, Indonesia) is given credit as the inventor of the Bevan Manoeuvre.

An otherwise experienced frogman, the Bevan Manoeuvre refers to Mr Bevan’s occasional but complete lapses of judgment. The original Bevan Manoeuvre involved a sudden inability to read the direction of oceanic currents and, as a consequence, the inability to locate a common, well known dive site.

First coined in late 2011, the term Bevan Manoeuvre has moved beyond the scuba diving fraternity. Firmly established in the common english lexicon, the term Bevan Manoeuvre is now used to identify and describe any action or decision that results in a person appearing to be, or being a complete arse. For example, “Bloody hell, what were you thinking? That was a total Bevan Manoeuvre.”

In some parts of northern England the term has been shortened to “a Bevan”.  For example,  “Oo, I fancy that gorgeous woman at the bar.”  “Don’t bother mate, you’d be out of your depth and doing a Bevan before you know it.”

Purists argue a true Bevan Manoeuver must begin with an exaggerated level of confidence, end in disaster and be followed with genuine confusion. Consistent with this, the term has recently been adopted by Australian political pundits to identify people with ill-conceived leadership ambitions – notably “He was a bloody Bevan Manoeuver waiting to happen”.

Meanwhile, the original Bevan (Mr Garry Bevan, PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, Sanur, Indonesia) continues to deny all knowledge of the manoeuver, despite videographic evidence to the contrary.

March 2012, J