PADI Instructor / macro photographer / conservationist / dive gear hoarder
Welcome to my site. I built this site, so that I could easily share all the knowledge, bits of information and experiences that I’ve gathered over time. My hope is that it will be useful in your journey as a diver. Over the years, I’ve learnt from other instructors, google and just plain out trial and error, and now I’m using this as a place to help you have a resource to easily get the information you’re after.
My Story
I started my journey back in 2009, when I was on the back end of a trip to SE Asia. I decided to give diving a go because of a conversation that I’d had with some people I had met while I was backpacking. And like a lot backpackers, I ended up on Koh Tao at a Buddha View Dive Resort.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience but really didn’t look to take it much further than that. I became what was known as a “holiday diver”, basically only diving when I was on holidays. Diving back at home in Sydney was cold compared to the tropical waters of Thailand and (what I deemed) expensive.
It wasn’t until years later in 2013, after returning from a trip to South America having done a few dives in Colombia and the Galapagos Islands, and a side trip to Phuket, that I decided to take the jump and take my training to the next step, and become a Rescue Diver. It was one of the most brutal courses that I’ve ever done but it got me hooked for good.
A couple of months later in 2014, I decided to do my Divemaster, for no other reason than it was a challenge. I had no intention of really doing anything with it at the time. I found, what soon became my 2nd home at Frog Dive Willoughby. I went and did 5 specialties with them (Deep, Wreck, Nitrox, Equipment Specialist, Underwater Navigator), getting my Master Scuba Diver certification, before embarking on my Divemaster course.
At the time of completing my Divemaster in 2015, I had no intention of becoming an instructor. I’d seen it first hand, and I thought, “Who would be crazy enough to teach people to dive? It’s so frustrating!”, and so I spent my weekends leading dives for the team at Frog Dive. The more I dived, the more I fell in love with the ocean, and sharing all the cool and amazing things to see.
In 2016, I quit my job, to take a few months off to go travelling, and as part of that trip, I booked myself into Utila Dive Center in Honduras in the Bay Islands. It really exploded my desire to help people see the beauty that the oceans have to offer by not just teaching skills but a greater understanding of our underwater world.