How I Started Scuba Diving

Probably the blurriest picture I could’ve included but here I am in Thailand!

I was 14 years old, enjoying Christmas abroad with my family in Cuba when I first decided to try scuba diving. I remember sitting in the hotel lobby flicking through some travel magazines, casually reading the list of hotel holiday excursions, when I came across one in particular. 

Scuba Diving.

I don’t know what it was exactly that pulled me in, the looks of genuine joy across people’s faces? The chance to live out my ultimate mermaid fantasy? Or maybe it was just the idea of exploring the great blue, being at one with the ocean and getting to see scores of marine life in their natural habitat.

I’d always been a very capable swimmer. I participated in school galas, would beg my parents to take me to the swimming pool and on hot British summer days, would be the first one to run into the sea. My mum would often tell me how difficult it was to get me out of the water and even though I’d come out with severe wrinkly skin, I’d always wear a smile half a mile wide.

So, when I saw scuba diving being offered in the hotel magazine, the first thing I did was run straight to my dad and tell him that I wanted to be a scuba diver. I think he may have dismissed it at first, thinking it might be just another thing I’d decided to do then abruptly quit but once he understood just how serious I was, my dad actually offered to do it with me and together we embarked upon the PADI Open Water course.

It made for a great bonding experience with my dad and I was so excited to learn something completely new that no other family members or my friends knew about. 

Gaining my license at the end of the course and receiving my card in the post made me feel a sense of accomplishment that I hadn’t felt before. I was proud of myself. 

Scuba Diving gives you a feeling like nothing else in the world ever can. It’s an exhilarating and incredible sport, yet exhausting at the same time. It opens your eyes up to a whole new world, quite literally, and has been hands down one of the best experiences of my life to date. 

I love the way I feel whilst scuba diving, both free and elegant. I love the peace, the quiet and I absolutely love the wild aquatic life all around me. Being fortunate enough to intimately learn about the deep blue ocean, let alone explore it, has always been one of my greatest passions and getting to merge my love of travelling with diving has been the ultimate dream come true.

Now that I’m a PADI Professional, I will never make the mistake of letting scuba diving fall to the wayside ever again.

I am at my happiest when I am being my true authentic self, and that self is one in water!