My first introduction to diving was in 1990 at the Plymouth Uni Freshers fare. 'Learn to dive for only £25' shouted a particularly fit diving Instructor!
Absolutely yes was my reply! little did I know that I'd just signed away every Monday & Tuesday night for the next 6 months and at the end of it was thrown into Plymouth Sound. To be honest I hated every finger numbing moment of it! But after spending a summer diving the Caribbean with the fit instructor! Diving became my absolutely favourite pass time! After grudgingly leaving Uni 4 years later I'd managed to get my BSAC Sports and PADI DM and had no plans to start a career so happily went off traveling the world diving when ever possible.

After a year of this and a firm nudge from my parents that maybe it was time I took part in the real world I decided that diving was what I wanted to do (not sure this was exactly what they hoped for!) But anyway I saved up enough money to spend 3 months in Florida taking every PADI qualification I could do and managed to land my first teaching job in the Cayman Islands.

A year of teaching Americans to dive later and I needed a break so came home to Surrey. Just on the off chance that they might need an instructor I popped into a little dive centre near my home (Tony Backhurst Scuba Centre). After having a great chat with Tony about all our diving adventures he asked if I'd like to take a group of people to the Red Sea that weekend.

9 months later I became part owner and Director of Tony Backhurst Scuba. I have an enormous enthusiasm for diving and over the last 10 years of working here that has never changed once. Within our company I have run our training centre, our shop and now mainly deal with our marketing and travel side, but in all of those jobs my main aim has been to share my passion for diving.

I'm lucky enough over the last few years to have dived in some incredible places, the Cocos Islands, Djibouti, Thailand , the Maldives and of course the Red Sea. Recently quite scarily I have even revisited diving in the UK and planning a trip to Lundy this year! I feel like a novice again so its a great challenge but its always great being underwater you just can't beat it.