Hello everyone! I'm currently traveling on my way to Canada and taking a little break so you will find a few scheduled posts this week as I get busy stuffing my face with ALL the sushi and visiting with friends and family.My lifetime love of the ocean made complete sense when I was 25 years old and saw the hospital I was born in. I was born on Vancouver Island and we moved away before I turned 2, so I didn't remember it. The day my aunt took me by the hospital I was born in, it all made ...
Roatan Month 24 Roundup – Two Years!
Two years. TWO YEARS. I never thought I would be writing this post.I remember thinking when I left Canada, “Well, if I make it even six months this will all have been worth it.” Now it’s two years later and I’m still here on Roatan - diving, drinking too much rum and enjoying the best sunsets in the world.I am going to take a break from my traditional roundup posts for this once, since it’s a milestone. Instead of my usual roundup, I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned from ...
How to Become a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor
People ask me all the time how I became a dive instructor! I can say that it is not an easy (or cheap) process, but if you have a passion for diving and have the right personality to teach, it's an amazing way to do what you love - and if you want, live in some pretty interesting and exotic places.Since I can only speak for my own experience, this post is focused on how to become a PADI dive instructor. There are many training agencies around the world for basic certification all the way up to ...
Roatan Month 23 Roundup
23 months living on this island... holy highballs, that's a while!Kind of an interesting up-and-down period lately with work and stuff here. I'm still freelancing which is a great experience getting to know how other shops work. I haven't made too much of an effort to get work, and will probably try a little harder in the upcoming weeks because it was fast and furious at first and has now slowed to a trickle, but there is work out there - I just have to go get it instead of waiting for them ...
Roatan Review: Ocean Connections Dive Shop
[EDIT: 2015 - New management and owners have changed this shop significantly. Please always do recent research if you see my reviews are older - things change quickly on an island. My review only stands at the time of writing and the shop is no longer being run the same.]When I first arrived on Roatan, Ocean Connections was a 'bros-only' dive shop - the owner refused to hire any female instructors or divemasters. The decidedly testosterone-laden vibe was bogged down further by a small, beat up ...
10 Steps to the Perfect Dive Vacation
Working in the scuba diving industry for the last two years has opened up my eyes to a whole new world of dive travelers. I don't often get to travel on dive vacations, but I work every day with people who are on them. After seeing my guests have great trips (and some not-so-great), I feel like I can offer some useful advice to those planning a dive vacation.me at work, taking out some of my fave divers photo courtesy of sarah1. Choose your location based on what YOU want as a ...
5 Things I Love About Roatan
"So, do you like living here?" I get this question from tourists on a near-daily basis, usually after I tell them I've been on the island for two years. Uhhhh... if I didn't like it, would I live here for two years? Now don't get me wrong, this place makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes. But so did every place in Canada that I lived at some point in time or another. (Can I be any clearer to people that paradise does not equal no problems?) But that doesn't mean there aren't amazing ...
Roatan Review: The Landing
[Update 2015: the restaurant is under new management with a new chef. I no longer recommend this place.]During one of my vacations to Roatan in 2012, one of my friends got a job at a little tucked-away bar called 'The Landing' on the second floor of The Beach House (a boutique hotel in West End that I adore). I hadn't even noticed the staircase off the street leading up to this place, but once he started bartending there, it suddenly became the place to be for all our friends. Flaming ...
Lost and Found: Back in the Water
It was one little detail that I somehow managed to forget about over the last year: I moved here to be a dive instructor. I didn't move here to run a dive shop, or to make websites, or to update Facebook pages. I worked myself almost to the bone in Canada with two full time jobs to save enough money to become a dive instructor - to live on Roatan (and other beautiful warm water locations), teach people how to dive, and take certified divers out diving.it was a lovely office, but ...
Roatan Month 22 Roundup
22 months on a rock!You can always see all my monthly roundups by clicking on the 'roundup' tag below... but here they all are in order: Month 21, Month 20, Month 19, Month 18, Month 17, Month 16, Month 15, Month 14, Month 13, Month 12, Month 11, Month 10, Month 9, Month 8, Month 7, Month 6, Month 5, Month 4, Month 3, Month 2 and finally little old Month 1. Sometimes when you type 'month' that many times it looks really weird.Astute readers have noted that I have said ...