Q&A with Blue Horizon Diving

We chat to Mark Wynne and Holly Wakely about their growing YouTube Channel, what they love about teaching people to dive, and why it is important to get more youngsters into the sport

Photographs courtesy of Mark Wynne, Holly Wakely and Margo Peyton

A (MW): As a youngster I always wanted to learn how to dive after watching Blue Planet, I know, super cliché. This seems to be the way most divers in the UK start, but I didn’t realize it was even an option when growing up in Scotland and the South of England. In 2006 our family took a trip to Fuerteventura, and after an unlikely banana boat incident, I was able to take my first breaths underwater. During the trip, my wee sister Chloe decided to go on a banana boat the day before our Discover Scuba Dive experience. After asking for ‘just one more run’, she got a head injury and wasn’t allowed to dive the next day. The dive centre suggested instead of a refund for Chloe’s experience, I should do the PADI Scuba Diver course. I did and fell in love with the sport, seeing angel sharks and rays everywhere. A year later, not much progression had occurred in my diving career, due to that freezing Scottish water, until a trip to Bulgaria in the Black Sea. All excited to be diving again as a PADI Scuba Diver allowed to only 12m with a professional, I learnt not to always just trust the dive centre or club you are diving with. Being naïve with only two dives, I was shocked to discover, when completing our logbooks, my third dive was penetrating a wreck at 32m in the Black Sea. I decided at that point it was time to reach out to dive centres in Scotland to learn to dive properly and get my Open Water certification, even if it is in the freezing winter in Scotland. The rest is history - after those few cold dives I was fully hooked.

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A (HW): I’ve been breathing compressed air since I was four, but got certified in Cayman at 10. It was almost in my blood to dive, both my parents were divers prior to the arrival of my older brother and I. Anyone that has met my parents knows that there was no way children were getting in the way of their lifestyle and they would just have to fit us in somehow, hence how we got into Kids Sea Camp and diving. From four to seven, I did the SASY programme and from eight to ten, I climbed my way through the ranks of Seal and Master Seal Team. The love for diving stuck, and when given the option to go on a dive holiday or another holiday of some variety, I always chose to dive.

I suppose I have my parents to thank for throwing me right into the deep end of diving and they are how I originally got into it. The passion grew the older I got, and I started to look more and more forward to our summer and fall diving trips. It was always a treat being able to take the day off from gymnastics camp to go on a two-tank dive trip with my dad, being on the Dive Bermuda boat from the day I turned ten. Seven years later I am back on the same boat all summer, helping out and being a tank monkey - that was the best summer I could’ve asked for.

A (MW): I do love UK diving having spent the majority of my diving career all over the UK. But let’s be serious, we all want to escape those cold, dark and green dives for warmer locations. I have dived in over 30 countries and have had to think long and hard over this question. Why, you may ask? When you are diving around the world you get to experience amazing locations and different creatures resulting in each and every location having memorable and amazing experiences. Like the first whaleshark in the Red Sea, or exploring the cenotes in Mexico, even diving with sharks down in Australia.

If I have to choose, then it is between the Maldives or Mexico. Mexico has so much to offer; from diving the cenotes, to bull sharks in Playa Del Carmen and drift dives in Cozumel. There was so much to do. You look at our experience in the Maldives, sharks, sharks and even more sharks! It was unreal and incredible. Then there is Bermuda too, but I will leave that to Holly.

A (HW): Galapagos is hands down my favourite diving destination, the variety of marine life and conditions you’re able to dive in is mind blowing. I love liveaboards, they’re my favourite way to dive, and the Galapagos liveaboard was incredible. Up before dawn, seeing dolphins and whalesharks before breakfast then immediately kitting up for a fast current dive with hammerheads.

It was seriously unbeatable. We did take a recent trip to the Maldives, which has closed the gap between my favourite destinations, with the Maldives liveaboard in a close second. I will forever love the pelagic, larger life but do still have appreciation for macro life; little shrimps, crabs and nudibranchs. The Maldives can offer both types of diving and was a great well-rounded trip. I can’t forget Bermuda, which will always be one of my favourite places to dive, it’s home after all. The swim-throughs and arches are incredible to dive through and I know most of the wrecks like the back of my hand, I can’t go wrong diving here.

A (MW): I never intended to become a dive instructor when I first started diving. You always had that one or two friends who would suggest, let’s do our Divemaster together and so on. Before I knew it I was doing my Instructor Development Course in Glasgow and Instructor Exam in Newcastle. A few years later I started my IDC Staff Instructor course in Hull. Everyone else in the dive industry seems to have exotic locations like Thailand or Bonaire. I have Glasgow, Newcastle and Hull. But I wouldn’t change it. Learning to dive and teach scuba diving in the cold UK waters prepares you better than anywhere else. Going from teaching open water courses in drysuits in one-metre visibility in a Scottish Sea Loch makes teaching in the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean ridiculously easy in comparison. I love teaching people to overcome their fears or to see their face light up when they get to experience the amazing underwater world for the first time. We have to remember diving is not for everyone, so never force or push someone to do something they do not want to do. But when you can see a student is nervous and excited, there is the great satisfaction you get when they explore the underwater world, their desire for more adventure and to protect the ocean. Being able to share your passion for the ocean to others is incredible. After completing my PADI Course Director training in the Dominican Republic with PADI Worldwide in July 2021, I am now able to teach the next generation of instructors to do the same. Scuba diving, especially in the UK, has an aging demographic and being able to train more young instructors is exciting. It will keep our sport thriving and hopefully create more ocean advocates in the process.

To become a PADI Dive Instructor, you need to be a PADI Divemaster or equivalent with other training agencies plus other prerequisites. Once you meet the requirements you sign up for the Instructor Development Course (“IDC”) with a PADI Course Director at any PADI five-star IDC Centre or above. This is a ten-14 day course depending on how the dive centres schedule teaching you all the theory and fundamentals of being a successful dive instructor. On completion of the IDC course, you are able to attend the PADI Instructor Exam run by the PADI regional headquarters for your area. This is a two-day examination, testing your skills, knowledge and ability to be a dive instructor. I would highly recommend anyone think to becoming a dive instructor, to just do it. When looking for an IDC to join, vet out the Course Director running the programme, as this makes a huge difference to your experience.

A (HW): Being the pilot diver for this programme is something I am extremely grateful for and it was a really great step towards becoming a professional in the dive industry. Personally, the most valuable aspect of this course for me was that it put another step between Master Scuba Diver and Divemaster, which to me, seems like a pretty large leap.

I got the luxury of participating in the Junior Dive Master programme in St Lucia, where I also later upgraded to the full Divemaster. Courses like this can take you all over the world, if you let them. Testing out this course for PADI was an incredible opportunity for me and is something I will never forget and will always look back on as an achievement. I got to see the course outline when it first came out and test out each and every aspect, making sure it is doable for divers aged 15-18. When the course went live I was able to assist the instructor for the world’s second Junior Divemaster and see where pieces of the course outline had been changed or altered. The Junior Divemaster course is similar to the Divemaster course but takes away the liability features that require the candidate to be 18. It teaches you how to set up a dive site and help manage divers in the water, making a more vigilant and well-rounded future professional.

As a young diver, 18 can seem like a really long way away when you reach the Junior Master Scuba Diver rating at just 12 years old, so this new programme gives something to look forward to and a goal to achieve, keeping the spark for diving there. This course is perfect for any young diver that is interested in becoming a future professional, or just furthering their diving knowledge.

A (HW): One thing that is very interesting to me is some of the confused and concerned looks you get as a young diver, walking onto a dive boat as ten year old, setting up your own gear and listening to the brief, just like everyone else, but it’s not something you see often. The vast majority of divers tend to be older then 15, but I do think it is important that we get the next generation into diving more and more.

Younger people tend to bring new ideas to the plate and have a spark that comes with that, they are excited and enthusiastic about the ocean and want to help bring more people into the sport. In the younger generations, we have been brought up talking about what is happening to the world right now, the rising ocean levels and increased pollution for example. Sustainability and lowering your carbon footprint is a topic that is well known in the younger generations, who are noticeably putting an effort into changing their habits and bettering the world.

In diving this is really important because we put ourselves into the habitat of other animals, which are also being affected by our actions, as humans. We need to teach not to touch or take anything, and only leave our bubbles behind. Kids and teenagers are like sponges; they will absorb all this information and pass it on to their friends and others they are diving with. They will also pass messages through social media, which is huge in the younger generations. Coming up with new ideas, and being able to discuss topics and exchange ideas is so easily done through social media. Which in turn can help grow the dive industry. We need younger people to start diving more, whether that is recreationally or professionally. n

NB: Join Mark and Holly next month when they talk about their most-memorable – and worst – diving experiences, and what the future holds for their YouTube Channel.

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