Exploration has shaped both my diving and the way I teach.
I have spent more than 30 years diving, with cave exploration, technical diving, underwater archaeology and photogrammetry becoming central to what I do. Teaching allows me to share that experience while helping other divers develop the control, judgement and teamwork needed for more demanding diving.
What I enjoy most is seeing someone develop — not simply learning to perform a skill, but understanding why it matters and becoming able to assess and improve their own diving.
My own training — both good and bad — showed me that effective instruction is about considerably more than passing on a set of procedures. It requires clear explanations, honest feedback and an understanding of how different people learn.
What makes a good diver?
Attitude and judgement come first.
Technical and cave diving require good control, awareness, teamwork and technical skills, but those things are much harder to develop without the right approach to learning.
I'm looking for divers who are prepared to work, listen, question things and recognise that there is always more to learn. One of GUE's core ideas is a commitment to excellence, and that's something I take seriously.
I don't expect students to arrive knowing everything. I do expect them to be prepared to learn.
Experience beyond the classroom
The diving is where the teaching comes from.
I've been diving for more than 30 years, with technical diving, cave diving, exploration, mapping, photogrammetry and underwater archaeology becoming increasingly important parts of my diving.
Since 2018, I've also been a Fellow of The Explorers Club.
Cave of Bones, Brazil
Working as lead photogrammetographer on the Cave of Bones expedition, documenting hundreds of bones including an approximately 11,000-year-old human skeleton.
Panarea 3, Italy
Working on the archaeological investigation of a Roman wreck containing artefacts dating from around 300 BC.
Mars, Sweden
Diving on Mars, Sweden's long-lost flagship, as part of the work to document and investigate one of the most significant wrecks in Swedish maritime history.
Photogrammetry model of Mars, Sweden
What makes these projects special to me isn't simply the diving. Very few people have ever seen these sites, and even fewer have had the opportunity to contribute to their exploration and archaeology. I've also had the privilege of working alongside some exceptionally capable divers on these projects, and that is one of the things I enjoy most about exploration — being part of a team where everyone brings different skills and experience to the problem.
Being able to make a connection with parts of human history that would otherwise remain inaccessible is something I never expected when I started diving.
GUE
A logical approach to diving and teaching.
I first took GUE Fundamentals in 2003, on the second GUE class ever held in the UK. The course was taught by Jarrod Jablonski and Andy Kerslake, who was the only UK GUE instructor at the time.
I was hooked almost immediately.
What struck me was that there was a logical reason behind what we were being taught. I was never simply told to do something because that was the way it was done. The reasoning mattered.
I've been teaching for GUE since 2006, and have seen the organisation develop considerably over that time. The courses, instructor development and training systems have all become substantially more refined.
GUE remains small compared with the major diving agencies, but I believe that focus on quality is one of its greatest strengths.
Experience behind the teaching
Understanding why matters as much as knowing how.
GUE sets a high standard for its instructors, so I don't see my job as trying to convince people that I'm better than other GUE instructors.
Instead, I try to make sure that I understand as much as possible about why we do what we do — not just the procedures themselves, but the reasoning, physiology, risk management and diving principles behind them.
I've been teaching GUE for nearly two decades, alongside more than 20 years of cave diving and extensive technical, CCR and exploration experience.
That combination of diving and teaching experience matters. It means I've had plenty of opportunity to see what works, what doesn't, and how different divers learn.
I aim to make demanding training direct, constructive and enjoyable to work through.
Why Mexico?
I moved to Mexico because I wanted easy access to exceptional diving.
Puerto Aventuras gives me a base from which I can dive regularly, while also making it relatively straightforward to train with students and teammates travelling from different parts of the world.
The combination of warm, clear water, deep ocean sites and the cenotes of the Riviera Maya makes Mexico an unusually good place to develop and apply technical and cave-diving skills.
It's home, rather than simply a destination where I happen to teach.
I expect students on advanced courses to arrive prepared to learn, and to take responsibility for their own development.
If something isn't working, "I can't do it" doesn't give us much to work with. "I can't work out how to do this" does. So does "Help me understand how to do this."
Those are problems we can solve together.
My aim isn't to get you through a course as efficiently as possible. It's to help you leave the course a better, more capable diver than when you arrived.
Follow my work
I write weekly about diving, training and the decisions that help divers improve. Read The Better Diver or connect with me on social media.
