The last year and a half I have really become and ocean baby. I guess I’ve been a river rat for 6 years now but rarely did I venture into the salt. On Cayman I would spend the majority of my woken day either on the beach or on the ocean. This time has affirmed my love for being near the water, awakened an interest in sail boats and introduced me to the art of free diving.

In 1999 Reidy and I took on our first proper traveling experience. July saw us land in Cairns, Tropical North Queensland and Reidy convinced me to sign up for an Open Water dive course. I had never done anything like it in my life, I was genuinely blown away. The technicalities of diving are fascinating; the fish, coral and marine life stunning; the ocean is awesome: all in all a fantastic experience. We continues diving down the coast and by the time we left Australia had logged some 15 dives on the Great Barrier Reef. Most of these had been done from live aboard dive boats and included night dives, wall dives, drift dives, sharks, turtle and the usual plethora of tropical fish and corals.

My next dive experience was in the summer of 2000 in Dahab, Egypt on the Red Sea. Myself and Mario were on the tail end of dusty whirlwind tour of the Middle East and spent the last few days relaxing on the ocean. It was here I took my Advanced Open Water. Again I really enjoyed the experience, some of the terrain in the Red Sea is super cool and I also dived a Blue Hole. Weird places!

I‘ve undertaken two major sea kayak trips recently, the first off Mission Beach, Tropical North Queensland and the second in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Superb, and they teach you a lot about the ocean but I will leave their details for Paddling, as strictly speaking that’s what they are. One thing for sure, you definitely feel very exposed when your sitting in a tiny little kayak in a big ocean with land far away and at the mercy of weather and sea conditions.

I arrived in Grand Cayman and immediately started work as a beach attendant. This basically entails chillin on the beach with a bit of jet ski action and snorkeling when required. The beach is perfect, the sea stunning and the weather impeccable. A tough existence! I really enjoyed my time on the beach and the lads I worked with even if some of them are the laziest MF’s I have ever come across. Something I came to really enjoy was free diving. As most of our days involved at least some sort of snorkeling we had the chance to swim down to the wrecks and caves. With time, my technique improved until I was able to get to about 50ft and hold my breath for a couple of minutes

I did do some diving in Cayman which I did enjoy until I had an unfortunate run in with the hyperbaric chamber. Definitely not an experience I would recommend.

During the slow season on Cayman the boys get a chance to get out behind the speed boat on the glassy flat summer ocean. Although the wakeboard will never hold the same place in my heart as a snowboard, it is a fun thing to play around with and try improve on. For a while I got decent but the board couldn’t hold my attention for long enough to become really good.

The last few months of my Cayman time was spent crewing on a 65ft luxury catamaran. The company had 4 similar boats and as crew we rotated amongst these boats. The cats can hold up to 70 people for pleasure cruises and 35 for dinner. Our normal day would involve prepping the boat for the guests before setting sail on the crystal Cayman waters. Snorkeling, sailing, lunch, some drinks and back to the dock. The evening would involve either sunset cocktail or dinner cruises. The excess shown by some of the companies that chartered our boats highlights all that is twisted about the Americans.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the cats. The team I worked with was awesome and I learnt to sail a big boat. The ocean and sea life is stunning. Swimming with sharks, 5 foot string-rays and an exceptional array of tropical marine life was just taken for granted. Working in just a pair of shorts in beautiful sunshine was just a part of the daily grind. When the sun went down we partied pretty hard too.