About

Hi, my name is Joel and I’m a dive instructor.

From the age of 11 I was a serious swimmer for more than a decade, training up to 5km in the pool every day and competing at regional and national level in the UK.

In 1999 a UK TV network, recruiting contestants for an aquatic kids’ gameshow from among club swimmers, gave me the opportunity to learn to scuba dive in order to take part in one of their events. I have loved diving and exploring the underwater world ever since.

My swimming club friend Anna and I, on the children's game show "Get Wet" for which we were taught to scuba dive in the mid-1990s — My swimming club friend Anna and I, on the children’s game show “Get Wet”, for which we were taught to scuba dive in the 1990s

I turned my love of diving into a career in early 2023 after taking a holiday to the Philippines and deciding not to return to the UK. As well as the crystal clear waters of Puerto Galera in the Philippines, my job has taken me to the Gili Isles in Indonesia, Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, the tranquil island of Koh Rong Sanloem off the coast of Cambodia, and now [autumn 2025] I am living on Tenerife in the Canaries.

Prior to my dive career I was an investigative journalist in London for nearly ten years, and before that I worked in ecommerce and had a fancy apartment.

Now my office is the ocean, the only suit I wear is a wetsuit, and I get to hang out with beautiful marine life and introduce students to the joys of the underwater world.

This is better.

You’ll find some bits and pieces about my diving and some reviews from my students on the other pages.