After some awesome cold water diving on the East coast of Canada it was time for me to pack my bags and travel to a warmer place, the Grand Bahama island in the Bahamas to take on multiple diving courses with the living legend – Cristina Zenato!

The courses I was to do during my two week stay were intro to cave, sidemount diver, advanced nitrox and decopression procedure diver! As you can imagine, the schedule was pretty tight and the weeks quite intense, but luckily Cristina is an amazing instructor and an actual superwoman when it comes to planning, scheduling, and diving. And believe me when I say, I loved every second of my time in the Bahamas with Cristina, her husband Kewin, and their sweeter than life, dogs.

Before this trip, I had never been in a cave or a cavern, but after my first dive in Ben’s cave, I was absolutely hooked. Although I knew beforehand that this kind of diving and these secluded ecosystems were something I wanted to learn more about, I was still left surprised by how much I enjoyed the challenges of diving in a completely different ecosystem than what I was used to, and how much I loved learning about these fragile ecosystems from Cristina. These two weeks were full of learning, failing, and getting frustrated with myself when I could not master a new skill on the first try. I want to thank Cristina for being such a patient and wonderful instructor and a human being, and for taking the time to let me really learn, practice, and gain muscle memory for all the drills and skills during my courses with her.

Even though my two weeks were filled with non-shark-related courses and diving, I did also have the amazing opportunity to learn about these beautiful animals. This definitely was just a wonderful addition to my time with Cristina. I am so grateful to have met Cristina and Kevin, and even more grateful that they gave me their time and resources so I could learn to be a better diver. So thank you to you both and for Kevin for the amazing pictures!

Thank you again so much to the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society for making this opportunity possible. Also an extra warm thank you to all of my amazing sponsors Fourth Element, DAN Europe, Halcyon, Backscatter and Suunto for helping me on my journey! 

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