I moved to Cornwall when I was a kid, to a little village called Perranporth. I used to skateboard when I younger, so surfing felt like the next logical step. When we moved, I got a surfboard immediately and was out on the waves every day. The waters are rarely calm in north Cornwall, you’re always out in strong waves, battling currents, getting churned up and absolutely bashed to pieces when you wipe out. It never really fazed me. I loved being in the water, surfing, swimming and fishing in all weathers. Growing up in southwest England definitely strengthened my connection with the sea – I always felt most comfortable in the water.

I discovered freediving when I moved to Barbados in 2011. A few years prior I’d come here on holiday with a group of friends, originally for two weeks. It was on that trip that I met my now wife. She’s from Kent, but she was on vacation visiting her father. Some of my friends knew her friends, and that’s how we met. I ended up extending my trip to four weeks to spend time with her here. We both went back to the UK and after some time I moved from Cornwall to Kent to be close to her, and two years later we got married and moved out here.

Barbados has really beautiful warm, clear and deep waters, so that definitely drew me in. You can head out from almost anywhere on the coast and find deep water fairly close to shore. Within the first two weeks of moving here, I’d seen a few guys spearfishing and wanted to give it a go. It was definitely a learning process, but I was totally hooked. It was the first time I felt like I was really interacting with the underwater world and there is still such a strong sense of satisfaction in catching and preparing your own food. That self-sufficiency is very primal. I found that I wanted to fish every day, but it seemed that the only way to make money from that was to sell my catch at market, which didn’t appeal. I didn’t want to be in a position where, if there were 20 fish in front of me on the reef, I felt like I had to shoot them all in order to make more money. I always had a difficult time with the idea of shooting something I didn’t need or want. For me there was an moral barrier that meant I couldn’t just dive and shoot as much as possible.

Quite regularly, I’d come out of the sea with a couple of fish and people would ask me about how I got it. It made me realise that there was a market for other people who might want to learn how to spearfish. After a year or so on the island, I caught my first lionfish, a species not native to the Caribbean. It was a tiny thing, but it really drove home to me that they were making their way into Bajan waters. I realised that this could be at the core of my venture. Hunting this invasive species that is decimating Caribbean reef life introduced the sustainability standpoint that pushed me to actually do something. I decided to be brave, so I made a website, put it live and three days later, I got my first booking. Honestly, I was terrified. But off we went at 6am. We went over some basics on how to breathe properly, staying safe, identifying fish and it was all ok. We cleaned the fish and were done by 12pm. I never used to be a morning person, but now I never dread having to get up early to go diving or spearfishing. Getting up at 5am is so worth it to be able to do a job that brings joy to myself and others.