Where are you from and how did you start diving?
I’m from the Netherlands and starting diving on my sabbatical. I did my Open Water in Honduras and my Advanced Open Water in Fiji where I fell in love with diving on special shark dives.
What made you decide to embark on the IDC or Divemaster course?
While diving in the Caribbean going on a night dive, the boat was driving into sunset and that moment I knew wanted to do this for living. I wanted to combine it with marine science and ocean conservation and therefore did my Divemaster in Raja Ampat in Indonesia. Afterwards I knew that I wanted to become a dive instructor and everyone around me recommended Purple Dive to do my IDC with, and they were absolutely right!
What was your favourite part/highlight of the training?
I really loved the fact that we had a small group and therefore how personal the entire training felt. Helene and Yvonne had a perfect mix in teaching and attention for students. Every day was a day full of smiles. Together with the sweet people working at Purple Dive, the very best thing was the amazing dogs hanging out at the dive shop waiting for you everyday and loving the pets!
What was your biggest challenge and how did the team help you overcome this?
My biggest challenge was getting out of bed every morning. I’m not a morning person and every time my alarm went off I would’ve liked to sleep just a little bit longer. Luckily, me and the fellow interns were sharing a cute little bungalow around the corner of Purple Dive and if they didn’t lure me in with croissants and coffee they always made sure to kick me out of bed and make it in time for class
Where are you working now and what is your current role?
I am currently the manager and dive instructor of the Raja Ampat location of Indo Ocean Project, a marine conservation program and divemaster internship project. I teach about marine conservation topics and dive master workshops daily, and get to take my students to the most amazing dive sites of Indonesia. Next to that I am responsible for maintaining the dive related standards, the quality of the science we conduct daily and scheduling/administration.
What is your favourite part about your job?
My favourite part is teaching the workshops on how to lead dives and cope with different ocean conditions (tides,currents,waves,winds). After this workshop, the Divemaster trainees will start practicing on leading dives and it is amazing to see how much progress they are making, it makes me a proud mom everytime one of our interns graduates and becomes a dive professional 😊
How did your training at Purple Dive prepare or facilitate you in finding/working as a dive professional?
Next to the IDC program Purple Dive also teaches CV workshops and what to expect working as a dive professional. I am still in contact with the people working at Purple Dive and I know that whenever I would want to find another job, I would call them and they would point me in the right direction 😊
What is your best dive to this day?
One year ago in Raja Ampat I was leading a survey dive in a dive site named Lao Lao. Halfway into the dive I saw a school of massive bumphead parrotfish, one of my favourite fish. In the background at the same time two grey reef sharks passed by and as the cherry on top a few blue spotted stingrays also decided to go for a little swim. All these things happening at the same time made me feel like I was dreaming and it’s still one of my best memories on diving. To many more!
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