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Lou Edmonds
Divemaster
I fell in love with the ocean when I was about two years old and Dad biffed me off the back of our little yacht, with only the aid of a life jacket and screamed 'SWIM! SWIM!'. I moved on from Dad's dubious methods of teaching us to swim, and learnt to love the sea and the beach, whether we were boating, surfing, snorkeling or swimming. I grew up in a wee town in the North Island of NZ called Te Aroha, which means 'The Love' and is near a little paradise called the Coromandel Peninsula - we were just beach junkies from the word go. Not that I ever wagged school to go to the beach or anything... (Is my mum going to read this?)
I moved to Australia in 2001 to start my 'real job' as a lawyer (bring on the Kiwi/Lawyer jokes...) but knew that there was a whole lot of other stuff I wanted to do. On a trip to the Great Barrier Reef in 2008 I had a PADI Discover Scuba dive... and was hooked instantly. I was the only person who begged for a second dive, while everyone else was drinking and eating on board. Shortly thereafter, I dived the Red Sea (at a tiny beach camp on the edge of the Sinai Desert overlooking Saudi Arabia), then all over Victoria, Sydney, New Zealand (the majestic Poor Knights Islands), Great Barrier Reef (again! but this time with the Minke Whales), Vietnam and Vanuatu.
My favourite site so far..? tied first equal between the wreck of the SS Coolidge in Vanuatu and Cod Hole on the Great Barrier Reef, where I saw my first pod of dolphins under water, along with sharks, potato cod and whales, all on one dive!
I love the whole diving experience: meeting everyone, diving, eating meat pies and donuts between dives, diving, listening to the stories that everyone tells, diving and having a drink with friends in front of the fire at the pub when we are all finished for the day. I also love being a dive master on courses, I learn something every time, I get super excited when people do their first dive and I admire every single student who gives it a go. I also really love working with the whole crew at Academy of Scuba - they are a devoted, professional and very hard working group who genuinely adore introducing all of us to diving.
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