I was contacted by Karma from Lady Diver Magazine to write an article about scuba diving in St. Martin.  I thought that this was a great idea, to start spreading the word about how great diving is here.  But somehow, the article turned into something else. I talk a little bit about diving in St. Martin, but as my fingers hit the keys something else was forming on the screen and it seemed to be more about how I ended up in St. Martin, rather than actually being here. 

Well, I am originally from New York, Croton-on-Hudson to be more precise. This is a small village with a nice mix of city commuters and blue collar workers. We have beautiful parks and nature reserves, but no real diving to speak of.  My first experience with Scuba Diving was when I was only 13 years old.  It was my birthday, and my present from my parents was an open water course at a nearby PADI center.  As I get older I lose precious memories from my past, but my first step into scuba diving I will never forget.  I met my instructor at the dive shop.  For 13 year old Sally he seemed ancient and boring, but looking back on it he was probably in his early 40s.  We went through the knowledge reviews from the PADI manual and it was a bit over my head.  I was just looking forward to the actual in-water stuff! Somehow though, on the day, I wasn't sure of myself.  We went in the pool and then my ancient boring instructor was telling me to take my regulator out of my mouth.  But didn't he understand that if I held my breath my brains would come out of my ears? I was suddenly terrified, so I surfaced, mask off, regulator out, and kicking like a little swan.  So I stopped. I went home and I told my parents I was afraid and they didn't make me go back.

Fast forward ten years and I was living in England completing a masters in Marine Science. It seemed that brains coming out my ears wasn't going to stop me from working with the ocean.  It was my 23rd birthday and my parents bought me the same exact present, an Open Water certification course at a local diving center.  I was older now  and had a better understanding of physics and biology, so as it turns out the course went swimmingly.  I will never forget my first dive.  It was cold, I was uncomfortable in a leaking mask, I couldn't feel my hands through the thick gloves, the visibility was awful (this was diving in England you know) and I loved it! I remember looking at the kelp swaying back and forth and a small wrasse that was hiding in it, and I thought to myself "people do this for a living. People actually get paid to do this.  I mean, I am paying someone to take me diving.  I wonder if any one would ever pay me?"  It was then, on my very first open water dive, that I knew that my life was forever changed. There was before scuba diving and after scuba diving, and after scuba diving was so much better.

I finished my master's degree and went on to work as a consultant for a local nature reserve that was working on conservation efforts to save their ever depleting salt marsh.  All the time I was trying to dive as much as possible but conditions in the south of England mean that dives are often canceled, especially at the last minute.  A dive buddy of mine convinced me to book a dive trip with my local dive club to Hurghada Egypt to dive the Red Sea. It sounded so exotic, and although I couldn't really afford it, I said yes.  This is when my life took on another twist, further entwining my fate with a life underwater.  It was in Egypt that I fulfilled the ultimate diving cliche. I fell in love with my diving instructor. I know, I know, but I couldn't help it! This tall, handsome, blue eyed Brit showed up.  He had given up a career as an electrical/mechanical engineer to become a diving instructor. He had drive, passion, and when he wanted something he went out and he got it. 

Another seven years later (So 17 years after that first diving course when I was 13) and you will find us married and in St. Martin in the French West Indies running and operating our very own diving center, Octopus Diving. The diving is great here and we run a small operation with two boats. We take out six divers maximum, making it a very personal diving experience. We pride ourselves on our boats, our equipment and the service that we offer. 

We didn't just appear here though, it took a long time to get to St. Martin. Chris and I gave each other the courage to leave our conventional lives in the UK to work for less money, with less security, away from our friends and family in order to pursue our dreams.  We ended up working in some of the most exotic and beautiful places in the world. Every place that we worked and every person we worked with taught us something about ourselves, the diving industry, and also each other.  On a tiny island in Raja Ampat, Indonesia we learned the value of self sufficiency, safety and ingenuity. In Egypt we discovered what it really meant to be away from our families and how to deal with immersion in a totally different culture. In the Bahamas we learned the business of diving and catering towards the American client, and in Thailand we embraced our love for diving, nature, and our commitment to the industry.

We had traveled around to so many places and seen such amazing things both topside and down below. However something was still missing. There was still a need that wasn't fulfilled. We needed roots somewhere, as well as a way to be able to make our own choices about the equipment and safety.  So we decided to get our own diving center.  We sold Chris's house in the UK and went to visit many different places including  Mexico, Spain, and the Exumas but nowhere seemed right. Either we didn't like the diving but the locations were great, or the diving was great but the island was unfriendly.  In some cases the sellers were asking too much money, or this and that, the list goes on. We finally went with a different center in the Bahamas on the island of Exumas. It had potential we thought, so we made an offer, put down a $10,000 binder and were en route. So exciting!  We were staying with friends in England to cut up the trip a little bit when we received an email from the seller that made us very nervous. One of the lessons that we learned from our extensive travels was to follow our gut. Our guts were screaming "no." We pulled out. We lost about $15,000 in the process. We were devastated.  We found ourselves with no fixed abode, no future jobs, no future prospects and one way tickets to the Bahamas.  All we had were the bags on our backs, each other, and a passion for diving. What to do?

Chris, my ever determined husband went back online. He searched the web for new opportunities and there was a diving center for sale in St. Martin. We had no idea where that was, so we googled it of course. Wikipedia was probably the most helpful "Saint Martin (French: Saint-Martin; Dutch: Sint Maarten) is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km (186 miles) east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Netherlands  however the Netherlands side has the larger population. It is the smallest inhabited sea island divided between two nations, a division dating to 1648. It was intriguing, especially with 1.8 million tourists a year.  We contacted the seller and changed our flights. What other choices did we have? We figured that if the diving center wasn't for us, if we didn't like it, we would just find jobs somewhere. We were experienced instructors and boat captains, it shouldn't be hard right? Most of all we just needed to move towards something and Saint Martin was on the radar.

I remember looking out the window from the airplane as we landed in St. Martin.  There seemed to be a hundred people on this beach with their cameras out, beers in hand. I remember their burnt red backs and all their hats blowing into the ocean from the plane's engines.  I remember the heat getting off the airplane and then the coldness of the airport. I always try really hard to store those first feelings and sensations from visiting a new place. Pulling those memories back always amazes me later.  How can somewhere  look so different when it hasn't changed at all? 

The seller met us at the airport, he seemed nice, but sellers always do.

We were there a week and we decided to make a decision. That seems like a strange statement, but that is what it felt like. No more questions, no more doubt, we were going to do this. It was going to be hard, but we were determined.  I'll skip all of the legal hoops that we needed to go through, they are boring. I'll also skip the sleepless nights we had wondering if we were going to have enough money, or how we were going to tackle all the French bureaucracy. I'll skip to when we finally got the keys, that first moment which is the most thrilling and scariest moment of our lives.  Five minutes later two divers came over and asked if they could dive the next day.  Steve and Jack, I remember their names. "Hey," they said. "We'd like to go diving tomorrow. Do you have any spaces?" I felt bad having to tell our first potential clients that the diving center was closed on a Sunday, "I'm sorry, but we're closed tomorrow." Then this little spark went off in my head. It was our diving center. Why were we closed the next day? Why was I turning away these potential customers. "Hang on, sorry about that. Sure, we can take you diving tomorrow, 8 o'clock okay?" Then we just went from there.

Nothing has been easy for us, though. When people meet Chris and I it seems like such a romantic idea to them that we live in the Caribbean and own a diving center.  It does have it's romantic moments, but there are millions of other moments that make up a day.  One of the hardest struggles was learning how to be business partners as well as husband and wife. Where does the business stop and where does Chris and Sally begin? If Chris is upset with me over something that is work related, how can I not bring that into our relationship?  The first year was hard.  We started with one instructor that was hired by the previous owners, but he left after a few months. We hired another instructor, but she really didn't work out.  It ended up being just Chris and I for about 5 months.  One of us would go and get the boat and load the tanks while the other one met the customers at the shop and checked them in.  We were a two person operation and it was just plain hard work. We slept well, that is for sure.  Four dives a day, shifting all those tanks, then going home to answer emails, work out the days take and tomorrow's expenses, revamp the website, figure out where our customers were going to come from, the list never ends.  Sometimes we would fight like cats and dogs, just because we were tired and frustrated and there was no end in sight.  Then, all of a sudden every one was talking about this economic crises.  Hotels were 30 - 40% down on occupancy and people weren't spending enough money in St. Martin. Then there was a global pandemic (remember Swine Flu?) and people were staying in the US for their vacations.  Finally, in September of 2009 we saw our first hurricane, Omar.  Scared the pants off of us.  Closed us down for 3 weeks as we fixed the moorings and waited for the water to clear.  Yup, that first year was Hard, with a capital "H".

We worked 17 months straight with hardly any days off. Plus once you own a business you realize that there are no real "days off."  A walk on the beach or a romantic dinner for Chris and I turns into a business meeting. We inevitably always come back to our business, our pride and joy, our passion and our future.

It got easier, eventually. We hired more staff, we learned about marketing and search engine optimization.  I learned French and found a trustworthy accountant.  And those romantic moments, when the ocean is that perfect Caribbean turquoise and there is just the whisper of wind, and Chris grabs my hand and we realize where we have come from and what we have achieved, those moments make all the heart ache and struggles worthwhile. 

We've actually been really successful. It seems that Chris's  determination and forward momentum is always pulling us in the right direction, while my cautiousness and reservations make sure we don't run before we can walk.  We believe in safety first, extremely strict maintenance routines, and ultimate customer service.  We also believe that people that dive with us aren't just customers, that they soon become our friends.  We work hard to earn our money, and we know that everyone else does too. Se we feel privileged that people spend it with us on their vacations, and we are lucky to now have friends all over the world.  

An added bonus is that we get to do what we love every day (that would be diving), and the diving in St. Martin is great. This is where I will finally fulfill Karma's initial task, to talk about the diving in St. Martin. We are lucky in St. Martin to have two sides to this island, the French Side and the Dutch side.  Although only a small island the two sides are completely different.  The French side has a larger influence from the Atlantic Ocean and the dive sites are characterized by reefs with canyons of sand running through them.  Where as on the Dutch side there are lots of wrecks, both artificial and natural, laying at different depths.  We get dolphins here from November until March (they prefer the colder waters) but we see turtles all year round, and almost every day.  Schools of eagle rays swim freely around the nature reserves (the most we've seen at one time is 13) and if you have a keen eye you will find nudibranchs, sea horses and decorator crabs. We've got canyons and caves, wrecks and beautiful reefs, and over 25 dive sites that we can reach in less than 20 minutes with our new dive boat called "Octopussy" of course!  Sometimes when it is slow and we have a day off, we take the boat out and go for a dive together, why not? It's what we love to do, and we love the diving here.  We've got four staff members now and two boats, so we have more time.  Granted, Chris and I aren't on the boats as much as we used to be in the beginning, but that gives us time to work on other things. Chris is developing Octopus Diving Tec and is now a rebreather instructor. I get time to wrote articles like this one and develop our on line presence through social medias and newsletters. I get to figure out exciting things like budgets and taxes! We do get on the boats as much as we can though, probably at least 4 times a week. 

I wouldn't change anything, looking back on it. I knew from that first dive that my future would some how be entwined with diving, however, just how much I could never have imagined. 

If you would like more information about diving in St. Martin with Octopus Diving, then please

visit our website at http://www.octopusdiving.com/

Also feel free to email me at sally@octopusdiving.com and I will be happy to help.

All photos for this article provided by Octopus Diving

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By Sally Davies