Oli's Biography
Oli is a UK-based diver with a passion for exploration and a wide-ranging skill set across multiple diving disciplines. He began his diving journey in 2020 with Old Harbour Diving in Weymouth, quickly falling in love not only with the sport itself but also with the technical aspects that take diving to the next level.
His newfound obsession led him rapidly down the path of technical diving. A chance encounter with an instructor sparked a deep fascination with the world beneath the earth’s surface. From there, the long and challenging road toward cave diving began. Embracing sidemount diving, drysuits and of course, his KUBI dry gloves Oli ventured into the dark, quiet world of UK mines and caves, logging numerous adventures both dry and submerged.
Eventually, the bubbles disappeared as he turned in his twinset and rebreather diving entered the picture. Now diving a JJ-CCR, and with the mentorship of long-time friend and dive buddy Stuart Girdler, Oli transitioned into CCR diving and hasn’t looked back. This leap allowed him to expand his exploration of the English Channel, discovering unknown wrecks and revisiting forgotten time capsules on the seafloor.
A career shift soon followed, and what initially looked like a path toward teaching earning qualifications through both PADI and BSAC and assisting with a range of courses at dive schools like Dorset Diving ultimately evolved into professional diving. Oli trained as an HSE Commercial Diver, donning a Kirby Morgan helmet to take on demanding underwater tasks such as wreck salvage, subsea welding/burning and contributing to BBC filming projects. This work gave him a deeper understanding of the underwater world and the profound effects it can have on those who enter it.
Today, Oli continues to support the diving community not just underwater but also topside, holding a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster certification and working as a dive boat skipper for SkinDeeper Diving, based out of Portland. Through this role, he helps enable safe, memorable diving adventures for hundreds of divers exploring the wonders of the Channel.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_diving_in_/
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