Abi's Deep Dive

I am Abi. I like wine, sea creatures, and corals. I am a mum, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a diver and am just discovering whether I am brave, and adventurous.

Work life

I qualified as a sport therapist in 2004, and have loved working with private clients as well as various rugby teams, including the Welsh Women’s team, since then. After I moved to Devon I completed a PGCE and I have been teaching and working as a support worker for the last 15 years alongside my sport therapy. I have delivered training in trauma and bereavement as well as other things, and specialise in holistic people centred, solution focused support. I am currently working for Families in Grief a fabulous charity based in North Devon supporting young people and their family after a bereavement. When I started at FiG, three years ago, we had to complete a story board, which is something we ask the young people we work with to do too. The squares are: what life looked like before the death, what it looked like at the time of the death, what life looks like now and what you would like in the future. I recently found mine, and my future box is me scuba diving and maybe that’s where I have just got to by accepting this job!

Adventure!

When I volunteered with GVI in 2022 and went to Mexico, I took 6 weeks off work, packed my dive kit and clothes into a bag and my son drove me to the airport. Volunteering in this way comes with a cost so I rented the house out (Son was no longer living at home) and off I went!

In Mexico volunteers lived in a house together, slept in bedrooms of 10 on bunk beds and worked on base from 7am-7pm Monday- Friday. No drinking on a dive night, and we were normally in bed by 10pm! On the weekend we all tried to see more of Mexico or go on fun dives to make the most of the incredible sea life on the reef. Swimming with whale sharks was very much a bucket list thing for me, so one Saturday off I went and wow, it was incredible!!! We saw whale sharks, pelicans, dolphins, rays, turtles and so much more!

During that trip, I made friends with people from all over the world, dived, gained the Coral Reef Restoration qualification, worked in a coral lab, planted coral cuttings onto the reef as well as monitoring the reef, picked up tens of kilos of rubbish washed up on beaches, studied, passed exams, dived in cenotes, did mezcal tasting (as well as tasting a few margaritas!), got bitten by flies, ants and mosquitoes, worked so hard, and had a couple of party nights too. The weather was hot and sometimes there were the most incredible thunder storms, and I loved it.

How I’m Feeling

A bit overwhelmed, but so grateful for the support of friends, family and my work colleagues. I have one week to go and still have a lot to do, but I am so excited for this new chapter in my life. I have been learning Spanish since I went to Mexico last year, and am looking forward to getting better at that as well as improving my diving. I know I will miss my family and friends so much, they are such an important part of my life, particularly my gorgeous son, but this is an opportunity I nearly didn’t get as GVI wanted someone with a Divemaster qualification who was fluent in Spanish and could start the job immediately! After months of repeated emails, (pestering!) taking Spanish lessons and committing to continue them in Mexico, and agreeing to complete my Divemaster on the job the offer was made. I am so determined to make the most of this opportunity, and learn as much as I can in whatever time I have in this beautiful part of the world.