An Interview with Divemaster Patrick

For this past week, we have had the pleasure to dive and snorkel with Captain Slate's Scuba Adventures. The staff of Captain Slate's was excellent in helping all the divers with their gear along with getting in and out of the water. The staff was friendly, helpful, and even provided us with snakcs for after our adventures in the water. One staff member, Patrick, accompanied us on both our dive and snorkel days. He helped everyone our and even cut up some delicious oranges for us and always made sure we had enough. Patrick was kind enough to let me ask him a few questions about himself and the job. Here is the brief interview. NOTE: These are not Patrick's exact words. I had to fill in some holes, but these are the main points of what he was saying.

Where did you go to school? Did you go to school in Florida?

No, I didn't. I went to Ball State University in Indiana. I went there for four years and got my degree in Biology.

Patrick and I right after the interview

How did you get into Scuba diving?

I've always been interested in marine science and I originally wanted to go to school for marine biology but the school didn't have the major. I got dive certified my junior year, then got my open water certification, then my advanced, and finally became a dive master.

How did you get started at Captain Slate's?

I got my certification under Tom Leaird who is a really amazing instructor and is very well known. He actually knows Captain Slate and that's how I heard about it. When I applied here Captain Slate said that I was trained by the best and that I got the job. This is actually only my second week here. I was just volunteering at Bimini SharkLab for two weeks and only got to go free diving twice which was kind of unfortunate. But I highly recommend this place to anyone who's interested in sharks. It's great.

What's your favorite part about the job?

Can I tell you my least favorite part instead? That's easier than trying to pick a favorite. Cleaning out the head. But there are so many perks to the job. I just love diving and getting to help and watch others dive. I especially like helping people when they're nervous about a dive. If someone's nervous and I help them out and they come back happy about their dive I can say, "Oh, I helped them with that, I had a hand in their success".

Where is the most interesting place you've done a dive?

Bonaire. Definitely. 

Captain Slate's

What is your favorite thing you've seen on a dive?

That's a hard one. Each dive stands out in different ways, like if I go on a shark dive and see lots of sharks, that's always really neat. But there was this one dive I went on with my dad  and this huge tuna with yellow stripes came out of nowhere. It stayed but us for a little bit and then darted off. That was pretty cool and something I'll never forget. 

What types of sharks have you seen on your dives?

Nurse sharks, Caribbean reef, Black tips, lemon sharks, and I saw a 3.8m Tiger shark. I wasn't in the water when I saw the Tiger, but it was beautiful.

What does the future hold for yourself in the marine science field?

I would absolutely love to do something with shark research, but it's a very competitive field. We'll see. 

Thank you Patrick, for letting me interview you, making our school trip much more successful, and always making sure we had a fresh supply of oranges. I wish you the best of luck and hope you get to research sharks someday.

Want to learn more about where Patrick works? Check out Captain Slate's Scuba Adventures

Interested to learn from the best of the best? Here's a link to Tom Leaird's Scuba instruction.