What our Divemasters did next?

Our PADI Divemaster Interns are a huge part of the team, and play a massive role in the enjoyment of our students. They come join us for 12 - 20 weeks of diving, learning new skills and exploring Orkney, so we thought we'd do a series of blog posts about how they found the experience and what they're doing now. All these posts will be original and non-edited, so any negatives they have will be left in (we'll just sulk in the corner as we read them)! This first one comes from Lucia, who joined us in 2022!

Divemaster Lucia on the left heading back after a day diving in Scapa Flow.

"I found Kraken Diving online. I was making decisions regarding my gap year and out of boredom I searched on google “divemaster internships in northern Europe”. I opened a website and a map popped out : there were a few interesting centres in Germany and a couple in England, I checked everyone but they didn’t convince me for different reasons. Then I spotted a red dot on the map and clicked on it : a Diving Centre in such a faraway place? An internship in one of the most remote islands of Scotland? I’m into it! I sent a mail to Margot and Rob... and they answered! After a couple of months, in May, I reached Stromness from Kirkwall by bus, the weather was gorgeous and I was able to see the ocean on the left and the fields covered by the white dots of the sheep on the right : I was definitely in Scotland!

Lucia enjoying the swimthru on the SS Reginald

Two days later, after I took some time to explore the town and the nearby coastline I finally started my journey to became a divemaster and I can assure you it was exciting from start to finish. The first dives were at the Churchill Barriers, the perfect place to familiarise with the northern sea if you are not used to it, then we travelled by boat to reach the German Fleet in Scapa Flow, an once in a lifetime opportunity if you love history or just the little underwater critters. During the months I spent in Orkney I had plenty of free time to roam around the island and explore the many Neolithic sites that you can reach by car, bus or hiking the coastline pathway and as you know, when you have to much fun time flies and I came home in Italy.

My gap year was ending, so I decided to enrol in a university programme, but I didn’t forget what Scotland has left me. One of the Kraken Diving snorkelling trip took place in Westray, a place I recommend to visit because is filled with birds and the most well known and loved is for sure the Atlantic Puffin. I was interested in ornithology and the opportunity to see them nesting and mating filled me with joy. Consequently I decided to study Environmental Science in my local town : all of this because I ended up on the right website!

I recommend you all to dive in Scotland and to choose Kraken Diving as your trusted Diving

Centre. Margot and Rob are so professional and kind and in general people in Stromness are very welcoming, even if your English is not perfect. They also regularly did Dives Against Debris while I was there. During my trip I was able to meet people from all the European countries and even from the US, I even met my best friend and that allowed me to visit the United States a year later!

Have fun, dive a lot and take care!

Lucia"