Dive Center Phuket

That's me up above hanging out with the fishes in the place I love to be most - underwater! Originally from the UK, I had quite a variety of jobs before finally realising my talents lay in mathematics and computing. After returning to school and completing my degree at the University of Edinburgh, I specialised as an IT consultant and was fortunate enough to get many opportunities to travel.

I have always been a keen swimmer and snorkeller but for various reasons never got round to scuba diving until I reached my early thirties. It was on a business trip that I realised that anyone with the desire could learn to dive so on my return I signed up for my PADI Open Water diver course. Within seconds of taking my first breaths underwater I knew that I had finally found my place to be. I instantly decided to quit my career and become a diving instructor. All my friends and family thought I had gone mad but, having worked for a long time in banking, I'm sure you can understand why I chose the alternative career choice!

I came to Phuket, Thailand in 2002 for a Similans Islands liveaboard trip whilst trying to decide where to take my professional dive courses and am still here. The following year I met my wife and my fate was sealed. Eighteen years later I still can't get enough of being underwater. Becoming a dive instructor in Phuket was undoubtedly the second best decision I ever made (the best was to ask my wife to marry me, of course!).

Oui (age unavailable although she swears she's 21!) is originally from the centre of Bangkok. At the age of 15 she then moved to Örnsköldsvik in northern Sweden for family reasons. I am sure you can imagine, it was quite a change in both culture and temperature! After completing her education there she worked in a variety of positions including teaching children and young adults.

In 2003, Oui got badly bitten by the diving bug whilst visiting friends and family during a holiday in Phuket. She decided to move back to Thailand to work in the scuba diving industry starting as a receptionist in a dive center in Karon, Phuket, whilst training to become a dive professional. As well as being well known as a fantastic and enthusiastic dive instructor (and for her love of food!) she is also fluent in Swedish, English and Thai making her the linguist in our family.

You will never meet a more passionate and enthusiastic scuba diver than Oui. Even after more than seventeen years teaching scuba diving in Phuket she cannot bear to miss even one day underwater and has openly admitted preferring to go diving than stay at home with her family. Fortunately, as all our family dive, we do get to spend some times together - underwater!

The most recent introduction to the Sharkey team in Phuket is our wonderful daughter, Abbie. As the title suggests she has now taken over the show! With her mixture of energetic enthusiasm and love of the water she is the new generation of scuba divers in Phuket.

Born in January 2007, she is becoming a budding dive instructor already. She was able to swim without any flotation aids before she turned two. Since then she developed a love of snorkelling and finally got to dive on her 8th birthday. Her favourite fish on the dive were lionfish! On the day of her 10th birthday she started her full dive certification and passed her PADI Open Water course in Phuket shortly afterwards.

Although she suffers from mild seasickness, Abbie still loves to come on the boats to go scuba diving around Phuket at weekends and during the school holidays when time permits. Unfortunately, though, now she is a teenager, it is not always that easy to get her out of bed! However, once we get close to the first dive site, her enthusiasm starts to pick up. Abbie even completed her first dives on a Similans liveaboard trip in March 2019 when we were all fortunate enough to see a giant manta ray together!

Abbie is also a very keen football player (she plays in goal) which takes up a lot of her time with training sessions and local tournaments. Her father, Iain, helps out with the coaching when time permits. Like her parents, she is passionate about nature and, in particular, protecting our reefs. When she gets the opportunities, she likes to get involved in both beach and underwater reef clean-ups in Phuket. Her long-term goal is to work in politics to help with global initiatives to save our planet, something she set her mind on doing even at quite a young age!