Chrissy - Co-Owner

Scottish Chrissy is co-owner of Tech Dive Academy, and heads the business side of things. She lives with Adam Pantlin and together they have two cats. She just loves to dive, and is slowly working her way up to instructor level.

Chrissy was born in South Africa but grew up in Scotland from the age of two. After graduating from high school, Chrissy took a year out to travel the world and fell in love with Melbourne. She returned to Scotland and spent 5 years planning her return to Australia, which she finally acheived in 2003.

In 2005, Chrissy met Adam through internet dating (who knew it could work!) and they quickly got engaged, then married on the beach of beautiful Fraser Island. Chrissy was not fond of the water, not even swimming pools, while Adam was already a Dive Master. It was Adam's dream to work in a dive shop somewhere tropical while Chrissy was happy to go along with that and sit on the beach! However, after many weekends spent sitting in the car while Adam went diving, she finally gave in and did a Discover Scuba dive.

Since then, Chrissy has slowly overcome her fear of water and done over 90 dives, acheiving Deep, Nitrox and PPB specialities. She has just completed her Dive Master and is looking forward to the challenge of the Instructor Development Course and IE in May 2008.

Chrissy's first diving experiences were in the temperate waters of Port Phillip Bay, in Victoria. She loved the marine life down there, especially the shy Weedy Sea Dragons. Adam and Chrissy loved their diving so much, they bought shares in the dive shop where they both learnt to dive.

After 6 months of being dive shop owners in Victoria, they both realised that what they really wanted was to make the tropical dive shop dream a reality and after a few days of searching, they found Tech Dive Academy for sale. Being an impulsive pair, they just hopped on a plane to Port Douglas, fell in love with the town and the business, bought the business and moved back 3 weeks later! Talk about whirlwind!

Her favourite dives so far have been at Escape Reef and Triggerfish City Drift. She especially loves finding Nemo and has recently purchased a new camera complete with housing and strobe to try and get that perfect shot!

Dive Highlights

• Triggerfish City Drift when a 3m+ Hammerhead Shark just cruised over our heads!!!
• Nepean Wall in Port Phillip Bay - spotting her first crayfish (which sadly they couldn't catch!)
• Receiving the "Encouragement" Award at IDC Scuba's annual dive awards dinner!!!