About CaribStu
The question I get most often is "where are you from".
I spent so much time traveling the world and living in different countries picking up dialects and foreign languages that my accent is a real mélange. People guess everything from Aussie or Kiwi to German and 
South African. Once, a couple from the UK asked me where I learnt to speak English.
I’m a sixties child, born in the UK. That’s me on the left. At the age of nine my parents took me traveling around Europe in VW Kombi Van. I guess you could say that’s what kick started my desire to travel .
When I was a small boy my Father built and raced his own F1300 single seater racing cars and I very quickly became passionate about motorsport. My boyhood heroes were Ferrari drivers Gilles Villeneuve and Niki Lauda. By the age of 12, I was racing Karts. I became Junior National Champion at 14 and raced Internationally for Ferrari - All Kart by the age of 15. I guess outside of diving that karting and motorsport is my greatest passion.
I left school at 16 in June 1984 and began my travels which over a period of eleven years took me across five continents and many oceans. I spent two and a half years in Oz and it was here that I started diving in 1988 on the Great Barrier Reef. I did my OWD with Ausdive out of Cairns and my instructor was a Brit by the name of Nigel Julian Scott. It was the Australian bicentennial year and I spent it traveling around “God’s own” getting in some 
more diving on Ningaloo, Rottenest and Jurien in Western Australia and Jarvis Bay and Huskinson in south New South Wales.
In 1989 during a six month tour of New Zealand I was fortunate enough to dive at Poor Knight’s Island and also off the fjords of Queenstown in the south.
My travels then took me through the south Pacific Islands once again diving in Fiji, Tahiti, Riatea, Maupiti, Huahini and the Hawaiian islands. Then in 1990 I flew on to the Canada, USA and Mexico. I managed to dive the Gulf Coast before hitch hiking across the Deep South Louisiana and Mississippi and up into the Carolinas and eventually NYC from where I flew back to Europe and spent the summer of 1991 in London before hitch hiking up through Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway and then back down through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
In 1992 I left Europe via Moscow and Tashkent and into India where I traveled around for six months and made the first and most extensive of my two trips into Nepal. Hiking the Annapuna circuit in December when it was minus 40 and the coldest winter I’d ever know!
By the start of 1993 I was in Thailand. I stayed in Thailand and the SE Asia region for two years visiting Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos and Hong Kong. I was blessed enough to dive a then little known island called Koh Tao, which was a day’s boat ride from Koh Samui and had one dive shop on the island. Now it’s over run with dive shops, hotels and IDC centres. Having been there before all that, I can’t imagine where they would put it all. I also made some dives off Parentian islands, Malaysia.
Eventually my travels lead me to Trinidad. I came for Trinidad carnival 95 and found myself drawn to the Caribbean. Over the next five years I divided my time spending winters in TnT and summers working in the UK. I also spent some time island hopping, diving in St Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe & Antigua but always found myself coming back to TnT.
I settled down in Trinidad in 2000 and it soon became my home. In 2002 I decided to get into diving as a profession and moved to Tobago and became an Instructor.
I worked for a small dive shop at first before moving on to Extra Divers Worldwide in Crown Point where I studied the craft and became an Instructor in 2003. After two and a half years with Extra Divers I was offered the position of Manager for Extra Divers Speyside. I was involved in the opening of their Speyside dive 
centre right from the start and it very quickly became recognized as one of the best dive centres on the island.
After such a long time working for Extra Divers I needed some time off and a change of culture so in mid 2005 I hit South America and the Amazon rain forest for a little break from all the cattle truck diving and to see the meeting of the rivers at Manaus. It was during this break that I decided there must be people who are tired of being crammed on boats with ten other divers or detest being called up from a dive after thirty five minutes when they still have over half a tank. There must be people fed up of the cattle truck diving who would pay the extra for a professional private dive service.
On return to Tobago in September of 2005 I temporarily managed Aquamarine in Speyside before deciding to take the plunge and start up my personal dive guide service.
In November 2005 Caribstu Dive Service was born.
I’ve always loved diving either with small groups of one or two. You get to see so much more and if you’re a keen photographer you don't have to keep up with others. When you dive alone you dive how you want at the pace you want. That’s the concept of 
CaribStu Dive Service. I decided I wanted to offer divers the chance to explore Tobago’s waters in a relaxed and intimate way. No rush, just cool vibes. Something unique, something special that allows you to get the most out of diving without having to deal with the groups. It also gives me the chance to teach dive courses in a One to One basis which I always enjoy and is much better for the student.
As an instructor I am patient and thorough and as a dive guide I have a reputation of being slow, dedicated and enthusiastic.
You’ll find that I’m quite passionate about my work and diving in general but it is not my whole life, in fact I have a variety of interests outside of diving. Over the years I’ve actively been involved in a range of sports including Kart Racing, Rugby League, American Football and Triathlon. I recently took up karting again in Trinidad and I still enjoy various other forms of motorsport such as F1, WRC, DTM, BTCC and Australian V8 Supercars. I like the sporting world cups for Soccer, One Day Cricket which is going on in the Caribbean right now, Rugby League, Rugby Union and NRL State of Origin always get my attention. I’m a fan of Arsenal FC, New York Giants, and the old NSWRFL Balmain Tigers, now the NRL’s Wests Tigers.
I like to read, mostly books by John Grisham, Nick Hornby and Bill Bryson for example.
The 11 years I spent backpacking round the world before I came to the Caribbean taught me a great deal about culture, religion, people and life. These are things I'm always keen to discuss during a long SI.
During my many travels I learnt to speak Thai, Swedish and French. I picked up a tiny amount of German from diving and enough Spanish and Hindi to get by.
People often ask if I miss anything from home. It might not seem obvious but I miss the seasons. If you want to bring me something nice as a gift well a newspaper off the plane is a good thing, I’m always keen for a recent issue of an ITV F1 mag or Scuba Diver magazine or A Sunday Times is always a bonus. And some things I miss which you definitely cannot get in Tobago are Twigletts.
Stuart
