Meet the team: PADI Staff Instructor Jamie Morton
A dive centre is only as good as its people and here at Lalaguna Villas we are fortunate to work with some of the very best in the business.
Today the LLV blog sat down with our man from the Solomon Islands, IDC Staff Instructor Jamie Morton, 52. We talked about thresher sharks, exploding coconuts, and his beloved DPV safaris.
Hi Jamie! So tell us… where are you from and how did you get into diving?
I was brought up in the water really, in and on the water. We moved to the Solomon Islands when I was seven and I learned to swim there, so I was swimming and snorkelling and freediving in the ocean on a daily basis – out on a custom-built canoe.
My parents introduced me to diving there when I was very young, strapped a monkey-rigged tank onto me and took me diving.
What are your memories of those childhood dives? Did you see anything shocking?
The reef system is amazing on Guadalcanal, and it was also a major WWII battle site, so there are a lot of wrecks – sunken ships, planes, all sorts of stuff that we used to scuba dive or freedive to explore.
I never saw human remains underwater but I found them in the jungle, on a plantation there. There’s so much ordnance that washes up there, every time it rains you’d see ammunition, grenade pins, grenade fragments, you name it. I had sacks full of ammunition, helmets with bullet holes through, water canteens that you could still use, bayonets, guns – the lot!
And every now and then a coconut would fall out of a tree and you’d hear an explosion out on the plantation.
That’s how I was brought up – no TV, one radio station in pidgin english, and my brother and I were either in the jungle or in the water – spearfishing, freediving, diving – our whole childhood.
When did you get certified?
I did a lot of diving before I was officially certified of course, and then I did my proper certification in Papua New Guinea when I moved there.
And then I went through to Advanced, Rescue, did a lot of speciality courses, and then tec dive training – I’m a certified technical diver as well – so I was a very experienced diver when I did my Divemaster, and then straight onto Instructor, when I first moved here about seven years ago.
I’m an IDC Staff Instructor now and I definitely have plans to go on, ultimately to become a Course Director.
What’s your favourite place to dive here in Puerto Galera?
Well for a standalone dive site, of course Verde Island is absolutely amazing.
But I’m a bit of an adrenaline diver, I like a good drift dive, but my DPV safaris are by far my favourite form of diving.
I did two today: the first dive was West Escarceo, Canyons, Shark Cave, Atoll, into Kilima; and then the second was Wreck Point all the way back here to the resort.
That’s Wreck Point, Dungon Wall, Ernie’s Point, Monkey Beach, Sabang Point, Sabang Wrecks, Fantasea Reef, and walk up the beach to the resort.
So that’s seven dive sites in one dive, and you just see so much.
What’s your favourite thing to see underwater?
Thresher sharks. They’re just such beautiful, majestic creatures. And I like the fact they’re quite shy. Plus they’re not going to bite me either!
But when it comes to diving, I think of underwater as a poor man’s outer space.
You’re totally weightless, and you’re seeing stuff no-one else can see. It’s a feeling almost of flying, and to become a good diver, it’s almost like meditating when you’re underwater – controlling your air supply. And it’s just so peaceful.
You’ve dived all over the Pacific. Other than Puerto Galera what’s your favourite place to dive?
I would class Papua New Guinea as one of the world’s most undiscovered dive destinations.
There’s only a very small handful of dive resorts there, but even out of the capital, Port Moresby, there’s amazing diving there.
Beautiful reefs, amazing wrecks, abundant shark life, so I really feel it’s an undiscovered dive destination.
But there’s a reason it’s undiscovered – it’s a dangerous country to go to. In fact the safest place in Papua New Guinea may well be underwater!
Thank you Jamie!
If you want Jamie to introduce you to the joys of DPV diving, or the thrills of this under-water-outer-space that we all love, book a stay at LLV and learn from the very best.
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