Bryon Conroy got his first taste of diving in the Maldives ten years ago and it set him on a path to working in the diving industry. Now he returns, and heads for the Deep South in search of sharks Photographs by Byron Conroy
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lmost ten years ago to the date I was working and living in the UK working a 9 to 5 job and following a very traditional career path. I was 28 years old and had recently achieved a career goal that I had been working towards for the last few years. Upon achieving that goal, I had a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of ‘what next’? I had achieved what I had set out to, but the job itself gave me no satisfaction. So I decided to take a holiday. Little did I now that would be one of the most-affirming moments of my life and one of the best decisions I ever took. The whole point of this holiday was to try scuba diving - for many years, I had been interested in marine life keeping aquariums at home. But now after many years of hard work to achieve my career goal, I thought it was time to go and see all of these colourful marine species in their natural environment. My destination of choice was the Maldives, and my first dive in the clear, calm blue waters of the Maldives really did change my life. The experience was so overwhelming it bought things into perspective, there really was more to life than cold damp mornings in the UK and monotonous meetings repeatedly discussing the same things.
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Upon returning to the UK, I handed my six-month’s notice in from my job, sold all of my possessions and made a plan to leave the UK to become a professional diver. The journey took me all over the world, living in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and now to my new home in Iceland, where I moved six years ago to work in diving. I have dived all over the planet over the last ten years, but much of that I owed to that very first dive in the Maldives. The Maldives are a small island chain in the Indian Ocean, they are world famous for their beautiful islands and incredible diving. There are many different islands resorts all offering stunning over-water villas and relaxing spas. These make for fantastic honeymoon-style holidays with a few dives thrown in here and there. However, if you really are going to get the most of the diving in the Maldives, by far the best option is a liveaboard. A liveaboard will take you over a much bigger area as you don’t need to return to the same place each evening. My home for my seven-day trip would to be Blue Force 1, a luxurious 42-metre vessel that offers ten cabins, all of which are to a very high standard and come with ensuite bathrooms. The boat won ‘Best Maldivian Liveaboard’ in
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