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Sean’s favourite dive sites
Dive instructor Sean Crothers might have become the next Scorsese, but life had something else in store for him.
Sean was born in Ottawa but his family moved to Long Island, New York when he was five years old. He grew up with an interest in photography and video, and went from high school to attend film school, concentrating on cinematography. Four years later he had his Bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Unfortunately the technology was rapidly advancing, making it difficult to stay abreast of the latest inventions, and the equipment was extremely expensive. Sean had another plan up his sleeve – he would turn to another of his skills – scuba diving.
His dad had encouraged him to learn to dive and on his eleventh birthday, gave him an open water certification course. Although Long Island Sound was hardly the diving capital of the world, Sean managed to parlay it into a means of earning money, cleaning hulls and working on moorings at a nearby boatyard.
The family vacationed in the Caribbean, visiting the Cayman Islands amongst other exotic locales. Sean slowly moved his way through the certification levels, taking his advanced in the BVI and his rescue diver in New York. When he turned 18 he began a three-month internship at DiveTech in West Bay to gain dive master level, followed swiftly by an instructor development course at Bob Soto’s.
He had his university course to attend back home when he returned, but each summer he flew to the BVI and taught sailing and scuba diving. By the time he realised that filmmaking was going to be a costly business, he already had a great deal of watersports experience under his belt, so deciding to focus on that industry was a no-brainer. He found a position at Ocean Frontiers in East End and moved to Cayman in 2006.
Sean is now a boat captain, dive instructor and happy resident of this picturesque outer district. He loves the tranquillity of the area and the friendly neighbours, not to mention the wild and diverse landscape above and beneath the waves. Out here you have a good chance of seeing the bigger stuff, like a manta ray that’s been hanging out recently.
In the last few months he and other members of staff at Ocean Frontiers have been actively participating in the Lionfish eradication programme needed to preserve the balance of Cayman’s marine environment.
He may not have gone to Hollywood, but no movie set can compete with the beauty that surrounds him at this job. WH