Mike Pinnington

Mike Pinnington grew up on the West Wales coast of Cardigan Bay and began diving in 1976. It was a natural progression to explore the undersea environment after spending many years swimming competitively for his school and state. Mike explained "Pembrokeshire National Park provided us with an incredible backyard" In fact it was the first underwater park in the U.K. "The coast line here in Pembrokeshire is pretty rugged and it gave us a great place to explore. My buddy Simon Dorras and I would snorkel for hours when we were kids and later when we became divers we took it to the next level" In 1988 Mike moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands where he was inspired to turn his passion into a career. Bob Brownridge the famed u/w stuntman from Adelaide and Gary Mawston became valuable role models and soon Mike became an Instructor.

"In the late 80’s and early 90’s diving was taking off in the UK to an incredible extent. I was pretty lucky I guess and ended up running a very old and highly regarded training facility back in Bristol in England- I introduced PADI to the store and that’s when training really took off. They were great days and that’s where I learned the craft- being positive about diving in a quarry in January, when there’s ice on the lake and your dry suit leaks, well it tests you a little bit" He got his first overseas tour in the UAE representing the Hilton chain of hotels, and then onto Hong Kong and in the early 90’s Mike found himself knocking on the office door of Rod McDowall at Red Sail Sports. " Uncle Rod gave me the break I needed to get into the Caribbean- I guess I never looked back then and became Operations Manager reasonably quickly and then as the company grew went on to be Director of Training". Smiling, Mike says "that old bugger helped me more than anyone".

Since then Mike’s been around a bit. He had a fascinating 4 years on Little Cayman running a dive program at the Southern Cross Club " wouldn’t have missed that for the world…" he says and also found himself further afield on liveaboards in Palau, " getting deported was expensive!" he mused. Most recently Mike has returned from a private contract diving a wealthy private yacht owner around the world." A great year and one I’m glad I did, I was fortunate to go to great places with some great people and did it in style. Easter Island, Moorea, Tahiti, was all-good, Europe too but the highlight was without question was Antarctica. I knew it would be special, but what we saw was incredible".

The focus now however is on warmer climates and Sunset House in particular "We have a wonderful location, unique to anywhere else in the Cayman’s and we intend to utilize it. Hurricane Ivan certainly impacted us as a company but we’re back stronger than ever and with a new philosophy." Mike explains he could not have walked into a better team, "all young and raring to go." Their enthusiasm is more than apparent when you walk through the property and meet this international instructor team. " I think I’ve got a well balanced crew- Sam from Texas is the older Statesman who keeps everything that needs fuel running and everyone else smiling so that’s a plus. Mike & Matt came from PDT in Kelowna British Columbia and as usual Wally is turning out great instructors. We also have Megan coming from this year’s graduation and she’ll shine. Annie just walked in from Germany (not literally) and she has a great attitude and will compliment the team and keep the boys in line! Lastly we got Little Jimmy Ridgeway who brings to the boats an incredible wealth of experience in training, marine and commercial fields so all in all we are able to provide first class instructors a great place to work- the guests will benefit completely from these people. The guys have just got through Total Submersion week where we had 70+ divers in or on the water- we had some help but at the end of the day the lads did it and the group was very happy. PADI was pleased with the success of the week and Keith was smiling too so at that point I knew we had achieved something"

Mike still dives on his day off and while on vacation with even some quarry training thrown in to remind him of days of old. "August I train a family in Pennsylvania so its thick suits again I guess" Ask him about his favorites and his response is swift "without a doubt the Caymans, just because of the water quality and it’s so easy- you have incredible topography, the walls still amaze me after all these years. If we going cold water try and keep me off Vancouver Island- an incredible destination above and below."

Mike looks forward to next season with excitement " we have all the ingredients for a great year, the crew are ready and if all goes to plan Manta will be up and running after her refit and we’ll be back to providing the best dive experience in the Caymans. In fact- It’s better than good!"

Mike can be contacted at mikep@sunsethouse.com.

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