Maike & Niels
Photo by Maike & Niels
Depths of Destiny: A Dive into Love and Adventure
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‘In the charming town of Detmold, Germany, Maike and Niels’ paths remain separate until fate unites them during a summer reunion. Their instant chemistry sparks a long-distance romance that blossoms into a shared passion for scuba diving. Leaving behind their conventional careers, they embark on a transformative journey, exploring stunning coral reefs and vibrant marine life across the globe. From the warm waters of Mexico to the Maldives, Maike and Niels navigate the challenges of their profession and the beauty of their relationship, embodying exploration, resilience, and love beneath the waves.’
Background
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We both grew up in a small town called Detmold more or less in the middle of Germany. We had a quite idyllic and normal, but also unspectacular childhood and teenage years. Even though our schools were just a few hundred meters apart, we never met while we were living in Detmold. This was supposed to happen a few years later.
As a couple deeply immersed in the world of scuba diving, can you share how you first met? Additionally, how did you both integrate your shared passion for scuba diving into a collaborative career?
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We stumbled into each other after we had already left our hometown to go to university. Maike was studying Media science in Bielefeld and Niels went to Düsseldorf to study Mechanical engineering. During a summer break we both visited friends and family back home where we eventually met on a night out with friends. At that time Niels was 24 and Maike was 22. As there was chemistry straight away we started dating, which in fact was not always easy as we were living in different cities for the next 6 years.
Shortly after finally moving in together we got married in 2016 in Munich. The next two years we spent living and working in Munich. Maike was working in Marketing for a cosmetic company while Niels was working in development for a car manufacturer. During this period we also got in contact with diving. As we always liked to spend time on the beach and in the ocean we wanted to learn how to dive.
So we decided to do the Open Water Diver course in Mexico during a holiday in 2017. Before we went on that holiday we tried it in a swimming pool to see how it feels to breathe underwater. After our first course we didn’t think to turn this into a career as it was something very new to us. However at some point in our life and career we both came to the conclusion that we wanted to change something drastically.
We decided to give up our life in Germany and start travelling. So we started saving money, quit our jobs and flat, and sold most of our belongings. In October 2018, shortly after Maikes 31st and Niels 33rd birthday, we boarded a plane towards Mexico to start travelling the world with just a backpack each. As we started in Mexico, we went back to our former dive instructor and did a couple of dives with him again. We have travelled to almost every country in Central America, where we also continued our scuba education, and a big part of South America.
Photo by Maike & Niels
After six months we flew over to Africa to continue travelling there. We visited South Africa, a small part of eastern Africa. Next area in our itinerary was South East Asia. Here we have also visited almost every single country. In January 2020 we arrived in Malapascua, a small island in the Philippines off the coast of Cebu. Here we finally became Divemaster, the first level of a professional Scuba Diver.
After the Divemaster training and travelling the Philippines for a few more weeks we were forced by COVID to go back to Germany. We spent one year in Germany before we were granted a visa for Indonesia. In April 2021 we arrived in Gili Trawangan, a small island off the coast of Lombok. Well known for Backpackers and diving. Here we became Scuba Instructors, one year later than we originally planned to.
Indonesia was still not re-opened for public tourism, so we could not find a job as Scuba Instructors there. That’s when we decided to go to Egypt, to work in the Red Sea. After doing that for a bit longer than one year we moved back to Gili Trawangan to work there as Scuba Instructors as well. We stayed there for one year before we grasped the opportunity to work as Dive Base Leaders in Ari Atoll in the Maldives. And this is where we are now in December 2024.
What do you both love most about scuba diving?
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Not very easy to put it in words. If you want to put a spotlight on it, for us the fascination of Scuba Diving is to immerse yourself into a completely different world. It is about breathtaking animal encounters, the beauty and variety of coral reefs and other underwater landscapes. Not to forget the feeling of being weightless and having one more dimension of movement.
We absolutely love the vibe, the ease you feel in the diver community. People are happy and keep their focus away from a hectic daily life. In general there are two beautiful metaphors to describe diving. One of them compares scuba diving with snorkeling or going to an aquarium. Visiting an aquarium or going snorkeling is like watching a movie while scuba diving is more like playing a part in the movie and being on eye level with the underwater creatures. The second metaphor describes scuba diving as a walk in space.
Photo by Maike & Niels
What does a typical day look like for you both as scuba instructors, and how do you both delegate tasks as a couple?
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From a geographical point of view we are having a very beautiful workplace, so most of our days look sunny. Here in the Maldives we are not only scuba instructors but also Dive Center managers. So everything that needs to be done in a dive center is done by us. From teaching new divers, over guiding experienced divers up to all the administration and maintenance duties.
Usually our day starts around 7am in the morning with preparing the guests' dive equipment and our dive equipment for the morning dive. The boat for our morning dives, where we usually guide experienced divers, leaves at 8am. For lunch we are coming back to our island. After rinsing the dive equipment from the first two dives of the day, we are having a lunch break. In the afternoon we are having one more dive with the boat or we are teaching courses on our House Reef. Once we have finished diving for the day and rinsing the gears from the afternoon dives, the administration and maintenance part of our work will begin.
We are doing paperwork, handling payments, filling tanks and preparing the next dive day. After work we sometimes go to the gym or sit on the beach and watch the sunset.
For us there is not much delegation to do. In general we fulfill all the tasks together and work hand in hand. We both know what needs to be done during the day, so we’ll just do it not only as a couple but also as a team.
Photo by Maike & Niels
How many dives have you completed, and what types of environments have you explored?
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Each of us has approx. done 1.500 dives so far. We definitely prefer to dive in warm, tropical waters. Even though we are from Germany, we never did a single dive there. Our coldest dives were in the Red Sea in Egypt with 18° C. We have already explored many different dive sites all around the world. Before entering the world of professional diving, we did dives in the Caribbean in Mexico, Honduras and Cuba. We did a few dives in the Mediterranean in Italy and Greece as well as in Asia. In Thailand before becoming Divemasters and in the Philippines during our Divemaster course with some of the most beautiful coral gardens and fantastic macro creatures.
Photo by Maike & Niels
During the course and after becoming scuba instructors we dived in Indonesia (Gili Trawangan, Bali with the USAT Liberty wreck and Komodo with strong currents, sharks, Manta Rays and a stunning diversity of marine life), in the Red Sea in Egypt where we found amazing coral reefs and spectacular wrecks (SS Thistlegorm and Giannis D just to name two spectacular ones) and now we are diving in North Ari Atoll in the Maldives with Sharks and Manta Rays.
For those interested in pursuing a career in scuba diving, could you explain the training qualifications required to become a scuba diving instructor and the time it typically takes to achieve these qualifications?
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To start a career in the diving industry, you should consider which path you want to take. There are various options. The classic route is to become a dive instructor, or one might want to venture into underwater photography and videography, or perhaps dive into research and marine biology. Which path to choose, of course, is very individual. However, all of these paths begin with the first diving course. There are several diving course agencies worldwide, with the most well-known being PADI, SSI, and SDI.
There are, of course, a few smaller ones as well. Regardless, the well-established agencies recognize each other’s certifications. The first course is the Open Water Diver, which focuses on learning the basic diving skills. After that, the Advanced Open Water Diver follows (this may have a slightly different name depending on the agency). In the Advanced course, you get the chance to explore different specializations and expand your knowledge. These two initial courses typically take about 5-8 days, depending on where they are completed. After the Advanced course, the next step is the Rescue Diver.
This course is about being able to help other divers and yourself in emergency situations.
One of the most important aspects of this course is preventing problems before they occur. Although the Rescue course can be taken immediately after the Advanced course, we strongly recommend that divers gain some diving experience before starting it.
Photo by Maike & Niels
While there are no specific requirements in the training standards, from personal experience, we recommend having at least 20-30 dives before starting the Rescue course. After completing the Rescue course, you can start the first professional course, the Divemaster.
To begin, you need a minimum of 40 dives, and to successfully complete it, you need at least 60 dives. While doing the Divemaster Training one will learn a lot about all the fields of diving. From Physics, over Physiology up to Risk Management, First Aid and the Diving Business itself. This path can have some variations depending on the course agency you are choosing. The path described above is the path we took with PADI. If you are really going for it, you could become Divemaster within 3 months. Us personally we would always recommend to take more time in between the courses and to gain some more diving experiences instead of rushing from one course to another.
Anyway, after completing the Divemaster there usually comes a decision about what to do with this first step into a scuba divers career. One might either do the Scuba instructor course and start teaching other divers, pursue a career in underwater photography or look into marine biology and scientific diving - all of them being valuable career paths.
So to sum it up, from the first breath under water during the Open Water Diver course up to becoming scuba instructor (what we are today) is a minimum of 100 completed dives (to start the instructor course) and a minimum of 6 months between finishing the Open Water Diver course and starting the Instructor course. Everyone who is thinking about becoming a scuba diver or even making a career out of it will meet many experienced instructors and amazing divers on their path and usually all of them are happy to help with any advice.
Can you share a particular memorable diving experience you have shared together
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Not too long ago, just at the beginning of our Manta Ray migratory season, we had an amazing dive with 15 Mantas and a family of 7 dolphins. This is very memorable as we are not always diving together, but on this dive we luckily did. But in general we have been lucky with what we have seen during dives.
The most beautiful experiences are always those where the animals are curious and want to check on us divers. Some of our Highlights are diving with dolphins in Egypt, diving with Mantas and sharks in Maldives and finding small and well camouflaged animals in Indonesia and the Philippines.
For us it is also always amazing to see animals for the very first time or to learn about and watch their behaviour. Sometimes it is also just be together underwater, look at some colorful fish and corals and forget about time and space.
Photo by Maike & Niels
Have you ever encountered an emergency situation underwater? How did you handle it?
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Even though we are counting on roughly 3.000 dives together, we never had to face a serious emergency situation. Scuba diving is a very safe sport. Niels once had to deal with an incident. Luckily on the end of a dive in already shallow waters a diver encountered mild circulatory problems and seemed to be close to fainting.
She was accompanied back to the surface and brought back to the dive boat. Back on the boat we followed the regular divers emergency protocol and provided first aid. In the end the diver was only a little dehydrated and was fine after some rest.
What are your long-term career goals as a couple in the diving industry?
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The world is spinning faster and becoming more unpredictable, making long-term goals difficult to define. Our current job is heavily dependent on tourism and the state of the environment, both of which have unfortunately not developed very positively in recent years. We are currently working on building a business alongside our role as scuba instructors, with the goal of sharing the beauty of the underwater world and the fascination of scuba diving with a wide audience. Especially for those who are thinking about pursuing a career in scuba diving.
Photo by Maike & Niels
Are there any specific diving projects or initiatives you want to pursue together?
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The longer you are in the diving industry, the more you learn about amazing dive spots, and our bucket list keeps growing. So we definitely plan to dive at as many dive sites as possible, and we would love to visit Australia, the South Pacific, the Pacific coast of Central America, and South Africa. Our focus, next to exploring new dive sites, will shift more to our own project, which we already mentioned above. And yes, of course we are pursuing this together as a couple.
Photo by Maike & Niels
Words of Wisdom
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As we see how vulnerable our oceans are and how badly they are treated, we love to see every effort by any person to protect our seas. Also we strongly believe that the best way to protect nature and our oceans is through education. Having said this our words of wisdom will be a quote from a very well known scuba diving personality, Jacques Yves Cousteau, who said: “We only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we are taught.”
Photo by Maike & Niels
To continue following our explorers Maike & Niels’s journey or simply want to reach out and say Hi, you can connect with them on the following accounts:
Instagram:
@the_scubacouple
TikTok:
@the_scubacouple
Facebook:
The Scuba Couple