My first diving holiday

When Toby – a Trading Executive based in our Luton headquarters – said yes to a spontaneous invitation to join a friend on a trip to Thailand, he didn’t realise he was about to unlock a whole new version of himself. He’d travelled before, often for theme parks, sunny beach holidays or European city breaks – but nothing like the fast-moving group adventure he’d agreed to. It was his first time in Southeast Asia and his first time travelling with a large group, where he only knew one person.

The whole idea had started in the pub months earlier. Toby and a long-time friend realised they’d somehow never gone away together. When she mentioned she’d be meeting people in Thailand in May and asked if he wanted to come along, he simply replied, “You know what? Why not?”

He arrived in Thailand ready for 12 nights of what he assumed would be a fun break. Instead, it became a holiday full of firsts – one that shifted the way he thinks about travel entirely.

One of his biggest firsts came when the group suggested he should learn to dive.

“It was something I never thought I’d do, and honestly something I never thought I’d be interested in. It felt very scary and a bit unnatural at first.”

The training itself wasn’t easy. “They were saying, ‘People find this really relaxing,’ and I was thinking, absolutely not! But by the third day, something clicked.”

“The best way to describe it is it’s like seeing in HD for the first time. You see things that don’t look like they belong on Earth. Everything’s in different colours, everything’s super vibrant.”

For Toby, the trip didn’t just open a door – it blew the hinges off. With his Open Water 20m qualification in his pocket, he returned to Southeast Asia within a matter of months, diving more and pushing himself further than he thought possible.

“If I can do all these things in that destination, then where’s the limit? It was a real confidence builder.”

Before that first Thailand trip, Toby’s holidays revolved mostly around familiar routines. Afterwards, he realised he didn’t have to pick a lane.

“You can have more than one interest. There are huge parts of the world I’d never even considered exploring. It sounds dramatic, but that trip genuinely changed my life.”

Believe you can do it

90% of it isn’t your ability, it’s your mentality. The fear of doing it can hold you back, but you must believe that you absolutely can do it.

Let yourself learn

Firsts can feel scary and unnatural, but after a few days, everything will click into place.

Say yes to things you never thought you’d try

It really helped me overcome an invisible mental block I didn’t even know I had.