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OUR TEAM

Steve

Steve started his entrepreneurial journey early when he left the UK at 17 and moved to Cape Town where he set up his own recycling business. While enjoying the Cape Town lifestyle on land, he soon ventured under the ocean’s surface and learnt to scuba dive. He even saw a Great White on one of his first few dives! In 2004, Steve went on a holiday to Tofo Beach and, like so many others, only intended to stay for a few days. Days turned into months and months turned into years. He soon picked up a career in diving; teaching scuba and managing a dive centre before eventually starting up Peri-Peri Divers with Nick in December 2009. Once a Mank, always a Mank – Steve is a football fanatic and you can’t miss the Manchester United paraphernalia around the shop. Apart from football, Steve is a big food lover and has even completed a few cooking courses!

Nick

Nick has always been around the water. He completed his Open Water course aged 12 and had already reached 100 dives by the age of 14! After finishing university in Johannesburg, he had a few odd jobs before deciding to complete his scuba instructor course and setting off for Mozambique in 2008. After working as an instructor in both Bazaruto and Tofo, he settled in Tofo which is where he met Steve and set up Peri-Peri Divers. When he’s not working, Nick likes to ride his motorbike and he also picked up free diving in 2017. He took his freediving instructor course in Bali and now runs the freediving at Peri-Peri too. Like a fish underwater, Nick freedives to almost 50m and teaches students to dive up to 20m.

Martina

Martina is from the Czech Republic but left for England quite soon after finishing school to work as an au pair. She had a great time, stayed for a while and ended up working in pubs and bars more than with children. An enthusiastic traveller, Martina came to Tofo as a backpacker in 2008. Loving the ocean, the beach and always up for a party, she found Tofo was the place for her and ended up staying here. She worked on reception and front of house in various places before she found her home as office manager with Peri-Peri Divers. Martina is very ambitious and also runs her own spa, gives massages, teaches yoga and still somehow finds time to do face painting for the local kids.

James

James grew up in a small village in the UK, despite it not being the usual career path in that part of the world, by around age 6 he had decided that he wanted to pursue a career based around the ocean and even insisted on having the European fish reference book as a bed time story! He left school at 18 to become a dive instructor and spent the subsequent 5 years teaching people to dive around South East Asia until eventually moving on to Mozambique where he quickly became friends with the Peri-Peri family whilst working as a researcher at the Marine Megafauna Foundation. 4 years on and he is now the manager of the dive shop in Tofo where him and his dog Marley can be found most days waiting to greet you as you come in from a dive. On top of diving, James is also a keen surfer and can often be spotted nipping out for a quick paddle when there’s not too much going on at the centre!

COVID-19

To help divers prepare for the new reality of diving during COVID-19 at Peri-Peri Divers. Our Mozambican Government, SSI and the Divers Alert Network (DAN) recently issued advice to dive operators on how to safely resume operations.


While this guidance gives divers an inkling of what they can expect when returning to our dive shop the risk cannot be entirely eliminated when interacting with other people.

Below we will list what we at Peri-Peri Divers are implementing to Safeguard as best we can our staff, friends and family divers from this unprecedented pandemic.


  • Firstly, all staff members have been trained in both SSI & DAN International COVID preventative methods
  • We have made available cleaning stations with sanitizer on the 2 x entry points to the dive shop, around the centre and in the bathrooms·
  • Temperatures will be taken on entry
  • All entrants will be required to sign in and out of the diving shop, allowing us to trace should the unthinkable arise.
  • Each guest will be given their own regulator where needed to use for the duration of your stay. We have disinfectant in all dip tanks for cleaning after each dive/use.
  • There will be special markers on the floor 1.5m apart for kiting up and de-kitting.
  • We will have a 1 person in, one person out rule for the toilet and hot showers
  • There will be a reduced capacity on all dive / snorkelling excursions with a maximum of 8 total divers / snorkellers
  • Masks / buffers to be worn at all times once outside of the dive shop, launching, beaching and in the boat.
  • Water and light snacks will be available on all boats, but it is recommended you bring your own.

What we ask of you…

  • Please make use of all the sanitizing stations as much as makes you feel comfortable
  • Please be respectful of distancing rules whether that be at sea or in the shop and that each person has their own principles and ideals
  • Can we suggest you bring a diving pouch containing a mask, or facial buffer (also helps with the sun), water bottle (keeping with you at all times), gloves, lock for your locker (we do have @ 100MZN), probably most importantly a pen, sunblock, sunglasses and hat.
  • Stay distant at the surface or in the boat and visually buddy check your dive partners equipment
  • Try to kit up solo, again, both in the shop and out at sea.
  • Breath through regulators in close proximity at the surface before entering the dive boat
  • Watch where you are pointing the snorkel
  • Try to smear defog not saliva when cleaning your mask lens

Above all else, don’t forget to smile.


Our promise to you…

  • To constantly as best we can, disinfect and clean all spaces and equipment.
  • All staff will be temperature checked and be required to clean hands as much as possible
  • We will provide hand sanitizer to guests with a minimum of 60% alcohol
  • We will make your safety our priority and if there is something that has been overlooked or makes you uncomfortable please say and we will do all we can to rectify.


We are living in extreme times and an ever changing world so it’s important to understand what we got into diving for in the first place and know that it may be a difficult transition to begin with but we will get over this as long as we can adhere to the rule changes and be respectful to individuals and the business needs alike.. so enjoy you time with us and hopefully the diving will blow your mind!

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