Here’s what a date looks like when your girlfriend is a cold-water diver | CBC News
[ad_1]
Jillian Taylor and Tanner Stein strap on their flippers, submerging themselves deep below the Atlantic ocean.
They’re looking for species like wolffish and swimming past sea caves in frigid, yet crystal clear blue waters.
It’s certainly not your typical first date.
“If you go off slightly to one way or another, or find a new rock crevice, it’s possible that you’re seeing something that very few people have ever seen, and exploring parts just below the surface that maybe no one has ever laid eyes on,” said Taylor.
“There’s so much life that’s existing just out of view.”
Taylor is originally from Nova Scotia, and moved to Newfoundland and Labrador just over a year ago to pursue a masters of science at Memorial University, where she currently researches puffins.
When she’s not studying the small bird, she’s often below the ocean’s surface in search of other creatures. The cold-water diver documents her journeys on what she calls a digital journal — her TikTok account, which has around 14,700 followers.
Jillian Taylor and Tanner Stein are a cold water diving duo, who say many people are surprised to discover all of the beauty lurking below the ocean’s surface. Taylor has over 14,000 followers on TikTok, where she shares videos of the couple’s expeditions.
“Every dive we do, we log it. So this is a paper and pen kind of thing,” said Taylor. “I like the hard copy, but I really liked making a dive log that was a digital version of that.”
Before Stein even met Taylor, he admits he already recognized her face and voice.
He’s a high school science teacher in the province who has a biology degree from Memorial University. He watched many of Taylor’s diving videos before she moved to Newfoundland and Labrador, and says her digital journal logs actually inspired him to pursue diving more seriously.
During Taylor’s first week in the province, she says the two met while rock climbing with mutual friends at Signal Hill in St. John’s. They say their friendship eventually became something more romantic, and soon, Stein became Taylor’s boyfriend and diving partner.
“Being able to be underwater for 45 minutes to an hour, getting to stay still and watch the ocean kind of exist around you, is a really special experience and feeling,” said Stein.
Tropical Newfoundland
The duo dive together year-round, swapping the wetsuits they wear between the months of July and October for drysuits during the colder months, which Stein describes as “artificial blubber,” as it prevents the Atlantic’s frigid waters from seeping in.
They communicate underwater using a series of hand signals, including wrapping their arms around themselves and moving their hands up and down in a shivering motion to say, “I’m cold.”
The duo says they typically spend 45 minutes to just over an hour underwater during each dive, depending on the water temperatures. Taylor says temperatures can range from 4 C to 12 C from May to October in Newfoundland, but on her TikTok account, she’s documented herself diving in April in temperatures as cold as negative 1 C.
Stein says he’s “allergic to cold water,” so he uses a drysuit for most of the year and doesn’t partake in some of the colder dives his girlfriend enjoys.
They’ve explored the ocean off the coast of places like Harbour Main on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula, to Gros Morne on the island’s west coast. One of the duo’s most notable dives was in Bonne Bay, says Taylor, where they dove in a fjord and spotted hundreds of sea anemones covering rugged sea caves.
“If you didn’t know it was five degrees [Celsius], you would assume it was a tropical place,” said Stein.
Although Newfoundland temperatures are the antithesis to tropical climates, Taylor says you don’t have to travel someplace warm to dive in clear blue waters filled with colourful biodiversity.
She says many people living in Atlantic Canada have commented on her videos, saying they are shocked to discover the beauty hiding beneath the ocean’s surface.
Cold water diver Jillian Taylor takes a GoPro with her on all her diving expeditions. Check out some of the species she saw on one of her latest dives.
“I think that people have this kind of misconception that the North Atlantic ocean is this really cold and frigid and dark, lifeless place,” said Taylor, sitting beside her boyfriend on a rocky shoreline at a dive site in Harbour Main, where the pair had their first date.
“It is really cold, don’t get me wrong. But it has so much life and the visibility in Newfoundland is so, so clear. It’s these crystal clear blue waters that you would think that you’re diving somewhere tropical, but you’re not. And I think that surprises people.”
Stein knows he isn’t Taylor’s only admirer, and says her videos can be used to help him teach inside the classroom.
The high school teacher says his students have seen many of his girlfriend’s videos on TikTok. When he sees students start to zone out or nod off during class, he says he sometimes brings up diving or the ocean, because it’s a great way to get them reengaged.
“Shamelessly, I’ll usually try to bring up diving at some point with my students,” says Stein.
“I’d say like eight out of 10 times, somebody in the class knows about ‘diving TikTok girl,’ and then I get to bring up how, ‘Oh, I’m in some of those [videos], that’s my partner.'”
For anyone interested in cold-water diving, Taylor says they should take a course to get their open water certification. She says scuba diving isn’t always the most affordable hobby, so something like snorkeling may be a better lower-commitment option for some.
She says the best thing someone can do is find an ocean buddy, learn more about the water and hop in.
“We’re clearly not fish, we’re not meant to be under water for long periods of time,” said Taylor.
“What a privilege to be able to step into that really cool, absolutely brilliant world.”
[ad_2]
