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 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 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.

Frida grew up in Sweden but left for England after university. She’d been climbing the career ladder in a corporate job until the 2009 recession hit and redundancy gave her the opportunity to travel. She came to Tofo where she completed her Dive Master course and, when she realised what a wonderful place Tofo was, she never returned to Europe. Earlier in life, Frida had spent a lot of time as a swimming instructor and coach so she loved that she could get back to the ocean here in Tofo. Frida joined Peri-Peri in 2010 and is responsible for the Dive Master interns. She’s a macro diving enthusiast and, outside work, is also a keen birder

Moises grew up and went to school in Maxixe, Mozambique. When he learned to swim, aged 13, he realised he wanted to be close to the ocean. At 16, he left school early and moved to Tofo where he hosted tourist island tours. He started working at Peri-Peri Divers in 2012 while also attending night school in Inhambane between 17.30 and 22.30. Moises quickly grew to be a great diver and his fun character and great work ethic has served him well within the dive shop. He was even lucky enough to see his first humpback whale on scuba on his 17th dive! He completed his Dive Master course and, with the help of Nick and Steve, started aiming higher and took his Scuba Instructor Course in Tofo in September 2016. Now he has more experience as an instructor under his belt, he’s also starting to help out with the Dive Master training. Always ambitious, Moises is now looking to start his university studies alongside his career as a scuba instructor!

Jeremias, aka Jerry, is from Tofo and has always had close ties to the ocean as his dad was a fisherman. He finished school in 2011 and was working at a market stall until, in 2013, he had the opportunity to join the Nemos Pequenos swimming program run by the Marine Megafauna Foundation. When he finished the program in 2014, at 18 years old, he had done so well that he was rewarded by the opportunity to do his Open Water course with Peri-Peri. Jerry loved diving and we loved Jerry so we decided to keep him! He’s worked very hard and has now completed his Instructor Course. Jerry is an enthusiastic, competent dive guide with a great attitude – and he’s skilled at finding both macro life and all the big fish!