“I REALLY WANT OTHERS TO SEE AND EXPERIENCE WHAT I DID WHICH WAS OVERCOMING FEAR, AND TRULY CONNECTING WITH THE UNDERWATER WORLD.”
My name is Taryn Schulz, but most people call me Taz. I am a professional scuba instructor, technical diver, cave diver, and entrepreneur. I currently run my own diving operation called Taz Diving in Mexico.
Before I ended up in Mexico, I spent most of my life on Vancouver Island, Canada. During my childhood, my family and I spent most of our time fishing, camping, and adventuring. Anything from going to the beaches, sailing between islands, or even overnight trips on the boat watching eagles and whales pass by. Needless to say, I loved the water so much. Interestingly enough, until I tried diving I was actually scared of what was below the water. This greatly helps me understand my students overcome their nerves or fears of diving and transform it into confidence.
My passion for travel also grew bigger when I became a diver. I gained experience diving in many different environments, traveling through southeast Asia, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Belize, Hawaii, and Micronesia. I became a scuba instructor as a way to travel and see the underwater world but found through the process, I really want others to see and experience what I did which was overcoming fear, and truly connecting with the underwater world.
I was 23 when I furthered my education by learning technical diving, which brought me to spend a month diving on the remote world war 2 shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon. Having a GoPro at the time didn’t do its justice and those wrecks left such an impression on me that I bought my first camera housing and have been doing underwater photography since then.
For me becoming a cave diver at this point was destined to happen. I was seduced by the extreme diving and Tulum lifestyle, and started Taz Diving as a way to show others how fun and diverse cavern diving can be for the recreational diver. I run personalized tours in the ocean and cenotes for people of all skill levels. Being able to share knowledge, stories, and diving experiences with everyone is part of what makes my job so rewarding. I’m now planning week-long cenote diving retreats and in the future, I’ll be hosting and organizing more dive retreats worldwide.
CONNECT WITH TARYN SCHULZ
Website: www.tazdiving.com
Instagram: tazdiving
Photography by Álvaro Herrero. @mekanphotography