Mantagirl aka Carin Kiphart
First off, what is your gear?
I’m an AquaLung head. I dive with a 15 year old Explorer BCD because I can just about put it in my pocket to travel. But I do want to try the new Zuma Rep??? Where’s my REP??!!! My reg is a Legend LX ACD and a Suunto D9. Yeah baby, gotta love the D9 air integrated computer on your wrist, a must if you’re a shooter. Nothing less than a 6.5mm wetsuit for this chick, no matter the temperature and I’m ready to go tropical dry. Hated to give up my last fins in a fabulous shark attracting silver (man, sharks LOVED those fins) but I LOVE my SlingShots!
In my arms when I descend is my Light and Motion Blue Fin housing and a Sony HC3 but if someone wants me to shoot amazing HD footage for your company, sponsor me with with a $50,000 Red and I’ll give you $100,000 worth of footage!
What is your position?
I am Executive V.P of Adventure! I get to plan where we go next and then check out the the destinations to make sure they totally rock. I write copy for most everything we do and try to keep Sharkman on a bit of a leash which has proven my hardest job yet! And of course, I lead all the expeditions because everyone here knows if you want to see me happy, keep giving me plane tickets!
I am also the President of Ocean of Hope Foundation. I believe strongly in the need to give back and through this non profit foundation, we are making a difference for the ocean.
What is the best part of your job?
Travel. Did I mention travel? Oh and then there’s the ability to travel. Just keep me traveling and diving all my life with the tribe and I’m in seventh heaven.
I also love that I choose who I work with. Ridlon and I have been Team Kiphart for over 20 years, and I love spending every day with my husband. Dawna, our Tribe Coordinator has been a close friend for going on twenty years back when we worked cruise ships together. She’s not only a loving, caring friend, but she keeps me on the straight and narrow and keeps this company on track on a daily basis. She also takes away my plane tickets at the appropriate times!
Oh, and did I mention travel?
What are your favorite places to dive?
That’s a long list because I love so many places for so many things. French Polynesia for sharks, Galapagos for whale sharks, Fiji for soft corals, The Dalak Archipelago in Eritrea for it’s 90 degree water (bring it on!) and Lake Michigan for….well nothing really…though they do play underwater ice hockey there. Should we give it a go?
What’s the origin of your nickname?
After two years as a professional shark feeder, I fell in love with manta rays. They are gentle and graceful and remind me of the dancer and gymnast I once was. I could watch them turn loops all day long. So I took the name as my email address and the tribe picked up on it and now I’m Mantagirl.
Given one day to dive anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Tough question…oh yea, I wrote the question! So I get to break the rule and give two. The incredible pace and chaos of a totally going off day at the Sardine Run in South Africa and….Antarctica.
Where are you from originally and where are you now?
I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan which means I was scalping tickets at Big 10 football games by age 5 and eating food covered in Velveeta cheese. I grew up in East Lansing but returned to A2 for college. From there we’d have to attach an additional sheet on where I’ve lived around the planet but now I live in the mountains of Montana.
Do you even remember your first set of dive gear? What was it?
My first set of dive gear was a Sherwood Oasis (I didn’t want to get dry mouth!) and of course analog gauges. I bought a little dive timer that popped into the bottom of the console and used my watch bezel as a back up. When computers arrived on the scene I skipped the Orca (aka the Brick) and the Skinny Dipper (complete with auto-flooding door) and Ridlon bought me a DataMax.
What is your greatest adventure dream?
To go to space would be rather “out of this world”. I can’t imagine not actually being ON the planet. Other than that, I’d like to take my video and my dive gear and have a two year around the world dive tour doing totally exploratory stuff on my own scientific vessel…kind of like Jacques did, but without the French accent.
What adventure jobs have you had?
- First dive job was a live aboard dive boat in the Bahamas - I had 12 dives under my belt! 100 bucks a week and all the beer I could drink, which wasn’t much since we were diving five times a day…on the dive tables!
- Club Med Scuba GO - I worked in the Turks and Caicos and Cancun (after hurricane Gilbert). Ridlon and I met working at Club Med.
- Training Director – Ocean Quest. This was an all diving cruise ship taking 190 divers to the Bay Islands of Honduras, Belize and Mexico.
- Senior Dive Director – WindStar Cruises - WindStar is one of three luxury small ships that sail the Caribbean, French Polynesia and the Mediterranean. I ran all the watersports, fitness and diving.
- Tour Director – Tauck World Discovery – The number one tour company for seniors. I ran land and cruise tours worldwide for a decade including all of western Europe, Greece and Turkey, Croatia, western US national parks and Central America.
- Founder- Global Dive Adventures – Our own company which has now operated guided group dive travel for over twelve years throughout the blue planet.
- Founder, SCUBA Travel Talk
