What is your name?

My name is Matt McKnight

How long have you been diving?

I started diving in the summer of 2012 here in Denmark officially, but I did a DSD in Israel in 1999.

Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I’m an Irish/Canadian transplant living in Copenhagen since 2010. I work in the IT industry and enjoy the short Danish summers but love the beauty of Denmark and the Danish lifestyle.

What made you start diving?

It was something that I wanted to do for many years, but the timing never seemed right. Finally, in 2012 my now wife and I decided to do the Open Water course together in preparation for our honeymoon is Malta the same year.

What is your favourite dive memory?

My favourite dive memory is a more recent one. A friend and former colleague of mine contacted me about a deep wreck off the coast of Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. He was putting together a team to discover it and wanted to know, since I was also a rebreather diver, if I wanted to be part of the team. After 2 missed days due to inclement weather, and a few aborted attempts, we made it down to the Olshana… a Russian trawler that sank off the coast of Torshavn in 2007 that no diver had yet been to. Seeing the antenna coming out of the dark at 50m and swimming around the deck at 70m was an unforgettable experience.

What type of diving do you prefer? Wreck Cave etc?

Definitely wreck diving. I’ve been fortunate enough to dive some amazing wrecks in Truk, Scapa Flow, Åland, and many others. Being able to experience that part of history keeps me coming back to wrecks and looking for new ones to explore.

What made you start diving closed circuit rebreather?

The comfort and quiet of a rebreather was very appealing to me, and since I love exploring wrecks, I knew that a rebreather would let me experience more of them in a way that open circuit would limit me.

What made you choose JJ-CCR as a rebreather?

I must admit that I was influenced some by many local divers I know that dive JJ. After doing my own research and comparing other options, it was very clear that for ease of use, safety, and durability, JJ was the way to go. It’s also important to me to support local and getting parts (thanks for the valve Jan) and service for the unit is also much easier.

What advice would you give fellow diver who is looking at starting to dive rebreather?

I would tell would-be rebreather divers to look at a unit that has an incredible safety record, easy to service, and is used by some of the most demanding divers in the world… the JJ.

Any other funny memory that you want to share with us?

I remember about a year ago when I was diving on a wreck called the Plus in Åland. We were around 30m but the water was especially dark. My buddy and I were swimming towards it and after a few minutes of swimming I thought that we had entered the wreck, since it was so little light. It was only a few minutes later after seeing the wreck in front of us, that I realised that the water was just really dark, and we were only sitting at just the entrance to it.