Work With Marlon
Instructor – Guide – Coach – Consultant
Former IT Executive now living the sea change life.
With Marlon you’ll sea positive change in your life and business too. Mornington Peninsula, VIC Australia
Marlon Quinn – My Story
Former IT Executive turned Sea Changer, Freediving Instructor Trainer & Coach, RIB Boat Skipper and Award-Winning Adventure Tourism Operator, Cycling Guide and Tourism Development Consultant.
I was never a natural water person. Having feinted at the pool from cold as a young child. On another occasion being rushed to hospital unable to breathe, feeling as if suffocating. Being crushed to expiration by wayward teens in a game of stacks-on. Surely not the core foundations to holding one’s breath.
After a professional career in Information Technology as Project and Stakeholder Manager, it was as an adult that I at last found the sea. Only to encounter a stingray head-on and retreat with fear, panic and fright. This was the catalyst though, to learn with the world’s best freedivers, the modern gods of the sea, where I found beauty and peace within myself, on one breath, freediving deep into the blue sea.
The Eagleray encounter began a life journey that now eclipses all that went before. That moment has led to incredible adventures, achievements, highs, lows and everything in between. Never having driven a boat before, I started a commercial charter boat operation to support the freediving school I established on the Mornington Peninsula. Within 3 years I won my first RACV Tourism Award and 2 years later achieved Gold at the top level.
Since leaving the corporate world behind with nothing and beginning afresh with only dreams and inspiration, I’ve now reached the pinnacle of PADI Freediver training as a Freediving and Mermaiding Instructor Trainer, led guests across the French and Spanish Pyrenees as a Cycling Guide, skippered vessels for dolphin & seal tours and commercial fishing charters and ferry operations, and consulted on the development of a new concierge-style tourism and wellness booking hub for the world acclaimed Peninsula Hot Springs.
Thank goodness for the wildlife.
“Marlon is a knowledgable and professional coach, tailoring his teaching to suit each individual. The overall course was very detailed, covering all the essential fundamentals of freediving. What I loved most was that we weren’t encouraged to push ourselves to the limit, but rather find our own comfort level and set our own goals.” – @Rachael O, TripAdvisor
Why Work With Me?
You have a hunch, a blindspot, a desire for better that’s just not going away. Something though is getting in the way of taking that first step. A stumble from the past, a fall from grace that bruised deeply, a series of hiccups, false-starts, or the time and space to do the foundation work just hasn’t been there. It’s time for more help.
I get it. I’ve lived the paralysing anxieties, the fear of success, the view from down, and up, the corporate ladder. The lack of resources to get the efforts done.
Project management taught me efficiency, repeatability and process. Stakeholder management taught me trust building, mediation and conflict resolution. Freediving taught me patience and the ability to find comfort and ease in the most confronting of beings, and spaces. Cycling taught me perseverance, strategy and discipline. And life taught me flexibility, adaptability and perspective.
It’s through the doing that we emerge with the knowing. The good news is, it’s my job to assist you to deliver what seemingly currently can’t be done. I’m all yours for the journey we embark upon together.
Qualifications & Awards
To reach the pinnacle, one must do the work. No success happens overnight, but through dedication, commitment and the desire to grow and improve, there’s every chance it will emerge. My qualifications and awards include:
Tourism Awards
- Gold RACV Victorian Tourism Awards – Adventure Tourism
- Silver RACV Victorian Tourism Awards – Adventure Tourism
- Bronze RACV Victorian Victorian Tourism Awards – New Tourism
- TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice 2020-2022
- TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2017-2019
Qualifications
- PADI Freediver Instructor Trainer
- PADI Mermaid Instructor Trainer
- EFR First Aid Instructor Trainer
- AUSI Snorkel & Freedive Instructor Trainer
- Commercial Vessel Master <24 NC and MED 3
- Commercial Vessel Coxswain Grade 1 NC
Education
- Bachelor of Business Management – Monash University
- CERT IV TAE40116 Trainer and Assessor
- Alumnus of the International Programme on the Management of Sustainability
- Prince2 Project Management
Projects & Assignments
A sample of my key projects and special assignments.
Tourism Development
Peninsula Wellness Hub
The Peninsula Wellness Hub has been a vision of the world class Peninsula Hot Springs founder Charles Davidson for over eight years. Developing the concept and guiding the solution to opening was pure joy for me seeing it come to life.
Boatman Service
50th Birthday Private Charter
Melbourne Executive Steve celebrated his 50th birthday in style at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula providing personalised boat charter for his guests to the party as well as exceptional moments to remember out on the water. Acting as dedicated boatman and skipper for the day on the luxurious Chris Craft motor boat, the joy on guests faces was as memorable as the event itself.
Snorkel Guide
Snorkel Guide Training – Corinda HS QLD
It’s exciting to see more and more schools up-skilling their faculty teaching staff to be qualified as Snorkel Guides. Invited by Corinda High School in QLD, it was a fun opportunity for me to teach and coach the faculty members in theory and practical skills to ready them to take students safely on aquatic adventures for sport, recreation and science.
Ready to take the plunge? Join me –
Freediving Courses & Coaching
Snorkel Guide Training
Mermaiding & Performance
Boatman & Skippering
Tourism Development
Booking Systems & Channels
Product Design & Accreditation
Communications & Stakeholder
Contact
Phone
+61 4 12 082 171
Postal Address
PO Box 166, Blairgowrie VIC 3942