Jess is a highly qualified outdoor educator and water safety specialist with over a decade of experience delivering meaningful, practical learning in wild places. She holds a huge array of national awards including NCC Guide Award Provider, Summer Mountain Leader, Rock Climbing Instructor, Beach Lifeguard Trainer/Assessor, RLSS Water Safety and NWSMP Trainer/Assessor, and FREC 4-level medic. She’s led international expeditions, trained lifeguards, and worked across beaches, mountains, and remote coastlines.
Her delivery style is calm, clear, and inclusive — built on years of working with a huge range of people: from those with complex mental health and learning needs, to schools, families, and elite outdoor professionals. She’s just as confident mentoring someone who’s never worn a wetsuit as she is supporting a team on technical terrain.
But qualifications and experience don’t tell the full story.
Too often, outdoor instructors are expected to fit a type: loud, bold, and bursting with extroverted energy. This is great if that’s who you are! But Jess isn’t that — and never wanted to be.
She’s 5ft6, socially awkward, obsessed with seaweed, and would rather listen than shout. Think of Jess as a barnacle: small, quiet, and absolutely vital — holding fast in wild conditions while the tide crashes around her.
She knows how many other barnacles, limpets, and quietly brilliant sea creatures are out there — holding their own in a pool full of loud, flashy fish and thrashing sharks. Jess is fighting hard for an outdoor industry that says from the very start: you don’t have to perform — you get to be you.
The industry keeps pushing people to be sharks. Jess is a happy barnacle.
And the irony? Barnacles have the biggest ****s in the animal kingdom.