How the Bbeanz Began
We love the Bbeanz (Caribbean) as much as you do!
What is the “Bbeanz”? Is it a place?
No.
It is a thought that you hold in your mind!
A place you go when you want to feel “that” feeling again!
Our Story
Brett managed one of the largest scuba diving shops on the West coast. One evening while he was preparing to teach July’s Open Water Scuba class, in walked this pretty blond student, Gigi.
And the rest is history!
But if you want to know that history, Read on! And as you know there is never Just One Story!
Her Story
Hi I’m Gigi.
I have always loved the water and wanted to try scuba diving, so on one of my trips to the Caribbean I did a try scuba in St. Thomas. I loved it! I got back to Oregon and signed up for a class to get my Scuba Diver certification. At the first class I was nervous but the teacher made me feel very comfortable.
Over the next week or so the teacher was getting cuter and cuter!! We spent time getting to know each other and the more I got to know the more I liked! I knew Brett was a keeper when we went on our first scuba dive vacation together. He led the trip to Cozumel with about 20 students me being one of them. During the trip I got to see more of what a great teacher he is and how much he loves to dive. I was in Love!
We traveled every chance we got, diving all over the world. Brett loved teasing me about how I said the Caribbean….I always put an s at the end….Caribbeans. Over time Caribbeans just became the Bbeanz. We would make fun sayings like “Scuba in the Bbeanz” or “Life is better in the Bbeanz. We joked that we should make shirts for ourselves with the saying! I made Brett the very first shirt for his birthday in 2021.
The Bbeanz to me is a laid back easy going kind of feeling.
His Story
Hello I’m Brett,
I love scuba diving and I am a teacher, so the two go hand in hand. I have been scuba diving since I was about 13 years old. My diving was limited to the Pacific Northwest until I was 45. The water there is COLD! I have taught Open water class in December and January when the water temperature was 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
It wasn’t until after I started working at the dive shop in 2011 that I made my first trip to the Caribbean. The very first trip I lead was to Bonaire. The first thing that I noticed was that the skies where bluer and brighter, the air was soft and sweeter, the people were friendlier and the water was WARM!!! (83) I soon came to realize that it was not the place, it was my mind! The Bbeanz is a place in your mind.
So where did “Bbeanz” come from?
Well after that beautiful blond haired girl walked into my dive class, we fell in love. We would travel to the Caribbean 3 to 4 time a year. She is an Amazing travel planner and when we would talk about our plans she would use the term “Caribbeans” as in plural, but when you pronounce it the “S” sounds like a “Z”. So being newly in love I would tease her relentlessly. She loved it, (I think).
So, I then shortened it to the Bbeanz!!!
We are going to the Bbeanz!
Us
We have longed to live, boat and dive in the Bbeanz. In 2020 amid the pandemic Brett was looking at boats for sale in Florida (This was a common occurrence) and he found one that fit all the criteria at a fair price. Gigi said “Message them!” then after one phone call and several emails the owner dropped his price significantly. That was the sign!
We booked a flight for Brett in the middle of a pandemic, he landed, inspected the boat, learned about her background, paid for it and flew back to the west coast all in under 48 hours. This was August. We then started on an 8 month process of selling, sorting, boxing our possessions and deciding what to take and what to sell and we rebuilt a trailer that we owned, to carry it all to Florida. On top of that we bought a truck camper (Cabover camper) to live and travel our way across the country. We did not know a single person in Florida or where we were going to live. And with that we made our way from Oregon to South Florida and to our new boat.
When we purchased our boat it was out of the water (On the hard) as the previous owner had started a minor refit and when we arrived we turned it into a Major refit. As of this writing it is still out of the water and we are working on it when we can.
Summer here in South Florida is very hot and we find it challenging to get much done in the heat. Also hurricane Ian set us back some as the boat yard was closed for nearly 2 months to lift all the boats that fell over. No our boat did not fall!
As anyone who has ever worked on their own boat will tell you, everyone always asks “When is it going to be done?”. Unless you are taking it to a ship yard, boat projects seem to get done when they are ready to be done. So if you know anyone with a boat project please don’t ask “When will it be in the water?”
Be supportive and positive! The only way to shorten a boat project is help (labor) or money! LOL
“What is Your Bbeanz lifestyle?”