The Ultimate Lifestyle™
Bimini Bliss
At the age of 14 Valentine Thomas nearly drowned while swimming in the waters of France. After passing out underwater and having a lifeguard save her life, she became petrified of the ocean. It wasn’t until she pushed herself to face her fears and take her first freediving class that she was able to turn what scared her the most in life into her biggest passion and later her profession.
If you ask us, life couldn’t be sweeter for Valentine. With the ocean breeze and fresh cut fish at her fingertips, she is truly living the ultimate lifestyle as a professional free dive spear fisherwoman. The quest for her new lifestyle began in 2016 when she was hired by a French director to make a documentary. It wasn’t soon after that she realized her dream of becoming a professional fisherman could come true if she worked hard enough. With determination and passion fueling her, she escaped the corporate life and swapped her pen and paper for a rod and reel.
Picture perfect is hardly how Valentine described her journey. For a year and a half, Valentine faced being broke, homeless, sleeping in her car and anxiety about her future. She left behind familiarity and comfort to pursue her passion for the ocean but wouldn’t have it any other way.
Her partner Nick fully believes in doing what makes you happy. He is a huge encourager of following your passions no matter where they lead you. Instead of worrying about what other people think or comparing themselves to others, the two of them chose to pursue what makes them happy and move full speed ahead.
Valentine is many things: a former lawyer, world traveler, author, chef and spear fisherwoman but most of all, she is an activist for food sustainability. To her, one of the important pieces of this sport is showing people where food comes from. Most of all what made her fall in love with this lifestyle is the act of fishing and being able to hand-pick her harvest. While this lifestyle wasn’t handed to her, if you asked Valentine if she would one hundred percent do it all over again.
Nowadays you can find her in Montreal, Canada spear fishing by day and cooking up delicious meals at night.