Here's another short story about a BT dream-job and how this maritime boy went from lobster trapping in the Atlantic to piranha fishing in the Amazon ~ among other activities he embarks on while flying around Brazil guiding BT trips. Meet Taylor Aikins:
So how did you first hear about Beach Travellers?
Well in my first year of university I was getting pretty stir crazy, midterms were creeping up, it was getting colder, and I could feel the travel bug biting again, so I literally googled something like travel/surf/awesome, and BT popped up. I checked out the website and boom! Love at first sight.
How exactly did you get involved with BT?
After spending a while looking through all of the videos and checking out the photos, I emailed BT with my life story and my resume. I said that I wanted to be a guide, and was told that most of the guides have either been on a BT trip before, or worked as a campus rep, so that seemed like the next best thing to me.
How did you end up being a Brazil guide?
I started working as a campus rep at St-FX University in Nova Scotia, and after about a year of putting posters up, hosting info tables and repping the shize out of BT, Graeme, one of the founders, and Mitch, one of the Costa Rica guides flew out to the Maritimes for a marketing campaign. They spent a couple days at my school, and over beers one night I mentioned how keen I was to be a guide, and I soon decided to jump on the Brazil 28 day trip to see what it was all about. My parents weren't happy at first, but it ended up being the best decision I ever made. I came back from Brazil and started repping again, ended up getting hired as a Brazil guide, and it's been insanity ever since.
What work do you currently do for Beach Travellers?
Right now I manage marketing on the East coast of Canada during the school year, and in the summers I head to South America to guide BT trips and show travellers all the best that Brazil has to offer. I also get to head to Costa Rica to help guide there whenever they need me so it's just amazing how everything turned out. I have been studying Portuguese and am now pretty fluent, and every year I get to do something amazing with my summers. I couldn't ask for more, the BT family is just that, a family, and now that I'm a part of it, I can't imagine doing anything else.
Thanks to everyone that has applied so far. We're still scanning applications and conducting interviews, so stay tuned.
