British businessman Mark Dyer’s passion for the sea, diving and swimming developed while growing up in Mallorca. However, hours in the sea over the years made him a target for jellyfish and after an extreme experience in 2018 swimming though a mass or “smack” of jellyfish in the Mediterranean and sustaining multiple stings, he decided to take action.
Once while diving, he was stung and used his diving knife to scrape the poison, or venom, off his skin before it could get into his body and cause potentially serious damage. Mark comes from a renowned family of blade makers. His father and uncles were the masterminds behind the Bonded Edge, a revolutionary innovation from Wilkinson Sword that transformed the world of wet shaving.
Now, Mark carries on the family legacy of innovation with his own groundbreaking creation: Stingblade. the world’s first and only scraping tool designed to treat the bane of divers’ and swimmers’ lives – jellyfish stings. And with summer approaching and Mallorca and the Balearics yet again “the hot spot, ground zero” for jellyfish, as Mark stresses, Stingblade is returning to the island after a hugely successful worldwide tour.
“We’ve been well received around the world and have taken orders from Brazil to Australia via Asia, the Middle East and key parts of Mediterranean Europe. The South of France, as I discovered again last year when I got badly stung again, is infested with jellyfish and in Italy we’ve signed a deal with the Italian coastguard. This summer, beach guards along the Almalfi and Capri coasts will be equipped with Stingblades, and interest and demand continues to grow,” Mark said.
“Because we are the only tool of its kind in the world, interest is huge. We’ve been approached by Dragon’s Den and have got to stage three of the process because they are very interested, and we’ve developed a new range of colours. Furthermore, we are in talks with WHSmith Travel about having the Stingblade on sale at key UK airports. You buy your book, some sun cream and your Stingblade. It makes sense, it’s a no brainer.
“Nobody likes getting stung and despite all the old wives’ tales, Stingblade is the only tool to get the barbs, the jellyfish poison, off the skin easily and quickly,” Mark explained.
“One of the biggest challenges is education. It’s human nature for people to touch any kind of sting and then rub it. You must never do that when stung by a jellyfish because all you are doing is pushing the venom into the skin, into the body and that’s dangerous. It only makes the situation worse, much worse.”
Stingblade lets users gently scrape the skin to remove jellyfish micro barbs without triggering them. This eliminates the secondary stinging and helps quickly relieve the pain.
“Stingblade offers two versions: the Personal Sport, which swimmers can carry while in the water, and the Super Blade Professional, which provides more comprehensive treatment options once they are out of the water.”
While Stingblade is a practical tool, it also represents Mark’s commitment to protecting sea lovers and professionals. He seeks to educate the public about jellyfish stings while offering an easy-to-use solution to address this challenge.
“This year, we will have a shop opening in the precinct in Puerto Portals, a vibrant hub for the nautical industry and beachgoers, so we believe it’s the ideal position for us to be, but we are also looking for distributors.
“We are reaching out to any shoreline businesses, be they cars, restaurants or shops on a sale-and-return basis. We’ve got plenty of stock already in Mallorca so we’re ready to start distributing. We want to push the product out into the community.
“With fewer and fewer predators in the sea, jellyfish in areas like Mallorca are thriving. And as sea temperatures continue to rise, more and more swimmers face the prospect of getting stung. That not only ruins your day at the beach but also impacts business.
“If you are stung and don’t have the tool to respond, you will tend to pack up, go home and complain. Stingblade enables people to respond, and within ten minutes or so they are able to go back in the sea. So, if there’s been a sting amongst a group of people on a beach bar terrace, they will not rush back to base, they will stay on the beach - everyone is a winner,” he stressed.
“So, my message this year, as Captain Stingblade, is for new outlets to come and join the Stingblade club because we are ready to save the Mallorcan summer,” Mark stressed.
“Apart from the personal model there is also one for boats and dive clubs, so we have it all covered,” he added. “Stingblade is the green cross code to jellyfish stings and the more people are aware of it the better because I know people who have been stung while they were young kids or even in their teens and have never gone back in the water; in one case I’m talking of a period of 50 years,” Mark said.
“Being armed with a Stingblade gives swimmers extra confidence. They have the right tool to respond to a sting and providing they follow the simple code well, they can and are back in the water within ten minutes or so,” he added.
“They come with a QR code which will direct users straight to our website so they have the right tool to respond to a sting providing they follow the simple Stingblade code well.
“And we are always keen to hear peoples’ experiences with the Stingblade and also with jellyfish. If we receive reports of large amounts of activity in any part of Mallorca, for example, we will target that area in order to help,” he explained.
“As I said, this year we’d like to help people all around the Mallorca, so if anyone or any business would like to come and join the Stingblade club, all they have to do is contact us via social media or email and we’ll respond immediately and on sale-and-return in order that everyone can enjoy the lovely beaches and wonderful sea surrounding Mallorca,” Mark stressed.
To join the club: Sales & Marketing
enquiries@stingblade.com