Reflection of Boxing Day 04

So I was there!

Yes, it was one of those strange decision I made that morning to meet my student later than what we have planned. I was planning to dive with my buddy, Steve Varas, to complete his EANx course at 10am. Well, it was the day after Xmas, so we thought we would get into the water off Kata Noi Beach at 10:30am instead. And so it went with the rest of the story, the first high tide rolled in at about 10:25am, I missed it. I arrived to see the rest, the blunt of the second and third waves. Our little dive shop, about 100m from the water break was destroyed. miraculously, no one got seriously hurt on the entire beach. With all of us running around and yelled at all of the curious & dumbfounded tourists taking video & photos on the beach, we managed to clear everyone safely to the second floor of the Kata Thani Resort. The photo above was taken in February 2005, just 2 months after the Tsunami.

So, now it's 3 years later. I vividly remembered what the entire day was like. My memory of the second wave was just simply me noticing that the horizon was at the middle of the 20m tall coconut tree when I looked out toward the sea... The rest, it is still a blur of action, sound, movement, crashes, cries, and then confusions... It changed our community in Kata forever. I'm still waiting to see if it has changed me.

A nightmare Holiday....

A recent event that happened to my good friend, Dennis who's managing a Euro Diver Center in the Maldives, and his parents have caused me great concerns. It's not possible anymore to live a law abiding life and be treated as so. When you are traveling now, there are so much more services that can make mistakes, which in turn may ruin your holidays, or worst, your life.

When checking in your luggage at the airport, do you ever stop to make sure that all of your tags are correct? and not an extra bag was added to your total checked luggage? How about having someone else handling your unlocked luggage from point A to B? Are comfortable with that?
With the paranoia started by Al Queda, and greatly supported by the US of A, the whole world now are freaking out about flying or transporting anything or anyone. It's too bad that life has come to all of us human beings mistrusting one another...

So, enjoy Dennis blog, learn from it and please remember to always question authority when you know that you are right, and hold the airline responsible for their carelessness or lack of customer service, especially in cases where mistakes are made from their mishandling!

Taking the Plunge & change your career?

I often get asked "the question" when visiting with my former IDC students and friends, "how did you know when you make the decision to live your life as a dive instructor?"

I answered it the same way as I always had in the last 4 years, it's like when you know you have fallen in love.

There are so much risks involved when you found yourself falling in love. It's that yearning feeling to be with your love one all the time. It maybe taking the risk and tell that someone you love him/her. It's letting all of your emotion, pride, and security hanging out there when you take the chance to go after what you love... Let's say that he/she accepts your love proposal, and off you go toward happily ever after. Please keep in mind that you still have to put your energy, time, effort, patience, and even change the way you look at life to continue this fairy tale.

Now flash to today, change the word "love" to "diving life", then you have it. The risks, feeling of insecurity, uncertain future outlook, and daunting tasks of having to work to keep your fairy tale alive are there awaiting if you choose to go after what you love.

I chose mine as if it was love, and I am still in love today. Are you able to fall in love so deep that you will take the risk?

your passion, have you found it?

Passion, defined by Webster New World Dictionary as "1. strong emotion, as hate, love etc. 2. object of strong desire."

Since becoming involved in diving, I have met close to a thousand men and women wanting to pursue their dreams of living in a tropical paradise by becoming dive professionals. Most of them told me that they want to take a crack at doing something they are passionate about, and that's teaching scuba diving.

So, their motions begin... the dreamers went into it hard and fast during their divemaster course. They live a "rock star" lifestyle (eat well, party lots), logging those dives asap, good or bad, they didn't matter. Because you must get as many dives in as you can to qualify for the next course. Then they blew through the instructor development course (missing out on the majority of the training covering professionalism and the "real business" of diving)... because they must do whatever it takes to pass the examination, because there have gotten to be jobs out there waiting for the instructors whose passed the exam. Aren't there? Is it true that any dive shops or centers will hire anyone who has an instructor card? It must be true (since jobs are guaranteed by the schools), and there are thousands of new instructors graduating every month, and more are getting ready to begin the same dream... there must be demand for scuba instructors in all of the tropical paradise!

Six weeks, some hours, and loads of cocktails & spirits later, reality dropped in to those hazy and clouded excitement. What happen when paradise turns out to be the same stress and expectation as where you have come from? That perfect beach, that clear blue sea, and the promise of fulling a passion suddenly require commitment and discipline. What do you mean instructors have to get up early? washing dishes left behind by the guests? sweep and mop the shop? clean dive equipments? Show up earlier than your students? Diving today, again? staying late to close the shop? and I have to pay how much to be able to work as an instructor here? Impossible...

For many who came from other parts of the world, you get to wake up to reality, cut short or abandon your passion and leave. Because there's always a home for you to go back to... But luckily for many of the local dive pros, who are living and working in your abandoned paradise, they'll have to get up in the morning and begin the day as yesterday, last week, or last month, and fill in...

Now, returning to the word "passion." Is your passion strong enough that you will commit yourself emotionally, physically, and financially to achieve that object of desire? If your answer is yes, then don't take the short cut, cheap route, or quick thrill. Those of us who get to live our dream and follow our passion, we did not get there the easy way. We got where we are by learning and taking the best advice and training from those before us... and those good things don't just fall into your lap and definitely ain't for free...

Go Cal Bears - 25 years in waiting

can this season be it?

dating back to my first view of a college football game, it was a classic, the 1982 85th Big Game between my beloved Cal Bears & Stanford at Memorial Stadium. "The Play" forever etched in my memory as one unforgettable moment in sports, of course 49ers' Montana to Clark with "the Catch" beating the Dallas Cowboys at Candlestick Park raised my level of love for football to tilt.

Beating the crap out of Tennessee is a great start, at least redeeming the embarrassment from last year. Now, let's see how Cal D' will hang on and keep the team in the game, allowing the O' to finish off the opponents.

finding your passion

Is it difficult? No.

How do I know if it is my passion? well, you keep wanting to do it, be with it, or live it!

So, now that my passion for diving is discovered, where do I go from here?
It's amazing when I slip beneath that big blue world, realizing that I breath better than when I am on land. If I go for too long without diving, I crave the wetness, the sound of my life releasing in the form of bubbles streaking and rising toward the heaven, the friends and neighbors on the reef, who just communicate to me in signs... Oh how I love thee!

Back to the question of where I do I go from here? I guess if I am in love with the ocean, I might as well make it my religion. Spreading my love for it like a cult, teach, show, preach and do whatever I can to sustain this lifestyle, Scuba diving, so I can be with the ocean, and live with it!