Being a professional diver is cool because you're being paid for living in a beautiful tropical environment, going out to the open sea on a boat as work, swimming around, chitchatting with people and showing them a bunch of wonderful things they usually see the first time in their lives. Not the kind of work that makes you rich, but I think many people work a lifetime to get the things that with this job come by default. If you know what I mean.
Well, that's why I'd like to be a diver. Funky, sunny, happy life :)
It's strange that I didn't mention this among my goals when I started this blog, but now I'll summarize how this diving thing works and also my progress with it.
First of all, my motivation. I've been programming computers for 20 years now. 11 years professionally. I'm 27 now. Spending that much time at computers is a bit too much I say, so it's about time to do something else, at least for this one year of my travels. Travelling around by itself would bore me anyway so I collected a bunch of things I want to achieve using my sudden free time. And among these, diving is a very important one, also it has high costs in terms of both money and time.
Let's see what the procedure of becoming a diver consist of:
- First you need infinite time, but at least a couple of months -> Check. I have a lot of time now.
- You must choose what kind of diving you want to do -> I want to teach recreational scuba diving in the PADI system, because that's the most commonly acknowledged certification worldwide. (And recreational scuba diving is that thing when you wear a strange jacket with a big tank attached to your back and you go down in the big blue sea for about 1 hour to a depth of max. 40 meters.)
- After having this decision, you must start off on the path: first step is getting a PADI Open Water Diver certification -> Check. It took about 4 days, it was my very first scuba diving experience and I loved it a lot!
- The second level is the PADI Advanced Open Water certification -> Check. it took 3 days. I can go down now as deep as 30 meters. Of course, being an instructor is still far away.
- E.F.R. (Emergency First Response) course and exam. For safety. -> Check. It took only one day and it was very useful.
- Rescue Diver certification: It allows you to rescue your pals from the water if something goes wrong -> I've organized to do this and the next level from February in Thailan. This level is 4 days.
- 40 logged dives to start the next level -> I've got 13, the others I've organized to fo in Thailand. Let's say 2 weeks.
- Buying my own equipment -> This is gonna be steep (about $800) but I have no other choice :/
- Divemaster. Once I got this I'll be allowed to take out any healthy person to the open water, grab them by the tank and give them a first experience of diving. -> I already organized this one too, I'll do it in Phuket, Thailand from January to March, at Merlin Divers in Kamala. Drop by if you're around :) 3 months.
- 100 logged dives to be able to attend the Istructor's course. -> I'll achieve this easily. (it's in the 3 months too)
- Open Water Scuba Instructor -> I don't know when and where will I do this course but it takes about a month.
- Master Scuba Diver Trainer -> This is just a small step from the previous one, a half a month and some (a lot of) money. This is the final level I want to reach.
Originally, I planned to do all this stuff in Thailand but then I met Gábor, who is a Hungarian diving instructor in Goa. He had no students at the time so I thought: 1. It's nice to help my countryman instead of someone else, 2. Unlike at most Thai diving courses, here I would be the only one student instead of 1 of 4-6 (or 8, if I'm unlucky). So I studied one on one with an experienced instructor, which was really the best possible scenario. The only thing which could be better was the water visiblity. Not just that we couldn't see any nice fish, but the viz was sometimes 0.5 meters or so: I could hardly see my pressure gauge. But I think this experience will come handy when I find myself in rough conditions (which is not likely, looking at the Thai diving pictures), at least that's not gonna be my first time.
After the courses I stayed for a weekend to help out at the dive center. In turn I got some extra dives - in Karnataka, south from Goa, in much cleaner waters! - plus Gábor connected me to an instructor in Thailand who connected me further to a Swiss guy in Phuket, Thailand, who accepted me for a 3 months internship to work a lot (carry heavy tanks and all), BUT to acquire the Rescue Diver and Divemaster certificates in turn, along with lots of experience. This all would cost me at least $1000, but with all the experience, much more. So I happily accepted his offer and going there in the end of the year! :)
Well, this is where I stand now, the results are tempting, the way there is clear, the goals are achievable. So it's only a matter of time and I'll be an instructor :)
