When I moved to the island, I had the intention of spending a few months here working in something different (bartender/waitress) with a level of responsibility much lower that the one I used to have at the company I worked for as a Project Manager. With very comfortable working hours (12pm-6pm) but above all, something that would allow me to dive some mornings per week. The salary was low but enough to pay for food and diving and I lived at Tonya's place. She had gone to Canada to have her beautiful baby Lola. It was a perfect deal for me.
In that moment, I did not even imagine that diving, even when it was already a big part of my life, would change it in such a dramatic way.
When my work permit expired, I went on a vacation trip to Turkey with my friend Monica and from there to London, to Luke's birthday party (Luke is Felix's brother). From there, I went to Buenos Aires to try to extend my leave of absence at work. But no, it was not possible since my boss had a project in Dominican Republic waiting for me ...
I imagined myself in high heels again, with make-up every day, with perfect matching clothes and on top of that spending a minimum of 8 hours at the office managing a project and I realized that it was an impossible mission. The only idea of being indoors for many hours was almost surreal... No sky, no ocean...no. And the thought of being months without diving??? No way José. So then, like that, I quit. I left the company where I had worked for almost 10 years to come back to Grand Turk and start a diving career.
So far, I haven't written much about the marine life not even in my Argentinian Spanish blog. I will, but today I want to talk about what diving meant and means to me. It is more than the wonderful marine life. Even more than the amazing feeling of being in that unique moment when there is no past, there is no future, nothing else but the pure and absolute moment of being like flying without the risk of falling...
To me, diving was to discover what it means to love something in such a deep way, with such passion, that everything related to it, is absolutely interesting.
I went back to the island and I took my Rescue Diver course. That changed my way of diving dramatically, making me a more responsible diver towards myself and others. Then I took Cpr and First Aid courses and then Master Scuba Diver. This is a set of specialties (underwater navigation, search and recovery, skin dive, deep dive), some of them mandatory, others optional. And last December I started with Dive Master training that is the first step in professional diving. This allows you to go with a group of divers, guiding them and making their dive safer and more interesting and fun. The dive master helps them to be prepared for the dive, guides them, support them before, during and after the dive if necessary.
It's really cool, besides the different level of stress that it may bring because there are always really good divers that allow you to enjoy the dive but there are also those ones who think they are some kind of Jacques Cousteau without the submarine and try to go too deep so it's necessary to stop them so they do not spend all the air in two minutes or get the bends. But it is so good to be down there helping them enjoy that world that is totally worth it.
It is a learning process with training that can be done in different ways and periods of times: from a couple of weeks upto several months, it depends if you just want to get the certification or to have a "real life" training.
In my case, since I was living here, I took the most of it. I studied everything for the 8 theory tests and enjoyed every part of it: physiology, physics, decompression theory, diving activities, helping instructors in training, equipment, etc. Even going beyond the text books, something so unusual in me as a student...
I practiced by going to as many dives as possible, leading dives, helping whenever it was required and even optional, trying to prevent accidents, helping the instructors in some courses.... I tried to do as much as possible and it was demanding and fun at the same time. I took my "in water" tests during the last weeks and I finished today.
And I found this, that I mentioned before: It does not matter how old you are. When you find out which the passion in your life is, it is never late to give yourself to it and fully enjoy it. Not always life is so generous and not always we are so awake to see what it is that thing that we really love.
I saw it in the middle of my life and it was impossible to ignore the call, even if it sounds a little mistic... I saw it and I kicked the board inmediately and changed my suit for the wetsuit and the high heels for the fins. And I realized that even when I enjoyed many things at work, in all those years that I worked "indoors" (about 34 years) not even once I felt the complete happiness that I felt yesterday afternoon, when after the morning dives with beautiful dolphins and after finishing the tests, I was able to say these simple 5 words: I am a Dive Master :)
In that moment, I did not even imagine that diving, even when it was already a big part of my life, would change it in such a dramatic way.
When my work permit expired, I went on a vacation trip to Turkey with my friend Monica and from there to London, to Luke's birthday party (Luke is Felix's brother). From there, I went to Buenos Aires to try to extend my leave of absence at work. But no, it was not possible since my boss had a project in Dominican Republic waiting for me ...
I imagined myself in high heels again, with make-up every day, with perfect matching clothes and on top of that spending a minimum of 8 hours at the office managing a project and I realized that it was an impossible mission. The only idea of being indoors for many hours was almost surreal... No sky, no ocean...no. And the thought of being months without diving??? No way José. So then, like that, I quit. I left the company where I had worked for almost 10 years to come back to Grand Turk and start a diving career.
So far, I haven't written much about the marine life not even in my Argentinian Spanish blog. I will, but today I want to talk about what diving meant and means to me. It is more than the wonderful marine life. Even more than the amazing feeling of being in that unique moment when there is no past, there is no future, nothing else but the pure and absolute moment of being like flying without the risk of falling...
To me, diving was to discover what it means to love something in such a deep way, with such passion, that everything related to it, is absolutely interesting.
I went back to the island and I took my Rescue Diver course. That changed my way of diving dramatically, making me a more responsible diver towards myself and others. Then I took Cpr and First Aid courses and then Master Scuba Diver. This is a set of specialties (underwater navigation, search and recovery, skin dive, deep dive), some of them mandatory, others optional. And last December I started with Dive Master training that is the first step in professional diving. This allows you to go with a group of divers, guiding them and making their dive safer and more interesting and fun. The dive master helps them to be prepared for the dive, guides them, support them before, during and after the dive if necessary.
It's really cool, besides the different level of stress that it may bring because there are always really good divers that allow you to enjoy the dive but there are also those ones who think they are some kind of Jacques Cousteau without the submarine and try to go too deep so it's necessary to stop them so they do not spend all the air in two minutes or get the bends. But it is so good to be down there helping them enjoy that world that is totally worth it.
It is a learning process with training that can be done in different ways and periods of times: from a couple of weeks upto several months, it depends if you just want to get the certification or to have a "real life" training.
In my case, since I was living here, I took the most of it. I studied everything for the 8 theory tests and enjoyed every part of it: physiology, physics, decompression theory, diving activities, helping instructors in training, equipment, etc. Even going beyond the text books, something so unusual in me as a student...
I practiced by going to as many dives as possible, leading dives, helping whenever it was required and even optional, trying to prevent accidents, helping the instructors in some courses.... I tried to do as much as possible and it was demanding and fun at the same time. I took my "in water" tests during the last weeks and I finished today.
And I found this, that I mentioned before: It does not matter how old you are. When you find out which the passion in your life is, it is never late to give yourself to it and fully enjoy it. Not always life is so generous and not always we are so awake to see what it is that thing that we really love.
I saw it in the middle of my life and it was impossible to ignore the call, even if it sounds a little mistic... I saw it and I kicked the board inmediately and changed my suit for the wetsuit and the high heels for the fins. And I realized that even when I enjoyed many things at work, in all those years that I worked "indoors" (about 34 years) not even once I felt the complete happiness that I felt yesterday afternoon, when after the morning dives with beautiful dolphins and after finishing the tests, I was able to say these simple 5 words: I am a Dive Master :)
