Hello world! Well this first blog is intended as an introduction to all those of you with nothing better to do than read it...how bored you must be!
I am a 30 year British woman who, having tried and tested a number of careers, has settled on Scuba Diving. Over the last 7 years this sport has leaped from being my hobby and my job to being my passion, nay, my life. You see, what a lot of people don't understand is that it is a way of life, the only way of life for some, and not something to be dismissed as a fairweather activity.
I have a lot of friends who dive, some casually, some with an intensity that would scare lesser mortals, and I have heard some stories that would make your hair curl. This blog is intended to be an outlet for those stories (of course with names changed) as well as a medium for photos and other random bits and pieces. Hopefully you won't become too fed up with my ramblings. I won't promise to update every day, but I promise when I do, it will be something worthwhile :). This is also my first attempt at blogging and writing something that will actually get published, even if it is only in the 'bloggersphere'...
Here's something to get started - recently my boyfriend (Sharkboy) passed his Divemaster course, and this got me thinking about when I passed mine 6 years ago. My career in recruitment has reached it's stale conclusion and I was floundering in London, desperately seeking an outlet for my ideas and energy. If I'm honest, I was only an ok recruiter, I had no passion or desire to sell jobs, to sell people, and I needed something more fulfilling. I had started diving about a year previously, on an off chance, when a friend of mine from school and I went on holiday to Egypt. I met a man and started diving - believe me when I say that many stories start this way in the diving industry. I was never that keen on the idea of diving, but, being game, I agreed to do my Open Water course with my friend, and I will never forget that first dive in the Red Sea. Breathtaking doesn't even start to describe it - I had such an intense feeling of coming home, of belonging to something so much bigger than I would ever be, and even better, I was a natural! When I came back to London, the two relationships continued, and I made it a point to return to Egypt whenever I could. Luckily I was in a job that gave more holiday allowance than most, and I was able to travel every couple of months (this was also back in the days when Monarch and Thomson did cheap package holidays to the Red Sea so it didn't break the bank).
Finally, after finishing my Advanced Open Water, I decided the time had come to take a sabbatical from work and travel to Honduras to do a 'zero to hero' course; Rescue, Divemaster and Instructor; in three months. The boyfriend freaked out due to an ex who had left him to become an instructor, the parents thought initially it was a bad idea but backed me in the end, and my friends were equal parts jealous and overjoyed for me. I paid the rent on the house and left my guinea pig in safe hands, and flew halfway across the world. After a few disastrous nights in Houston and San Pedro Sula, I arrived in Utila to be greeted by...no one. The course and accommodation were arranged but when the bi-plane touched down in the empty football pitch I was expected to make my own way to the dive centre. Surrounded by acres of jungle and smoggy heat, shouldering my backpack and eager to experience life, real life, I walked to the dive school in the centre of the island, where, if memory serves, I was handed a beer and directed to my new digs. My housemates are another story altogether, but the welcome was less than warm at first. The courses went well and I finished my Divemaster course in a record 10 days. Most people take a few months as a minimum, but I was on a tight schedule with the Instructor course coming up very soon.
The memories and friendships that I took from those months in Utila will stay with me for a lifetime, and some of them I will share with you on here at a different time. I've been thinking more and more about those times lately, and Sharkboy's nervousness over his instructor course, and the impending snorkel test, keep returning me to memory lane. I want to tell him not to be nervous, not to worry, but I remember exactly how nervous I was, how badly I wanted to succeed, how badly I needed to succeed. So maybe this blog is most of all a message to him - if you want something so badly you cannot imagine a life without it, anything is possible. Reach for the stars. Grab the bull by the horns. Look life right in the eyes and tell it 'If I don't pass this time, I'll do it in two weeks.' God bless the PADI system...
I am a 30 year British woman who, having tried and tested a number of careers, has settled on Scuba Diving. Over the last 7 years this sport has leaped from being my hobby and my job to being my passion, nay, my life. You see, what a lot of people don't understand is that it is a way of life, the only way of life for some, and not something to be dismissed as a fairweather activity.
I have a lot of friends who dive, some casually, some with an intensity that would scare lesser mortals, and I have heard some stories that would make your hair curl. This blog is intended to be an outlet for those stories (of course with names changed) as well as a medium for photos and other random bits and pieces. Hopefully you won't become too fed up with my ramblings. I won't promise to update every day, but I promise when I do, it will be something worthwhile :). This is also my first attempt at blogging and writing something that will actually get published, even if it is only in the 'bloggersphere'...
Here's something to get started - recently my boyfriend (Sharkboy) passed his Divemaster course, and this got me thinking about when I passed mine 6 years ago. My career in recruitment has reached it's stale conclusion and I was floundering in London, desperately seeking an outlet for my ideas and energy. If I'm honest, I was only an ok recruiter, I had no passion or desire to sell jobs, to sell people, and I needed something more fulfilling. I had started diving about a year previously, on an off chance, when a friend of mine from school and I went on holiday to Egypt. I met a man and started diving - believe me when I say that many stories start this way in the diving industry. I was never that keen on the idea of diving, but, being game, I agreed to do my Open Water course with my friend, and I will never forget that first dive in the Red Sea. Breathtaking doesn't even start to describe it - I had such an intense feeling of coming home, of belonging to something so much bigger than I would ever be, and even better, I was a natural! When I came back to London, the two relationships continued, and I made it a point to return to Egypt whenever I could. Luckily I was in a job that gave more holiday allowance than most, and I was able to travel every couple of months (this was also back in the days when Monarch and Thomson did cheap package holidays to the Red Sea so it didn't break the bank).
Finally, after finishing my Advanced Open Water, I decided the time had come to take a sabbatical from work and travel to Honduras to do a 'zero to hero' course; Rescue, Divemaster and Instructor; in three months. The boyfriend freaked out due to an ex who had left him to become an instructor, the parents thought initially it was a bad idea but backed me in the end, and my friends were equal parts jealous and overjoyed for me. I paid the rent on the house and left my guinea pig in safe hands, and flew halfway across the world. After a few disastrous nights in Houston and San Pedro Sula, I arrived in Utila to be greeted by...no one. The course and accommodation were arranged but when the bi-plane touched down in the empty football pitch I was expected to make my own way to the dive centre. Surrounded by acres of jungle and smoggy heat, shouldering my backpack and eager to experience life, real life, I walked to the dive school in the centre of the island, where, if memory serves, I was handed a beer and directed to my new digs. My housemates are another story altogether, but the welcome was less than warm at first. The courses went well and I finished my Divemaster course in a record 10 days. Most people take a few months as a minimum, but I was on a tight schedule with the Instructor course coming up very soon.
The memories and friendships that I took from those months in Utila will stay with me for a lifetime, and some of them I will share with you on here at a different time. I've been thinking more and more about those times lately, and Sharkboy's nervousness over his instructor course, and the impending snorkel test, keep returning me to memory lane. I want to tell him not to be nervous, not to worry, but I remember exactly how nervous I was, how badly I wanted to succeed, how badly I needed to succeed. So maybe this blog is most of all a message to him - if you want something so badly you cannot imagine a life without it, anything is possible. Reach for the stars. Grab the bull by the horns. Look life right in the eyes and tell it 'If I don't pass this time, I'll do it in two weeks.' God bless the PADI system...
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