More Than Halfway Through

The first week of the Instructor Training Course (ITC) is completed, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about my progress in it. In the interest of creating a reference point to look back on someday, I have the following comments to make about the prospect of me being an instructor:

-I have a bad habit of not showing enough outward excitement following dives. By myself, this is of course not a problem, but when I'm teaching (or guiding), it's important to be a role model in terms of enthusiasm. If I come across as being merely content following an awesome dive, those divers under my watch my rethink their excitement and downgrade based upon how I behave.

-I think I'll be a good instructor. I've worked with lots of people in short periods of time, and had almost all good responses (both personally and professionally). The real challenge for me though is figuring out how to tailor my "message" to young divers. I haven't really worked with kids very much, and so this will be a great opportunity to change that. I worry that I won't be able to connect with them as well as others do.

-In addition to working with the kids, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to learn new, practical skills such as scuba regulator repair, tank maintenance, and hopefully more boat driving and diving. I'm fairly handy with tools and such, but I haven't really had the chance to take apart and rebuilt regulators, in particular. I'm especially looking forward to learning this stuff from Andrew, who was one of my classmates when I began diving at Humboldt State University, and who is now the go-to equipment guy here. It's really awesome seeing him find such a perfect niche for himself, where he can be who he is and is totally appreciated for it.

I think that's about it for now. The dinner bell ringeth. Oh, speaking of ringing: cell phones don't get reception in this cove on the island, and so I'm thinking of kayaking a mile straight out to sea in order to make phone calls to friends, family and, of course, Jennifer :) Bobbing out on a kayak a mile from shore, talking on a cell phone. That will be a first...

Catalina Boot Camp!

Greetings from Catalina Island. It's just after dinnertime and I've got about 20 minutes of free time, the first I've had all day. Since arriving on the island 3 days ago (is that ALL?), I have been about as busy as I've ever been in my life. We (the Instructor Training Candidates and I) have been tested on very challenging in-water skills such as jumping off a dock into 20 feet of water holding scuba tank, weight belt, fins, and mask in hand and putting it all on at the bottom in under 4 minutes. We also had to swim 450 yards in under 20 minutes, and 900 yards using fins. In addition, we've been working on presentations of various scuba-related topics with little (read: "damn-near no") time to prepare. Since breakfast yesterday morning, I've done 7 presentations, four of which I passed. We get to work around 7am, and finish around midnight.
Whoops! Out of time. More later...

Am I A Workaholic?

The recreational dive industry is one which moves in cycles. Work comes in "feast and famine" fashion, which means that you have to take the work while it is available with the understanding that it will not be during the slow parts of the year.
In California, the busy season is basically a long summer (April to September-ish), with the rest of the year generally being slower. Thus, while living in Monterey last year, I worked very little from January to March, then slowly got more busy until finally I concluded my time there with three straight months of work. It has always been my motto that it is "better to be busy than bored". I like the seasonality of the industry, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes from a good day's work, even if at times they come one after another after another, followed by long dry seasons.
Maui, I discovered, works a little differently. Instead of having essentially one busy and one slower season, it has a series of what I can only describe as micro-seasons. I wasn't even there for a year, but in the time I was on the island (and working), there was the Christmas season, followed by a slow time until March and April, which was the Spring Break season, then a little more down time and (starting right about now) the summer season.
Coming from California, and also being new to Maui, I found it very difficult to turn down any work on the island, thinking that I would eventually have some slow time anyways. Fortunately (in a financial sense) it worked out that I was kept quite busy, due partly to my efforts to be available for any dive guiding that came along, but also due to my employer's generous efforts to keep me as busy as possible. I'm a bit of a Yes-man when it comes to work, because I'm always thinking in the back of my mind that, at some point in the year, there won't be enough work to keep me busy and so I'd better take what I can get when it's there. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is not very relationship-friendly.
Jenn has been very patient with me when, one after another, our plans to go camping or to another island, etc. came to a grinding halt when I was offered work that I felt I shouldn't turn down. I kept rationalizing it by saying that "it'll slow down", meaning that at some point in the foreseeable future I would have more free time than I knew what to do with. This of course would make me available for our mini-adventures together.
Don't misunderstand me here, we did indeed go camping, hiking and, just before I left, made it to the big island of Hawaii. However, there are a number of things we did not experience which we had intended: camping at Waianapanapa, going to Moloka'i island, paddleboarding (actually, she did this herself AFTER I left!), etc.
I can't say that I regret my time on Maui, or necessarily the fact that I was available for work (and thus unavailable for Jenn) as much as I was. Rather, I view my time working on Maui as a great opportunity to learn from and to apply the lessons to future employment. For example: If we go back to Monterey at the end of the summer, I know that I don't want to work three months straight, because that kind of lifestyle isn't compatible with the kind of relationship that I want with her. What is the point of establishing a wonderful relationship with a caring partner if you then choose not to fully engage in it? For me, that makes no sense. It is my goal, therefore, to strike a balance between enjoying my work, but having the time and resources to enjoy our relationship (and those with friends, family, etc.) even more. Which leads me back to Catalina...
I have been a working Divemaster for three years now, in Humboldt/Mendocino county, Monterey, at the Channel Islands, and now on Maui. Most scuba professionals sort of dash through this level of experience in favor of Instructor status. I've delayed doing so for two reasons. First, I feel it would be a foolish mistake to become an instructor (and thus fully responsible for brand new divers) when I have not had the experience of things going very wrong with customers under my watch. It has been my very good fortune (and that of the divers) that I have not had to perform any major rescues thus far. No one has died, though a couple have come close. Because of this, however, I worry that I will not be prepared when It finally happens. I know it will too, because it is just a matter of time before someone has a major heart attack, or embolizes, or somehow winds up needing life-or-death assistance. I don't fool myself: the fact that no one has died under my watch is not my victory to claim. I have just been very very lucky. Nevertheless, I've experienced enough to feel prepared to take the next step up in responsibility.
Secondly, I was fortunate enough to become trained to dive through my university in a program which emphasized qualification, rather than simply certification to scuba dive. I came out of that experience thinking that all divers go through similar levels of training, but quickly discovered that this is not the case. The vast majority of certified divers did their training on holiday, in some warm tropical place, in easy conditions, and in just a handful of days (rather than an entire semester, as was the case for me). It makes sense: most people aren't looking to make a lifestyle out of diving, but rather desire to go diving every once in a while. This distinction is evident when comparing their skill and comfort in the water with a diver who, for example, had two and a half months longer to prepare for the same level of certification. Early on, I decided that I would only become an instructor if I can be allowed to train divers whom I would feel comfortable diving with myself. In other words, I want to train qualified divers, rather than just certified ones. I believe that the Catalina Sea Camp program I am going to be a part of this summer will allow me to do that in a way that would not have been possible in a place like Maui (which is set up for limited-time visitors, rather than long-term locals).
Through this camp, I will hopefully earn Instructor status according to the NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) scuba diving model. This means I will be a NAUI instructor, rather than the more well-known (read: better marketed) PADI version. Of the California universities and high schools that I am aware of which offer scuba dive training, all are taught by NAUI instructors. While there is no fundamental distinction between NAUI and PADI (both are based on U.S. NAVY diving), I feel that I will find more satisfaction teaching diving through a university-type setting (read: one which allows for more than 5 days of training!) than in the one found commonly in resort areas. Catalina Sea Camp seems to not only be that kind of setting, but also will likely be a great stepping stone for me to get into the teaching industry in a way which will be personally and professionally satisfying for me in the long run. I probably won't make much money, but then again when you love what you do, you only need to earn enough to keep doing it, right?

Big Adventures on the Big Island!

In just 5 days on the big island of Hawaii, Jenn and I managed to find plenty of interesting things to see and do, including: night diving with huge manta rays, watching lava explode into the sea from 1/4 mile away, and watching the sun set from 14,000 feet atop Mauna Kea, the world's largest volcano! You would think that stargazing from this altitude would be incredible too, but you'd be wrong (sort of). Turns out that the air is so thin up there and oxygen so sparse that the parts of the brain responsible for interpreting visual input don't function as well as they do at lower elevations. What that means is that, although the air is crystal clear up there, we have a hard time actually seeing the stars that are right in front of your face! Cool, huh? I found myself wishing I had a supplemental oxygen kit with me, to see if breathing pure oxygen would make the stars appear brighter.
As for the night dive, I can now say that I have been head-butted, belly-bumped, and wing-slapped by HUGE manta rays (the big girls are up to 20 feet across!). The mantas feed on plankton, which are attracted to the lights that the divers carry with them....very attracted. If you place the light next to your head, the mantas might mistake it for the light and bang into your skull before realizing their error. Good fun!
Now that we're back on Maui, I have two days to prepare for Catalina island, pack all my stuff up and get it off-island, and also help Jenn as much as possible for when she leaves a few weeks after me. While I'm working at SeaCamp on Catalina, she will travel to Guatamala for a trip with a good friend of hers, then come back and go on a road trip with her mother, stopping to visit family in various states across the country. At the end of it all, we're thinking of relocating to Monterey county and seeing what kind of life we can set up there.
And so, the adventure continues...