Thanks to the wonderful crew over at Subway Watesports, I've been doing what I love best the past few days ... SCUBA diving. Earlier in the week, I had the honor of assisting Liam with a Rescue Diver course helping two amazing young women learn a variety of strategies for dealing with divers in distress. While it's fun to play the simulated victim, what really brings me joy is seeing these students learn -- building on their knowledge and experience -- becoming much more confident, agile rescue divers capable of evaluating, assessing and responding to any number of situations.
Today, I got a chance to help a few cruise shippers discover the joy of SCUBA diving through PADI's Discover SCUBA Diving (DSD) program. Seeing the face of the eleven-year old boy who, prior to getting on the boat had been morose and monosyllabic light up with exuberance upon surfacing after our open water dive, hearing him exclaim how cool it was helped remind me why I started down my path of professional development in the dive industry in the first place. Like my first open water dive, this DSD was a transformational experience for him, something he will never forget.
He said it was like a video game ... that's pretty high praise for an eleven-year old! I told him yeah, but it was even better than a video game because it was real life!
Of course, I've got to give all the credit to my amazing, patient, loving other half Andrea for being the one who started me down this road in the first place. Without her I'd probably still be sitting behind a desk in Manhattan slaving away on marketing campaigns for thankless clients.
Anywhoo, tomorrow City Dogs is back on the water, sailing on another pleasure cruise. Hopefully we'll be able to do some diving down there in the West End area if the weather complies ... I've got a dive site that I've been dying to check out!
After that, who knows? Maybe sailing to Guanaja, maybe Cayos Cochinos. Only way to find out is to Come Sail With Us!