My office.
Since I became certified as a dive instructor, the past month has been my first solid month of working solely on the beach as a freelance dive instructor at Genesis Divers. So, how is it?
Generally, it’s great. Relatively low stress, my own schedule, active lifestyle, meet people from around the world, and my office is on a white sand beach where the water ranges from 27C (80F) to 30C (86F). I wouldn’t say the lifestyle is glamorous or absolute paradise, but for now, it’s the closest to paradise for me. My average day goes like this if I don’t have any planned diving:
- 7 am to 9 am - Wake up and make breakfast, depending on how much I partied the night before.
- 9:30 am to 10:30 am - Drive my motorbike 8 km (5 miles) to Genesis Divers on Alona Beach.
- 9:30 am to 4 pm - Help out at the dive shop if needed which includes moving equipment and helping people find stuff. Do 1 or 2 dives if I can.
- 5 pm - Break out the beer.
- 6 pm to ??? - Eat dinner somewhere and hang out at the bars.
Since my schedule is flexible, I sometimes just take a day off and go into Tagbilaran city to the mall and go shopping or watch a movie.
Jr and Noel on the day trip dive boat. Lunch break on the boat is the best.
The best part about being a dive instructor is being able to go diving often and for free. The best part about instructing is seeing your student learn to overcome their difficulties. The worst part about instructing is dealing with student difficulties. So, quite easily, the worst part of instructing can turn into being the best.
For example, I had a student who was frightened to take out his regulator and put it back in his mouth in just a meter of water. This is one of the basic skills you learn besides just breathing from a regulator underwater. I worked diligently on getting him comfortable doing his skills, and was patient. At the end of the day he wanted to quit the course but his brother and I encouraged him to practice the skills. On the fourth day of the course, he completed all his required skills and dives to become a certified Open Water Diver. The next few days he dived locally and then went to another island to dive more. He now loves diving and wants to come back.
Clownfish in his host anemone.
It's times like these where being a dive instructor is the best job I can think of. I'm outside, on the beach, meeting people from around the world and showing them another world and experience underwater. Becoming scuba certified can be life changing. To think what I teach people can change their lives and understanding of the underwater realm is awesome. For me, getting scuba certified was the biggest life changing decision I made. It was one of those things I just wanted to do in my life - checked off a checklist of things - but since then, I went further with it and became an instructor.
- jason
