Getting Paid to Play

Well it has been a long time since my last post. Party because I was busy, partly because I was procrastinating. Even as I write this I’m thinking about maybe I should go get breakfast and finish this later!

So I finished my Divermaster course about 2 weeks ago. Alexia and I spent a couple of hours in the confined water together evaluating my skill circuits. We quickly discovered I wasn’t going to need another session because I needed little no remediation on pretty much every exercise.

Then we moved on to the underwater gear exchange. This skill is supposed to be a huge problem solving exercise and I can see that it could be difficult if you had 2 much more green divers performing the skill. Since Alexia and I both have roughly 500 dives each though, it was downright hilarious. Our biggest challenge was not laughing so hard we would drown! The exercise involves exchanging all of your gear with a buddy, underwater, while buddy-breathing*--this means scuba rig, fins, masks, etc. all have to be exchanged while taking turns breathing 2 breaths each from the same regulator. (*Padi doesn’t let us call this buddy-breathing anymore because it was recently taken out of the official Padi literature and training procedures yet is still a requirement for the DM program!).

The skill requires good teamwork, tons of air sharing, and extreme comfort underwater. The extra challenge that Alexia and I experienced was weighting. For some reason as soon as we switched rigs, neither of us had enough weight anymore. Each time one of us took in a large breath that we would have to save for the next 30 seconds, our buoyancy would increase so much that we would begin floating to the surface. So there we were with an imaginary teeter totter pushing one of us up while the other had to hold the other down. I was yanking Alexia down by her foot or calf and then I would shove the regulator back in here mouth as her hands were busy buckling straps or dawning fins. We were highly amused by the scenario but managed to keep our composure until the instant we ascended to the surface at the end of the drill and broke into uncontrollable laughter.

So once I finished all the paperwork and we sent in the forms to Padi, I started working on my diver resume. I needed to walk around the island handing my resume out to each diveshop manager hoping to differentiate myself from all the other new DM’s walking around doing the same thing. The first big challenge here is language skills. Diveshops hoard people with language skills far before anything else—even diving ability and experience. So when work is a little slow (and it still is since high season really hasn’t ramped up), the only people they give the time of day to is multi-lingual individuals. Eventually when they get busy this will be less of a problem and they will start using dependable skilled DM’s. Ironically language isn’t an enormous issue in the first place for a DM. I would say 90% of the people walking off the ferries can speak English enough to dive with an English-only DM. The diveshops just want to cover that 10% case so the other shops don’t get that business which is understandable. The front of every diveshop is plastered with signs and flags noting which languages the shop is capable of catering to.

The next struggle is the under-qualification of being a DM. This is something Alexia and Ryan didn’t face because they came onto the island as experienced instructors. Diveshops much rather have a full compliment of instructors than DM’s because DM’s can only take out 2 types of customers—certified fundivers and scuba refreshers. Instructors can take out every type of diver or non-diver. Here on Phi Phi a large percentage of divers are Discover Scuba Divers (dsd’s). They have never been on scuba before and are trying it out for the first time on their holiday. I have been to many other destinations where the majority of the travelers are already certified divers and therefore have no need for an instructor during their holiday. Some shops plain don’t hire DM’s here and others hire very few and get help from freelancers for the rest of the time.

The next point makes me sound bitter…when a shop tells you they have all their staffing needs, and then the very next day hires a female DM will 60 dives and no experience, it stings a bit. So what really annoys me is the constant lying by the managers. They say they will put you on a list but never call. They say they are staffed up but hire 2 more people with language skills or breasts the very next day. The whole process is demoralizing but the trick is to be persistent. Well I chose another option after a week of failure.

I heard about a shop that was looking for a videographer. They were willing to hire this person with no experience and no video equipment. I walked back in the shop and talked to the manager (a manager that told me he wasn’t looking for anything only days earlier), and he said I could have the job.

So now I have my first job on the island working as a videographer for P.P. Sea Frog. The job entails filming customers getting on the boat, getting briefed, gearing up, entering the water, diving, exiting the water, relaxing on the boat, diving again, and then exiting the boat. Then I spend the next 2-4 hours editing (will be less and less as I get better) so that I can try to sell the video to the divers after dinner. I only make money if they purchase a video and the shops makes a 60% cut because they supply the camera, tapes, dvd’s, tanks, and lunch for me.

I have now performed this duty for 2 days. I have gotten some pretty fun footage and I believe I am off to a good start being a good videographer. I have sold 0 videos so far but not for lack of trying. The challenge of course is reading the customers. Sometimes the sale is more about the customer than the product. I have seen some videos that sold well from other videographers and it’s obvious the customer only buys a video if they were willing to buy one in the first place regardless of quality or content.

So this is my job now—swimming around underwater looking for interesting shots to stick in a video—bouncing from divegroup to divegroup capturing the divers looking funny or posing behind sharks and turtles. Ironically I usually pay people all around the world to let me to swim around and take pictures/video of interesting animals and scenery; now I get to paid to do it or at the very least I get to do it for free!

Time in Paradise

Well it’s been a slow week in Paradise for me. I have settled into my bungalow nicely and my schedule is pretty relaxed.

For the first 5 days here I assisted Alexia during her shop hours. This involves sitting in a dive shop trying to catch people’s eyes as they walk by to sell them Discover Scuba Diving or Open Water Certification. Since I’m not really working at the shop for me it involved studying for Dive Master exams, finishing up Knowledge Reviews, and taking the exams. I have started working on my DM Mapping Project which is more of an exercise in concentration than actual difficulty which is pretty much why I haven’t finished!

As soon as my arm was healed enough for getting wet I couldn’t wait to get in the water for the first time on my journey. Alexia and I popped into the confined water section of the beach to work on some DM Watermanship tests. This involved me performing the 400 meter timed swim, the 800 meter timed snorkel/fin swim, and the 15 minute tread. I have yet to complete the 100 meter timed tired diver tow but expect to do this afternoon with Alexia after we complete some skill circuits.

The next day I joined another Barakuda Shop (Alexia’s diveshop) instructor in the confined water to help him out with an Open Water student. This was my first exposure to a non-Diver Dan’s instructor and the ways of island instruction. I was not impressed. I won’t go into too many details but I was surprised to see how many skills were glossed over, under-demonstrated, under-performed, or just plain ignored. This style certainly breeds a different kind of PADI Open Water diver from what I am used to back at home.

The next day I was fortunate to go on both the morning and afternoon boats to assist with both the OW student from a previous day, as well as Alexia’s OW students in the afternoon. All 4 dives were a pleasure, and it was nice to go diving for real again since the last time I was out was August 22 on 3 Reefcheck dives. I found it exhausting for a couple of reasons:

1. It was the first truly sunny day since I had been to Phi Phi and the sun just sapped the energy out of me. I applied and reapplied sunscreen the entire day but still lost the battle to the sun. Very unhappy about my burned arms and legs.
2. Working as a DM on the boat is very different from paying to play—you are always on, watching people, trying to accommodate their needs, packing and unpacking the boat. Underwater you are watching the divers like a hawk (I am used to this because of working with OW classes back at home), making sure they don’t float off, making sure they are happy.

Yesterday I finished up another 2 dives with Alexia’s OW students. They are very sweet people from London (New Zealand and Scotland originally), and we went to dinner to celebrate their conquering of their first diving certification. They gave both Alexia and me substantial tips which is something I shouldn’t get used to. No one tips here and I definitely didn’t expect it since I’m not even a paid member of the staff.

I hope to be finished with all my DM stuff in a couple of days. Barakuda said they might be interested in having me onboard although I’m still not sure if I want a DM staff position over a freelancing position. There are tradeoffs to both and the freedom associated with freelancing is quite alluring. There is plenty of time for all that to play out.

As for non-diving lifestyle, I’m finding the food great. I rarely pay more that 3 or 4 dollars for a meal and the portions and tastes are well worth it. Honestly I have already fallen into a rut of similar restaurants and ordering the same dishes at many of them. I’m trying to make a conscious effort to order something new but it is always a struggle when I have a specific craving for something I know and love (Masu Man Curry is awesome here!).

My place is quaint. It is a room with a fan directed at my full-sized bed. There are some chairs, end tables, and a vanity. There is no dresser so I’m a little unhappy about the lack of storage space. I’m thinking about buying a plastic stackable drawer set.

The room is spacious and so is the bathroom even. The bathroom is made to be wet at all times. Thai bathrooms don’t like to separate their showers from the rest of the room so the entire tiled space gets wet when you take a shower. That doesn’t bother me at all actually. The only complaint I have at all is the lack of hot water. The water doesn’t come out freezing by any means but getting used to a cool shower takes a bit.

Here are some pictures:

Angry Buddha that kicked me off his temple

Crazy kaleidoscope of colors, swelling, and cut on my left arm

A lion fish just chilling out

The really cool sheer cliffs of the islands here

My front door and patio

Angry Buddha, Apologetic Buddha

I have made it to Phuket successfully! Every part of course was an adventure.

My arrival to Phuket came a couple hours late. The boards in the Bangkok airport didn't bother to tell anyone the plane was late and of course the staff doesn't want to stand there and wait for a late plane so they are hiding from the inquiring passengers. For a long time the flight didn't even get a gate assignment. There is something quite unnerving about being in a foreign airport, knowing your boarding time is 15:55 and staring at a board that has a blank spot under the gate column at 15:50. Eventually I tracked down an Asia Air person and got them to look it up in the system. She told me to go to B2 but failed to mention the flight wouldn't start boarding until 17:30.

The only highlight of my flight was one of the most beautiful above cloud sunsets I have ever seen. The light filtered though many layers of clouds and caused sunrays, orange, red, deep blue, and purple colored dramatic excellence. (no picture sorry)

Upon landing I was treated with a 1.5 hour minibus ride that was supposed to be 20 minutes. Long story short they had no idea which town my hotel was in and we took an island tour.

Wednesday morning I was awakened by jetlag at 05:00 and a power outage and decided to take a walk. I found the local fish market and grocery place where all the locals buy and sell everything. I found a cheap breakfast and was happy.

After walking and realizing everything was closed this early I decided to see sites instead of stores. I found a taxi driver that would drive me from site to site and would wait at each place while I took pictures. Eventually we found a 30 meter tall sitting Buddha statue. I climbed the temple to take pictures, removed my sandals as required, but still managed to make Buddha angry.

On the way back down the stairs, I realized the steps seemed very slippery as it was raining. I reached for the handrail and before I could get to it, my feet were already in front of me and I was headed down the stairs—all the way down the stairs. I’m not sure how many obscenities I uttered but when I got to the bottom and just laid there trying to figure out how many bones I broke, a kind Buddhist Monk came out of nowhere and said, “Walk slowly, walk slowly, must walk slowly.” He may have been trying to tell me to get up slowly but either way I found it hilarious that I just swore all the way down a Buddhist temple.

I gashed my arm pretty good and had additional scrapes on my ankles, and other arm. My tailbone took quite a beating too. The taxi driver ended up taking me to the clinic for some gauze and to get cleaned up. I paid a whopping 100 Baht for the service and medical supplies. I asked for extra gauze so I could keep changing the dressing and she handed tons over with a brand new roll of medical tape. That’s 3 bucks US in case you are wondering! Pretty good considering she worked the wound for 10 minutes.

Off I went to Patong Beach. This is the super touristy beach of Phuket Island. The beach was nice but quite exposed to the direct winds from the West. This location got hit hard by the 2004 Tsunami but you couldn’t tell from the looks of it.

My next adventure might seem naïve to some of you but I enjoyed it and don’t regret it. I was approached by 2 Brits about a free prize based on some scratch tickets. I scratched and won a t-shirt on the first card, and the grand prize on the second. The grand prize ended up being a 1 week vacation in a nice resort in either Phuket, Ko Samui, Pattaya, Spain, or China. While I was quite skeptical, the Brits’ reactions made me feel it wasn’t as much of a scam. They were both super surprised I had scratched the Grand Prize and told me that most people only win t-shirts, free drinks, dinners out at a local cabaret, and occasionally a free night at a local resort.

So to collect my prize I had to sit through a 90 minute timeshare presentation. It ended up being pretty cool although much longer than 90 minutes (the guy was new and slow at his job). They drove us to 3 different resorts in the system and at each place he offered me a drink to relax while we were waiting for the next transport. When all was said and done I had 4 non-alcoholic mixed fruit shakes and a full lunch, all at beachside spots and resorts. While it hadn’t been my original plan for the day, it was a pretty great alternative considering my tailbone and arm were throbbing. I guess Buddha was apologizing for his harsh treatment earlier in the day.

Later in the evening, I caught up with Ryan and Alexia. (for those of you that don’t know, Ryan and Alexia are close friends that paved the way for me to be here. They did all the research ahead of time, made all the mistakes for me, and now I get to steal of the fruits of their labor). They were arriving from a Kuala Lumpur visa run and I was waiting in Phuket an extra day to travel with them to Ko Phi Phi Don the following morning. After a long morning of last minute shopping, we boarded a 1:30 ferry and by 3:30 we rolled into my new home.

Ko Phi Phi Don is a beautiful island with amazing limestone cliffs and blue crescent sandy beaches. I will be posting many pictures later. With only less than 2 days here I am already extremely happy with my choice of islands. The food has already been a treat and super cheap cheap.

Tomorrow I will be pounding through my Diver Master exams so I can finish up my DM soon. It’s good to do it now while I’m banned from the water with a gash in my arm.