Hello everybody, hope y’all had a good week. Tenerife has been pretty nice in terms of weather, things are going well, energy is good… It’s 7pm, I got the new Blxst in the headphones and we are going to dig into what has happened here.
It’s been pretty eventful in terms of diving. I finished the OWD on Sunday, I did some boat dives Monday and Thursday, I helped out with an AOWD for my first Tenerife dive shop in Costa Adeje, I did a DSD, and today I started another AOWD with this guy from Mexico. The ultimate highlight was seeing a shark on one of these boat dives. I totally didn’t have a camera on me but it was awesome. The animal wasn’t that big but it was my very fist time seeing one (if I don’t count angel sharks). The owners of the dive shop went back home for like 10 days and left the key with a pretty packed schedule with me. Which is cool because there’s work and it also sucks a bit because it’s mostly DSDs on it for the next week. I also had to take couple of deep breaths to re-accept the fact that you just don’t do diving for money. I mean, it’s one of the best things in the world and it’s a welcomed side gig but for some reason (and I’m positive it’s because the market is indeed flooded with youngsters willing to slave their ass basically for free) turns everybody greedy. Not gonna go into detail but in diving, everybody is quick to overcharge everybody (including staff) and very reluctant to appreciate some extra effort or time invested into their business (not only with money but some gestures of good will too). Which is fine, if shit works it works. And you can absolutely run your business as if everyone is replaceable but what cracks me up is that these people often complain how difficult it is to find instructors for long-term contracts. Like duh… 6 days working week 9 hours daily on some wannabe contract with no paid vaycay, no employee benefits, often no social or health insurance (salute to the exceptions!). They say that the average instructor stays in the business for about 3 years before they burn out. I feel I found a sweet spot where I’m at with it for now but god… You want to have people staying with you long-term, you kinda have to act on it too. But again, since my livelihood doesn’t really depend on diving and since I fucking love doing it, I’m good. It’s just fascinating… And I wanna send love to all the instructors out there who take this shit seriously and provide great memories with their whole heart, soul and body on daily basis. I know for a fact that it often takes a lot and doesn’t really give back as much.
What else... I went out with the girl I did the OWD once more last Sunday. We went to this lovely shisha spot in Los Cristianos. They were screening a football match between Spain and the Czech Republic which only reminded me how little do I know about what’s going on in the world of sports. The hangout was super nice tho. Yesterday, I hopped in the Pluto and took that motherfucker up north. I went through Santiago del Teide and proceeded to Puerto de la Cruz. My first time being there. Pretty lovely town; a bit touristy but not as much as the south and I really enjoyed the parks, churches, architecture and views. Ocean was definitely wilder up there. In the evening, I met up with this girl for a drink and we had a pretty nice chat. Took me about an hour to get back home. That time I went through the west side, mostly on highways. Easy. Pluto managed with grace. You can tell that it doesn’t like steep hills but it does well. Kudos to Pluto!
I’ve been in touch with my loved ones, I’ve been trying to write here and there, I’ve been on my workouts, I’ve been reading shit and listening to some new music, I’ve been teaching. All the regular. Oh, and these days I’m testing some new dive computers and wet suits. That is actually pretty cool. I hope you guys are doing beautiful, I hope the weather is nice wherever you at and I hope to see some of you during the summer. One!
Highlights:
- Testing new gear.
- The road trip.
- Shark!
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