Yo, 2023 on deck. My 1987 born ass is getting fucking aged in this motherfucker. Still have no idea where this whole shit is heading, still continuously going on and on with my demons, still the same asshole… Hopefully with a little more insight on some things.
2022 was an interesting one. I feel most of the changes I’ve been through were kinda internal. First of all, I’m basically out of being a diving instructor. It has been a great chapter of my life and I’m forever grateful for being able to go through it but the time has come. I’m not gonna name anybody but all you motherfuckers I've had a chance to work with long-term ain’t shit. That goes for every single one of you. And the sad part is that from business perspective it actually works. You can just drain souls out of new instructors and then proceed to get some fresh meat. I wish it was different. I wish PADI wouldn’t stand for Put Another Dollar In, I wish dive instructors had some sort of union and their conditions were somewhat comparable to say a cashier in a supermarket. Because no, 40-50 EUR for about 7-8 hour working day is not okay (and specifically not in situations when the instructor handles larger groups of people making hundreds of EUR for the session). Especially considering the fact these people are responsible for human lives, create lifelong memories and work their asses off physically. And no, 6 days working week is also not okay. What is this? Medieval times? Furthermore, having a paid leave or sick days is kind of a standard everywhere. Not in diving tho. Can you imagine even coming up with shit like that in any other field? What are we doing? The fact that most of you fuckers don’t even do real contracts (because honestly, it would be illegal to include all this crap in them) is just a cherry on the top. I love this thing. I’m a diver as much as I’m a runner. Being down there is as natural to me as going for a walk at this point. But I can’t do this anymore. Not to myself, not to my energy. It just doesn’t feel right. So yeah, maybe a gig here and there, maybe diving with some friends once in a while, hopefully moving somewhere nice and going for fun dives as a customer. But for the time being, my aspirations on taking this thing seriously as a job are gone. I wanna express my sincere gratitude to all the beautiful souls I have met on the way. All the great adventures, all the people I turned into divers, all the people who came and went, all the people who I’ve made friends with and stayed in touch. This will never go away. And who knows… Maybe at some point under different circumstances, I’ll jump back into it again.
There’s been more things connected to what I just wrote. Since I don’t expect to dive very often now, I switched my focus fully on teaching. Therefore Tenerife doesn’t make sense anymore. I love this island but it has its limitations and with diving off the table, there’s really not that many reasons to stay. So 2023… I’m leaving this island by the end of April, moving back to the Czech Republic for couple of weeks. In June, I’m flying to Canada for about a month to visit some of my favorite people who live there. And for the next winter, who knows. Lotta shit can happen. I can fall back in love with Brno and stay there. However, I think some plan on how to avoid European winter is more likely. I’m looking at Asia or Mexico. Grab my laptop, move somewhere warm for half a year and then get back. But this is yet to be determined.
Last week, I was actually booked for diving by a center in Medano. Since most of my students took time off between the holidays, I had some extra time on my hands and I took up on it. Eventually, all Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were total shit in terms of weather tho so it all got canceled. However, I got asked to lead a dive on Thursday too and since I got a friend who dives coming to visit Wednesday afternoon, I accepted and took her along. I worked with a lovely group of divers, we had a great time and we saw a fucking angel shark. Not like passing by real quick. We found that motherfucker sleeping. Then he woke up, swam really slowly for a bit and then rested again. Point being, we got good 20 minutes with the animal. That shit doesn’t happen.
Rest of the week, I mostly hung out with the friend. It’s refreshing having somebody physically around. Makes it exciting to go places, to do hikes, to go out for beers. On Saturday, we did another dive at Montana Amarilla. This time it was only the two of us. The dive was good but I underestimated waves so the water exit was shit. We survived tho. In the evening, we hopped in Pluto and went to a NYE rave not far from the village of Arico. I was a bit worried about the journey as Pluto doesn’t really like steep hills, but it all went smooth. We got there, enjoyed beautiful views, sky full of stars and eventually jump into the psy-trance madness. Dancing, vibing, feeling good. In the morning, we took a nap in the car and since it was a bit cold, we took it back home. The morning drive was nice. Roads were basically empty and sun was rising.
So yeah, January 1st in this bitch. I’ve had a pretty good start of this one and I hope you guys have too. I have spoken with majority of my close ones already but the ones I missed… Just know that I’m appreciative for having all of you in my life. I’m a fucking weirdo and sometimes I’m not in touch as much as I should, sometimes I retreat into my cave not really speaking to anybody for a bit but I cherish it all. Every fucking human connection I got means a lot to me and I feel fortunate for having a plethora of solid individuals in my circle. There’s much more to come next year. One!
Highlights:
- The rave.
- Angel shark.
- Pluto.
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