This trip started a little while ago when I packed up and left behind my scuba diving business in Sierra Leone. I had become a dive instructor during the Ebola pandemic of 2014/2015 travelling, eventually (another story), to Ecuador for my PADI dive master and then on to Sanur in Bali to become a PADI instructor. I set up my dive school Salone Scuba (www.salonescuba.com) in June 2015 and geared up for the return of the tourists post Ebola. It did not happen, had 5 fun divers and two students (PADI open water) in the whole of the dry season.
In May 2016 I decided to call it quits and closed the dive school for the rainy season and maybe forever. I was offered a job on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. Sounded like the perfect job in an ideal location. It was a great pity that the dive centre did not interview properly as when I arrived I found out that it was a dive factory churning dives out as if on a conveyor belt. Some say that this is what the industry is, but I want a more relaxing experience when I go diving rather than shunted onto the boat, off for two dives then back to base and adios as the centre gets ready for the afternoon trip. At Salone Scuba my philosophy was to give the divers an experience which included a relaxed atmosphers with time for everyone to be comfortable and usually ended up with a BBQ on the beach in the afternoon supplied by the local vilagers from where we took the boat. Lasted 3 and a half days (7 shifts) before we parted company.
This led to me kicking my heels in Sint Maarten, the Dutch side of the island whilst planning my next adventure. My flight back to the UK is not until 23rd Sept and is expensive to change and to be honest I have nothing there to go to and it is now raining in Freetown so really don't want to go back there.
I have looked around the internet for other jobs but all dive opportunities seem to be in similar dive factories as the one I was just at so looked into other things, i.e buying my own business. I have found a couple for sale in South/Central America so will head that way on a minimal budget to see what they entail.
Today I am heading to Saba, another island in the Dutch Antillies to look at a dive centre there. It is possibly a bit out of my price range but won't hurt to go look and see how things are run in another dive centre. All knowledge is a good thing.
