Weather Underground
While we have yet ANOTHER front forecasted to hit tomorrow, today was a typical spring day at the Florida Sea Base; 70 degrees, sunny, with moderate winds from the east. It was a great day to be outdoors. Unfortunately for me, I was in the office much of the day working on summer scuba staff hiring (with much assistance from Capt. Alex). However, we did get to spend a couple of hours outdoors putting new hinges on the back doors of my storage trailer. Yeah!!! Now I can get in and out of the trailer again. The next phase is to remove EVERYTHING, sort it, dispose or sell as much as is prudent. There are real antiques in there. Not valuable antiques, just old junk type antiques.
Some of you may remember Matt Standal who worked here as a Divemaster. I didn’t hear from Matt for a couple of years until recently. I received an email from him. I don’t think he will mind me sharing this part:
Steve, I have to say this: After working as a Hawaii instructor for over a year, after cleaning 20 sets of gear day after day, after fighting for commission pay on snorkels and DPV scooter classes, after hawking dive photo CD’s for 20 bucks to pay my car insurance, after busting my hump to drive complaining tourists in a van through traffic jams on a tropical island, I can honestly say being a Dive Master at Sea Base was one of the best jobs I have ever had.
I received an earlier report of a similar nature from another of our Divemaster Academy graduates turned instructor, Sargon Smith. He is currently working the the beautiful Virgin Islands. He will be back at the Florida Sea Base soon and I think he is really looking forward to “the easy life” here.
For the current DMA graduates, I am VERY close to finalizing the hiring. Today I notified a few who won’t be working with us this summer. I should get to the others tomorrow or Wednesday. So please stay tuned. And let me explain for a minute. As I said during the Divemaster Academy, I have several applications from returning staff members who did a great job last year. There simply isn’t room for all of this year’s graduates. So please don’t be down on yourself if I can’t find a spot for you this year. This is very agonizing for me. The bottom line is I have to do what is best for the program.