Alarm: 7:10 am. Throw blanket off of me, it’s getting too warm in the room. Snooze.
Alarm: 7:20 am. Snooze. Roll on side to allow trapped heat under me to escape, cooling my back.
Alarm: 7:30 am. Look up through the hole in the roof to try to determine if it’s raining, so I can sleep in. Snooze.
Alarm: 7:40 am… The first of many morning rituals here on the island. It starts with the joyous feeling of being cold. Somewhere in the 5-6 am time frame, I turn over, cover my feet and use my little blanket to stay warm. Then, at about 7:00am, the power goes off, and the alarm turns on.
Once I have realized its too warm to continue sleeping, I drag myself out of bed and to the bathroom across the lawn for the morning release and brushing my teeth. Then I go up, find the least smelly shirt, throw it on and tie up my board shorts. I’m already sweating, too tired to face the direct sunlight and hungry. I cross the lawn, cross the little bridge over what used to be flooded, but now is a swamp and to the shop. Up the wooden steps and then I step in the cool buckets of water to wash your feet free of sand before entering the shop. I’m one of 2-3 people here, one of the first. The shop is still locked, which means no coffee. No biscuits… Task one: sweep the floor. It’s a slightly ridiculous task, sweeping off sand from the shop, since it’s on the beach so there is no way to control the sand. It simply falls beneath the cracks.
Once someone with the key comes, we open up, boil some water and get the biscuits and coffee out. It’s what fuels the early morning dives. Bring out some merchandise, and open the gear room. If you have a dive that day, you set up the equipment, if you’re assisting, you get it ready, but leave it for the students to set up. Then you set your equipment up, check the board to see who is going where and when, then make a coffee, grab some cookies, and zone out while everyone else slowly arrives.
We have an amazing view, yet always decide to shut the screen because the morning sun is too hot. Dripping with sweat by 8:30 am isn’t as fun as you might think. We lounge around until divers are here, dropping eyes and big smiles, excited to check out the waters. It’s not a bad place to work, since most customers know diving is all about the conditions, and luck. Most are just happy to be in the water.
We work through the day doing different tasks. Being a DMT (Dive Master Trainee) I am at the bottom, scrubbing bins, picking up trash, cleaning equipment, getting everything ready, grading tests, getting students set up, discussing different topics about diving and theory to the students, cleaning, sweeping, and studying.
As a DMT I am a third student, a third shop employee and a third servant. It’s part of the territory. Today some people are going to Temple. Sunrise dive, luckily I didn’t have to wake up for that. In the afternoon is T3, a nice boulder playground with lots of swim-throughs. The afternoon rounds off with D’Lagoon, a nice hard coral reef with sandy outskirts, home to some nice fish. Not a bad day…
Sunset from Long Beach
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