Since the end of the summer, all I can think about is going back to seabase. I truly miss working with the kids, teaching diving, and the people of seabase. I have sent in my application and confirmed that Captain Steve received it. Hopefully both Katie and I will both be hired for the summer. That would make me more than happy.

Since I have started working at seabase, I have either been a divemaster, or was a divemaster working as a boat mate. Both are fun jobs, But obviously one you get to take the kids diving every day, and one you don’t. If I had my choice, I would choose to be underwater. Being a mate on the boat however is not less fun, it is just different.

Sometime last winter I realized that I hated my job as a private investigator, and decided to go through and finally do my IDC. It was probably the best choice I could have made. I was very unhappy spending every day in my van by myself, videotaping people, writing reports, or just waiting, for hours. I realized that I love interacting with people. At seabase it is the best kind of interaction. I get to share my passion for the underwater world with a new generation of scouts that will hopefully have some of the same passion. Teaching diving however is much different than supervising diving. It is a whole new level of responsibility, as well as a completely new challenge. People come to you, and expect to be certified, all types of people, people that feel at home underwater, and also people that get extremely anxious and nervous underwater. This doesn’t necessarily mean that one person can dive, and the other can’t. It just means your job as an instructor will be different with each student. The comfortable one you should be helping to fine tune their skills to be the best diver they can be. The anxious one needs to take it at a slower pace, before they can finetune their skills, they need to be comfortable in the water. This can indeed be a challenge. But it is more than worth it.

Moving from the keys to Oklahoma has been exciting. Meeting new people and living in a new part of the country. I was able to procure a good job at a casino in the area. It is surveillance related, if I told you more I’d have to kill you. Just kidding. I like my job, but I like teaching diving more. From how I look at it, one more summer at seabase is only more likely to help me than hurt me. It will give me a chance to pass on to another group of scouts something that I feel very strongly about, and give them a skill that hopefully will allow them to explore worlds they wouldn’t have otherwise explored.

I know I have to grow up eventually. I keep finding myself say, not yet, one more summer, one more summer. Who knows what the future holds, but I would like to make the venture down to the Keys at least one more time this summer. Maybe when Katie and I are retired we can volunteer our time at seabase. I find myself not wanting to get my hopes up, but also that I can’t help for one more summer of teaching, diving, and the sun.

So now we will play the waiting game until we are hopefully hired, or hear back otherwise. Either way, there is one thing for sure. I am with the woman that I love, and I don’t want to go anywhere without her. So whatever happens I will be happy.

-Brian