Am I dillusional?

Okay, we all daydream from time to time... Think about diving right smack in the middle of the day, right when we're supposed to be doing something really, really important.

I've found myself doing this a lot as I've gotten heavier and heavier into diving. My daydream usually focuses around wrecking on a serious wreck, like some of the Great Lakes stuff or the Doria. I also think all the time about my World Record dive, which seems to be eternally on hold.

For those of you who don't know, my family owns a communications company. I worked for Intuit helping to build and test the latest renditions of Quickbooks before I decided to come back to the East Coast and help my family with the business. After building a couple of retail stores, I decided to build a high speed, wireless internet service provider. It's badass to the extreme, and I'm super-pumped about bringing high speed internet to the area here.

...But that doesn't stop me from daydreaming about diving. I mean, there's not much else that I'd rather be doing than diving, and I mean all kinds of diving at all times and in all conditions. I thought that this "bug" of diving would pass after a while, but it's only gotten worse. I mean, I could be at the top of a 300' tower making yet another shot for MY OWN COMPANY and my head is in the clouds thinking about my two week dive.

...And I mean, I'm not daydreaming about VACATIONING, with diving involved. I'm not daydreaming about white beaches, drinks in my hand, or bikinis on the beach... I'm daydreaming about diving for a purpose, being gone for weeks at a shot, and doing things that others will never be able to do.

Today more than ever I felt the pull of the deep ocean. Could it be that I'm just bored and frustrated with what I do now? Is it time for a career change? Is it time to focus on something else?

Here's the scary part: Being in business, something that I dreamed about as a child, has bored me. I've owned my own, and this one is only like a "branch" of my family's current business... So there's a lot I could change. But you know what? If I took the whole thing and wrapped it all up and went out on the open ocean, I wouldn't miss one single thing about it.

I don't know if this diver - who, frankly, has been known to be prone to seasickness - is cut out to be a commercial diver. But jeeeez, I feel the pull. I feel the pull to do something like that even over being... Like... An instructor in Cozumel.

Crazy, hunh?

Any commercial divers out there wanna clue me in? What's it like? Wanna try to talk me out of it? How's the money? What if you were back at the point where you were considering the career? Would you do it again, knowing what you know today?

Yes!

You are dillusional.

Now get back to work!:wacko:

Whatever you do, don't call up a commercial dive school & ask them about anything, they'll pack your head so full of BS it'll be coming outta your toenails.
Have a read here: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/divers3/diveinfo.htm

You need to be proficient at any number of construction trades first, like carpentry, masonry, pipefitting & welding, then adding diving to the list is realistic. To go into a commercial dive school with no construction experience is to invite 2 - 3 YEARS of hose choking before they'll let you in the water (in the Gulf, anyway). at minimum or near minimum wage.
If you want to go inland, get used to the idea of being in pitch black sewage for 10 - 11 hours straight, sucking mud & only god knows what mushy things.
You might as well grab your cat's litter box & start making some **** sandwiches so you'll get used to the taste.
Still wanna be a commercial diver?:tease:

Most only did it for three to eight years and gave it up for good. Two out of five have some sort of nerve disorder due to improper decompression.

As to being an instructor in Cozumel how in the world are you going to support Raven's habit doing that!!

Besides you know as well as the rest of us it is the time away that keeps it desirable. It would be fun for a year, maybe longer then the fun would be gone and it would be nothing more than work.

Of course you would have to deal with "All those once every couple of year divers that shouldn't be diving at all".

Hallmac

pt40fathoms
Now get back to work!

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Lol...

pt40fathomsBob3 once bubbled...
Whatever you do, don't call up a commercial dive school & ask them about anything, they'll pack your head so full of BS it'll be coming outta your toenails.
Have a read here: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/divers3/diveinfo.htm

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Oh, man... You're one of the guys that I was hoping to hear from.

Thanks for the link... Too late on the "calling a commercial school," though... I called them a couple of years ago and watched all of the videos and such. I got pestered to the point of telling them to take off, and now it's been a while since I had my head packed full of BS.

Thanks a million for the link... Looks like I've got some reading to do.

You need to be proficient at any number of construction trades first, like carpentry, masonry, pipefitting & welding, then adding diving to the list is realistic. To go into a commercial dive school with no construction experience is to invite 2 - 3 YEARS of hose choking before they'll let you in the water (in the Gulf, anyway). at minimum or near minimum wage.

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Ugh.

Well, I'm not proficient at any of the above. Looks like I'm pretty badly set up for this trade, hunh? I don't think I could survive on minimum wage; although if you actually counted every hour I was working, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that I'm working darn near that anyway.

If you want to go inland, get used to the idea of being in pitch black sewage for 10 - 11 hours straight, sucking mud & only god knows what mushy things.
You might as well grab your cat's litter box & start making some **** sandwiches so you'll get used to the taste.
Still wanna be a commercial diver?:tease:

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I don't eat ****. And frankly, working inland to me sounds pretty boring. But long dives that are productive sound great.

Yes, I think I am still quite attracted to commercial diving. Your words don't change my mind about it.

I must be insane. ;-0

Hallmac once bubbled...
Most only did it for three to eight years and gave it up for good. Two out of five have some sort of nerve disorder due to improper decompression.

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Yikes.

You're another I was hoping to hear from... Anyone who knows what they're talking about. Thanks for responding.

Doesn't the diver have a choice about their deco times? Wouldn't their nerve damage be due to their own choices?

As to being an instructor in Cozumel how in the world are you going to support Raven's habit doing that!!

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I'm not.

Although I understand that the divers are paid well.

Besides you know as well as the rest of us it is the time away that keeps it desirable. It would be fun for a year, maybe longer then the fun would be gone and it would be nothing more than work.

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I've thought about that, too.

Actually, I have personal experience in exactly that arena. I can't share what I used to do for a living, but suffice to say that it was pretty much what EVERYONE would want to do for a living, if they could. I was very lucky in that regard.

...And it got boring, too. I don't know how to combat this.

WileEDiver once bubbled...

And how is the porn star, ah, Adult Film biz these days?

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I knew I saw your mug shot somewhere else before SeaJay!

I thought you were great in "Saving Ryan's Privates"



SS

I've been a computer geek all my life. I got my first when I was six years old, started writing my own programs when I was 7. My dad bought the next one, and when I was 12/13 I conned him into giving me a loan for my next one and worked my butt off training local people on their PC's for $20 an hour to pay him off.

In high school, I never had the normal fast food job. I worked for a decent sized consulting company as a network/field technician. Only kid in high school that wore a suit to school so that he didn't have to change when he got out of school two hours early so I could work.

Went to college, did 3 1/2 years of programming work for the university and decided that I liked networking better so I switched over to the residential network dept. and ran that network for a few months, when I landed my current job. Finished out my double majors in German and CS while working full time (and then some...) as a network engineer for a large bank.

And I'm still here. A week away from 24. When I was growing up and people asked me what I wanted to be, I said "a Network Engineer". I never looked up to the firemen, I looked up to the computer geeks

But I've never been the typical geek. I hunt, I fish, I skydive, I play paintball - and now I dive. Who knows, maybe I'm trying to overcompensate for being a geek

But anyway - I've been diving about two years now. Now I'm working on Divemaster....I'm young...and have been giving serious thought to ditching all of this for a few years to go work on a liveaboard or something. Nothing as ambitious as making deep tech dives - I don't have the spare cash to blow $20k on gear and training...but I think of the reasons as to why I work. I work so I can play. I work so I can afford to put gas in my truck so I can go bowhunting. I work so that I can afford to go diving - all the time. I have underwater photos of me here in my cube and they send me off daydreaming more often than not, next thing you know I end up here on Scubaboard or emailing my friends to go hit up night dive.

But...hrmm...if I were to work as a divemaster/instructor somewhere, what the hell would I need money to dive for? I would be working at playing. It would be pretty cool.

I know people have said that you'll ruin the joy of diving...but they said the same about computers and you know what?? I still feel like I'm walking into my personal playground every time I walk into my server room. I think I'd be the same way about diving, at least for a few years. And hey, that's all I'm thinking about is the next couple of years...go slack off for a little while, teach diving at some place. Ya know...wouldn't be so bad - money isn't everything...and I have really enjoyed my divemaster internship so far.

Who knows...

And, even though I'm thinking about diving most of the time, my thoughts do wander over to sand and bikini's every once in awhile

Why not join the navy? You could be salvaging wrecks, or repairing ships, or defusing mines. And best of all, they will pay for your training. In addition you get to contribute to whacking some terrorists, and maybe even canadians someday!