Best Dive Job 2012 runner-up – Joe, reporting for duty!

Best Dive Job Blog Entry #1

Good things come to those who wait….

Long, long ago (..well, actually August 2011) in a land far, far away (… a.k.a Bali), a Canadian school teacher and intrepid diver (me!!) was on a summer dive excursion with Blue Season Bali. Bored with my life as an international high school teacher in Bangkok, I found myself pondering the possibility of throwing caution to the wind, biting the financial bullet and quitting my job to pursue the dream of “going Pro” and becoming a PADI dive instructor. While sitting in Blue Season’s Sanur office/IDC centre enjoying my Nescafe and chatting through/ logging the day’s dives with Mantas and Mola Mola (!!) a poster on the wall caught my eye :

And so began my journey towards becoming the second place winner of Blue Season Bali’s The Best Dive Job in the World 2012 competition.

Throughout the 5 months of the competition myself and dozens of other hopeful divers from around the globe battled it out for a chance to make our dreams a reality; becoming a PADI dive instructor in one of the most beautiful places in the world – Bali, Indonesia! The competition was fierce and each of us worked hard to make ourselves stand out amongst the crowd by finding new and interesting ways to promote ourselves and Blue Season Bali around the world. Each of us found our “niche”, choosing different aspects to focus on. One competitor used his background in graphic design to create amazing posters for the competition and Blue Season, another had her friends log swimming miles to equal the entire length of Bali’s shoreline, another hosted a Blue Season themed party in her hometown complete with a “splashmob”. As for me, I decided to take my battle global by creating an international photo campaign where people posted photos of support for me and Blue Season from around the world. Completely beyond what I had ever imagined, my battle went somewhat viral and I ended up with hundreds of photos from dozens of countries. My email, competition page, blog and Facebook fan page saw a steady stream of support photos from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, South America and beyond. I had pictures of support starring friends, strangers, animals, statues even bacteria growing in petrie dishes! It really was amazing to see how far someone can take their dream with the help of social media and a little elbow grease. I also wanted Blue Season to see what kind of person I was beyond photos and blog posts so I made a series of videos chronicling my “Battle for Bali”. I had a great time making them and once again was incredibly surprised by the amount of comments and messages of support they brought in.

Finally after 5 months of battling, hundreds of supports photos, over 1000 comments on my competition page and endless hours of harassing my friends, family and beyond to help me live the dream, it was decision day….and I won!! I didn’t come in first but hey, second place ain’t too shabby!!!

Goodbye boring ol’ life, hello new amazing adventure!!

After winning, my life encountered a few unavoidable twists and turns which forced me to put off claiming my prize for a full year. The Blue Season Team’s support for me never wavered however, and now I am finally able to come to Bali and claim my amazing prize. Determined to become the best instructor I can, I have decided add on to the amazing package I won and complete a full 2 month DM, 28 IDC and 2 month MSDT internship.

I am super excited to tell the world (and others who are interested in pursuing a career as a PADI dive instructor) about my amazing adventures here at Blue Season Bali. Be sure to stay tuned for blog posts and videos of “a day in the life of the Best Dive Job in the World”. Got a question? No problem! Feel free to post them here and I’ll answer you when I get back to the shop after my amazing days of diving in Bali’s underwater wonderland!

As they say, the best things come to those who wait! Thank goodness the wait is almost over.