So.. I was sat in a pub havin a pint and reading the paper. It was Sunday afternoon, it was raining and I was in my home town, Derby. My mind was wandering, I’d been working a lot of hours saving up for a trip to South America, when my attention was suddenly drawn towards an advert in the travellers section. It read something along the lines of ‘DiveMaster Internships, Koh Tao, Thailand.
Now I’d done a little bit of this diving lark and always loved it so I gave the number a ring pretty much straight away and was given all the info I needed; full instruction up to Divemaster, materials, accommodation, my own gear, break-dancing lessons (I’m still waiting for them actually), and all this at a dive school called Davy Jones Locker. A couple of months later, on a sunny Monday morning I arrived on Koh Tao and was taken straight to the dive school. Now I was excited but a little apprehensive about what I’d got myself into. However, I was greeted by the lovely Rosalyn and Luke who quickly sorted me out with my accommodation and made me feel right at home.
Three months, four whale sharks and a ton of parties later I was qualified as a Divemaster… hooray! Ok so my intentions at this point were to continue with my original plan of goin to South America, but in what must’ve been a moment of madness, the good people at Davy Jones Locker offered me a job. I’d be working with my friends, on a beautiful island doing something I love…why not? After seven amazing months of ‘work’ I started to think about the next step, instructor. I hooked up with Pete the PADI Course Director at Davy Jones. After a lot of hard work on my part and a lot of patience on his he got me through my Instructor Development Course [IDC]. Thanks Pete! I passed my Instructor Exam with flying colours and am now working as the shop Divemaster/Instructor. Honestly, a bad day for me is 5metres visibility, a cloudy sky, maybe havin to write a blog. On a good day pretty much anything is possible, and to think that just over a year ago I was sat in that pub in Derby.
Neil Draycott
