The walls started closing in on Richard Hartley 15 years ago.
He looked up from the sea of paper on his desk and saw the writing on those
same walls.
"I knew it was time for a change," he says. "I had what I referred to as
a respectable job. But in this case, respectable meant boring."
Today you can find Hartley up to his ears in challenges. One day he swims
with a school of exotic fish, the next he rescues an inexperienced diver who
has panicked during his first dive.
As head of training for the Underwater Explorers Society (Unexso), Hartley's
job is many things, but boring isn't one of them.
"There is a certain amount of glamour to this job," he says from his paradise
on the Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas. "But there is a lot of hard work
that goes into it."
Hartley started diving as a hobby at the age of 16, but he didn't begin
pursuing it seriously until his late twenties. He eventaully became a member
of the British Sub-Aquatic Club.
"Even then I did it as a sport," he says. "I didn't think much of doing
it for a living."
That all changed one day when he decided a desk job wasn't
for him. Since then, he's worked as a dive instructor in such places as Florida
and the Bahamas. Friends in his home aquatic club in England helped Hartley
make the contacts he needed to find work as a diver.
"Diving as a career is certainly open to anyone who wants to pursue it,"
Hartley says. "You can work in great places with a great bunch of people,
if you've got what it takes."
Strong people skills, work ethic and a commitment to excellence are what
it takes to make it in this field.
"If you're professional in your attitude, can put on that Disneyland smile,
enjoy working with people and don't mind hard work, this isn't a bad profession
to take up," Hartley says.
While Hartley was seeking a whole new career, other people become dive
instructors as a way to supplement their primary careers.
One such person is Mary Brill, who studied ecology and evolutionary biology
in school and is pursuing a career in marine biology.
For her, diving was a bonus to her career. She became a professional scuba
instructor almost by chance.
"I was always a swimmer, then a lifeguard. This just came naturally," Brill
says.
Besides the thrill of being in the water, Brill's favorite part of the
job is the people she teaches.
"To see people be so happy and excited really rubs off," she says. "After
a while you stop really looking around. But the people diving for the first
time get excited over every starfish. They keep renewing my interest and reminding
me how cool it all is."
But diving is not all fun and games. There are some real challenges instructors
and their students face every day.
Things can go wrong. Usually the classroom sessions go pretty smoothly,
but once the class gets to the open water, less is certain.
"Sometimes the water is just rough and people get seasick," Brill says.
"Sometimes people get out there for the dive and get scared. I really have
to be able to calm them and tell them, 'You really want to do this. You really
can do this.'"
Communication skills are one of the most important skills an instructor
can have. The students need to understand you in the classroom and they also
have to understand your signals underwater.
Brill advises anyone interested in becoming a dive instructor to simply
start diving and learning about the technology.
"If you are comfortable in water, careful, and can rub off enthusiasm,
you can be a dive instructor," she says.
Another aspect of the job that keeps Brill excited is marine life. Sometimes,
sea animals get used to divers and play with them.
"Sometimes we see a group of sea lions," she says. "When they see us, they
start doing flips and blowing bubbles, because they see us blowing bubbles.
The students love that."
Instructor Nelson Moore says he likes the scenery of his job. "You never
know what you'll see, but it's always exciting," says Moore, who teaches scuba
off the coast of Florida. "Whether it's fish, or seahorses, dolphins or shipwrecks,
there's always something interesting going on under the water."
Moore cautions anyone who wants to get involved in the field to have patience
and a love of the ocean. "When you're working with people, you've got to be
prepared to put up with a lot of questions and you have to explain yourself
clearly," he says. "This might mean you have to repeat things over and over.
"You've also got to love swimming like a fish," he continues. "You're going
to be in the water an awful lot, and you'd better like being there."