Interning at the Little Shop of Horrors!

Has anyone ever wondered what really happens behind the closed doors of the MauiDreams Dive shop? Well, allow me to introduce myself. Iʼm the intern! Well one of them anyways. Really my name is Chelsea Truscott and along with Katie Schmid (the other intern) we are new to the dive shop. Which means we finally get to see whats behind the big blue door! Are you ready?

 

GEAR!!!! Lots and lots of gear. Rows upon rows of tanks and wet BCDʼs. Have you ever smelled a wet wetsuit that has been hanging for a few hours!!! Let me tell you its not pretty!

After the initial shock wore off, I was put to work. Going through orientation on How To Clean Gear! I remember thinking to myself, “YES! Iʼm finally an instructor and now I get to clean gear!” I have to admit I laughed to myself which probably explains the odd looks I received from the shops manager Teri.

Even as I write this i canʼt help but smirk which has resulted in a worried “uhoh” from my new boss!! : )

Iʼd have to admit, gear cleaner may not be a glamorous job, but it is relaxing and very zen. I found myself in a calm state until I heard “CHELSEA” come from the front of the shop. I hurriedly ran out, dripping wet, to find more customers to gear up and send out to dive!

And such is the life of the intern to date! We run, we fetch, we even jump upon occasion. If anyone happens to find themselves in Kihei, Iʼve been told its entertaining to watch us sent to and fro. So come on down, introduce yourself and enjoy the show!

Earth Day Surprises 2010

As you all know by now, we have a blast doing underwater clean-ups from the Maui Diamond II several times a year. 

So on Earth Day, we headed to our usual area near the look-out along the West Maui Mountains and proceeded to clean, clean, clean.  This time, though it felt like I was going through lots of air separating and sending up bags of line and sinkers, I didn't feel like we were sending up as much as usual.  After about an hour, my cleaning crew of six (Ananda on top, two Jeffs below, plus Barbara, John and myself) reboarded the boat to have a look at what we'd sent up.  Gabe's group was still down for several more minutes, but I took a sneak peek in the bucket to check out how many zillions of pounds of lead there was so far.

Um...where was all the lead?  The lead bin is usually too full to lift and we have to separate it to get it off the boat at the end of the day.  Today, there was just one layer of lead sinkers from both groups combined!  At first, I felt a twinge of disappointment...but wait, could this mean???  Yes, after a couple of years of concentrating on this one area, we have made a recognizeable impact!!  In fact, it seems that we will have to find somewhere new to clean up in September - awesome!

After celebrating this success, we surprised the generous group of divers who came along to clean with a non-clean-up dive at a second site...but I'll let them tell you about that!

Thanks to Gabe, Jenny, Don, and Chris who donated time and effort as boat crew on Thursday and big thanks to Paul for continuing to organize, coordinate, and usually lead an underwater crew. After being showed up by the E-Team so many times, he decided to give his crew to Gabe this time. Okay, really he was sick, but he still came along to help out!


See you next time, Rachel

Looking Back...

A little over three years ago I moved to Maui from Atlanta, not really sure what path I might take. One thing lead to another and before I knew it I was on my way to being a dive instructor. I remember watching other instructors working during my Divemaster internship wondering if I could ever do it.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was being trained by one of the best. Any of you that have taken a class with Paul know what I am talking about. Sometimes I would say to myself “I really can’t believe he is making me do this…it’s so trivial.” No, it wasn’t trivial, it was a necessary building block to learning skills correctly so that when my turn came to teach I would do things correctly. Then there have been times when I was teaching that I would want to skip a skill to save time thinking who is really going to know. I would say to myself “would Paul skip it?” and the answer was always no. So the skill was done.

During my Divemaster training, I decided it would be a good idea to get my captains license. So five nights a week for four weeks Paul and I would drive to Kahalui to go to class. It was then over to Honolulu to complete the process. Next came the IDC (Instructor Development Course). As Paul was working for Maui Dreams at the time I of course went there for my training.

Once again I was fortunate to be trained by one of the best. Teri’s knowledge of diving is second only to the genuine care she has for her students. It was an amazing 10 days of learning and laughing. After passing the IE (the 2 day Instructor Exam) it was time to find a job. Word had it that if you hang out at Maui Dreams long enough they might just offer you a job and it worked !

That was the beginning of an amazing two years. Don and Rachel have done an incredible job cultivating an atmosphere at the store which is fun and inviting. I never really considered myself an “employee” but more like a friend helping out. It would take too long to go through all of the awesome experiences, but let’s just say, well, it’s been awesome ! I would personally like to thank Don and Rachel, all of the other “friends” that work at the store and our customers (a lot of whom have become friends) for giving me memories that will last a lifetime.

My time here on Maui is ending but new adventures await. This summer I’ll be lifeguarding in Ocean City, NJ and then be heading off to Croatia. Hopefully our paths with cross at some point. Until then I hope that I have been able to touch your life the way so many have touched mine.

Aloha and Mahalo,
Jay (Jay-Lo, Scheesh, Manta Ray Jay, Wrong Way Jay, etc.)

Note from MDDC:  Jay will be leaving Maui at the end of this month, so don't miss an opportunity to catch up with him before then!