Travel the world, meet people. ..

I left the first time 14 years ago. I packed my bags,  with too many kilos and left.
My bags became my life,  or so I thought. ... One: diving gear and PADI materials (forget about the digital revolution 14 years ago) and in the other bag: far too many clothes to be spending the rest of my life in bikini and barefoot.

And I left.  I remember the excitement at the airport and the tears (my mum still cry every time I leave).

I was creating my itchy feet,  without even knowing it yet. ..

I look back. 
My bags haven't been my life. .. but the people I met on the way.  In each part of my journey.

From Dominican Republic to Thailand,  passing through Bahamas,  St Martin, Maldives,  Ibiza, Bali. ..

Each place. .. is a reminder of someone/someones.

Sometimes I sit at the first day of the IDC,  look at my candidates and think to myself:
Objectif: by the end of this course you will be able to accept everyone exactly the way he is and become friends for life!

This never ends.

I have met along the way,  friends for life.  People for whom I would move mountains to go and see.

Friends for life.

What an amazing job we have.
Every day is a surprise,  every moment is unique. And every trip a new beginning to fulfill our experiences.

Travel the world,  meet people,  make friends forever. ..

Falling in love, again and again...

There is one place in the world, where I manage to fall in love all over again: Tulamben, Bali.

Of course I haven’t seen all the places in the world, but I’m lucky enough to have been diving in some amazing dive spots.

Tulamben for me is just magical.

There is an EVERYTHING about it that just…

On the Est of Bali, just arriving to Tulamben is breath taking. Amazing rice fields through the mountains, to end up on the squirts of the Agung, amazing deep blue ocean, with volcanic black rolling stones…

The USAT Liberty wreck, was a “victim” from the second world war. At the time, ended up on the beach (they say many houses are built with pieces of wreck), but on 1968, the powerful volcano Agung, pushed the boat back to the sea, leaving there for us, the most amazing wreck.

Any time of the day is good. But in my eyes, the best time, is 6am.

Sun is rising, and the sea is calm, quiet, waking up, like you.

You walk in from the stony beach, like you don’t want to make any noise.

As soon as your head is down, that’s it.

This multicolour corals, on black sand, are alive!

You descend slowly, checking out all the “mini oasis” in the middle of black dunes, shrimps, nudibranches (all the colours, all the shapes), crabs…

The water is 30 degrees and you know that looking at each thing, you could be there forever… but you carry on, and in front of you: the big stern of  the USAT Liberty.

The light still low, so the wreck is a ghost…

In front of us, a magnificient school of bump head parrot fish are leaving the wreck. You want to join the group and swim along with them all the way. Slow and relax… they just go for the day.

Swimming left shoulder, you descent to the deepest area of the wreck, 28m, but if you escape for a little on the sand, the sea fans hide some pigmy sea horses, and in the blue, giant trivalies swim on top of your head.

Staying close to the wreck, you realise very fast that he has become, with the years, a living reef.

After turning all around, I’m shallower, garden eels on my right on the sand, and anemones and corals dress the hull and pieces of the old ship.

It’s time to come out, and I don’t want to.

Swimming along the sand in 5m, I’m just discovering more and more, and there, in front of us, 3 black tips enjoy a morning swim.

Coming to the surface, the sun start to heat up the atmosphere. In front of us the Agung is showing his head between the morning clouds…

It’s just time for coffee.

I♡my mentors

MENTOR.

Such an amazing word actually.

A word full of meaning.

Most of the time a meaning that comes from the heart and not from the pure definition.

When I teach IDCs, there is this big question that appears on the screen:

What is a Mentor?

The definition from the dictionary is:

1.     a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher

2.     an influential senior sponsor or supporter

But what comes out from my students mouth is way more intense:

Someone that changes your life

Someone that knows how to pass there passion

Somebody that loves teaching

Anyone that spend all day with there students…

If I think about my mentors, I have this very special place for them.

There is my first dive Instructor: Bea. For her, and forever, I wear pink fins! When I turned 18, my parents asked me what do you want for your birthday? And with no hesitation, I said PINK fins, like Bea.

There is of course my Course Director, to take me under there wings, when I was the youngest of my course… an I felt sometimes… so small…

There is Rich (I always need Rich in my pocket ;-). That trusted me to Staff his IDCs, believed in me till the last minute and encourage me to present my CDTC dossier everyday.

It was the first phone call I made all the way from Spain to Thailand, to say I was IN and mostly to say THANK YOU.

And then finally, all the PADI staff that took us through the CDTC. Made me laugh and help me become who I am today.

This are the MENTORS, the people that stay forever in your heart… way more than in your head.

This people that have a little voice, that you can still hear even when they are far away.

Thank you all.

I was lucky. .. to become who I am

The other day,  I was asked to write about me.  To share who I was. 

If you have tried it before,  there is nothing more difficult than talk about who you are. 

At the begining you just think. .. mm mm. ... I'm Isa,  and then what? 

And in a late moment of inspiration (Spanish time,  always) I started thinking that I was a lucky girl.  And this is what came out:

" I was lucky,  I was one of this kind of students,  that doing no much,  always have very good marks. 
I was an unconditional dreamer.  I could see myself in every country we talked about in geography,  I could travel thusands of years and believe in mythology and I could play for hours with any experiment from physic class. 
I was lucky as well that my family grow up in a little fisherman house right on the sand.  I spent all my long 3 months summer holidays there. Barefoot. Salty.  With my mask and my fins always with me. 
I was the luckiest when my dad took me diving for the first time. 
I was 9. I was there.  Exactly where I wanted to be.

A few years later,  already doing my advanced,  I took the biggest decision of my life.  I that time,  I didn't know. .. but somewhere in my heart. .. It was tattooed. 
I went for this night dive.  It was so dark and moreyeels were out hunting, octopus saying hello,  and my world just flipted. I came out with the biguest smile,  looked at my dad and said:
This is what I want to do when I grow up.
I was 14 years old,  a good student and a swimmer. .. One of this swimmers that will never achieve really anything because competition was not my thing.  

When I turned 16,  university and decision times. .. what to study. .. I just wanted to be a dive instructor,  all my saving from teaching kids how to swim,  were for that. .. For the summer,  the diving,  all of it. 
So I study to become a sport teacher.  Half way through my second year I said to my dad:
I wish I had something special,  you know,  like this people that can sing,  draw or play an instrument. ..
and my dad told me,  you do: you have passion,  patience and you can teach. 
Wuauuuuu dad's are actually always right! 
The summer of my nearly 18th,  I did my dive master (a little of standard breaking. .. but at the time I didn't know; -))
I cycle 10km every morning to the dive centre and worked,  like probably I've never worked again for 10 hours,  to ride my bike back home and fall happily asleep till the next day.  3 month, no stop. 
At the end of the summer I got certify,  on my birthday. 
2 years later,  after working as a DM in summer and finishing my degree,  I did my instructor course. 
When I finished the exam,  my examiner asked me:
And now,  how do you going to use your instructor card.
my answer was clear: I'm going to use it like a passport and walk the word barefoot ;-)
And so I did. 
For 14 years. 
In amazing places,  amazing sea's and with incredible people. 
So if you ask me about who I am,  what I do. ..
I am what I do.  And I love it! "

My first

Everyone has a first.
A first of everything.  And I lost my CD virginity with the girl of the magical name: Matilda.

I remember filling in paperwork: course director name. .. shit,  this is me!

My first IDC.
I was so nervous. .. that I kept saying "quotes" totally surrealistic that Matilda decided to write down and keep for futher references. .. It was hilarious.  Actually sunshine. .. you can put one as a proof that I'm not laying :-)

Matilda is from Sweden. .. so in the swimming pool I remember to point at the sky to do the sign of " you look at me", because on my knees next to her. .. I was tiny ;-)

This will always stay in my head and heart as a very very special course.
When we went for the IE to Phuket, the feeling was like taking my kid for her first day at school.  I think I was more stressed than her ( and I have to admit that the feeling is every time in my belly,  that doesn't go away).

The girl with the magical name. .. that is now a magical instructor!

I'm so glad you were the first ;-)

Happy hippy fish

So here we are,  at the last IDC.
After many days of prep and the first week of IDC is time for a nice set of exams.
All my boys look super concentrate.
Calculators on the table (hello kitty ones), RDPs,  eRDPmls, draft paper. .. cards are on the table!
After 1h30 minutes,  times is up.
Correction time:
We arrive to one of the questions about aquatic injuries.
Everyone happy with this one?
Yes,  yes and then a no.
Ok,  so let's correct it.

I won't say the answers,  because it would be so easy for the next one,  but thank to you: happy hippy fish,  we are all looking underwater for this amazing fish that will give us "well being and foolish behaviour".
I'm sure it exist,  maybe we just have to lick a nudibranch and we don't know yet!

You made my day and from now on. .. my dives. .. searching for the happy hippy fish ;-)

Finally... blogging again... ;-)

So here I am, in front of my laptop, realising that I haven't been blogging for ages... and guess what... I was missing it!

So, with no more excuses, I created a new blog.

This blog is not about me.
This blog is about YOU guys!

About you, my lovely IDC candidates, that become my kids for 3 weeks!

I will have to do a little "historical", because I don't think it would be fair to only talk about my last "kids".
I think all of you guys deserve a place on this blog!

All your comments, all your little things that make you absolutely unique and unforgettable!

This is for you guys!

With all my "mum" love