THE MAN.
THE DIVER.
THE INSTRUCTOR.
THE COURSE DIRECTOR.
THE TECHNICAL DIVER.
THE ONE WHO
KEPT GOING.
THERE WAS A TIME
WHEN MARTIJN
DID NOT DIVE.
This was before 2009.
Then he entered the water. He learned. He taught. He went deeper.
And eventually, people started asking him to teach the people who teach other people to dive.
He agreed.
HE TEACHES
PEOPLE TO
DIVE.
Recreational divers. Divemasters. Instructors. Technical divers.
The level is less important than what happens next.
Someone gets better. Someone becomes more confident. Someone discovers they can do something they weren't sure they could do.
THAT PART
MATTERS.
THE CERTIFICATIONS
ARE NOT THE POINT.
THE PEOPLE ARE.
Diving is not rocket science.
It should be taken seriously when it needs to be taken seriously. It should also be fun.
Martijn doesn't particularly care how quickly someone progresses, what level they reach, or how impressive their certification card looks.
If someone is having fun and getting better, the system appears to be functioning.
JUST
DIVING.
Sometimes a dive is just a dive.
A reef. A turtle. A good swim. Something interesting hiding under a rock.
CONSIDERABLY
MORE
CYLINDERS.
Trimix. Sidemount. Decompression. Technical training.
Sometimes there are considerably more cylinders.
GOOD AT
EVERYTHING:
NO.
There are things Martijn is good at.
There are things he is still learning.
And there are probably things he will never be particularly good at.
This seems acceptable.
THEN HE
DISCOVERED
FISH.
He had spent years learning about diving.
Then he started learning about what was actually living down there.
They had apparently been there the whole time.
STILL
LEARNING.
Depth is interesting.
It is not a personality.