Lorena Espin – Winner of the Best Dive Job in the World 2014/2015
When I arrived in Bali, first I felt excited to have arrived in a tropical country where I would soon be diving every day. Second I felt annoyed and despaired that my luggage had not arrived with me.
Eventually my stuff was returned to me, but the incident was an appropriate way to start things off, as the next few weeks were struggle after struggle for me.
One struggle was that I was undeniably coming into this whole thing as the underdog. I was merely Open Water certified and had only nine dives under my belt. My impression was that my fellow competitors each had a thousand logged dives; they all knew exactly what they were doing on our first dive together. Meanwhile, I was concentrating on remembering how to breathe that I did not even notice the ship wreck. Embarrassing.
I improved, as I set small, attainable goals for myself each dive. I also spent extra time in the pool, working diligently on my skills.
Another
struggle was that we were separated into two teams of four and competed against each other in what I was convinced were impossible challenges. Taking pictures of fish during a violent drift dive? Sell T-shirts in a country none of know? I stress: Impossible challenges.
Want to see more of my struggles? Check out this episode and see what the very cool prizes were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZLkJmfauRU
Spoiler alert: I was on the team that lost nearly every prize. At least I had fun commiserating with and getting to know my teammates. Why not watch this cheeky little video my un-triumphant but awesome team put together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQShjh9qJf4
Also, as a reality TV connoisseur I knew that the overall winner of a competition usually comes from the team that loses the most challenges throughout. So it stood to reason that that overall winner could very well be me. Now that’s good television!
