Journey of 540 Dives

This post goes out to the dedicated and hard working men of ALERT's Unit 51. 

I have been on the road for most of April in the great state of Texas, teaching at the International ALERT Academy.

This is one of the twice-a-year moments that I get to teach there, and it is hands down my favorite group to teach.

We cover a LOT in a very short amount of time! In just 14 days, these young men are taken from not being very confident in the water to open water, advanced open water, and then through the special response diving course. Like I said, a LOT!

There are a few reasons why I enjoy this.

1. These guys are beast. Like Nike, they just do it. No reservations or holding back when they are told to do something- they just get it done.
2. Big, giant, human shaped sponges. All of them are eager to learn and grow. 
3. Competent. It's not like they just learned to dive in the ocean and now they won't dive for another year. No.. in just these two weeks they put 20 dives under their weight belts. Most people learning to dive won't even do that many dives in a year!
4. Let's not leave out comical. It's not perfection all the time, and there are a lot of screw ups, but we have fun doing it! The difference is that these guys are willing to learn from their mistakes.

These are only a few of the many reasons I enjoy working with ALERT men. I'm also an Alumni of the Academy, so there's that...

There is one thing that stands out the most, however, among these young men. It's their desire to go out and do. They have a fire lit inside to take the skills that they learn and go and serve their communities and public safety departments. And that's exactly what we need. We need the next generation of public safety divers to get excited to take on the job that is there.

An interesting shift is going on in the public safety diving world right now. It's the shift from the experienced old salts to the young bucks. Those that have been in the world of Underwater Search & Recovery and have been successful in their craft are either moving up their respective ladders, or they are retiring. The massive amounts of knowledge and wisdom that comes only from experience also leaves with them. This is leaving a learning gap in many departments. The old is out and the new is lost and left to find help and training on their own; which often means poor training.

But it's this fresh batch, the newbies, the rookies, the ones with that drive to get it done, that make my job a joy to do. I look forward to the future of these ALERT men and the impact they will have on their communities. Keep up the good work guys!

If you want to find out more about ALERT click HERE!
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