Back in June I had the amazing opportunity to vacation in Vieques, Puerto Rico. In preparation for the trip I decided to get scuba certified (eventually more posts on my personal experiences while diving will follow). Never in a million years did I think I would be scuba diving in Puerto Rico, but I did it and it was incredible! My first dive experience has left me with a very good story...
He was the stereotypical scuba diver, adrenaline junkie, extremist. He had unkempt blonde locks that he assumed sea life had been growing in. Not only was he a scuba diver, but he was a sky diver and surfer and had been known to stay in hammocks on the beach. This was Bodhi, my scuba instructor in Vieques.
I had been anxiously awaiting my scheduled open-water dive to finalize my scuba certification and here I was paired with Bodhi. A man probably no older than 32, but with the energy and spirit of an adventurous 12 year old boy. Of course he was an outstanding instructor and had plenty of patience with me when I had a minor panic attack during one of our dives. But I was mainly intrigued by Bodhi's story.
Turns out Bodhi had been living and working as a dive instructor on the Puerto Rican island for a year and a half. Originally from Michigan, he left his position at a company he started. He believed the job would give him a heart attack before the age of 38 and figured it just wasn't worth it. He was drawn to Puerto Rico to complete his scuba training to become an instructor and the rest is history.
He enjoyed his time in Vieques, but was ready to move on to something else. At this point in time, there was a one way ticket to Thailand with Bodhi's name on it. I've known a few people who have bought one way tickets across the country, but they usually plan on backpacking through Europe and when the money runs out or they catch some weird disease from a hostel they just come back home. But there was something about the idea of Bodhi leaving paradise to head off to Thailand to see what Southeast Asia had in store for him. He was literally following the ocean seeking out his place in this world.
Inspired just doesn't fully cover how I felt about Bodhi's next adventure in life. I just kept thinking to myself, "I want to do that!" Of course I couldn't shut up about it all to my boyfriend. My boyfriend, the dreamer of our duo, just reminded me that I can do that. Whether I want to travel and teach yoga or simply pick up and see what else is out there for me in this world, I CAN do that! I too can follow the ocean and see what's in store for me and my life. However, I just kept telling myself, "You currently don't have the money to do something crazy like this. And once you actually do have the money to travel, you'll be too old." More on this later...
Back to diving with Bodhi, during my open-water dive sessions Bodhi would go over hand signals with me that we'd use underwater for communication. Signals include things like "out of air", "I'm okay", "my ears aren't equalizing", "danger", etc. During our hand signal refresher course, my boyfriend had pointed out to Bodhi that the signals for "check your pressure gauge" and "lionfish" were visually very similar. One is to make sure your tank isn't low on air and the other is to communicate that there's a lionfish nearby (a sting from a lionfish can be extremely dangerous to humans). Bodhi just kind of laughed off my boyfriend's observation.
While swimming around Bodhi made a signal which I read as "check your pressure gauge". As I was about to signal to him how much pressure was left in my tank I realized he wasn't even looking at me for my response. Instead he had pulled out his dive knife and proceeded to stab a lionfish. As an invasive species in the Carribean, divers are welcome to kill lionfish and I was witnessing just that. Unfortunately Bodhi missed, but I was left both amused and totally freaked out by the image of Bodhi pulling out his knife underwater. Of course his killing a lionfish with a beginner diver at his side would only add to his level of extreme.
Now his name wasn't actually Bodhi, but his adventure seeking nature reminded me of a certain character played by Patrick Swayze (rest in peace) in the film Point Break. By the end of our two days diving together I told him I could no longer call him by his actual name and I would call him Bodhi moving forward. He thought it was fitting, but swore he hadn't robbed any banks as of recently.
"If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love."
Bodhi in Point Break
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