Undersea Divers
This past week, from Wednesday the 24th to Saturday the 27th I was working up in Beverly, Massachusets at Undersea Divers, a dive shop owned by Bob Boyle. Upon arrival I was treated to a tour of the shop from Heather, an Undersea employee. I got to see its office and back area which is home to the compressor, layaways and extra merchandise, as well as a ton of tanks which have been filled or inspected. After the tour it was right to work, putting together a new shipment of steel tanks. To do this the valves must be put together and then screwed onto the tank with silicon grease, a big wrench and a mallet. Next, Heather showed me how to do air fills on the newly assembled tanks. At first it seemed like a tricky process, but after a few fills I got the hang of it. On Thursday I ate lunch with Bob and Andy Martinez, a leading New England underwater photographer. He was kind enough to give me a copy of his book Marine Life of the North Atlantic and treat us to some delicious Thai food. Over the next few days I spent most of my time filling tanks for the various brave divers about to immerse themselves in the 46 degree water. I also did some work taking inventory and improving the gear bag display. During the week the shop was pretty quiet, but as soon as Saturday hit, the place was roaring with a continuos stream of visitors. In fact, I filled as many tanks on Saturday as I had done for the rest of the week combined. Overall, it was a fun week and I got a good understanding of how much work running a dive shop involves.
