Water was not my world and I never wanted to teach.
Now I'm Luba/Scuba

My story about diving is probably different from most dive instructors. Diving was never my dream and ironically I wasn't the one who was always splashing around in the water during my childhood. I was even recently told by an acquaintance of mine that I was tempted to take a diving course when I was a teenager - I declined, preferring to pursue my then purely adrenaline-fuelled activities. The years went on without any "underwater activities" and only after the birth of my first child did I put my adrenaline in the "eternal hunting grounds".
Without getting more interested in diving, that was my path. I told myself that I didn't want to do all sorts of things around the world anymore, but to find a clear position. A diving guide. It made sense to me, because I like being a guide and showing people places that I have experience with and telling them more than they can read in a book. And since scuba diving is connected to sport and nature, there was nothing to think about.
I decided to go the way of the diver. How naive that was.
I didn't have a dive buddy, I didn't have money for gear, and the water wasn't my second home.
I read a few bits and pieces and thought to myself that after the basic course I would do an advanced course and guide people underwater in any destination in the world. As you can see, the naivety still continued :-).
I persuaded a friend who was an adventurer in spirit to take the basic course (which I knew nothing about) and he said "why not". I found and contacted an instructor who was located between our homes.
The first theory lesson was a big surprise to me as to what scuba diving is actually all about! The instructor was very strict, after all the head of the hospital and the so called "old school" didn't want to give us two anything for free and I still don't regret it.
We started in cold and dark water, with no previous pool exercises. With a poor quality mask my parents once bought me at a fair, I fell in love with the underwater state within seconds. Like when something breaks inside you and without thinking about the future, I knew I loved this state.
I didn't have to learn the dive mentality as I figured it all out on the way home. This sport is something I don't know. No adrenaline, no records, no heroics, but everything is based on quality, calmness, respect for others and nature. All this complemented by a weightless state and as I like to say today, it is "meditation underwater with strict concentration on details".
All my naivety quickly left me and I knew if I wanted to become a really good diver, I had to take it from a different side.
I started studying things about diving and found a really good instructor in my home country. He wasn't (and still is) just a person in my home country, but he is world famous. I approached him saying that I wanted to be a really good diving instructor and I would do whatever he said. He lived far away from me and of course didn't believe my absolute passion at first. He soon knew I was serious and I followed him on all his lessons and diving trips until, against all odds, I became a dive instructor.
I dare say that all my dives before getting my instructor's license were about drill and actually learning. Since I was with every one of his students, I saw how to learn and at the same time I was constantly working on my technique, which I always wanted to improve.

Not to prolong this any further, today I am writing in my paper logbook a four-digit number in the number of dives I have taken, with over 200 students and over 220 discovery scuba dives.
Diving is definitely not about numbers, but there are some things I take pride in.
A student leaving my classes must always be held to the highest standard. That's why I want to focus on that particular student, or couple, or part of the family. I focus on details and honesty. I don't mix people together in class who are not humanly and physically similar.
I am creating my personal brand, which I NEVER want to take away.
Many instructors urged me not to waste so much time with people, but as I continued on my own path, different doors began to open.
Probably because of my calmness, discretion, patience, and personal focus on each student, people who had previously drowned, had a bad experience, or wanted to gradually remove their fear of the water began to seek me out.

My discovery scuba dives are also set up differently than most instructors. I know that the first steps are the most important and I know a lot of people who don't have very fond memories of them.
And that's why I play with the first dive more than usual. I include a longer theory, a pool, and when I feel that the student is ready and also feels comfortable, only then do we go into the sea. This whole phase for me can take up to four hours. But I can say that a lot of my students (who have done a trial dive with me) have gone into OWD after the dive.
OWD - is an equally important part of teaching. I do everything I can to make my students proper divers with good habits and not just a card hander.
I also like to work with children and I believe that more time is needed for children to put all the information together.
Divers who desire an AOWD license need to see the underwater in person first, so I can assess if they are ripe to move to the next level. If they can work on themselves with great attention to detail and thus gradually become better divers.
And in a Nitrox course, for example, it is important to me that the student understands the issue of oxygen exposure and not just memorize the numbers 1.4, 1.6 and set their computer to maximum operating depth. The oxygen explanation is also about something else that many already "certified" nitrox divers don't even know yet.
I strongly recommend the Rescue Diver qualification to every diver. The course is always great fun, but also very beneficial on the diving journey to find peace of mind and confidence. I even coined the opinion about doing an annual "refresher" as repetition is the mother of wisdom. And needless to say, things we don't do on a daily basis tend to be forgotten very quickly, which given the safety of diving should not be taken lightly. And being very safety conscious, I can say that I personally, nor anyone who has worked under me on the team, has ever had a diving accident. It's not about luck or inexperience, on the contrary it's about preparedness, anticipation of risks and high professionalism.
But I also have experience with Self-Reliant Diver, for example. With this certification in particular, I care very much about the personality of the student and the reason why they should want this level. And only then do I decide whether to take the course or not. Saying no or waiting is also very important when it doesn't make sense.
For the Divemaster course, I need to make an appointment with a given (not student, but at that moment mainly) colleague. With this education we are already moving into the professional phase and this cannot be rushed, as he will then pass on what he has learned.

As a result of my thorough work, I have repeat students who will come halfway around the world to take the next level with me. I am not a quantitative instructor but a qualitative one and I know that people appreciate this approach of mine. I always maintain standards while adding my own experiences and insights that enrich the teaching. I am an advocate of an individual approach and I think that the form of teaching must constantly evolve and improve. It is not possible to teach the same way every time and this forces me (and at the same time entertains me) to constantly improve and think about the little things. The world is constantly changing and people are incredibly diverse :-) 

In my last position I not only taught, guided, organized large and small groups of divers, organized dive tours in Bali and surrounding islands, but also created a "book" about dive sites in my spare time.
The work is literally my life's work. Therefore, for me, work is an important part of who I am and must make absolute sense to me. Not just what I do, with whom, but also why. After that, it's standard for me to create value at 150%, as 100% is not enough for me and I don't feel comfortable there. However, I require the same of my team.

Review about me

Always facing new adventures through hard work, honesty, sports, nature, travel and above all doing everything with heart.

Don't expect me to write a story about myself with the energy to change the rotation of the earth, as journalism has passed me by in a big way in my life so far.

I will take education quickly.. In elementary school I was a completely normal boy without honors or failure. I took credit for behaving satisfactorily during the most difficult times for my parents, puberty. I searched in vain for justice in the harvest of orange peels, and praise did not save my then-unit from morality. A four-year high school with a high school diploma convinced me that my next steps would not lead to higher benches, but would take hold of my trade, for which my education had prepared me infinitely. I graduated on Wednesday and the next day I went to ask for a job. As a result, I was immediately employed on Monday. This is where a deeper analysis of my thinking would take place, and that I would complete the work.

Because my field was literally and literally: Wood and Furniture Production Operator, meaning I was a wood guy combined with CNC machine programming. So I was expecting a position from my employer that wasn't quite a line position. It was hard to bear, when you are nineteen and know exactly what you could do, that I was suddenly standing in a position I hadn't dreamed up. I was not discouraged and (with slight exaggeration) with gritted teeth went on, as the well-known cliché goes, "one step at a time". I got the position I wanted from the beginning and at the age of twenty I was in charge of a whole shift with ten people. I don't even need to tell you about the difficulties I had to find a balance between leading a team (which was an order of magnitude older than me) and my youthful inexperience. Three and a half years at Sapeli certainly pushed me forward, and circumstances willed it so, when I started my own business at an early age. As I thought at the time at Sapeli, my position was not the easiest in terms of building respect, it doesn't compare at all to the business I fell into. It wasn't a pitch size difference, it wasn't a class difference, it wasn't even a league difference. It was a completely different sport! :-)
Seven days a week with an average daily sleep of around four hours was my daily bread, which involved incredible stress, dealing with financial matters, taking risks, making spur of the moment decisions knowing that you are making decisions for your twenty employees. Sales, meetings, creativity, branding, technical development, layoffs, hiring new employees, resisting unpleasant and even in most cases unfair attacks, the phone to your right cheek and the steering wheel to your left hand,... led me to start yet another company. It only cost me the rest of my free time, the extra minutes of sleep, and my broken health. Of course, I went into it like a good, stubborn ram, honoring my sign. 
After more than seven years, this lifestyle has taken its cruel toll. Both in his health and in his personal life... I don't think I need to comment on what the business has taken from me.
And what has it given me? I can't tell you everything, but I'll at least try.
Estimating people, knowing how to deal with almost anyone, tenacity, persistence, respect, efficiency, continuous improvement, diplomacy, decisiveness and insolence, patience and responsibility. Also, being able to appreciate any job and also knowing the true value of money (which is severely ephemeral and far from being among the top things one needs to be satisfied) and being able to look at things from multiple perspectives.
This was all a phase of life that I definitely had to go through to move on in life again. And that's why I don't regret it, because I could never have offered all of this.
After the business stage, I needed to slow down. I don't mean to cut back on work, but I felt it was important to let go of responsibility at least for a while.
I've worked on a farm in England, bartended in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sold Christmas trees in a caravan, cut grass in Sri Lanka or volunteered at a Buddhist monastery in India. After some time I started to feel the desire to take responsibility again and my wife and I opened a restaurant in Sri Lanka.
Through covid, I was building roofs in the Czech Republic and after covid, a path opened up to go to Bali to work as a manager in a resort and also act as a dive instructor.

And from a personal point of view? Since I've been doing theatre for years, a big part of my life stems from that, which is humour. A little longer ago I wrote a play that you also directed. That, with the continuity of the earlier business, starting a football club, organising music festivals,... take it that I like to lead people. I enjoy watching documentaries, theatre, paranormal and believe in energy.
I can't write down what my favorite things are, but my stronger personality likes include geography, maps, flags, history, and sports. Adrenaline sports are always a challenge and team sports are my blood type! But I can't avoid chess or snowboarding either. The 24 Hours MTB race was both a challenge, an adrenaline rush, and a test for me to see if I could explain to my body that it didn't want to sleep, but wanted to cycle in extremis for twenty-four hours.
Nature has been with me since I was a little boy. Mountains, plains, deserts, seas and lakes. I have always been able to incorporate all of them into my life. And as I am a quit smoker, I can also write about myself that I have a strong will and determination.
I don't count traveling as a hobby. It is a part of my life and the strongest part. Different culture, mentality, world view, taste, color and variety, flow of thoughts and a lot more. In fact, travel is the most enjoyable way of intelligence.
I have a few mistakes, but I don't need to write that. I can talk, but paradoxically speaking is my biggest problem - in a foreign language. I have travelled to over forty countries and have indeed been able to communicate in some way everywhere - the question is at what level.
Now I am trying to work on this deficiency. I also have a problem with electricity. No matter how hard I try, the power always gets me. It's a field I've never really gotten into. And it takes me about a quarter of a century to thread a needle, for example. I can include stubbornness in my weaknesses - in some ways it's great, but unfortunately in many ways it's a negative.
I hate stereotyping and if I'm going to hurt anyone, it's going to be by singing. Ironing stresses me out and human stupidity constantly amazes me.