The Captain’s Blog: 50 Years of Diving
‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’.
It’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong addressed the world with those words… transmitted across space from nearly 400,000 kilometres away. It was an event that has become the benchmark against which all other human endeavors will always be measured… the effort, the planning, the sheer audacity of it, was then, and remains today, peerless.
But let me go out on a limb here and say, that what really got them there, got them to the moon after just 8 years in the pursuit of the matter… was enthusiasm. No one got distracted, there were no smartphones, internet and reality TV, and the result was… well… nothing quite inspires like Armstrong’s famous words.
Meanwhile, back on earth… 50 years ago, a young Mike Ball was setting up what would become one of the worlds most long-lived dive companies. From humble beginnings as a small ‘diving department’ in a sports store, Mike dreamt big and built the world’s most famous dive boat fleet. Trips on Watersport, Spoilsport, Supersport and Paradise Sport became bucket list items for divers around the world and along the way, Mike racked up an impressive list of diving innovations: Stinger suits, solo diving, custom built catamarans, on board photo developing, specialised rebreather diving.
But it wasn’t these things that kept Mike Ball Dive Expeditions at the forefront of diving trips all these years. Sure, they played a part, but the backbone of the success, was again, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm in its product, its marketing, its change management… and most importantly, the day to day enthusiasm of its staff.
Mike’s real talent wasn’t the boats or the diving, it was in choosing the right people to run those boats and orchestrate that diving. And these good choices have just kept on going, decade after decade… the right crew, doing what they love, showing the diving public what they love.
Today on Spoilsport, on any given trip, we have a mix of ‘new crew’ and ‘old crew’… crew that have been on board for one year, and others that have been on board for 10 or 15 years… what they have in common is that they are all doing it because they love it… and for the divers we share our world with, that makes a tangible difference to the quality of outcome they’ve come to expect from Mike Ball Dive Expeditions. The world’s best dive company, delivering the world’s best diving. And like the NASA space program from 50 years past…the enthusiasm on Spoilsport, simply never wains.
Captain Trevor Jackson
Find out about the Mike Ball’s Dive Expeditions.
