Exploring the world under water is like being in a totally different world, says Jeffrey Catanjal, who made a career out of his love for diving and discovered that ‘from scratch, from nothing, you can progress in the UAE’.
FUJAIRAH /// Jeffrey Catanjal has been giving people on the east coast that sinking feeling for almost a decade. In that time the scuba diving instructor has shown 830 novices the wonders of exploring the underwater world off the UAE’s coast.
But it hasn’t been plain sailing for the 40-year-old Filipino. He admitted that when he first moved to the region he used to avoid being out in the sun for long periods and did not even like going out to sea.
“In the Philippines, I hated the sea,” said Mr Catanjal, a manager at Al Tawash Diving in Fujairah. “For me it was boring, I never even went snorkelling.”
Before finding his sea legs, Mr Catanjal used to run a gun shop in his hometown of Quezon, where he taught people how to use weapons safely. Gun ownership is legal in the Philippines, if people register the weapons and attend a safety course, he said.
When he was 26, a slowdown in government contracts, his main source of business, prompted him to take a job as a firearms instructor at the King Faisal Airbase in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where he experienced scuba diving for the first time.
During his five years in Saudi Arabia, Mr Catanjal helped out with scuba diving training and eventually earned a professional qualification.
“When you are under water it is a totally different world,” he said. “It’s relaxing.”
Besides inspiring his passion for scuba diving, his time in Saudi Arabia also helped Mr Catanjal to discover the UAE. He first visited the country in 2004 during a holiday from work.
“I was very impressed,” he said, explaining that the trip encouraged him to relocate.
He arrived in the UAE in 2006, in the summer.
With no good offers of work, he decided to make a career out of his passion for diving and was hired by a dive centre on the provision he acquired his full instructor’s certificate.
He soon qualified but left after a few months to work as recreations manager at the Sandy Beach Hotel and Resort in Dibba.
Besides teaching scuba diving at the hotel, Mr Catanjal was also responsible for running the dive centre and managing lifeguards at the resort.
He teaches all levels and ages, from children, beginners to advanced divers, many of whom go on to obtain professional certificates.
Diving, Mr Catanjal said, is a great way to make friends and meet people from different cultures.
After several years representing a scuba equipment manufacturer, Mr Catanjal now organises diving trips for Al Tawash Diving and helps fishermen from Dibba Al Hisn in retrieving their buoys from areas out at sea that have been allocated to local families.
The move from his home country to start a new life in the Middle East, and eventually settle in the UAE, has been a positive one, Mr Catanjal said.
“You see, from scratch, from nothing you can progress [in the UAE],” he said. “You can’t really save back home.”
Besides better finances, work in the UAE has also given him the means to travel and meet people from different cultures.
“If you go outside of your country, you will grow more as a person,” he said.
vtodorova@thenational.ae
