1 week ago, i decided to take my lifeguarding, first aid, and rescue certification because i thought it was expiring. you have to take this every 3 years to be a qualified surf instructor in hawaii. and you also need a blue card, and a business to be able to teach surfing legally. so the night before my course, i checked my cards and found out that i still had a year left. i made a mistake and it actually expires in december of 2013. but what the heck, you can never be overqualified so i took it anyway. i always stress that safety is most important. after completing the course, i feel more qualified and more aware. my eyes are always looking around for trouble in the ocean and i hope to save some lives when the time comes.
i’ve been certified and doing this for over 7 years. it took so much time, effort, dedication, and money to get things done legally. i have friends and family that have legitimate businesses and we all know how hard it was. but in the past few years, i’ve been seeing, and hearing about unqualified and illegal surf instructors. people that don’t have the license to teach surfing acting like they do. all kinds of people setting up websites and doing guides here in hawaii illegally. i usually don’t bother because it’s none of my business, but sometimes i see really unsafe situations that put others safety in jeopardy. and i even see people from other countries including japan coming to hawaii and doing surf lessons. first, it’s illegal. second, if someone gets hurt, what are you going to do? and third, if somebody reports you to the US immigrations, you will get arrested and deported. then you will never ever be able to come to hawaii again. i know a lot of surf instructors that do business here the legal and proper way. and i also know a lot of surf instructors that do it illegally and the wrong way. it’s just a matter of time till people get caught. and i’m sure they will because this island is too small.
