Jean Pierre, French nationality, whom laid the foundations for diving sports in Vietnam, whose nick name is ‘sea wolf’, talked about why he loves Nha Trang Vietnam and diving.
The man with more than 30 years of diving under the sea all over the world, recalled that he first dived 35 years ago. The beautiful landscape he observed at the bottom of the ocean has been forever embedded in his memory, which then explains why to decided to pursue a career in which he could be in and out of the water.
Jeans Guendel, a German diving guide, described Jean as a ‘sea wolf’. “He can talk about the sea all day, he knows every special characteristic of all the world’s seas,” he said, adding that he has learnt much from sea wolf when working with him.
Jean Pierre said that he finds Vietnamese seas wonderful. Phu Quoc, Con Dao and Hoi An all have favourable conditions to develop dive-discovery tourism. He said that the Hon Mun (Nha Trang bay) sea reserve area with the ecological system of more than 300 types of corals and nearly all tropical sea creatures proves to be the most attractive place and most suitable for diving.
When asked why he came to Vietnam and stayed here to develop the dive-discovery tourism in Nha Trang, Jean said it was predestined. More than 12 years ago, when he traveled around Vietnam, he discovered that Hon Mun was a wonderful place for diving, the Hon Mun. He returned to Vietnam with his wife and diving equipment, which were described by Nha Trang residents as “looking like the equipment on the Discovery programme on TV”.
Jean said: “12 years ago, I discovered that Nha Trang’s sea was very beautiful, it had a diversified ecological system suitable for opening a diving club. At that time, there were no other diving services offered.” Jean has an Instructor’s certificate (granted by the international diving association) and decided to open a diving club in 1994 in Nha Trang.
Established as a small club, which only two other staff, Jean had to train his guides and serve clients himself when necessary. His business was so good that one year later, he decided to sell his club in Thailand to focus solely on Nha Trang.
When asked why he decided to sell the club in Thailand, Jean said that the life in Nha Trang is more suitable to him. The local residents are kind and good-natured, they never harm other people, and more importantly, Nha Trang sea is so beautiful.
Now the sea wolf considers Vietnam his second homeland, where he can live with his indulgence, good friends and students. Nguyen Thi Minh Xuan, Director of Coco Dive Centre, one of his first students, said that there is a natural association of Jean and Nha Trang. Every year, Jean spends nine months in Vietnam, and three months in France to visit relatives and friends.
Now Nha Trang has 10 dive clubs and it attracts more and more travelers, whom adore Nha Trang Vietnam and diving sports. Having the degree of PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and acting as the consultant for Coco Dive Centre, Jean spends a lot of his time training diving guides. This job requires good health and diving experience.
Diving services have been developing strongly in the last two years in Vietnam. Many training courses have been provided to Vietnamese guides. Many foreigners whom also want to visit Nha Trang enroll in the training courses as it is not as expensive in comparison to courses in other parts of the world.
What challenges Jean most is that the dive service fee remains high at $30-35 per person, relative to the wages of Vietnamese people, at $30-35/person.
(Source: Tuoi tre)
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