PHILIPSBURG:--- On October 10th, 2013, two students from Teen Times, Sakir de Castro and Rochana Richardson told Members of Parliament that the youths of St. Maarten were ready to take up the challenge to work in the interest of their country. Richardson rejected the label "destitute" that certain MPs had given the youths of St. Maarten. In their moving address that caught the attention of everyone that attended the special session of Parliament in commemoration of Constitution Day, both youths of St. Maarten said that St Maarten would be "better together" if politicians and businesses involve the youths in developing St. Maarten.
It seems that both De Castro and Richardson knew their peers, they also knew what some of them were doing and they knew that those sitting on the blocks were not doing so by choice but they are waiting for an opportunity to get involved.
Four young St. Maarten youths, the youngest being just 18 years old, make up the crew for Sea Trek Helmet Diving. These youths namely Kevin, Joshua, Terry, and Denzel join an older gentleman by the name of Chin to form the crew of Sea Trek Helmet Diving.
These young men are the ones that make up the crew at Sea Trek Helmet Diving, they are the ones that are taking the island visitors some 25 to 30 feet under water so they can see and enjoy some ecological sites on St. Maarten.
The five young men are trained rescue divers, while they also learned how to entertain the island visitors while under the water. Joshua just started with Sea Trek Helmet Diving three months ago and already he is a certified Rescue Diver, but he still has a long way to go to catch up with Denzel who is already a Dive Master.
SMN News reporter spent most of the day on Thursday with the crew of Sea Trek Helmet Diving in order to see how these youths perform their duties. It's amazing to see these very youths that have very little at their disposal are able to take boat loads of tourists on ecological tours. They tell each and every guest what they should expect while going underwater and how to deal with the air pressure in their ears. They also do tricks and provide entertainment during the half hour tour underwater.
Just next to Sea Trek Helmet Diving is Tiki Hut, there the visitors are able to relax and have a healthy lunch that is also prepared by young women of the island. Alcoholic beverages are also on sale while Zet Blacks is there to help persons who cannot swim enjoy the scenery under water. Even children get the opportunity to snorkel because Tiki Hut has gear in all sizes for their visitors.
There are beach chairs for those who want to take a tan or just relax while others snorkel. Spending a day at sea is fun, especially when the entire crew are young men and women that are known in the community.
General Manager of Sea Trek Marc Pritchard told SMN News that he started Sea Trek Helmet Diving in the year 2009. While he started Tiki Hut Snorkel in 2005. Marc started both businesses from scratch. "I was there when there was absolutely nothing and brought it to what it is today, back then he said it was impossible to find one local person to dive. We literally had to hire divers. Five years ago I went to the labor department and pleaded with them to get us some youngsters that are willing to dive and to learn the trade. Just recently it was impossible to find a young boy or girl that was willing to do this job. But today the entire crew of Sea Trek are youngsters from St. Maarten. It's like we just got a new generation that wants to be part of the development of their country and also to be part of the tourism industry. Sea Trek Helmet Diving took on the responsibility to train these youngsters that were ready to work. Only about 18 months ago I got some local youths that showed interest and today they are the ones doing the work. These youths were trained by Sea Trek in order for them to become rescue divers and they can move up the ladder by going further and become a pro rescue diver and instructor." Marc said that the most important thing he had to do was to discipline the youths that he trained. "I basically taught them how to speak to their clients, how to dress properly and how to entertain them. The key to the trade is to make the visitors happy, once they are happy they will come back and send other people to enjoy what they enjoyed."
Marc said government does not provide any assistance to businesses that are willing to train its youths, all they say is businesses should hire local youths but at no time they offer assistance to train the local youths. Marc said despite the effort Sea Trek Helmet and Tiki Hut have been putting into their businesses and into training youths of St. Maarten, they feel that they are being harassed by government even though government did not offer any help.
One of the objectives that Sea Trek wants to accomplish is to be able to get locals and ex-pats out to Tiki Hut and for them to experience the Sea Trek Helmet Diving. "The company invested lots of monies to develop the Little Bay area with artifacts and to make it an area for tourism. Five years ago no one came to Little Bay but today everyone even businesses from the French side comes to Little Bay with their guests.
For more information on Sea Trek Helmet Diving and Tiki Hut, visit their websites www.snorkelstmaarten.com and www.seatrekstmaarten.com.
