UNA WEB QUE NOS CONVIRTIÓ EN HÉROES - CREATING A WEB THAT MADE US HEROS

Nuestra entrada en Malapascua fue bastante suave. Una persona que habíamos conocido durante el viaje nos había recomendado ir a un centro de submarinismo donde trabajaba un catalán llamado Rubi. Llevaba varios años viviendo en la isla y nos podría ayudar a ubicarnos. Rubi nos aconsejó donde comer rico y barato, en que alojamientos podríamos quedarnos y qué centros de submarinismo podrían necesitar nuestra ayuda. Después, comenzamos la búsqueda de curro. La verdad es que todos los negocios de la isla estaban muy bien montados. Comenzamos preguntando en los hostales y resorts, pero viendo que ninguno parecía necesitar nuestra ayuda, decidimos ir a los centros de submarinismo. Todos nos decían lo mismo, "vuelve en unos cuantos días", "déjame ver tu trabajo y pensármelo"… alguno de ellos tenía incluso su propio equipo de marketing. Nos pasamos, literalmente, todo el día yendo puerta por puerta, preguntando, hasta prácticamente haber visitado todos los negocios de la isla. Casi nos habíamos dado por vencidos, y pensamos que nuestra estancia en Malapascua acabaría siendo de 3 ó 4 días y que deberíamos salir en busca de otro lugar donde buscar trabajo. 

Finding our way around Malapascua wasn't too difficult. With the help of Rubi who worked in buceomalapascua.com, he gave us a little advice on where to eat, which places to stay and which dive shops could need our help. Once settled in, it was time to look for work. Every place on the island looked either well equipped and developed or poorly developed. We tried looking for hostels, but as our options ran out, we decided to amplify our search for dive center. The same thing occurred with all the dive centers. The huge majority of them were well set up, some even had their own marketing team. As you can imagine finding work was harder than ever. We literally went door to door like always, always getting that same response. Let me see your work, let me think about it, pass by in a couple of days I might be interested. We literally spent the whole day searching for work, but no one seemed to need any help.

El día terminaba y nosotros seguíamos en las mismas. Nos habían dicho que había un centro de submarinismo que organizaba buceos de limpieza. Al parecer, hay un tipo de estrella de mar en Malapascua que se pega como una lapa al coral y se lo come enterito. Como si no hay coral, no hay peces, y si no hay peces, no hay buceo, estos centros organizan inmersiones gratuitas para "limpiar" de estrellas estas zonas. Así que… visto lo visto, esa era nuestra mejor opción hasta el momento. De camino a este centro, mientras íbamos comentando lo difícil e imposible que parecía encontrar trabajo en Malapascua, vimos un centro de submarinismo al que todavía no habíamos entrado. Parecía ser un centro de submarinismo chino, lo que nos hizo plantearnos el entrar o no entrar, ya que la gente de China casi no habla inglés. Al final, decidimos intentarlo. 

At one point we thought that it was going to be impossible and the idea of staying here for the last 2 weeks could easily end up in a 3 or 4 days rest until we had to leave to another place in search of work. We actually, at one point, gave up. We had walked the whole island and visited the majority of the dive shops that looked new or not properly set up, but all the answers were a negative one. The only interesting offer we got was from a dive shop that could lend scuba tanks in exchange to clean the the sea of "crown of thorns," a starfish like animal that dedicates its time to eat all the coral it has at its reach, destroying the natural habitat. Considering that in Malapascua there is a overpopulation of these creatures, dive shops get divers together to clear the area of these nasty animals. No coral means no fish, no fish means no divers for the diving industry.

Sorprendentemente, nos atendió una chica sueca llamada Denice y un chico de las Maldivas llamado Shamoon. Nos invitaron a sentarnos y nos preguntaron en qué podían ayudarnos. Rápidamente, les explicamos que llevábamos ya unos 10 meses viajando por Sudamérica y Asia intercambiando nuestros diseños y creatividades por alojamiento, comida o actividades, y les ofrecimos nuestra ayuda si es que la necesitaban. Tan pronto como acabamos de explicarles nuestra historia, Denice sonrió. "Otros que lo consideran interesante y divertido pero que no necesitan nada", pensamos. Entonces, Denice se relajó, soltó un suspiro… y nos dijo cuánto necesitaban dos diseñadores gráficos. 

We went in search of this dive shop, which we even had forgotten the name. At one point we even stepped inside the wrong dive shop to lend ourselves as "crown of thrown" cleaners. The owners looked at us as if we were crazy. On our search for the crown of thorns cleaning dive shop, we stumbled across another dive shop we hadn't  visited. It looked very developed with a huge nicely painted mural, the only back draw was that it seemed to be a chinese dive school, and for what we have heard, chinese divers aren't only difficult to dive with, but the language barrier can be a big difficulty. We entered Sea Park to find a blond swedish/australian girl and her fiancé from the Maldives sitting at the front desk. They greeted us in an extremely friendly way while they sat us down at the front desk to help us solve all our doubts and questions refers to diving. What they din't know were our real intentions. We quickly explained how we had been traveling for the last 10 months traveling and exchanging design for food, accommodation, activities and if they needed anything related to design in which we could give them a helping hand. As soon as Denice the swedish manager heard our story she gave us an ample smile. "Just another person who finds the idea interesting but doesn't really need anything" we thought. She relaxed her shoulders and leaned back in her chair as she said "you don't know how much I was looking for two designers."

Nos contó que, en un principio, el SeaPark estaba destinado a clientes chinos, pero debido al creciente número de turistas de otras nacionalidades que llegaba a la isla, habían decidido ampliar su público. Por eso, ahora ellos dos eran los encargados del centro. Necesitaban con urgencia una página web que pudieran manejar con facilidad. Denice había intentado hacerla por su cuenta, pero le había resultado imposible y necesitaba ayuda. Según ellos, les habíamos caído del cielo, y la verdad es que para nosotros, ellos también nos habían caído del cielo. Al no tratarse de un hostal ni de un restaurante, no podían ofrecernos alojamiento ni comida, por lo que nos preguntaron si buceábamos. Como las inmersiones en este sitio, sobre todo la de los tiburones zorro, ya estaban cubiertas por el trueque con Cervezas Ámbar, les preguntamos si estarían dispuestos a cambiarlo por el tercer curso de buceo, el Rescue. Habíamos querido hacer este curso desde que salimos de España y ¡cuántas veces habíamos pensado en cambiarlo por diseño! La respuesta de Shamoon fue inmediata: "no hay problema, yo me encargo". Esa noche lo celebramos con una buena comida y una cerveza. 

Their problem was that they had recently changed management. Now the business was in Denice's and Shamoon's hands. Their main concern was that the dive shop, at the beginning, was orientated to chinese divers, but they slowly realized that more non chinese diverse were using their facilities. What they needed at first, was a new website to attract potential non chinese clients, as there was already a web site dedicated for chinese divers linking the shop they had in Malapascua and Boracay. The main problem was simple, create a simple and attractive web site. Of course, Sea Park is not a hotel or a restaurant and Denice asked us if we were divers. We obviously said yes. Julia also quickly added that we were both advanced divers and what we were really interested in was becoming "Rescue Divers". Denice thought about the idea and said it would be difficult but Shamoon stepped in. "Yes we can, I can do all the tapart from making new friends, could brush up his teaching skills as well". It was a win win situation. We talked further about the business, its strengths, weaknesses and what they both were looking for. Two great things were that Denice had been trying to set up a website and had already written the majority of the texts and even the web's tabs. This made our work a little bit simpler as the copywriting had already been taken care of, not only by the manager who was a great diver, but who was also a marine biologist with passion for the sea and her job. The other thing that was great about this business was that they always included torches, camera and dive computer free of charge. They took fun, safety and service very seriously. That night we celebrated our new job with a nice meal and one beer.

Nuestra estancia en Malapascua fue un no parar. Trabajamos duro, ya que éramos conscientes de que cuando empezáramos el curso de Rescue, casi no tendríamos tiempo para hacer nada y estaríamos agotados. Además, Denice y Shamoon, cuando había hueco en un barco, nos colaban para hacer inmersiones gratis. Estábamos encantados con ellos, con el centro como "clientes", ya que el equipo era completamente nuevo y las cámaras y ordenadores de buceo eran completamente gratis para todos los buzos en cada inmersión, y como trabajadores.

We started creating the website by mapping out the site and creating contents for each tab. We used the thresher shark for the main image as this is the main reason why people dive this island. Thanks to Ámbar beer we had the opportunity to see these creatures a memory we will never forget. The other differential value we found was their seriousness about safety, fun and device. This would be the main thing to communicate as most dive shops never give out more than the essential gear to dive. Besides who doesn't want a personal picture of a thresher shark. The rest of the website was based on basic information about the island and its dive sites. We managed o complete the site in the two weeks we had, and honestly, we are happy with the result.

Les hicimos una página web de fácil manejo y enseñamos a usarla. Utilizamos el tiburón zorro como imagen principal, ya que al ser el único sitio del mundo donde pueden verse estos animales, es el principal motivo por el que los buceadores van a Malapascua. Reforzamos sus valores más diferenciales: diversión, seguridad y buen servicio. Creamos un mapa de los sitios de buceo, ilustrando lo que podía verse en cada uno de ellos. Añadimos una pestaña con información básica de Malapascua que pudiera resultarle útil al viajero recién llegado. El resultado les encantó y el intercambio fue un éxito. 

Shamoon fue un profesor excelente. Además, viniendo de las Maldivas, su conocimiento sobre el buceo era espectacular. Se tomó el curso de forma seria, y se esforzó al máximo en que todo quedara claro al 100%. Qué podemos decir… el intercambio fue espectacular.

While we were worked during the morning we would do the rescue course in the afternoons. Sometimes we would dedicate a full day to creating scenarios and practicing skills. Shamoon was an amazing teacher and had good skills of his own that he had learnt through experience. If working with Sea Park couldn't get any better, Denice and Shamoon always tried to get us on a dive boat for a fun dive, when ever possible off course. To be honest this has been a great trade and the knowledge we have learnt has been put to practice every time we dive. Thanks to Sea park we feel more confident every time we get in the water. We can only say… THANK YOU SEA PARK!