The COVID pandemic brought many people to seek a new professional life, when the company they worked for before went bankrupt, or the employees had their hours cut, or simply because they just didn't feel like trudging back to their old job anymore.
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A very unusual job in very unusual times
59-year-old Thane Milhoan is a diver. Before COVID turned the world as we used to know it upside down, what with all the new rules and measures, Thane Milhoan worked in Hawaii as a sports reporter for a high school.
But then he switched out a few things, and he now works as an underwater pizza boat in Key Largo, Florida. He admits to Metro that he thinks his colleague and him are the only people in the world with such a job.
And in fact, it might not be all that unlikely. Even the guests who order an underwater pizza still wind up amazed when he delivers it wearing a diving suit. That's his favourite part of the job, too:
I love how people react to having their pizza delivered and how they experience the stay at the underwater hotel.
Underwater pizza boats
He has chosen a very special job? But besides the fun of diving, it also brings its difficulties. For example, in winter, the water temperature gets quite low and it also gets dark earlier.
He also has to be quick so that the pizza reaches the customers still warm. Not to mention the added difficulty of the pizza having to be delivered in one piece. Thane Milhoan explains:
At this time of year, the water temperatures drop to around 20 °C, so it's a bit chilly and it gets dark earlier, so it can be a bit of a night dive. The second challenge is to make sure the decking doesn't fall off. So we use weights and some strategically placed clamps to keep the box level in the water.
An exciting job to be sure, but one that involves more than just delivering pizzas. He and his colleague Daniel Belzio work at this underwater hotel called Hotel Jules Undersea Lodge, which has been running for about 35 years. Originally, it was a research laboratory used to explore the reef off the coast of Puerto Rico. Here's hoping to remodelled once they decided to turn it into a hotel.
