by
NARRATION:
Like most of his friends on Long Island, Sandy Langton went to college after high school. He got a degree in economics, and took a job trading securities on Wall Street. Soon he found himself riding the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station every day.
ACT: LANGTON:
I was taking the 6:15 train out of Huntington, going into New York and I was taking the 8:43 train at night, which would get me into Huntington at around 10:00 at night. And I was doing that five days, and I would sleep in Saturdays to recover and had about a day and a half to be myself and then I'd go back at it.
NARRATION:
It's a common sight. Hordes of neatly dressed men and women bubbling onto Seventh Avenue early in the morning … then dragging themselves back onto the train at night. But, it's not the ideal life for everybody. It certainly wasn't the ideal life for Langton.
ACT: Langton: Balance…
I wanted to have kind of a balance… a physical balance and a mental balance at work…
NARRATION:
Langton is now thirty-six years old. But about eight years ago, when he was about to marry his high school sweetheart in 1996, he saw an opportunity to strike that balance.
ACT: Langton: Crossroads:
My wife was a full-time teacher… she was making a good salary, and I said… I think it would be a good idea if I just took a banking job out on Long Island… which was a little bit less pay… but supported more of the lifestyle I was interested in… which was being around the water and trying to start a family.
NARRATION:
Langton says there were two things he wanted in his new life. The first thing was to have a family. So he studied to become an independent financial planner and started working out of his home. This gave him the flexibility to spend more time with his family.
The second thng he really wanted was to be near the water.
ACT: Langton: Grew up in Huntington
I grew up in Huntington… near the water and I've always been fascinated by the water … I bought a 13-foot Boston Whaler when I was about 12 or 13… and have spent just every minute I possibly could just walking around the sides of the harbor… fishing every day… just kind of being down here and being magnetized and being drawn to the water.
NARRATION:
Langton found a part-time job at a local marina. For seven dollars an hour... not a whole lot more than minimum wage... he drove a water taxi one day a week… shuttling people from the dock out to their boats and back. It was while he running the water taxi that Langton got his first taste of what would become his new career.
SOT: Start boat engine, (fade under)
ACT: LANGTON: First dive job
I began running into people who were complaining about a clammer or a fellow in the neighborhood who had been scheduled to clean the bottom of their boat… and never showed up or collected money but didn't do it or did a poor job… There'd just be this chronic case of a need for a service that wasn't being provided. So, one day I cleaned the bottom of this guy's boat and he thanked me, I think he took me sailing. I don't know if I ever got paid.
NARRATION:
Paid or not, this was this was a turning point for Langton. This would be his new career. He would clean boats ... while they're still in the water…
SOT: Boat engine power off (fade up)
NARRATION:
Out on Huntington Harbor, Langton shuts off the outboard motor of his 13-Foot open-cabin boat and ties it up beside a much larger sailboat.With his shaved head and wetsuit he looks a bit like a superhero. He opens a large cooler and pulls out a plastic jug filled with hot water.
ACT: LANGTON: It's not a cooler
It's not actually a cooler… it's a warmer… there's steam pouring out of this cooler.
NARRATION:
He dips the jug into the forty-degree water of the harbor to cool it just a bit. Then he empties it into his wetsuit.
SOT: SUITING UP, HOT WATER, SPLASHING
ACT: Langton: Warming wetsuit
I've got 116 degree water… tempered by 40 degree water… shaken, not stirred… and pour it into the suit… ahhh… very warm… completely filling the suit with hot water. I brought ten jugs… of hot water with me and I'll do this before every job that I do.
NARRATION:
Langton's wet suit is designed to absorb water the like a sponge. The warm water in the suit traps the heat of his body and keeps him warm. Then he puts on his mask and fins… straps an air tank to his back… and tests the air flow from his regulator…
SOT: AIR BLAST
NARRATION:
He then he sits down on the lip of his fishing boat with his back to the water and…
SOT: SPLASH IN (Splash in)
Langton: On three… one, two, three… (splash)…bubbles…
NARRATION:
He surfaces to check his gear and then disappears into the dark green water of the harbor… The only sign of him is a steady trail of bubbles moving around beneath the sailboat.
SOT: SCUBA Bubbling, blowing.
NARRATION:
In one hand, Langton grips a pair of suction cups on a handle. The suction cups help him cling to the hull of the boat. With his other hand, Langton uses a large brush to remove seaweed, barnacles, and other gunk that can slow a boat down.
SOT: tool gathering
NARRATION:
After scrubbing the bottom, he resurfaces to get tools for replacing the zinc plates that prevent the propeller and other metal parts from corroding in the salt water…
ACT: LANGTON: WHAT AND WHY
I'm going down there to clean the bottom of their boat. If it's sailboat, I going to clean it to maintain it for a race that's coming up or a cruise that's going on… if it's a powerboat, probably just changing zincs and checking the through-hulls to make sure the engine is getting enough water…keep them cool…
NARRATION:
He also performs more complex jobs in deeper waters in the Long Island Sound.
ACT: LANGTON: Search and recovery
It could be search and recovery… somebody's lost something like a mooring… I've searched for wedding rings and canvases from boats, and chairs… I found a wheelchair for a guy one time… and pretty much anything you need to have done under water I can do… It's become a viable business… I won't say it's entirely profitable… It is profitable, but it's not enough to support a family of four living in Huntington with taxes and a mortgage and things of that nature… but it's become more and more profitable each year, and I intend to keep it going that way.
**[FADE TO BLACK]**
NARRATION:
Langton's friends say he's found the balance of physical and mental challenges that he was always looking for. Andy Staib has known Langton for about thirty years.
ACT: Andy Staib: Fits his character
He's given up that textbook Wall Street trader lifestyle, and maybe he's made some sacrifices financially to do so, but it sounds like it fits his character more.
NARRATION: What Meg thinks
Langton's wife Meg says it took her a little time to adjust to the idea of her husband's new profession.
ACT: MEG:
I was a little like you know… when he first started… like What are you doing? You know? Like, "You're a financial planner. But now your scuba diving? It's taken me a little while to accept what he does as a legitimate business. But that's my issue. My financial planner turned scuba diver. But I do see like he's very passionate about it, and he takes it very seriously.
SOT: Langton at home with boys. TV in background.
NARRATION:
The boat cleaning business keeps Langton busy nine months out of the year. In the summer he can stay in the water for up to fourteen hours and clean more than a dozen boats in a day. That's about as long a day as he spent on Wall Street. But he says being his own boss gives him the flexibility to arrange his schedule around the needs of his family. Now, instead of spending his mornings on a commuter train, he spends them with Meg and his two boys. Patrick is two.
SOT: Langton caring for Patrick Fade under ACT.
NARRATION:
At four years old, Jack is already fully aware that his father is a sea-faring man.
ACT: Jack: Anchor down
Daddy puts the anchor down… to stop the boat. When he comes home, he's all full of fish.
SOT: Fade up harbor sounds, gulls, boats creaking
NARRATION:
Later in the day, Langton takes a moment from diving to reflect on how his change of profession has impacted his life.
ACT: Langton: more time with boys
If they were born now and I were working in the city, I wouldn't know them the way I know them today. Just having the opportunity to take them to swim classes and take them to school and do things with them on a whim where I would otherwise not be able to take that free time.
NARRATION:
For Langton, being a commercial diver has become more than just a job. It's a profession that combines his passions with his skills and intellect. He's learned to apply the business sense he learned from his old life to solving problems in his new one. For example, recently he's devised a new way of distributing business cards to potential customers.
ACT: LANGTON: Dart Marketing (Fade under narration)
I was trying to figure out a way to get a business card onto a boat effectively and have it not blow a way…
(Fade under)
NARRATION:
Langton's holding a bag of clothespins and a box of business cards. He attaches a clothespin to a card. Then he drives his boat up past other boats moored in the harbor and shows me his solution.
(Fade up)
ACT: Langton: Dart Marketing II
…I throw it like a dart, and it just glides up through the air… onto the boat. I don't have to touch the boat… Dart Marketing!
ACT: LANGTON: PASSION:
I think I enjoy being on the water as much as I enjoy the passion of running a business. It's not so much the business of diving… it being down on the water, being exposed to the weather and different situations and different people that I… that I crave. For me… that's what's important. I've given up … I'm sure… some money, but what I've gotten back is a quality of life that's fantastic.
NARRATION:
For Langton, the former securities broker, that's the kind of trade that guarantees an outstanding return on investment.
Michael Rice… Columbia Radio News.
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