It's Tuesday night at Lansdowne Earl's restaurant, 7 p.m. and the dinner rush is on.
Twenty-three-year-old Kenzo Kiren is busily leading the kitchen team.
The phone rings.
It's his girlfriend, Danielle. She's hysterical. She's screaming, "You won, you won."
At the same time, Kiren's parents enter the restaurant with a big sign that reads, "You won."
Everyone, from the customers to all of Earl's Restaurant staff, started clapping and shouting words of congratulations.
"It was incredible," recalls Kiren, as he describes the moment last March, when he learned he won Blue Season Bali's The Best Dive Job in the World 2011, a prize package worth $16,000.
"My mom and dad were smiling and laughing ... it was one of the greatest moments of my life," added the longtime Richmond resident.
Late last year, Kiren learned of the competition put on by the Indonesia-based dive company.
He had just returned from the Caribbean on a family vacation where he had spent a few days scuba diving.
"I tried scuba diving for the first time in South Africa and fell in love with diving," said Kiren.
"It was after returning from our Caribbean trip that I started Googling dive jobs and stumbled upon the contest."
The competition drew more than 300 contestants from around the globe. The prize that was up for grabs was a seven-month dream job, which included the training to become a certified scuba diving instructor, accommodation for seven months while in Bali, his own diving equipment worth more than $1,500, free teaching materials, lunch and drinks on every dive.
"At first, my dad wasn't sure if it was a real contest," said Kiren, adding he will log a minimum of 300 dives before his stint is over.
"Then, after he realized it was, both my parents were very supportive."
Before his big win, Kiren had planned to go to university to finish his human kinetics degree (he has a two-year diploma from Langara College).
However, when the competition came up, he chose to put all his efforts into that.
His five-month challenge included a 500-word essay and some one-minute videos over the months.
"In the end, I produced four videos and the essay," he said. "The first two months of the contest, the company was still accepting entries and then in the last two weeks of the competition they named the 10 finalists.
"It was a nerve-wracking time."
It was the videos featured on YouTube that snagged him thousands of votes.
In the end, the young man who grew up loving the ocean came out triumphant.
On The Best Dive Job in the World website, the Blue Season Bali team wrote about Kiren's win: "Kenzo fought his way through the past several months to emerge as this year's winner despite fierce competition from some spectacular contestants. Like many of our entrants, his efforts have been both entertaining and candid, revealing a personality we are happy to welcome into our team."
Kiren's mother, Keiko Kiren, was "absolutely ecstatic and thrilled for him." "Kenzo has always loved the water, he'd be wilted like an old lady and we still couldn't get him out," said Keiko with a laugh.
When they received the news that their son had won, Keiko said she screamed and cried. Then, as her husband was about to text Kenzo to let him know he won, Keiko stopped him.
"I told him, no way, we are going to Earl's to let him know," she said. "That morning, I had made up a poster with the facts about the contest and words of congratulation ... just in case he won, and I wanted to bring it to the restaurant and surprise him.
"This was an amazing and tough worldwide contest, and I saw how hard he worked ... Kenzo's hard work paid off."
Kiren remembers the first time he ever went diving. It was on a 2008 trip with his mom to Mozambique, Africa.
"We were traveling for two weeks through South Africa and the opportunity to dive came up,' said Kiren. "I loved it right away ... you get this deep connection to the sea life and no two dives are alike.
"The ocean is silent but explosive with colour and life. It's an adventure every time you go down."
However, at about $100 a pop for a two-tank dive, it gets expensive for a young man on a budget.
"Then, if you have to rent equipment as well it's very expensive," he added. "I just couldn't afford it on my own."
Kiren is now packing up and getting ready to embark on his adventure of a lifetime. He leaves, with his girlfriend, on Aug. 8 for Bali.
"If all goes well after my seven months training I could be hired as a dive instructor for Blue Season Bali," he said. "If that happens, I'll have to decide if I come back to Canada to finish my degree or I might also go back to study marine biology.
"Right now, everything is up in the air."
For more information about The Best Dive Job in the World, visit www.bestdivejob.com. To see two videos Kiren submitted, visit http://youtu.be/cuimTpPEXD0 and http://youtu.be/agatfweXlHk.
