by Dr. Iain
Corness
The man known in the diving circles as the “Silver
Fox” is Max Foster, the general manager of Adventure Scuba. Max, a South
African, is very much the individualist and a ‘self-made’ person, as
you will see from this interview.
Max
was born in Johannesburg and his father was a miner. This was to have a
great bearing on his later life. His mother was a dressmaker, which was
also going to have a bearing on his later life.
His schooling began in Johannesburg, but when he was 10
years old the family moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and he finished his
schooling there. He then did a diploma course in Mining Engineering. There
was no real burning ambition to do this, but with his father’s
occupation, “It was there, so I did it. I really always wanted to be a
doctor!”
Following the 3 year diploma course, he was called up
for National Service, where he found that his training in explosives stood
him well in the jungle warfare.
Returning to Johannesburg he enrolled at university to
take a degree course in Mining Engineering and Metallurgy. This took five
years and a considerable sum of money. Fortunately, young Max had found he
was a dab hand as a painter. Not a house painter, mind you, but an artist
in oils and acrylics using brush and palette knife. The sale of his
paintings kept his head above water while he studied life underground.
Emerging, he went to work for a mining company
designing systems to get the ore out of the ground for the next three
years. During this time he also married and started a family, and housed
them all in a small farm he purchased outside Johannesburg.
At this time a major shift occurred. Max decided to
stay on the farm and develop it, while his wife went to work in the city.
Weekends he sold insurance, did some real estate dealing and then taught
himself silver and gold smithing.
It was not too many years later that another great
change happened to him. He got divorced and found himself a sole parent
with two small daughters. Suddenly he found there were other skills he had
to teach his girls - knitting was just one of them, but the self-taught
silversmith soon picked up the knit one, purl one skills as well!
By 1985 the farm was sold, the girls went to their
mother and Max invested in a business supplying fresh produce to
restaurants. Unfortunately this was not one of his better decisions, as
his partner used the business to supply fresh funds to his personal pocket
and Max lost his investment.
Ready to start again he moved to Durban on the coast.
“I wanted a complete change of environment. I was absolutely broke!”
He joined a factory making PVC products to handle their retail shop, but
the factory then decided to relocate. He made a deal to buy the shop and
paid it off in six months. “It took some wheeling and dealing! I had no
money when I bought it.”
By now, Max was 42 years old and a friend wanted to
learn SCUBA diving and asked Max to learn with him. “I jumped at it. It
became a totally all-consuming hobby. I became an instructor in six
months. I became the first and oldest instructor in South Africa!” He
continued, “It was just a natural progression. I enjoyed teaching.” He
also found that the new aquatic environment allowed him to get close to
nature. “In the marine environment, the life forms accept you into their
environment. If you are a keen diver you are so passionate about keeping
the environment clean.”
He then decided, as he said, “To go walkabout.” His
girls had almost finished school, so the responsibility there had ceased,
he had a manager in the PVC sales business, so he took time off to travel
and SCUBA dive around the world. He spent several oxygen tanks in
Mauritius, Seychelles, Comores, Madagascar, Zanzibar and Egypt. By now
SCUBA was his life, so he returned to South Africa, closed his business
and packed his tanks. On the recommendation of a friend, the next SCUBA
venue was Thailand, and six years ago he arrived in our resort city.
He very quickly established his presence in Pattaya and
floated the idea of a “safe SCUBA” association. “I was almost
without exception told I was out of my mind.” However, he persevered and
the Pattaya Alliance of Safe SCUBA was founded with Max as the founding
chairman. “Improving the standard and safety of SCUBA here benefits the
diving industry, which in turn benefits the tourism industry.” He also
joined Adventure SCUBA as their GM and says he is now here to stay.
For Max, success is “Doing what you love doing. I am
very passionate about diving and I have the opportunity to work in it
every day in an environment I enjoy.”
His advice to the youth of today is a “Make sure you
chose a career that is something you really want to be involved in. When
an opportunity arises, grasp it as they don’t come around that often.”
However, the two aspects that come across with Max
Foster are his individuality and his practicality. He wears an earring, a
gift from one of his daughters who dared him to wear it. He used to wear a
ponytail and still dresses as he sees fit, not necessarily how society
would see him dressed. “I’m not really a crazy person - I just believe
in being myself.” As well as his metal smithing, he can turn out a
reasonable meal, having spent a little while involved in Cordon Bleu
cooking, he can cut and sew to a pattern (something his dressmaker mother
taught him) and right now, “I’m a sausage maker! I can’t get South
African sausages, so I’m making my own.”
A remarkable and talented man!
