Chapter 1 of 8 · 3'37"
Trainers thought the job needed a master's degree and years of study. One line flips that: "Come to find out, it really is more about your personality and how good you can swim." Getting hired on the spot feels thrilling, until the first day in the water shows how large and frightening the animal is.
Personality got them the job
A backwards wetsuit on day one
Somebody is home behind the eyes
People recall being told they should train at SeaWorld. They thought the job needed a master's degree and years of study to enter the water with Shamu. They tried out, got hired at once, and on the first day were sent in wearing a wetsuit, scared out of their wits. Later they tell of a first ride on a killer whale and a bond unlike any other.
The hiring story undercuts the myth of expertise. Someone is told "You should be a trainer" and answers "I don't know how to train animals," while the stated bar is years of study to get in the water with Shamu. "Come to find out, it really is more about your personality and how good you can swim" replaces that bar with charm and a swim stroke. The job lands the same day. Day one is a wetsuit and the water, remembered as "scared out of my wits," with the suit on backwards by someone raised on a Virginia farm. What balances the fear is the gaze: "When you look into their eyes, you know somebody is home." From there the account is all partnership, calves watched since age eighteen, and "a relationship like I've never had." The awe is real, and the preparation was thin.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“How do you prepare yourself for an encounter with an 8,000-pound Orcinus orca?”
The pound count and the species name turn a giant animal into a real question.
Neutral
“Come to find out, it really is more about your personality and how good you can swim.”
It undercuts the years-of-study line and the master's you only assumed, leaving personality and swimming.
Informal
“Oh, I was scared out of my wits.”
It names fear at full size instead of shrinking it into a polite case of nerves.
Informal
“When you look into their eyes, you know somebody is home.”
Home leaves the house and becomes the sense that a mind is present.
literary
“It's a relationship like I've never had.”
It skips the praise and judges the bond by saying nothing else has matched it.
Neutral
blackfish-2013: your progress
Chapter 1 of 8 · about 22 min to go
Up next · 02without missing a beatThe scene: Crews Net the Orca CalvesPeople had thought a master's degree and years of study were required to get in the water with Shamu. The account says it was really about personality and how well you can swim. Someone tried out and got the job right away.
Someone showed up not knowing what to expect and was told to put on a wetsuit and get in the water. The memory is of being scared out of their wits, with the wetsuit on backwards, and of dolphins looking much bigger up close.
Someone watched the Sea Lion and Otter Show, where Mike Morocco came out in a dress as Dorky, the alter ego of Dorothy, with the Coward Sea Lion. The telling swears that would never happen, then two months later is onstage with "Hi, I'm Dorky!"
A killer whale up close is called breathtaking, huge, and beautiful, and someone was simply in awe. Looking into the eyes meant somebody is home and somebody is looking back. The lines also describe a team, four babies since age eighteen, and a relationship unlike any they have had.
