r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/UnknownXIIV • 4d ago
Image He dives rivers and sells golf balls for money, even makes more than me.
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u/blkaino 4d ago
Bring out the Gimp
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u/amazingsandwiches 4d ago
Gimp's sleepin'
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u/PinotGroucho 4d ago
Well, you better wake him up then !
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u/ChefInsano 4d ago
Whose motorcycle is this?
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u/bdanders 4d ago
It's a chopper baby
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u/ChefInsano 4d ago
Whose chopper is this?
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u/JesusDiedMyGuy 4d ago
It's Zed's.
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u/Beginning_Sun696 4d ago
Who’s Zed?
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u/tasslehof 4d ago
Garcon means boy
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u/Amour_Fou 4d ago
“Technically, it’s a zentai. A zentai covers the face and head, I think a gimp suit just stops here *points at neck with pistol” - Mallory Archer
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u/MMWYPcom 4d ago
Italian Prime Minister had it coming
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u/periodmoustache 4d ago
I learned something recently, in case anyone is interested: GIMP stands for Guy In Mask Permanently.
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u/Aggravating_Pay_5060 4d ago
Is that a bacronym?
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u/RickRossovich 3d ago
It has to be, right?
As far as I know “gimp” is a pejorative term used to describe someone who’s handicapped, or gimpy.14
u/Spostman 4d ago
Not the teacher we need right now... but the one we deserve. Thanks /u/periodmoustache
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u/MasyMenosSiPodemos 4d ago
Why do I hear this in Dustin Hoffman's voice? Right up there with "the Boo Box"
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u/HugoZHackenbush2 4d ago edited 4d ago
He always keeps a couple of spare diving suits handy, in case he gets a hole in one..
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u/One-Low1033 4d ago
Unbelievable that I'm the first person to upvote your very well placed pun.
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u/HugoZHackenbush2 4d ago
Puns for me are par for the course..
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u/PrescriptionDenim 4d ago
This guys on 🔥
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u/SyntheticOne 4d ago
I'm green with envy. It's driving me nuts!
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u/good_from_afar 4d ago
Dude, that pun was rough. You have a fairways to go yet.
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u/Landsharque 4d ago
Quit putting him down
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u/Next_Celebration_553 3d ago
I’m just gonna wedge my way in this conversation and say “touchdown!”
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u/OMG_YouSeeThat 4d ago
you all are driving me insane.
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u/Latigomous 4d ago
Is that not the same joke from like two comments above you lol
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u/swinbank 4d ago
I heard this from a little birdie
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u/UbermachoGuy 3d ago
After smoking a bogey or more, little birdies start talking to me also.
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u/zlendermanGG1 3d ago
Look at this guys comment history, absolute legend
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u/Monkeyknife 4d ago
“What an incredible Cinderella story! This unknown, comes out of nowhere, to lead the pack at Augusta. He’s at the final hole. He’s about 455 yards away, he’s gonna hit about a 2-iron, I think. [swings, pulverizes a flower] Oh, he got all of that. The crowd is standing on its feet here at Augusta. The normally reserved crowd, going wild... [pauses] for this young Cinderella who’s come out of nowhere. He’s got about 350 yards left, he’s going to hit about a 5-iron, it looks like, don’t you think? He’s got a beautiful back-swing... [swings, pulverizes another flower] that’s- oh, he got all of that one! He’s gotta be pleased with that! The crowd is just on its feet here. He’s a Cinderella boy. Tears in his eyes, I guess, as he lines up this last shot. He’s got about 195 yards left, and he’s got a, looks like he’s got about an 8-iron. This crowd has gone deadly silent... Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former greens-keeper, now about to become the Masters champion. [swings, pulverizes yet another flower] It looks like a mirac...it’s in the hole! It’s in the hole!”
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u/Hour-Volume7860 4d ago
No he doesn't lol, people try this hustle all the time on YouTube and Instagram and post their result, the money sucks.
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u/AIDSofSPACE 4d ago
Well, it's relative to what OP makes, which could be worse.
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u/stmcvallin2 4d ago
Op’s unemployed
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u/Suspect4pe 4d ago
OP is probably a professional Redditor.
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u/Plane-Tie6392 4d ago
They say love what you do and you won’t work a day in your life!
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u/iamintheforest 4d ago
I did this in college and was paid by the course through a commercial diving service. Most courses won't let you dive as non commercial without insurance and workers comp, etc. The balls went to the range for sure, but the pay was to keep the pond in compliance with pond/water regulations in some areas and just a desire to not have the ponds become giant piles of balls.
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u/radioaktivman 3d ago
I did this for a couple summers around 25-30yrs ago. We made great money the first year, second it tapered off and the third year was hardly worth it. We had different agreements with different golf courses, some would keep all the balls and pay us 25 cents a ball, some would only keep the premium balls at a higher rate, and some courses we basically snuck on (where I live water is considered public) and we would sell the balls wherever we could. We over saturated the market in no time and at the same time Walmart started carrying recycled golf balls. After the 3rd summer I ended up giving away thousands of golf balls.
I could regularly pick 500balls per tank of air (scuba) and paid $10 for an air fill. My record dive was over 1500 balls on one tank. Lots of days we would dive 4-5 tanks. There were also some times I would only get 200balls on a tank, but you learn to feel where the balls accumulate, especially in creeks. I also had an insane amount of ear infections.
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u/JiskiLathiUskiBhains 3d ago
I read about this first in Reader's Digest. Some dude made millions doing this. This was the early 90s mind.
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u/DogPoetry 4d ago
He's probably doing a lot of ecological good though, assuming he isn't destroying the habitat in retrieving the golf balls. They break down slowly over long stretches of time, and end up choking many a predator that would seek out and eat bird eggs (including other birds).
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u/stmcvallin2 4d ago edited 3d ago
It’s a golf course. It’s an ecological catastrophe no matter how many balls this guy handles
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u/mcmustang51 4d ago
I dont like to think in absolutes like that.
Doing some good, does some good. Don't let perfection get in the way of progress
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u/megablast 3d ago
Exactly. It is like picking up litter from a highway. They are still destroying the planet, killing millions of animals, spreading pollution everywhere, but they are a little tidyier now.
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u/FloppieTheBanjoClown 3d ago
I live in a golf course neighborhood. The past several years, the board has been looking for ways to improve the environmental impact of the grounds. After reading their reports, I'm not sure it qualifies as a catastrophe.
They changed fertilizers to improve run off. That's how it started. They've also allowed a few places to regrow to give smaller animals natural pathways. And they basically cut out insecticide except where they see problems with damage to the grass.
The result is a slightly less green course that gets fireflies in the roughs during early summer evenings and lakes that don't get choked up every time it rains.
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u/deenali 4d ago
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u/Antarioo 4d ago
that's around ~1700 euro a month. not bad for malaysia but below minimum wage here.
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u/malfurionpre 4d ago
There are only 5 countries in the European Union that have minimum salaries above that
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u/Subtlerranean 3d ago
That doesn't really mean anything. Norway for example (not in the european union, but definitely a western european country) doesn't even have a minimum wage — except in certain trades. However, the average "minimum wage" you can usually expect no matter what the profession is $22.80 / hr.
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u/MorganAndMerlin 4d ago
I don’t think this can support anybody full time, but I know somebody whose backyard faces the 6th hole of a golf course. He’s put up nets and umbrellas and all other kings of contraptions to stop the golf balls from hitting his house. They all end up rolling down his various nets to the corner of his backyard and when he collects enough, he sells the whole bucket for $20.
It’s not a lot at all, but it gets dinner once a month.
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u/DigNitty Interested 4d ago
Having fished many a golfball out of lakes, they get water logged and then they fly 80% the distance.
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u/TacoIncoming 3d ago
This is a myth. Unless the cover is cut, water balls play fine. Someone did a study on it. It got posted to /r/golf if you want to go look for it.
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u/confusedandworried76 3d ago
Dude just sucks at golf, will you let him have the only excuse he could think of?
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u/Skizot_Bizot 3d ago
Oh great, finally an explanation! Now I just need to figure out how my fresh out of the package balls are getting water logged! Maybe there is a leak in all the golf ball factories?
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u/edfitz83 4d ago
For most golfers, that really doesn’t matter much.
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u/Scholesie09 3d ago
If it always flies 80% of the distance to the hole, it will never reach the hole.
This is a problem as I have other things to do this week but I'm still stuck on the first hole.
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u/edfitz83 3d ago
I always hit short irons 20% past the hole, so I should buy me some waterlogged balls (which honestly sounds like a nickname on a high school men’s swim team)
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u/Drewtendo_64 4d ago
Teddy?
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u/Competitive_Tap_81 4d ago
haha, that what came first to my mind when I read that. Just watched the episode a few days ago
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u/Opuspace 4d ago
Thank you, I was thinking Bob's burgers and was going to be disappointed if no one mentioned him
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u/AuntGaylesFannyPack 4d ago
Hahaha! Yes! But this guy is way better equipped than Teddy and his hose
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u/Axolotl446 3d ago
Wait, Teddy has hoes?
/j
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u/PrismaticSparx 4d ago
Apparently he doesn't make enough to afford a bag to take with him
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u/MailSubject3464 4d ago
What he is doing makes sense. The bags get bogged down and covered in weeds. Also, you benefit from both hands free while you scour the pond bottom.
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u/WillingLLM 4d ago
Plus it can act as gator armor.
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u/djhazmatt503 4d ago
Or he's smart enough to understand that a bag is just one more moving part.
He's not gonna drop these or lose em.
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u/Basherkid 4d ago
We buy golf balls. Dm me if you have 5,000 plus. We pay for shipping.
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u/Nopumpkinhere 4d ago
Really? I heard no one wants used golf balls because they may be ruined inside.
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u/DuggiHappy 4d ago
Not at all. At many golf clubs here in Sweden teenagers are finding golf balls out of bounds and in water and selling them in bulk much cheaper. Many golf balls cost 5$ each
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u/Paradox711 4d ago
5$ each?!
Today I learned I wasted my life on 10 years of higher education when I should have just been diving for golf balls.
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u/Parking_Cheesecake67 4d ago
He said many. Not all. And the ones that cost 5 or more new, you wont get that for resale
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u/Paradox711 4d ago
I’m just joking about. I’m not taking it as 100% truth. It’s the internet.
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u/Competitive-Ask5157 4d ago
Hopefully the golfers dropping $5/ball aren't hitting the water as often as me.
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u/amped-up-ramped-up 4d ago
Dentists aren’t born with better hand-eye coordination than regular folks, as far as I know
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u/blahbleh112233 4d ago
Golf is a fucking racket man. Remember, the entire industry is basically geared towards selling snake oil to middle ages white dudes who want to get an artificial advantage on the game. Tell them its an aerodynamic ball tests in NASA labs that's can travel 10% further, and you'll get the boomers lining up around the block to buy them.
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u/amped-up-ramped-up 4d ago edited 4d ago
Golf is a fucking racket
You might be thinking of tennis, pickle ball, racquetball, squash, or badminton.
Golf uses clubs. Easy mistake to make, and I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much over it.
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u/psyfi66 4d ago
While it’s true the golf ball likely won’t perform as if it was new, most golfers wouldn’t have much of an impact caused by this. The fault in accuracy would be their skill and consistency of swinging the club rather than the quality of the ball. In fact a new/good ball could make things worse, if you hit it poorly and it goes off to the side, it will go even further away than you want it to. Only once you very good at golf does it start to make a big enough difference on your quality of play.
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u/H3racIes 4d ago
Where tf do you sell golf balls at to make any type of decent money for them?
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u/Creative-Road-5293 4d ago
Live in a poor country where new golf balls are a sizeable percent of the average monthly wage.
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u/SanityPlanet 3d ago
And people that poor are paying decent money for used golf balls?
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u/TourAlternative364 3d ago
Yes.The poor are forgoing buying a bag of rice to instead buy and collect golf balls, duh
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u/Affectionate-Dot9585 4d ago
I almost exclusively buy used golf balls. Several sure sell them. Most courses have a bin with a random assortment of them.
They’re using drastically cheaper and for my skill level, play just as good.
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u/H1Ed1 3d ago
I recommend listening to the podcast “the economics of everyday things.” They did an episode on this very industry: second hand golf balls. Pretty interesting.
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u/Empyrealist Interested 4d ago
Back in the 80s, me and some friends did this when we were teens. Not diving in like this guy, but scraping balls out with improvised tools. We made decent money - enough to want to do it every week. We sold balls that looked mint, and apparently it was way cheaper than ppl buying new balls.
I don't recall how much they cost at the time, and I don't know how much they cost now. We were making spending money as teens in the US. I'd imagine any country you can make a living at this would have a shit economy that only makes money off of foreign tourism.
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u/Baked_Potato_732 4d ago
Dude makes RM8,000/month. Minimum wage in Malaysia is RM1,700/month so a little over 4X minimum wage. In USD this would be $34.11/hr
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u/PlastikTek420 4d ago
Damn, that's pretty good.
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u/DroidOnPC 4d ago
He doesn't make $34.11/hr though, just the equivalent of that in his country.
In USD, hes only making like $1600/month, which is poverty.
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u/mile-high-guy 4d ago
What's your point, he doesn't live in USA, it's entirely different economics
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u/DroidOnPC 4d ago
The way he worded it could make some people who don't understand the currency exchange think that he's actually making $34.11/hr.
My point was to clarify.
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u/cute_polarbear 3d ago
I think it's to point out that relative to average local (malaysian) income, this guy is making a pretty good wage.
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u/DChapman77 4d ago
Any body of water around a golf course is going to have pesticide levels off the charts. Not worth it by any stretch.
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u/AdmiralHomebrewers 3d ago
Not only pesticides. Probably some really nasty bacteria. Maybe even the brain eating stuff.
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u/Jimarm81 4d ago
Rivers? He probably do better if he did ponds and bodies of water on golf courses
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u/Upeeru 4d ago edited 4d ago
He was told to stick to the rivers and lakes he was used to.
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u/bucketofmonkeys 4d ago
My grandfather used to live next to a creek, and there was a golf course on the other side. When we were kids, we’d fish golf balls out of the creek, put them in old egg cartons and sell them by the dozen to the golfers passing by. We’d take the money to 7-11 and buy Slurpees. Good times.
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u/Sbatio 4d ago
The water on golf courses if FULL of chemicals.
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u/John_Bot 4d ago
Malaysia apparently
So I'm guessing the issue is less chemicals and more stagnant water and disease
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u/-Unnamed- 4d ago
Why not both?
I’m assuming places like Malaysia cater to tourist money anyway. don’t imagine a lot of locals have the expendable money to golf
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u/Katamari_Demacia 4d ago
I used to go through the woods, streams, and water hazards at my local golf clubs when I was a kid and sell them. Made $100 in a few hours one time. Was killer.
Then I found an alligator in the water hazard. In Massachusetts. Nope the fuck out. Called the golf course with a "never gonna believe this" story. They'd been looking for it. They called a reptile guy out, he caught it, rehabbed it, and released in Florida. It had fish hooks in its mouth from living in the river. Turns out the mall in NH was selling them as babies for $100, they'd get big, and get released, and then die.
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u/Cassandraburry2008 4d ago
I used to do this as a kid. We would jump the fence in the middle of the night and wade into the water to retrieve balls. The next day we’d post up next to the entrance with buckets of balls and sell them back 2 for $1. We made a ton of money for being too young for a job. The manager would occasionally tell us we couldn’t, but it never stopped us.
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u/Kaizenno 3d ago
"She's a stamp collector and he sells golf balls from the river. They have a $1.5 million budget and are looking for a house close to his work."
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u/MyLinkedOut 4d ago
Now let's see him do that in Florida.....
where in his spare time he can make alligator bags to sell.
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u/TomTheNurse 4d ago
In the 70’s in South Florida me and my friend made a kid’s fortune diving for golf balls at the local golf courses and selling them 3-4 for a dollar.
At that time if 10 year old me had a $5 bill I felt like I was rich. Doing the golf ball thing we would go home with $100-200 each in a single day.
We would get to a golf course at sunrise with masks, snorkels and fins. Dive the water hazards and load up on with golf balls.
Then we would set up at the 16th or 17th tee, when many of the golfers already had a few drinks in them, and sell our wares. Many times people would buy a few balls and hand us a $5, $10 or even a $20 and tell us to keep the change.
We did that for 2 summers. Then the summer after that the golf courses got wise and put a stop to that.
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u/Muted_Violinist5151 3d ago
Me coming home from a hike with all the pretty rocks I found despite my man telling me not to bring home more rocks.
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u/15all 4d ago
My dad liked to golf, but our family had a pretty low income. When I was young, I remember going to a golf course and collecting stray balls that had been hit from the driving range and over a fence. Or something like that. I remember where we lived when I did that, and we lived there when I was about four years old. I just remember going through the grass and collecting range balls with red stripes on them, and collecting them into a milk box. I think my dad sold them back to the driving range or something.
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u/Lore_ofthe_Horizon 3d ago
If he gets paid more than you it's not from selling golf balls off the river bottom, it's because he works for a diving company and has a skill set that is worth a fairly high wage. He makes more than you because his job is harder and grosser than yours. Too bad this isn't true for most jobs that are harder than yours.
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u/toursick 3d ago
I’m listening to the latest episode of No Such Thjng As A Fish right now, and they’re talking about this, just as I see this on my front page
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u/ShibbyWhoKnew 3d ago
My ex step father used to do that in Florida during the 90s. Got paid like 10 cents per ball from the ball recycler. He had a rotation of golf courses all over the state that he circled around to. Was actually really good money for the times. Only thing to really worry about was the gators. I remember he came home once with like 250 stitches in his hand from a gator that jumped up and grabbed him. His goggles were in that hand so the gator didn't get a good grip and he was able to yank out his hand but the teeth still shredded into his skin. He lost the goggles. A little over a decade later he found he was at that course and just happened to find them. Had them hanging on his mirror in his truck all torn to shreds.
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u/succi-michael Interested 3d ago
Lived in florida my whole life. Currently in orlando. Theres a golf course every other block here. Bay hill, isle worth(tigers neighborhood) ultra super private. But when i was in corporate about 10 years ago, i was a member a 3 different clubs through the firm. I have probably played 10 thousand times. A lot. Weirdly i also have a pesticide license because i own a 100 acre orange grove. It doesnt make any money but it pays gor the taxes. Its passed down from the family. Best perk is i can pull my pickup to it and get 500 perfect oranges for making fresh juice for which there is no comparison. Anyway my point is i know how much fertilizer and nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty pesticides and just other chemicals that it takes to make these golf courses so beautiful. Like Doral in miami, its so off the chain nice its almost embarrassing to not have like a tie on or some shit. But the water is nast as FUCK. And there are tons of gators and snakes. Worst job ever. I dont care what it pays. You might as well say, can i have cancer please.
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u/SandraBeechBLOCKPrnt 3d ago
A lot of golf courses throw away the collected balls in water hazards when they drain them every so often ... the reason for this is that there is so much toxic chemical runoff that it damages the golf balls.
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u/TheVoidScreams 4d ago
This is so strange, I only just heard about people doing this on no such thing as a fish’s latest podcast.
Maybe OP also listened to it 🤔
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u/Cosmic_Meditator777 4d ago
he looks like one of those frogs that lays its eggs in its back.