…Advanced Course!

So I just found this blog post on my Kindle. I suppose I should upload it. Yeah.

Once we got back to DJL reception, signed our dive logs and had an attractive photo taken for our dive licenses, Sam and I decided to book the advanced course, starting the following day. At roughly 8000 baht, £145, (we received a helpful ten percent discount for taking the PADI course) and with a couple of days to spare before we had to be in Bangkok, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for more time with the fishes. But first, we had to attend the Koh Tao pub crawl to celebrate our open water diving success. If you head to the island yourself, I definitely recommend the lady boy cabaret show. It’s brilliant.

Anyway, back to the diving. The advanced course consists of five dives in the space of two days. It’s pretty intense, and there are skills that need to be completed, but they mostly turn out to be fun dives. As a group, we decided to do the following:

– Navigation dive (compulsory)
– Peak performance buoyancy (compulsory)
– Night dive
– Wreck dive
– Deep dive

As interesting as it sounds, the wreck dive wasn’t as exciting as I was expecting. My favourite was the night dive. I was initially worried about heading 30 metres below sea level at night because I thought the darkness would make me feel claustrophobic, but it actually had the opposite affect. Even though there were other divers around the site at the same time as us, (not as many as during the day, though) it still felt like we were the only people in the entire ocean. I know the sea is vast anyway, but somehow it just felt, bigger. Our instructor, Jo, gave each of us a torch, not only for light, but for communication. If any of us were to see anything of interest, we were to slowly circle it with the beam of the torch, being careful not to shine it in the eyes of the marine life.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a feeling that night diving instilled within me. It’s one of those places that you would go to put issues and worries on hold, because you just don’t tend to think about crap like that when you’re able to bob along next to the colourful wonders of the ocean floor with your newly acquired buoyancy.

So, £320 later, and I am officially an advanced open water diver. I didn’t think I’d ever take to island life. I’m not really a beachy person. But it was very difficult leaving Koh Tao. Diving isn’t just a sport or a hobby, in the six days that I spent in the company of divers, I realised that it’s a way of life. Getting up early for a 6am dive is never a problem when you know you’re going to be heading out on a boat for the day. Thank you Davy Jones. Thank you very much.

Koh Tao Take Two

Okay, so I’ve just realised that I’m behind by roughly twenty-four blog posts, and now that I’m editing this, it’s probably more like thirty. I better get started.

This time, I will actually write about Koh Tao.

Four hours after arriving in Thailand from Kuala Lumpur, we boarded the 10pm sleeper ferry from Chumphon. Despite the Hobbit sized beds, the mattresses were comfortable, and I managed to sleep for the full six sailing hours. I would recommend this mode of transport, that is, I would have, if we hadn’t arrived on Koh Tao at 5am, four hours before we could check into our accommodation. If you should choose this option over the high speed catamaran, I can however, recommend a top notch stone bench outside Davy Jones’ Locker (where my dive journey begins: http://www.davyjoneslocker.asia/ ).

After observing the early morning island life of divers heading out to the longtails with their gearbags, and drunk backpackers stumbling the wrong way home, we checked in, paid for the dive course, and hit the beach. Not before I slapped on the factor fifty, though.

The course started at 4pm that same day. Who needs to nap when your first lesson is in the classroom, watching videos?

For future information, (because I know you’ve all going to want to take a dive course after this) our Padi followed this syllabus:

DAY 1
– Classroom: watching videos and filling in questionnaires (roughly 3 hours)

DAY 2:
– Morning pool session: instructors distribute health and safety information which is then implemented in the pool. Here you will learn and practice the Padi skills (3 hours)
– Break for lunch
– Back to the classroom: last few videos and questionnaires. (You are often given the option to do the exam, too. As a whole group we decided to get it out of the way. so our session took about 3 hours)

DAY 3:
– Two dives and basic skills

DAY 4:
– Two dives and basic skills
– Qualification! (You have to have your photo taken for your dive license. I recommend having it straight after the dives, it’s more authentic that way. You may not even have a choice either way).

Side note: I am claustrophobic and my biggest fear is drowning.

The first dive is always going to be pretty daunting. So why was I the only one that looked like I’d forgotten how to breathe and speak? Like a line of ants, we descended a rope at the end of a fellow dive boat. I probably hadn’t even reached the five metre mark before my ears started compressing. I tried all the techniques I knew to equalize, wiggling my jaw, blowing against the ear drum, etc. Nothing worked. I stopped breathing. A diver should never stop breathing. Ever. It’s the number one rule. I panicked. Without realising, I’d ascended to the surface. Fortunately, our dive master trainee, Arno, followed me. He calmed me down. It took about ten minutes for the pain to subside.

“Do you want to try again?”
“I don’t know. I want to. I’m nervous.”
“Five more minutes?”
“Okay.”

We floated in silence.

“I want to try again.”
“Okay.”
“Slowly?”
“Very. Equalize every time you move down the rope.”

With Arno’s guidance, I successfully made it to the bottom where my group sat waiting.

At this point, I’ll give you a handy hint: it’s not a very good idea to smile when your knees touch the sand, no matter how proud you are of yourself. You don’t want your mask to flood before you’ve even attempted it as a skill.

I’ll never forget that first trip out on the boat. I generally felt ready to quit before I’d completed one dive. Without my patient safety net, Arno, I wouldn’t have given myself the opportunity to become addicted to the hobby I never thought I would be able to try in the first place.

Oh, and before I go, yes, I did qualify. I may have also splashed out on another course, the…