October 26 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master in Training - Day #1
One of the requirements for Dive Master certification is to log at least 60 dives by the end of certification. In order to do this, DMT (Dive Masters in Training) must assist in the "Fun Dives" and some of the "Instructed Dives". So yesterday, Jon and I signed up to assist in this morning's Fun Dive. We went to the equipment hut at 7:30 to get our gear and help set up for the fun divers. We've elected to take a day off from our 400-meter swim training today.
We helped to load the bags onto the speed boat, and took the boat out to the scuba boat moored offshore. There, we unloaded and waited for Theresa - the Dive Master - to give the dive briefing. She separated the group into two groups: one with her, which I was to follow; and one with Andreas, which Jon was to follow; and one with Pascal. Each group had 4 divers.
Dive #1: Fun Dive at Southwest Pinnacle
Depth: 22 meters
Bottom Time: 41 minutes
Visibility: 6 meters
Visibility wasn't too hot for the first dive, but it was still fun to be there. Theresa led the two buddy teams from the front. My role was to bring up the rear of the dive group and make sure that no one wandered off or had problems with their dive. There was one girl - Raphael - who had trouble with her buoyancy, but all in all it was a pretty normal dive.
After the dive, we climbed back onto the boat for our 1hour surface interval. Our second dive site was supposed to be a place called "Shark Island", but we'd received radio warning that the current was too strong. So we went to Nang Yuan Cave instead.
Dive #2: Fun Dive at Hin Daeng Cave
Depth: 18 meters
Bottom Time: 54 minutes
Visibility: 15 meters
This dive was much more fun. The reef was pretty big, and we saw a very colorful grouper. We also saw a MONSTROUS blue spotted ray hiding beneath a ledge. I wished it had swam away because I would love to see it move. We passed Jon's group a few times on the dive, and he was doing the same thing as I was - just hangin' out in back. At one point on the dive, we swam through a "pass-through" which is basically a large cave-like structure created by the reef. There was plenty of room to navigate through it, and halfway through the passageway I could look up through a large hole and see the sun shining through. It was lovely.
Then we were back on the boat for the quick trip back to the mooring. We (DMT and Dive Masters) loaded up the speed boat and headed back to the shore. There, we cleaned off all the equipment and stored it for the afternoon dive.
Afternoon Lessons
Jon and I went to lunch at AC's and then went back to the room to finish up our 3 Knowledge Reviews for Chapters 1-3. At 3:00, we met Kate to review them and then we took the 3 exams. We took the exams in the Dive Master offices, and so we were bombarded by Dive Masters and DMTs who wanted to introduce themselves. Most people complete their DMT in a month or two, but we're doing ours in 2.5 weeks. So there were quite a few raised eyebrows. In fact, most of the people we met said, "Oh you guys are the ones who are doing DMT in 2 weeks, right?" Clearly, we've already been a topic of conversation.
Typical New Yorkers. Hurryhurryhurry!!!
So after exams/diving all day yesterday and diving/exams all day today we were EXHAUSTED. We went back to the room to chill out before dinner, and caught the last half of "The Truman Show" on Cinemax. We watched it for a while and then went to AC's for dinner and to see "MI2" on the big screen. As I said a few days ago, there's just nothing like a cold beer after a day of diving.