October 28 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master in Training - Day #3
We crashed last night somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00. I simply couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Because of the early bedtime, I woke up at 6:30AM. Bummer.
In case anyone's wondering, there's no such thing as Daylight Savings Time in Thailand. So this caused a bit of confusion for us this morning because we couldn't figure out if we were on time or an hour early. A quick trip to the Dive Center let us know that we were on time.
Today, I was to begin assisting an Advanced Open Water Course and Jon continued assisting Mark with the same class. Click on our entries or just read through the rest of the page:
I met the instructor I was supposed to help (John) and his Assistant Instructor (Soran). The Advanced Open Water course has 7 students in it:
Helen, Rick, and Tim from England
Otto and Anna from Spain (I think)
Daniel from Toronto
Greg from the UK
We started the course doing academics, so the morning was full of videos and Knowledge Reviews. We watched a video for Navigation and one for Deep Dives. Then we discussed the dives we'd be doing for the afternoon. Then we broke for a quick lunch and hopped on the boat for the afternoon dive.
Because I had to change into my suit and pack my gear, I only had time for a quick bite (again). So I went to the room and fixed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while I changed into my suit and rushed around the room looking for stuff. At 12:30, I headed to the equipment room to pack some gear for me. While I was there, John (the instructor) decided that we would do the night dive as well this evening. So we were busy for the rest of the day. Here's what our dives were like:
Dive #1: Navigation Dive at Hin Daeng Cave
Depth: 22 meters
Bottom Time: 43 minutes
Visibility: 5 meters
John wanted the students to go down and do navigation exercises on the bottom, such as the compass square and the reciprocal dive. Unfortunately, the visibility was terrible. Now theoretically, this wouldn't matter for a navigation dive because the whole point is to get back to where you started from. But you really can't expect novice divers to ace the navigation exercises on their first attempt. So after a few failed navigation and a lot of swimming around looking for students, John ditched the exercise and we went for a swim. We went through the cave, which was the same one we went through on the fun dive from yesterday.
Dive #2: Navigation Dive and Performance Buoyancy Dive at Japanese Gardens
Depth: 15 meters
Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Visibility: 9 meters
We were a bit late getting started on this dive because Daniel lost his mask when he jumped into the water. So John had to go looking for it but never found anything. The rest of us waited in the water for him to get back. Then we submerged.
Visibility was a bit better (barely) than Hin Daeng Cave, but John decided to continue the navigation exercises anyway. The group split in two. One half went with Soran for Performance Buoyancy tests which is literally swimming through hoops. The other half went with John and me for navigation. I swam away about 10 meters or so and the students swam to me and back to count their kicks so they could measure distance. Then they did a reciprocal swim and a compass square. The groups switched and Soran's group came to us and vice versa. Then we were done and went back to the surface.
When we got back to the mooring, we took the speed boat back to shore and grabbed dinner. We really only had about 45 minutes, so I went up to the room and had - yes - a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Don't knock it. It's fast and cheap.
Dive #3: Night Dive at White Rocks
Depth: 16 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
We got on the speed boat at 6:30 and I couldn't help but think what a nice life this is. The sunset was stunning - all yellows, pinks, and blues - and the ocean was like soup. As we cruised out to the boat on the speed boat I thought that I could definitely enjoy a life like this, even it if doesn't meet all my "future goals". Screw the future goals!
The night dive was lovely, but I've always loved night dives. As John the instructor said today, "It's like being in your mother's womb all over again!". Or so he's heard. But it is silent and dark and peaceful. What I like most about night dives, however, is the nightlife that comes out. Blue Spotted Rays, Crabs, Shrimp, and funny looking fish that you never see in the daylight. It's quite cool.
There were a few different dive groups at White Rocks tonight, and for some reason it reminded me of the night game drive we did in Zambia at South Luangwa National Park (see June 11). It was dark, there were a lot of flashlights looking for things, and every once in a while we ran across another group's path. Funny how I had such similar experiences both on land and under water.
Helen (my dive buddy) and I ascended together because she was low on air. I came up where I saw the light from the boat, except it wasn't the boat at all - it was the moon!! The light was so bright that I thought it was the boat lamp. How crazy. We weren't that far away and the sky was clear and beautiful with stars everywhere. So we happily swam to the boat on our backs.
After the dive, John had brought a few beers and we cracked them open and drank them on the way back to the mooring line. The shoreline was very pretty with the lights from the hut along the water.
The morning started with more video sessions building on the skills from the first day and preparing the class for their first openwater dive.
Dive #3: Openwater dive #1, Twin Peaks
Depth: 12.2 meters
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Visibility: 15 meters
I setup the class' gear before lunch and after lunch everyone grabbed a bag and headed out to the shore where the speedboat was waiting to take us to the dive boat. After all the students and gear were transferred to the dive boat Mark showed everyone how to set up their again and then they headed up topside for Mark's briefing while I setup my kit. Basically, as a DMT my job is to help Mark and the students so my gear is usually the last to be setup - no sweat since it only takes five minutes or so.
Mark got everyone briefed in on the dive, from the 'giant stride' entry into the water to the descent on the mooring line, where we would be going and what we would be doing once we got there (more skills!) and finally the ascent. Here my job as a DMT is to keep an eye on the class and help anyone with problems, again a pretty easy task because this class feels pretty comfortable in the water.
In the water the class did well, with only one or two people having some small problems with buoyancy. For the next dive we will have one of them remove a kilo of weight and have the other person add a kilo and I will carry an extra kilo just in case someone needs it. Carrying a little extra weight is something that a DM often ends up doing when guiding groups just in case someone in the group has difficulty with their buoyancy.
Dive #4: Openwater dive #2, White Rock
Depth: 18 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 15 meters
During our surface interval of about an hour Mark briefed the class on the next dive: entry, descent, what we would be doing, ascent, safety, etc. This dive went well also. I did end up giving Andre the kilo weight that he had given me when we were on the boat after the first dive as he was having some problems with floating up above the group. Otherwise a pleasant dive.
Football at AC's
We went to AC's because that's where a bunch of people were going out. So we sat down and ordered some food and a beer and enjoyed the night. And then I fell asleep on my cushion. Jon woke me up at 10:30 and said we should go to bed.