October 29 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master in Training - Day #4
Today was another day of assisting classes and various dives. Click on the link below to read each of our entries or just read the rest of the page:
I met Kate - our Dive Master Instructor - at 9:30 to go over chapters 4-6 which was about Decompression Theory and the Recreational Dive Planner. She did the lecture with me and another DMT named Lee. At 11:30, we settled in to take the exam. But I had to race through it in order to get ready for the afternoon dive. I ordered lunch from Ban's and had it delivered to the dive center in the middle of my exam. Then I raced out to put on my suit and get my gear ready for the 12:45 afternoon departure.
Dive #1: Deep Dive at Chumpon Pinnacle
Depth: 30 meters
Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
The Deep Dive is a requirement for Advanced Open Water, which was exciting for the students. What's even more exciting is that two days ago there was a whale shark at Chumpon Rock and there was a very good chance that it would be there again today. But before we could see it, the students had to perform some deep-water drills. When a person submerges to such deep depths, often the nitrogen in the body builds up and may cause nitrogen narcosis. Narcosis is sort of bizarre behavior at deep levels that causes people to giggle uncontrollably or do very silly things. So the purpose of this dive was to see if the depth affected any of the students this way.
We suited up, split up into 2 groups, and submerged down the buoy line. When we got to 30 meters, we settled onto the ocean floor and Soran had our group do some drills like multiplication and addition. He'd also brought some raw eggs and cracked them open. We played with the yolk which stayed whole. Everyone looked like they were handling the depth very well, so we went swimming around the pinnacle.
No whale shark, unfortunately, and the visibility around the rocks was really bad. So we swam around for a while and then ascended for our safety stop. On the surface, storm clouds were rolling in and the waves were pretty rough. We changed our next dive site to White Rocks which we hoped would be more calm.
Dive #2: Naturalist Dive at White Rocks
Depth: 16 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 15 meters
The waves at White Rocks were a bit calmer than at Chumpon, but they weren't fun. Because of the dark clouds and wind the air had become quite cool so we just wanted to get in the water and out of the wind. This dive was a naturalist dive. John handed out under-water slates with fish and coral pictures on it and told us to run our own dives, staying below for no longer than 40 minutes. Helen and I jumped in and went down. It was nice to have a dive where all I had to do was help look at fish and coral. I'd been so busy helping with skill drills or assisting with Fun Dives that I'd forgotten how much fun it is just to roam around a reef for a while. We found a lot of beautiful fish that we tried to identify on the cards. Unfortunately, the fish cards were for fish from the Indian Ocean which - incidentally - is no where near the east coast of Thailand. Some of the fish were identifiable, but most weren't.
After only 40 minutes underwater, we were both cold so we headed back up. On our safety stop we shivered for a bit and then swam to the back of the boat. The trip back to the mooring was quick which was good because we were all freezing. I had planned to make the 400 meter swim back to the shore, but the sea was too rough so I bagged.
Today is the final two openwater sessions for the class and then they take their exam and they are certified! The bad news is that we have to meet at the equipment office at 7:15 in the morning. Not the easiest thing to do when you are diving every day as the diving really does leave you knackered at the end of the day. Also, since I will be out diving in the morning I will be missing the DMT review session that Kate is doing for Heidi so poor Kate will have to do the whole thing over again in the afternoon for me.
The class met up on-time and we took the speedboat out to the dive boat. Mark and I helped the group setup their gear and then everyone headed topside again while I setup my kit.
Dive #5: Openwater dive #3, Twin Peaks
Depth: 12 meters
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Visibility: 20-25 meters
Mark briefed everyone on the dive, including the fact that for these last two dives the videographer would be taping the whole dive. This means that there needs to be quite a bit of hamming it up for the camera starting with the entry into the pool. Everyone has seen some James Bond movie or another where Bond has to get into the water from a boat and the water entry is usually done in some overly dramatic frontward roll that isn't really necessary but looks good on camera. Well, that was the entry of choice for these last two dives!
Once in the water we spent about 15 minutes doing some skills then the rest of the dive was a fun dive which consisted of watching a stingray and some triggerfish and of course the obligatory mugging for the cameraman. Once back on the boat we got our tanks ready to be filled on the boat and then headed up for a briefing on the next site.
Dive #6: Openwater dive #4, White Rock
Depth: 22 meters
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters
After our buddy checks we all did the James Bond entry into the water again and did a free descent to the bottom where we found a nice sandy area and spent 15 minutes or so doing the final skill test then spent the rest of the dive as a fun dive. The class did really well and will all make good divers. I'm a bit surprised that nobody had problems, which isn't that uncommon, but this is only the first class I have assisted with.
Once we were back on shore we all watched the videotape and most of the guys bought a copy for the bargain price of 999Baht ($25). We took a lunch break and then the class got back together and took their final exam while I worked on my DMT review with Kate and Juliette (another DMT, from France). We spent a couple of hours going over decompression theory, reviewing the RDP dive tables and the RDP dive wheel which both help you determine decompression limits so you can dive safely. I did well on the exam but decided that I would quickly get a dive computer as soon as I could afford one!
Thai Wedding
We went to dinner at AC's for, like, the 100th night in a row. But they serve a mean chicken fried rice with pineapple and cashewnuts. They were showing "Shaft" on the big screen but Jon and I weren't really interested in it so we took a far table and positioned our cushions facing the water. Then we inevitably got sucked into the movie.
Back at Ban's Dive Resort (where we are staying http://www.bansdiving.com) there was a big wedding taking place that everyone had talked about for 2 days. One of the speedboat drivers was married about a month ago and had planned a big party for tonight. The joke is that - of an island of 700 people - 300 of them were attending this wedding. The staff at Ban's were all invited and we were told to stop by later on. So at 9:00 we strolled by the party which was set up on a lawn-area on the beach. Honestly, it didn't look like the big fiesta we thought it would be. There was no dancing or partying going on. There were a bunch of tables around which people were seated, and many of the tables were unoccupied as if the party had already left. On the stage at one end of the lawn was karaoke equipment and a local woman was screeching out some Thai song. Screeching really is the optimal way to describe this. After a week of diving our ears are a bit sensitive and the high-pitched noise was difficult to listen to. So we continued to walk down the road for a while and then turned around and walked back via the beach.