I’ve just finished running another great PADI open water course here at Simple Life Divers. This time Canadians Emily and Chris made their way all the way from Vancouver to sunny Koh Tao, Thailand to learn how to scuba dive.
Plus as part of the practical assessment portion of her PADI Divemaster Internship, DMT Naomi joined us to assist on dive course, learning how to guide new divers in tackling the typical challenges which they encounter.
PADI Theory & Shallow Water Training
After an orientation to the PADI course and covering some important scuba diving theory (such as how scuba gear works, safe diving practices, dive planning and more) we began in shallow water with a good workout of scuba skills. Assisted by Divemaster Thailand intern Naomi, Chris and Emily completed more than 20 underwater skills which got them comfortable breathing from a scuba unit, and being able to maneuver themselves underwater. Most people are a bit clumsy when they first enter the water, but with a bit of guidance and practice the guys quickly got the hang of operating a set of scuba gear. This included learning how to clear condensation from their mask to restore clear vision, how to adjust their buoyancy using correct weighting in combination with their BCD jacket and breathing, plus practicing emergency air sharing procedures. We practiced communicating underwater using hand signals, and mastered hovering effortlessly mid water by fine tuning our breathing.
Dives 1 & 2: Max 12M
With the couple comfortable in shallow water, on day three of the PADI Open Water course I, Chris, Emily and Divemaster Thailand trainee Naomi jumped aboard the Simple Life dive boat for our first two open water dives. For these we planned a maximum depth of not more than 12M, giving us the chance to explore two of our Koh Tao diving sites and repeat a couple of the skills in deeper water to further increase the guy’s confidence. During dive one we visited Shark Island to the South of Koh Tao, diving with many colorful reef fish including wrasses, butterfly fish, angel-fish and moray eels.
Image: A beautiful day out on the dive boat in Koh Tao. From the left Seth, instructor Daniel, Me (Luke), Chris, Emily & Divemaster Thailand trainee Naomi
After a short break on the surface and a cup of tea, we headed across to the shallow ‘Tuk-Tuk’ artificial reef just off Koh Tao‘s ’3 Rocks’ dive site. A classic Bangkok style Tuk-Tuk was cleaned up and dropped into shallow water as a marine conservation project, providing a novel attraction for divers to visit and an additional habitat for Koh Tao marine life. It’s only small, but in combination with exploring the hard coral reef lining the coast of South-Western Koh Tao and 3 Rocks it made for an interesting shallow dive.
Day 4: Divemaster Thailand Trainee Naomi Assists the 18M Dives!
Finally on day 4 of the PADI Open Water course we got down to the real business of heading down to our maximum depth of 18M. Also along for the trip were Swedish instructor Dan and Seth, also taking a PADI dive course. This time we headed north from our base on Sairee Beach, visiting Koh Tao’s most northerly bay – Mango Bay, which has breathtaking scenery both above and below the water. We were joined by an underwater videographer who caught the experience on film, weaving in and out of the giant coral heads and cruising over the fields of stag-horn coral that carpet the seabed of Mango Bay. For the second dive of the day we headed to Twins on the West coast of Koh Nangyuan, exploring two rock pinnacles, passing through a stone archway and getting checked out by the friendly splendor wrasses who swim up to eyeball passing divers. Two nice dives.
Emily and Chris did really well throughout the course and have qualified as safe, competent divers, and we enjoyed watching their diving movie with a few cold beers that evening. Well done each and hope you continue diving! And thanks to Naomi for her help throughout the course – she’s shaping up to be a very able PADI Divemaster – we’ll look forward to seeing her qualify with her Divemaster Thailand certification in the next few weeks. (Hopefully she’ll be sticking around throughout summer as part of the Simple Life dive team).
