Two very cool divers, which are now very good friends have cut together this awesome video about our diving together! I assisted on their Open Water, Advanced, Nitrox, Deep and Wreck Specialty courses during my Divemaster course at Sairee Cottage and it was a fantastic experience! Some of my first dive leads were these guys! Lucky I didn’t get lost. Thank you Tobbe and Linda. All credits for the video goes to Tobbe and Linda. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqNVP_2xL3o
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Barotrauma
I’d heard the stories and how serious it can be if you dive on a cold, but never quite understood the extent of it all. We’ve both been quite sick for the last few days and went to the shop primarily to hand in our mapping and EAP projects. We did however end up signing up for the afternoon dives, where both Emma and I would lead one dive each. This is good practice for us in completing our Divemaster training. They also asked me to lead a customer the next day, so of course I signed up for that! I lead the first dive with Emma, a Divemaster and…
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Mapping A Dive Site
Lionel and I went to ‘map’ a dive site a few weeks ago. We were given a dive site called ‘Twins,’ so called because there is a shallow and a deep pinnacle, and it’s also bordered by two small islands connected by a sandbar!
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Deep Scenario – Divemaster Training
The weather was so poor when we did our Deep Specialty in December that we couldn’t actually get to the 40m depth. We did the two deep dives to 22m and 26m instead. Anything below 18m is considered a deep dive, so we were still able to get certified. Today, Neil took all of us DMTs on a 40m deep dive at Chumpon Pinnacles. This is an essential part of the PADI Divemaster Training. I was excited to finally experience this depth! It is pretty much the same as any other dive with a few considerations. We will be under 5 bars of pressure at 40m, meaning we will breathe…
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A Stressful Day
Today we were being assessed on our rescue skills as part of our Divemaster training. Stress levels were already elevated as rescue always brings some unexpected surprises with it. We triple checked all of our gear and each others gear to make sure we are ready for the rescue scenario we would face. Matt, our friend from university in Melbourne arrived on the island today to visit us, and just as we were wading into the water, he greeted us from the restaurant. He’ll get the front row seat to watch us struggle as we drag each other onto the beach. Once we hit the water, we were split into…
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The ‘She Can’t Swim’ Chronicles: Day 1
I have decided to document my journey into becoming a ‘DiveMaster’ here in Koh Tao, Thailand. I am extremely apprehensive, scared, nervous, going to be sick, and this is mostly due to one thing. I cannot swim. I took swimming lessons in primary school but remained in the ‘Octopus’ group, the lowest, easiest group for four years, never once passing a swim test. I panic in water where I can’t feel the ground, and I feel my arms and legs are too weak to keep kicking or pushing forward, thereby sinking completely. I don’t know how or why I’m doing this diving business, but here is my journey… DAY 1…
