The alarm going off was brutal after tossing and turning all night in the heat of room. I had closed the sliding glass doors to keep the mosquitos out last night because we didn't have nets above th beds. Downside was the room heated up being on the top floor and two full grown men sleeping in it. I felt exhausted and dehydrated. Two things that don't mix with diving that well.
Coffee and a new 1.5 bottle of water later, I walked to class for the day's first instruction. I was suppose to have read chapters 1-3 the night before but like a champion I decided not to and review 20mins before class started at 8am. I finished my homework right before my instructor walked up. His name is Marian and he was from Slovakia. He was a master diver and certified in just about every dive arena you could get. He had been on the island over a year now and knew a ton about the local water life and sites.
Lucky for me the morning quiz was mostly on things we did in our homework and the rest seemed like common sense. I got 4 out of 30 incorrect and we went over them with the teacher. 2 more boring videos later we broke for lunch. I caught up on emails and a bit on last nights reading before we started our afternoon dive instruction.
To give some background on my dive experience; I had dove Airport Beach Hawaii when I was 15 years old and a bunch of lobster night dives in college with some buddies who had the equipment. I knew a bit but I never really had proper instruction. I knew to just clear your sinuses often when descending and to always breath. Never hold your breath as well.
We loaded up the long boat with our supplies and a group of about 25 students and teachers made for the dive boat. My group was 3 total students and our instructor. The other couple was from England and had only done one intro dive somewhere else on a pervious vacation.
We reviewed what skills we were going to do and prepped our gear. When we did our buddy check I got super excited I was going to do this training. It had been on my bucket list for awhile and this felt like another great skill set to learn.
We jumped in the water at The Japanese Garden dive site and swam for the sandy part of the reef were we went over our skills. This included submersing our heads underwater while standing on our knees and breathing using the regulators, swimming techniques with equipment on, inflating and deflating our BCDs, clearing our masks, taking off our masks and swimming 100 meters with our masks off underwater, and a bunch of other things I can't remember right now. The important thing was lots of time underwater getting used to the sensations. I loved we were already diving so much after just a few hours class time.
The next dive site was at the Junkyard. Aptly named that after a bunch of the dive schools got together and made a little underwater theme park made out of junk. The idea is to get coral and sealife to grow around it. This dive was going down to 10.5meters but at 30ft at a beginning level you are very much aware of the depth. I drew in my breathing skills I learned in yoga school and calmed my mind. Pervious fears about being that deep underwater melted away and I relaxed and enjoyed the swim amoungst the sea life. We saw a windmill made out of metal. Along with a couple other themed buildings, an underwater gym with used equipment, a bar, and a castle. It was cheesy but I saw a bunch of cool fish including a puffer, porcupine, and yellow fin triggers. We swam back to the buoy and started a slow accent to 5meters for our safety stop. We waited for the standard 3mins to decompress and clear the excess nitrogen bubbles from the system. When we surfaced it was a 47 minute total dive and counted toward my first registered dive. I loved it!
We took the boat back to the scuba shop and unloaded the boat of the gear and used tanks. With everything washed off in clean water and stowed we broke for the day. I walked away ready for another day of diving.
I met Dennis at a pizza place on the beach for happy hour. I was stoaked on the lessons from he day and shared my experiences. He was excited to take his refresher course in the morning with my school so he could dive again on the upcoming sites.
The sunset was extra gorgeous tonight and the drinks flowed. We met up with Catherine, another student from my yoga teacher training, and her two friends from Canada. Her friend Jamie was a Dj who lived on Koh Phagnan. He lived there for two years already and had lots of stories to share about the islands. After sunset we made for some music we heard down the beach. Every beach bar had fire dancers and crazy light shows. We stopped at the Sunset bar and watched a Sunset beach party ensue.
I paced myself but the rest of the group got at it. I was entertained at the sheer madness of it. No rules with drinking and fire. The fire limbo was really hot but I did a few rounds harnessing my back bending skills. I called it around midnight. I had another quiz in the morning and once again had not read a thing. I pounded water on the walk back to my apartment. Tonight I slept with the sliding doors opened. Much better sleep.
Before my first official dive at the Junk Yard
Fri Feb 27
I hated my alarm a little bit more today. I could feel the night before despite the water I drank. The walk to class was paced. With an Americano coffee in hand I once again finished my homework with less than a minute before my instructor walked up. I really wanted to know this information in my book but it still remained only skimmed through. Cliff notes style I walked into class for my last two quizzes and passed with only two incorrect. My instructor immediately handed me the final. I thought "this will be interesting" considering I didn't finish a complete chapter in the entire manual.
I passed with a B average. The questions were all ones in chapters I didn't read and when I reviewed the questions with my teacher I nailed the correct answers. School work was now officially over and only dive skills remained. As a side note, I own the PDF version of that book and have read through it completely. I truly wanted to know the material and I was very present for all dives with skills.
After lunch we were back on the boat loading up and heading to Mango Bay for confined water drills at 10meters. Doing simple exercises near the surface is a little boring but under 30ft of water it adds a nice little danger to it that makes it fun. I feel very smooth and controlled when I practice my techniques. I'm really starting to love this underwater stuff.
With all our skills done we surfaced and swam back to the boat. Our next dive spot was The Twins. This would count as a full dive. It was beautiful. The water was low visibility but still fun. We saw a school of chevron barracudas as we descended. They looked fierce but beautiful swimming together. I liked messing with the XMAS tree worms. They come in tons of neon colors and swirl out in this fan shape to catch debris floating by. It you pass your hand above them they curl inside quickly. The idea is to look at the sea life but never touch.
Despite the low visibility it was still a great dive. Our max depth was 11.3 meters. I'm excited to hit our lowest dive limit tomorrow. Boating back to our base camp I reflected on how amazing life is and the directions it takes you. I was two dives away from completing a goal I had made when I was 15 years old and here I was about to finish it just shy of two decades later. Better late than never.
Dennis and I headed back to shower and change. We ate dinner at one of the nicest fish houses on the island, Barracuda. It was delicious and hit the spot. No night life tonight. We both wanted to be rested for the big dive tomorrow morning at Chumpon. I closed me eyes excited and happy about the day and tomorrow's dive.
Sat Feb 28
We were at the dive school at 6:45am. Dennis was going to join our group as we only had a few quick exercises left. Sadly though the school didn't get enough free divers together to do Chumpon so we went to Green Rock instead. Chumpon is a half hour cruise further into the middle of nowhere so they need a full boat to commit. This was a let down. I'd been excited to dive Chumpon since arriving on the island. I made a goal to complete that dive before leaving Koh Toa.
Our first dive was Green Rock. When scuba diving a good dive profile starts at the lowest point slowly ascending back toward the surface. This helps with your no decompression limit and air supply.
I was excited about going to the max depth for open water diving. Water was low visibility and had a good current. Still in was cool dropping into the depths below. We touched down and did a few drills with our masks and regulators. Afterward we circled green rock heading back toward the surface. We saw trigger fish, butterfly fish, longfin banners, blue ringed angelfish, black groupers, red breasted wrasses, and tons of marble sea cucumbers and magnificent anemones.
Our max depth was 17.9m at 36min dive.
We boated for White Rock our final dive spot before we would be PADI certified open water divers. This terrain was spread out with lots of variety and coral formations. A great finishing spot to an already exciting program. I wanted to jump in immediately but we had to wait a hour to allow the lasting nitrogen in our body to leave our system after the last dive. This would give us a longer dive on this go around.
After buddy checks we descended White Rock. It's not as deep which makes it good for a second dive spot. We touched down at 15.7m and had a fun dive. No more instruction just being divers and enjoying the sea life. We saw blue ringed groupers, eight banded butterfly's, blue spotted trout, garget major fish, squirrel fish, soldier fish, golden trevelly, long faced emperor fish, parrot fish, and staghorn coral.
I splashed around in joy after surfacing. That goal was long overdue on getting completed. Our boat ride back was filled with smiles and feelings of accomplishment. I was stoaked taking the photo for my PADI license. I had done it. I thanked my instructor and made my way to the nearest beach restaurant to enjoy a well deserved lunch and cold beer.
Afterward we switched accommodations to Bans Resort. It's a dive resort that had a decent room in a prime location. We wanted our last two nights to be in a fun area and enjoy our surroundings. We got settled in then rented some scooter bikes to go to the main pier to get our ferry and train tickets switched around so we could stay longer. It was successful and saved us a whole morning on Tuesday to do a final dive. I was very happy about this and it only cost us $200 baht to switch. Worth it's weight in gold to save half a day.
We explored around, but only briefly, then ate dinner. We tired to get into the idea of going out but honestly we were both so exhausted by 11pm we called it early. I slept so sound.
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