Dive 1 19, 09, 2014
First dive today. Hopes into the office to so a bit of reading just to give myself a head start. I didn't think I would be diving today. I wasn't in the dive block yesterday. Dave, he is one of the instructors, came over and ask if I wanted to jump in on knowledge section with another couple from Italy. Of course I want to. This is what I came to do. So we ran though the first sections, 1-3, then went for lunch.
40 mins till we head out to the boat. Excited to jump in the water and see what happens. Grabbed some phad Tai. It was delicious......however it might not have been a good choice. But I did have the chance to sit down and enjoy some tasty food and chat with chennel. So many people from so many places. She is from Sydney Australia and as per most everyone coming out to scuba, specifically her advanced cert. She is doing her dives with Asia. Apparently they don't have many people diving with them right now, but she chose them because they do not have a single bad review. Also the dive instructors are a veritable box of knowledge on the area. I might have to go hang out over there and get some regional info. Back to the diving bit. We head out to the boat. Skys are blue and water is flat like glass. A few light misty clouds hang out and it is beautiful. We, Andre, Nikki and I run through the gear setup and pre-dive checks and within 10 mins we are wrapping around into a very serine bay. Gear check and we strap to tanks on, head to the back of the boat, slap our fins on and we are jumping in backwards into the crystal blue waters.
First part is a confined dive where you run through important action in the water. Simple things but all very important to know and be comfortable doing like clearing your mask, removing and replacing your mask, weight belt and BCD, knowing what it feels like when you are out of air and being able to signal this, use of someone's alternate air, and of course surfacing procedures. I had such a great time that a one point during the demonstration of mask removal and swim that I forgot to wait for David to loop back and as soon as he was turning and doing a quick out and back loop I was already removing my mask and swimming right behind him. .... Oops.... :) Apparently this was the first time he had someone do that and we got a bit of a laugh out of it. I guess on the majority first time divers are a little timid about removing their mask.
After the confined session it was time for the real open dive. So we were back on the boat and swapping out tanks. Back in the water. They have a cool underwater statue park here. So you can work on body position and perception. So we took a spin through the park .
Now remember that I said the phad tai turned out to be a bad choice....well about half way through the dive my stomach decided it didn't want to hold onto it any more. Urrrggghh. So I inadvertently ended up feeding Neemo a bit of carrot and some phad tai at 12 meters. Stayed calm and after I purged out the respirator we continued the rest of the dive. Way to start your first dive off. Great day in the water ...minus that one bit. Hahaha. On to tomorrow
Dive 2 Open water training #2 20,09,2014 Headed around to the east side of the island to lien thian. I ran through a couple of skills with David including CESA sim and mask removal and clearing. After this I joined Becky's group for a fish identification. We saw so many beautiful creatures. Long fin angel, multiple types of butterfly fish, spotted sea cucumber, grouper, and many more. The marine pool is amazing here. After this dive I went for a snorkel run in the shallows. So majestic.
