Day 41/42 - Koh Tao - 15/16th March 2010 (Jen)

Day 41

Simon had to be at Crystal at 6.45am for his Rescue course so that meant, I had to be up too.  Not too keen on all these early mornings!!

Even though I didnt have to be there until 9am,  the previous night Iain informed me that I had to take the students throught the exam on my own and if possible do there swim test with them as he was urgently needed to lead fun divers.  So this gave me a couple of hours to go through the exam.  The last thing I wanted, was to mark their exams and not be able to explain in detail any incorrect answers.

9am sharp the students gathered and I handed out the exam and left them to it.  I need not have worried as there were only a couple of  incorrect questions which took little explanation and everyone passed :-)

As it was still early, I gave them a 15mins break and told them to come back ready for their 200 meter swim test & their 10 minute float.   When they returned, I gave them the choice to do a 300m snorkel off the beach instead and that went down very well.

They went to grab lunch and return, by that time I'd packed their bags (BDC, Fins, Westsuit) ready for Open Water Dives 1 & 2, Iain was back from leading fun divers and we were ready to go.

Mango Bay - Dive 1
On the way, Ian briefed the students for the dive and I took notes. 
Once in the water we snorkelled toward the beach, stopped, did a few surface skills (Weight/BDC  & Cramp removal) then did a shallow 5 point acsent.    Maybe 5m down, we lined them up and did a few more skills and then ventured off into the blue  ...Mango Bay is pretty shallow, you'd be hard pushed to exceed the 12m max depth for dive 1 & 2.

As briefed on the boat, half the students followed Iain and then I followed on with the rest.
It felt really good being responsible for them, seeing them try to get their buoyancy, adding, releasing air and expecting a instant response  ..then, when they saw a huge shcool of fuseliers ..it was magical   Its an incredible feeling to share the wonders of diving and to hear "Wow! that was one of the best moments in my life" when you surface.

Twins - Dive 2
Tanks changed and sat up on deck we gathered for Iains briefing.  I took more notes.
Once kitted up, buddy checked we were back in the water. We ascended down the buoy line and headed to a sandy area to do more skills (mask clearing, partial/full - Alternate air source to name but a few)  then we were off fun diving ..even from dive 1 you can see slight improvements in their buoyancy

Day 42

Chumpon - Dive 3
7 am start and after the briefing we headed downstairs to kit up.  Today the videographer is on board to film our students and the video will be played at Crystal bar at 7pm.  This will be my first video  YAY!
The water temp was 31 degrees and visibility was stunning that you can see the seabed from the surface.
As this dive site exceeds 30 meters we stayed around 16/17 meters.

Twins - Dive 4
Our last dive before the students qualify and I was leading.   After Ian had briefed them we did a free ascent to the bottom  ...then headed for a sandy area where I gathered the students to do there last few skills (Mask flood/removal, Pivot & Hover)  They all completed the skills whilst being filmed with ease and then I signalled and they all followed me for a fun dive.
I spotted a blue spotted ray which they were all very excited about and then bumped into a trigger  ..which was just chilling  ...then further on we went to see Nemo, a family of clown fish who's home is circled with stones primarily to stop students getting to close and destroying Nemo's home.
On our safety stop Iain pointed out a Scorpion fish which was cunningly disguised on the pinnacle,  I wouldn't have spotted it in a million years.

Back on land after washing and handing back in our kit we took the newly qualified students to retail to have their photo's taken for the PADI cards and then gathered back in the bar area where Iain & I double checked their student files, ensuring all the necessary documents were signed, dated, quizes, knowledge reviews enclosed.

After congratulating them, Ian spoke to them about ConEd where 4 out of the 6 decided to do their Advanced Open Water, which is just brilliant. 

Later on Iain showed me the sections that I had to complete on each student file and then I probably spent the next hour or so just signing off all the portions  ..Argh!!  It's pretty repetitive but I now have 6 certs to my name :-)

That evening, our video was playing, so we met at the bar and chatted about their whole experience. 7.30 came and it was their turn to be in the spot light, so we all gathered on the beanbags  ..Dan, videographer has done a super job, great music, footage and I felt really proud.  My first Open Water Students!!

Jen
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