23rd July 2011

Apologies for the lack of posts everyone, it’s been so very hectic here on the island.  It’s Full Moon party season and July has been the busiest month yet.  In one day Crystal had a record breaking number of check-in’s which beat the whole of June.  It’s been mental to say the least and next month it’s supposed to get busier.     I’ve been told that in previous years, people have slept in classrooms, tents and even instructors homes, it’s been that bad.

The Full moon beach party is held on Koh Phangan , thousands of backpackers, youngsters go (now I'm sounding old) and get absolutely plastered ...and turn up on Koh Tao a couple of days later to learn how to dive.  As you can imagine, day 1 academics with half unconscious students is a real delight ;-D

Luckily for me, just before the Full Moon rush, 17-20^th  I got a 3 person Open Water course.  An Indian couple, Samket & Jumara and Sophie who came from Belgium.  I say luckily due to the fact that I’d hadn’t taught for a short period and had got rather used to being lazy and sleeping in ;-D 
 

So when the influx of full mooners started to arrive I was on the afternoon boat for dives 1 & 2. The next day I met my students for the final exam, took them to the Regal pool to do their swim test and float before heading out on the afternoon boat for  dives 3 & 4 .

In the meantime, Si  had started an Open Water course for 12 people which the next day we split into 2.  This was going to be our first big group.  The confined pool session went pretty well after we finally managed to scrape together all the kit we needed.  Si briefed all 12 and then we split the group into two to demonstrate.

Surface skills had to be completed in the sea as the pool was crowded with all the other groups that had jumped in. There was only one problem... One of the girls freaked out with only a  couple of skills to complete and asked to leave so we sent her on her way and told her we’d meet tomorrow morning at 8am if she wanted to jump back in pool.  Nearly 7 hours later, including the odd toilet break we’d finally finished.

What a day!! We were so looking forward to going home to have a hot shower, getting food and then bed but then remembered it was ‘Eco Movie night’  ARGHHHH!!!!    2 Open Water movies, an episode of Whale Wars and a takeaway pizza, we finally went home and passed out with exhaustion.
 

The next day we headed down to Crystal and met Siobhan, who bravely said she’d like to give the pool another go.  Skills completed an hour or so later, with ease I might say, she still felt uneasy about the whole diving thing.  So after chatting and convincing her to do the exam, she can leave with a referral stating that all aca  and confined skills has been completed which leaves just the open water dives 1-4  which can be done anywhere.  It’s  really disappointing when someone drops out like that but she should be proud of herself.

Dives 1 and 2 went really well.  A few teething problems with weighting, one girl being super buoyant and one of Simons guys not being able to descend further than 4 meters, the groups were brilliant, good buoyancy, excellent positioning and even the ascents were very well controlled.   Pretty unusual for peoples first dives. 

Expecting to be going out on the morning boat for their final couple of dives plans changed and we were on the afternoon boat for diving and Si and I, in the morning, would be on the surface cover duties on Crystal 1 & 2  ..JOY!!!   We woke the next morning feeling oh so tired.  Of all days, it was windy and the sky was as grey as you like, on reaching Crystal, the wind had picked up and the sea was very choppy. 

  I was on Crystal 1, the smallest of the boats with 22 odd school kids, the wind and waves got so bad that dive sites changed to sheltered ones which made total sense and we had to travel to the dive site on Crystal 3 (big boat) and then transfer across to Crystal 1  ..so I felt much better about that but still, it was a very choppy journey.   Simons morning wasn’t brilliant, not only did he have to be surface cover but he was trying to check, find and pack 11 bags of equipment for our afternoon dives which was nightmare.     

Getting the equipment during this busy period is a nightmare.  So many students and courses going on that the kit room is bare. When boats come back and divers/students go to wash their kit, you’re grabbing it from them before they even have a chance to wash it  ..people scrambling for the right size fins, BCDs etc.

Back from the mornings surface cover I met Simon who was dashing around, we had to get our students together for their video’s opening shots and then get everyone down on the boat ASAP so that they could  check bags for their equipment  and then find any missing fins, w/suits etc back at Crystal..

Heading out for the afternoon dives, and yet again the weather kicked in... massive waves, wind and rain forced everybody downstairs, where we conducted our briefings and jumped in at the dive site... All the divers coped very well with the conditions which were far from ideal... Second dive, we had to wait for tanks to be delivered from the dive school by speedboat as there were not enough tanks.!

After the dives, we returned to dock at 6:30pm, filled in log books and certification paperwork, and hung around the school till our video was on which was past 10pm... After this we retired home, both collapsing into bed for some well earned sleep!