Great Barrier Reef


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Great Barrier Reef
October 15th 2007
Published: October 17th 2007
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Took a 6 day diving course with 2 days of theory and pool diving followed by 4 days and 3 nights diving on the Great Barrier reef 😊
The theory part of the course went too fast and you didn't have time really to read the book and do you homework, but the practical part felt relaxed and felt like you had time to learn everything.

For the Open Water course we were 10 people and 6 were swedish and just 2 germans. Was pretty easy and got to see most things in the water like turtles and sharks.

During what I thought was the Advanced Open Water course I took a photography speciality and rented a camera for 3 dives, but first dive the camera got foggy and the other dives it was too early in the morning or cloudy to have enough light to get really good photos.
But that doesn't mean I will not try to bore you with my photos 😊
Also took specialities boat, deep and night diving which means I can jump off small boats, dive down to 30 meters, instead of 18 meters and I can dive at night. I did both
Sun deck of Kangaroo ExplorerSun deck of Kangaroo ExplorerSun deck of Kangaroo Explorer

Front: Katherine, me (Tomi) and someone I don't remember :/ Back: Quentin, Antonia, Sara, Marc, Matt
deep diving and night diving with my dive buddy Marc and it was much more fun to do it by yourself without an instructor.

When I got my second certification card at the dive shop on the last day it wasn't Advanced Open Water, instead it was "Specialty Course" card for the Advanced Specialty dives which I made after doing the Open Water course. This was yet another Cairns moment, which means feeling fooled in one way or another. You must really read the fine print and ask to make sure you get what you think you pay for. So I wouldn't recommend Cairns Dive Center to other people.
It seems I must do a total of 24 dives before I can get "Advanced Open Water" certification, so 10 more dives to go.


Additional photos below
Photos: 55, Displayed: 23


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Movie time in the libraryMovie time in the library
Movie time in the library

Front: Team Helsinborg aka Robin, Björn, Magnus followed by Katherine. Middle: Me (Tomi), Sara, Quentin Back: Antonia, Liz and someone I don't remember name of or is this Antonia?
Sunkist leaving the 2nd daySunkist leaving the 2nd day
Sunkist leaving the 2nd day

Half of the people from the dive course left the 2nd day after finishing the Open Water course
Monday morning dive at 6 am !Monday morning dive at 6 am !
Monday morning dive at 6 am !

Marc and me in wetsuits. Such posterboys ;)
Sleeping bag of a parrotfishSleeping bag of a parrotfish
Sleeping bag of a parrotfish

In the evening the parrot fish spits out a sleeping bag which prevents its bioelectrical signals to be detected by predators. Extremely smelly so do not touch!
Shark !Shark !
Shark !

Saw two white tipped reef shark at the same time :) They are about 1,5 meters long and not dangerous to divers.
DiversDivers
Divers

Very common underwater creatures at the Great Barrier reef


18th October 2007

Not if you are PADI cert
Tjena Tomi. Om du tar PADI cert eller ditt OW cert e PADI behöver du inte ta 24 dyk innan du blir AOW. Det är bara vissa kurser som måste vara med... underwater navigation, deep dive (har du gjort) och night dive (har du gjort). Det var vad vi gjorde på Koh Tao. Jo... multilevel dive måste också prickas av.... prata med en "ordentlig" instruktör eller gå in på www.dykarna.se och fråga på forumet där... att dom försöker lura på dig mer "kurser" som du inte behöver känns bara dumt... jag gjorde min OW och sen dök jag inget mer innan jag plumsade i vattnet på AOW kursen i Koh Tao... efter kursen hade jag typ 10-12 dyk... thats it... sen dök jag iofs röven av mig på similian... *ler*

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