Scuba Diving in Koh Tao

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I was forced to wait 7 days on the quiet island of Koh Tao until I could get diving due to an eye infection. The local doctor actually advised me to wait longer but I could wait no more as by the end of the week I was so bored as I was just dossing about letting the eye get better and spending as little as possible. I suppose I could have been stuck in a worse place but I was just itching to make a move up north after spending a month or so on beaches and this place was too quiet unless you are busy.

So the scuba diving:

Day one was the start of this crash course but in the class room only and after a month or so of not really having to use the brain too much for work purposes and a week lazing about I found it quite hard to concentrate, but this certainly got it going again! I didn't realise how much was in to it with all of the maths and science.

Day two was a very early rise for the pool session so we were kitted up for the first time and shown the safety checks, which we had to repeat multiple times. The kit is hardly comfortable out of the water (or in particularly) as they had trouble finding fins that fit me properly. We then went into the chlorine filled pool which made our hands look 100 years old by the end of it where we went through the essentials and got us used to breathing underwater, which was comfortable enough in the pool. Essential skills include buoyancy control and taking your mask off and on before clearing it by looking up and breathing out of your nose forcing the water to escape from the bottom, I did this with my eyes closed and did not get a drop in! We later finished up in the classroom for an exam the following morning, so an early night it was.

The next day we then completed what was more of a laid back knowledge check before boarding the boat with a few other groups of divers to one of the popular bays for our very first dive. Our English instructor Alex was great, nearly all of the people working for the dive club were English/Ozzy etc. We were in a group of 6 and paired up with our buddies, I was with a dive master trainee assisting and entered the water by the dead Mexican, where you simply fall backwards with your legs straight into the water. One by one we descend holding onto a guide line off the boat so we let all of the air out of our buoyancy control device (like a blow up life jacket) and down we went.

Every 0.5m you have to equalise (by holding your nose and blowing like when flying) due to the increasing pressure the deeper you go compressing the air in the spaces in your head, so adding more air. The biggest pressure change is in the first 10m though where after 10m air is at half of it's volume, after 20m 1/3rd and after 30m 1/4 if I remember correctly. On our way down this first time it did feel quite uncomfortable relying on a tank, hose and mouthpiece to survive - you can't exactly stop the car and get out for a minute, you have to keep your cool! I think we descended to just 12m on this first dive before resurfacing for the second dive of the day. I can't comment too much on the scenery then as was just concentrating on doing the diving. The second dive was more comfortable then, alike anything you need to get familiar with it and after 23 years of breathing above water this was quite a change.

The final day of the course we went out on a smaller boat with less groups to another bay and descended to the full 18m or near enough. I really enjoyed this dive, was far more relaxed and was at the bottom no prob swimming with the fish. On all of these dives we had to complete a few of the routines as taught in the pool such as removing the mask, emergency breathing procedures and finally compass navigation. After maybe 40 mins we ascended, took a break, switched tanks and went down for the final dive. On the way down this time though I had trouble equalising (maybe due to the fact that I had a nose op to help my breathing a few months back, causing congestion still a little) so was in pain although I carried on slowly with Alex until our required depth where the pain stopped. We had a swim around for maybe 40 min again and resurfaced with blood from my nose then appearing. Due to the problem equalising blood was drawn from somewhere instead of air which was forced back out as I ascended. Nothing major though.

Generally it was a great experience as when you relax, get comfortable and appreciate the underwater world it is something else! You can see why so many people love it so much although I personally prefer paintball shooting or mountain biking at the moment. I am now certified to dive to 18m worldwide though with the option of further training at any other PADI centre if I fancy it another time although it will likely cost much more than doing it in Thailand! Unfortunately no pictures on this occasion!

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