Sharks, Turtles, Nemo etc...

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Hi,

The start of the dive course was basically sitting in a classroom learning theory from various videos and Adam the instructor, which I found very easy, and, going out to do our dive medicals. Once the whole class had finally got 8/10 or higher on the test we had lunch and got kitted out with BCDs, weight belts and air tanks, ready to go in the swimming pool. To start out with we simply deflated our BCDs and sat around in a circle at the bottom of the shallow end of the pool, getting used to breathing underwater. Once everyone had stopped falling over and floating up to the top, we started to do some skills such as filling and clearing the mask underwater, taking the primary airsource out and then finding it again (before drowning), buddy breathing, and finally going down to the deep part of the pool (about 3m) and chilling out there whilst Adam showed off - blowing rings of bubbles in the water. Then we did some surface skills such as orally inflating the BCD.

The following day we started off by swimming up and down the pool 5 times to prove that we could all swim 200m, then got kitted out again (this time with wetsuits), and headed back underwater. This time we spent much more time in the deep end of the pool, learning to fin pivot, hover, swim whilst neutrally buoyant, take off and put on all the gear underwater, fill and clear the mask, take out and find the primary airsource, and buddy breathe. We also did more surface skills such as cramp relief and tired diver tows. We finished off the pool session with a CESA (Controlled Emergency Surface Ascent), which basically means swimming up to the top from up to 8m without any air, though as the pool was only 3m deep we had to do it swimming along rather than up. Then me and Adam went out to find some cheap food for lunch, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the classroom learning to read decompression tables, and doing a final exam (100% ;P). Then we had to go and pay for a whole bunch of extra crap that made the dive course a lot more expensive than it was originally (reef tax, fuel levies, a mask because theirs were terrible and leaked at 1m, let alone 30, and accomodation).

Thursday morning saw me out of bed at 6.45am (far too early), and Adam came to pick us up at 7.45 to take us down to the docks where we transferred onto a boat called ReefQuest which took us out to Norman Reef (Troppo's) where we got put into groups, and then me and the guys in our group went snorkeling as we weren't on the first dive. After about half an hour most of our group headed back to the boat and got ready to go diving, then hung around for about another 15 minutes waiting for the 2 Dutch guys to realise that it was time to go diving and come back from snorkeling. When we finally got in the water for our first open water dive it ended up being shorter than it should've been (because of the Dutch guys being late) but it was still pretty awesome. We went down to about 12m really slowly holding onto a line from the boat, and then swam around for a bit getting used to diving - and saw a cuttlefish. Then Jayden the photographer came and took a group photo of us, and then individual photos of us all posing with a giant clam, and we all chilled out on the sand for a whilst doing a few skills before heading back up for lunch. The second dive after lunch was at Norman Reef (Turtle Bay), and was longer as we didn't have to wait for anyone, and we got to do a bit more swimming around the reef than the previous dive. We still did a few skills e.g. fin pivoting, and we saw a white-tipped reef shark for the first time. Then me and Adam got transferred over to OceanQuest whilst the others stayed on ReefQuest (they were doing a cheaper course but they didn't get full certification). The third and final dive of the day was at Norman Reef (Playground) with Hide-san the instructor and a Japanese girl called Mitchiko, and unlike the last dives we spent most of the time just swimming around whilst Hide-san found cool things - a Hawk's Bill turtle, a little stingray, a few Nemo's and a sea cucumber which he picked up and when he put it my hand it's suckers gripped on meaning I could turn my hand up and it didn't fall off - very strange. I spent the evening chilling with Mitchiko, Adam and Hide-san, watching 6 sharks swimming off the back of the boat, before going to bed early at about 9pm as we were all tired and you aren't meant to drink before diving.

The next morning I got a "lie in" until 7am when breakfast was served (bacon, eggs, beans, toast!), then me, Mitchiko and Hide-san headed back into the water, this time at Norman Reef (Sandra's), home - according to Adam's site map - to a 57m shark, for our final open water dive. We started of with a CESA (ascent from 6m down with no air), then did some extra-basic navigation skills - swimming off 10 kicks and then using a reciprocal heading to get back. After that we chilled out for a bit, and saw another shark (about 1m not 57) and Hide-san found a deep-purple flatworm for us to hold. The next dive was at the same site, but seeing as me and Mitchiko had both passed now we went by ourselves (to 18m) and saw loads of coral, a shark, a giant clam, a flatworm and a giant trevally. Unfortunately, whilst we were distracted by the pretty wildlife we got a little tiny bit lost, and though we made it back to a boat okay, we ended up on ReefQuest, and had to get a ride back in the powerboat to OceanQuest, much to Adam's amusement.

When everything was packed up, we moved to Saxon Reef (Coral Garden's) for the next dive, for which I was with Nick as Mitchiko was doing the Advanced course. We set off into the current, avoiding the 724.5m shark Adam insisted was real, and saw 2 sharks, a massive wrasse in the distance (apx. 2m), christmas tree worms (which are like little blue flowers on the coral, and if you flick them they hide), an elephant trunk fish and a humbug, as well as loads of spider-web type stuff. We then made it back to the boat with no issues, despite it being one of the trickier dive sites to navigate. Our final dive for the day was at the same site, but at about 7pm at night so we all had to take torches and guides. Sam, our guide, found us a sea cucumber and a little starfish, and loads of coral that looked really different at night. We also spent a bit of time playing god by choosing a little fish, then shining the torch at it until a Giant Trevally, attracted by the light, ate it, though this didn't last long as Fabien had forbidden us from killing more than one fish each (and we had to choose an ugly one). Then we amused ourselves for significantly longer by finding a fish near the coral, shining the torch on it to attract a Giant Trevally, and then when it had nearly got the little fish, moving the torch beam away so it missed and crashed into the coral. This was made even more entertaining by the fact that you could do it to the same trevally over and over (they are about as smart as a brick, or my little brother).

The next morning I discovered why 7am had been considered a lie-in, as Adam woke me up at 5.45am to go on the early morning dive. Apparently there are more fish at stupid-o-clock in the morning, though I didn't get to see many as I went on the deep dive, which was meant to take us to 30m, but for some reason Jo only took us to 24m. Still pretty cool though - we saw a turtle and got to experience the effects of nitrogen narcosis, which was basically feeling like you'd had a free beer. Then we had breakfast whilst they moved the boat over to Saxon Reef (Twin Peaks), where me, Nick, Carl and another guy went down as a four. Nick and the other guy were cool and kept pointing out cool stuff but my buddy Carl was a pain as he kept swimming off and poking things. We ended up shadowing Jayden round the dive site, and so we ended up seeing lots more fish than otherwise (he has to find cool stuff so he can sell us his photos). Amongst what we saw were more nemos, a shaded batfish, a sea cucumber, some moorish idols (Gill), Dory, lots of pretty coral and a Nudibranch. The final dive of the day was with Nick and Jayden, and again Jayden managed to find loads of amazing wildlife for us/his photos, including a blue starfish, a baby Hawksbill turtle and some Triggerfish (which we went to pains to avoid seeing as they bite you if you swim over their territory. Then it was back onto OceanQuest to pack up all the gear, and wait for ReefQuest to pick us up and take us back to shore. Upon ReefQuest I bought our group photo off Jayden, and he gave me all his photos from the trip as well - which you can see attached to this blog 😊. Then me and Adam chilled out on the deck of the boat, trying not to get too wet and slip off (I don't think we were meant to be there whilst it was moving) and he recommended a load of dive sites to visit in Thailand. Then we all got off the boat and Adam drove us first to the shop to try and persuade people to buy things, and invited me back to be a hostie (do the washing up in exchange for about 1 dive a day), which unfortunately I don't have time or a working visa to do. Then he drove us all back to our respective backpackers, and so ends my diving course :D.

Katie xx

p.s. I have now gone through the photos and only included pictures of the fish that I saw (minus some that this blog won't accept - too large/small dimensions) 😊

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Comments

[Nick]

Amazing pics
Hey Katie ... these are amazing pics. Wondering how many of these things you got to see?

[gdm]

Stunning fish pictures! How did you get them to pose for you?? Hope you didn't touch the stone fish! Some of the others looked a bit dodgy too. Guess that you are still alive to tell the tale so the sharks didn't get you either! xx gdm

[KatieHedgecock]

All the pics are from the trip I was on, though there are couple of the weirder ones that I didn't see, I did see the majority of them! I wanted to take a camera down myself but they were $40 per dive for hire :(.