Scuba Diving

This past week we have been on the island of Ko Tao, also known as Turtle Island. The island itself is small but beautiful and full of small bays with beaches, bungalows and laid back restaurants and bars. We stayed in the area of Mae Haad Beach which has two main roads that are full of restaurants, bars, travel centers and dive shops. The more touristy, party area of Sairee Beach was only a 20 minute walk away and the beach was lined with bars and restaurants with cushions and low tables right on the sand. I wish I had had more time to explore the island, but the main reason that we were on the island was for scuba diving. Ko Tao is famous not only for its diving sites, but also for its inexpensive rates for PADI dive courses.


We stayed at a combination resort/dive center called Crystal Dive Resort on Mae Haad Beach, only a short walk from the main piers. It was a great place. They had the dive center itself and a restaurant and lounge/bar area attached. Nearby were the bungalows, where we were staying, and then about 100m down the beach was a more upscale resort also affiliated with the resort that had a REALLY NICE POOL that we could access as well.



But, as I said before, our main reason for being on Ko Tao was for scuba diving. For me, this was a big step towards facing one of my most prominent fears - breathing artificially underwater and drowning. Beau had already planned on taking a more advanced, Rescue Diving Course and I decided that now was a good time to take control and face my fears! So I signed up for a PADI Open Water course, a four day course that introduced me to the world of underwater diving and would certify me to go on dives up to 18m.

My road to fear-conquering went something like this...

Day 1: Intro to Scuba Diving
The first day was only a half day and it was confined to the classroom. We were given our manuals and read through the first three chapters, as well as watched the corresponding videos. The majority of the information was telling you what not to do and the severe consequences of those no-no's. That didn't really help calm my nerves much.



Since it had been a somewhat calm day, Beau and I walked over to Sairee beach for dinner and found a really nice Indian restaurant that was a little more expensive than we were used to (coming from Thai restaurants where you could stuff yourselves for less than $5 each) but the food was fantastic!

Day 2: Pool Diving



On this day, we were introduced to diving equipment and had our first experience with breathing underwater in a contained salt water pool. I will honestly admit that the first time I put my head underwater and had to breath through the regulator, I had a minor panic attack. Thankfully, my experiences with yoga and deep, meditative breathing came in handy and I was soon able to calm myself down. We practiced skills like removing water from our masks, removing our masks and putting them back on, taking out the regulator (i.e. what you breath air out of) and putting it back in your mouth, etc. The scariest part for me was when the instructor turned off our air tank so we could feel the sensation of running out of air and practice sharing air with another diver. For someone facing their fear, that was definitely a tough moment for me. There were six of us in a group - myself, my diving buddy Eric from Chicago, Dottie from Ukraine, Kelly and Allen from Ireland and Sarah from Australia. Our dive instructor, Liran, is from Israel. Out of the six of us, I was the fifth to do this skill, and while the first four had their tanks closed off and practiced sharing air, I spent most of the time mentally forcing myself not to give up and go straight to the surface. Then, when it was my turn and my air was closed off, suddenly I found that my lungs had more than enough air, and I was able to calmly hold my breath and request air from the instructor. I had done it!

After that, I found it easier to ignore the panicked voice in my head and focus on breathing deeply and practicing my buoyancy (i.e. preventing myself from sinking or floating out of control. The goal of every diver is to be neutrally buoyant, neither sinking nor floating). We were in the pool for around 4 hours, and by the time we got out of the pool, I was exhausted both physically and mentally. I was proud of myself for not giving up, but I was also very nervous for the following day, when we were to venture out into the ocean and into deeper water.


Day 3: Open Water Dives 1+2
To me, this was the make-it-or-break-it day. If I was to lose my nerve and give up, it would be within the first few moments underwater in the ocean. If I was to overcome the panic, my first experience underwater with the coral and marine life would be the best distraction. We didn't leave for our dives until lunch time, and I spent most of the morning worrying myself silly, and most likely driving Beau a little crazy!

We met at the dive bar, prepped our equipment, and headed onto the boat. There was a large group of us, since apparently their busiest time was right after the Full Moon Party - go figure! It is also apparently one of the worst times in terms of tides and currents and visibility underwater, which I was about to discover.


Our first dive site was called Mango Bay, located off the northern side of the island, max. depth 12m. There was a bit of a current which made jumping off the boat and kicking our way to the descending rope a little difficult. So much was happening at once that I didn't really have time to think before our instructor gave the signal for descent and then we were under. The visibility was horrible, about 2-3m. We could barely see each other! That being said, the first dive was purely to get comfortable being in the open water and we spent most of our time just exploring the area. Although we couldn't see that much in front of us, we did explore some coral and saw some fish and before I knew it, we were heading back to the surface. We were all surprised when our instructor told us we had been underwater for over 40 minutes!


Our second dive was supposed to be at a different dive site called Japanese Gardens, but because of the current they ended up keeping us at Mango Bay since it was better contained and had calmer waters. Again, visibility not so great. This time we practiced some of the skills we had already practiced in the pool like mask removal, regulator removal, buoyancy and sharing air with our buddy. My buddy, Eric, was very supportive of my nerves... and yet, he was also that guy that saw a bright shiny object underwater and had to go over and touch it. I was constantly looking around for him! The longer I spent underwater, the less panic I felt and the easier it was to breath and stop thinking and take a look around. By the end of the second dive, I was even starting to enjoy myself... and I was also, for the first time, actually looking forward to diving the following day.

Day 4: Dives 3+4


The last day of the course. We met at 7am to go out on our last two open water dives. Accompanying us was also an underwater videographer to shoot us on the boat and during our dives. Of course, this meant that we had to ham it up a little bit. On the boat ride over to our first dive site, I had just made my cup of hot tea and saw the camera on me. So, of course, I took a bit long sip and gave a thumbs up sign. And promptly burned my tongue.


Our first dive site of the day was called White Rock off the west coast and close to the 3 smaller interlocked islands of Nang Yuan. The visibility was still not ideal, but was a lot better. The amount of coral and marine life was definitely better. We dove down to a depth of 18m and explored the area for about 40 minutes. It was breathtaking! We saw batfish, angelfish and cautiously made our way around the territorial titan triggerfish. We swam around and weaved our way through large cliff-like coral. Simply stunning!


Our fourth and final dive site was called Twin Rocks and it was by far the best site. Right off the Nang Yuan islands, there were underwater sculptures created out of waste that we were able to swim in and out and around along with the coral and the fish. The highlight of the dive for me was finding a tiny anemone isolated from the larger clumps. It was a bluish white colour and right along the sandy bottom of the ocean. Inside the anemone was a family of three clownfish. We hovered a safe distance away and watched as they swam through their home. By this dive, there was absolutely no nerves at all, just pure enjoyment. We even hammed it up for the videographer underwater during our mask removal skill. After removing our mask, the instructor gave us his aviator sunglasses which we put on and then struck a pose. It was loads of fun. The fear had been conquered!




We returned to the resort around noon, cleaned and packed up our equipment, got our pictures taken for our PADI certifications and then we were done! It was Beau and my last day on the island and it ended up being a beautiful, sunny and very hot day! We spent the entire afternoon in the nicer resort hanging out by the pool and just relaxing. You couldn't ask for a better afternoon on the island.




In the evening, everyone that had graduated from the Open Water Course met at the bar for celebratory drinks and to watch the underwater videos, which were quite entertaining. After the showing, most people went off to a party on Sairee Beach, but Beau and I had to stay in the area since we were catching the night boat from Ko Tao to Chumphon on the mainland. Our island adventure was over, and we had a quick visa run to get out of the way before heading to the west coast, where we hope to explore Krabi and nearby Railay Beach and Ko Phi Phi.