Living in the Land of Smiles: An Island Interlude: Learning to Dive

Day three of my vacation started with a lovely breakfast with Lieke and Kimsha before starting our OWD course. We were visited by the instructor, Ant, who told us that we would be split into two groups so that each diving instructor had no more than 6 people. Unfortunately we were placed in different groups - I stayed in the group with Ant and they went with Petra. Also in my group were Frankie and Fabian, Jeff (American), and Taye and Megan (Canadian). My group started out in the pool learning how to use the dive equipment while the other group started with some classroom work.

From left to right: Frankie, Taye, Megan, Jeff, Fabian

Ant, our instructor (in the middle)

So after breakfast my group trouped off to the gazebo by the pool, introduced ourselves, took a quick swim test (all of us passed!) and then went and got our equipment. We were provided fins (the flippers you wear on your feet), a BC (flotation device vest), mask and snorkel, regulator, depth measurement instrument, weights, and oxygen tank. We were also offered wet suits but none of us thought that we would need them (and we didn't - the pool was warm and the sun was out).

This picture gives a general idea Source

Here you can better see how the regulators attach to the oxygen tank which is all attached to the BC (the vest thing) Source

We learned how to put all the equipment together (attaching the regulator to the oxygen tank, putting our weights on a weight belt, strapping everything on, etc) and then we jumped in the pool. Basically, everything we did in the pool were skills we were required to learn to get our certification. This included clearing our masks of water, taking our masks on and off, putting on the BC while in the water, taking off and putting on our weight belts in the water, "losing" and getting back our regulators, clearing our regulators, telling our buddy we were out of oxygen and using their back-up regulators, among other things. There are two things worth telling about from this morning in the pool. One is that I found out I am naturally very buoyant (as in I float). We were all given 4 - 8 gram weights to put on our weight belts and a lot of the time we spent in the pool we spent kneeling on a shallow shelf. I, however, was not able to successfully kneel because I kept floating upwards! Eventually Ant added two more weights which helped a lot and I was able to stay under water instead of floating to the top! The other story happened when we were working with our regulators. We were instructed to throw our regulators over our shoulders and then retrieve them, put them back in our mouths, purge them of water, and breathe. When it was my turn to complete the skill, I successfully threw my regulator over my shoulder, retrieved it, and put it back in my mouth. Then I purged and breathed in and suddenly I had a mouth full of pool water! Now, there are two ways to purge your regulator; one is to press a button on the front which forces all the water out and the other is to give an explosive breath out. My first time I believe I was using the second method but after it didn't work I started to panic. I tried it again and after taking another breath of pool water I was really panicked. I held my breath as I started shaking my head and nodding towards the surface showing my instructor that I was scared and wanted to go up. Fortunately for me, he didn't let me. Instead he motioned for me to breathe out and then try purging again. I know it sounds crazy but keeping me underwater forced me to take a deep breath (metaphorically - though it did kind of feel like my mind was taking a deep breath) and calm down. Well, calming down did the trick. I purged again and this time, as I took a very tentative breath in, I got nothing but oxygen. Needless to say, my heart was still racing and Ant stayed in front of me while I took a few more breaths making sure that I was OK. Afterwards I felt triumphant and that's why I was so glad he didn't let me give in to panic. He never would have let me actually get hurt or be in any danger (which will be further confirmed in future stories - stay tuned!) and pushing past the panic once meant that even when I was nervous I knew I could stay calm. So all in all, pool diving was a great success.

In the afternoon we had class and then watched some videos (which essentially said the exact same things Ant had been telling us just a few minutes before). We were all tired from the morning and sitting on these cushions on the ground listening to a (boring) movie induced some people into sleep! After the movies were done we all sat and did our homework together and then wandered off. Frankie and I had dinner but we didn't stay up late because the next day was our first dive!!!

Day four started with a test in the morning. As Ant told us over and over, the test was designed so that a 12 year old could pass (12 is the youngest you can be certified to dive) and he was right that the test was pretty easy. After we all passed the test we just hung out until our first dive in the afternoon! For our first dive we went to a site called Laemthian Bay and went down to 11.2 m. I was so nervous going in but once we were underwater all my nerves disappeared. Well, that's not exactly true. I think my mask was a little too loose and when it started fogging up and filling up with water I didn't know what to do. I had to take my mask off and put it back on again and remember how to empty it of water (breathe out through your nose while lifting your head back). Once I remembered how to get the water out it was much better and it even helped me equalize my ears as we descended. I found that breathing underwater while moving was much easier for me than breathing while sitting still in the pool and once I had dealt with the initial mask and equalizing problems I started to really enjoy myself. It was so relaxing and so beautiful. We stayed underwater for about 40 min but the time absolutely flew by. By the time we broke to the surface I couldn't wait to do another dive and thankfully I didn't have to wait long as we were scheduled to do a second dive at a different location that same afternoon!

Our boat! Source

Unfortunately, as we were waiting to get back on the boat the water started to get kind of rough. Before we were even out of the water I started to feel seasick and I knew that getting on the boat was only going to make it worse. No sooner are we on the boat and I am aware that I am going to get sick - it was only a matter of when. Ant called us all over and instructed us to take our equipment off our oxygen tanks and move it to a new oxygen tank, test everything, and then go to the upper deck of the boat so that we could debrief. So I started taking my equipment apart, hurled over the boat until there was nothing left in my stomach, finished putting my equipment back together and then went upstairs. I was still feeling sick but I was also feeling a lot better. Thankfully it wasn't too long before we arrived at the next dive site and I was able to get off the boat and into the water where I instantly felt better.

Our second dive was at a location called Twins and this dive was when we did a lot of the skills we had learned the day before in the pool. This dive was easier than the first (practice makes perfect) and more fun. I was able to better equalize the entire dive which meant less pressure on my ears and less pain. We were also diving on pinnacles which was cool. I guess there isn't much more to say about that dive or about that day really. After the dive we went back to the resort restaurant and Ant gave us our Dive Log books and we logged our first two dives. After that we just relaxed, ordered some dinner, and watched the videos for the OWD courses that had finished that day. But more on that tomorrow :)