Although it had been many years since my last dive, I have been numerous times. However, I've only done so in New England where the water is cold, the visibility is poor, the waves are big, and the currents are strong. Because of the cold water, you wear a quarter-inch thick wet suit that is pretty restricting. Most of my dives have been from shore which often means you are battling waves crashing over you and slamming you into the rocks while you get in and out of the water. You have to swim a distance on the surface where it is more difficult, especially in choppy water. Despite all that, I really enjoyed exploring a different world. It was an activity that my Dad and I did together. One of the most memorable experiences of my life was diving with gray seals off the coast of Maine. But I then moved inland and didn't do much diving after that.
Now we are in parts of the world where the most spectacular sites are underwater. On Jesslyn's second day of open water diving for her course, I tagged along on the same charter boat to do some diving as well. The water is warm. We wore thin "shorty" wet suits (you could get away without wearing a wet suit at all). Visibility is great, and the water is flat calm. All that makes diving easier, but the reason to dive here is what you see. On my first day of diving in Thailand, I saw black tipped reef sharks, sea turtles, moray eels, and about a thousand different kinds of colorful, tropical fish like parrotfish, pufferfish, clownfish, triggerfish, batfish, bannerfish, and moorish idols. It feels like you are in a giant aquarium.
How do I know the names of all these fish? Two days after Jesslyn finished her certification course, she and I started the two day advanced course along with our new friend and dive buddy, Kristyn. The course allows you to learn more about and practice the key skills of navigation and buoyancy control under close supervision of an instructor. Underwater navigation is difficult at first, but like most things gets a lot easier with practice. It takes a little concentration. If you have a compass heading of 27 degrees and want to make a 90 degree left turn, what should your new compass heading be? Just subtract 90, but when you get to 0, start over at 360. So, it would be 297. We did fine in the course because we used easier numbers. We did a cool exercise to practice our buoyancy: a lead weight is placed on the bottom, standing on its side. You then swim over it, flip upside down with your nose pointing at the bottom, and without the use of hands or fins, sink down close enough to nudge the weight over with your nose, then rise back up off the bottom. It is all done by controlling the amount of air in your lungs through breathing. We also were able to choose three other topics. We chose search and recovery, deep diving, and fish identification. We can now find a lost object at 100 feet, tie a bowline around it, and lift it to the surface, then tell you what kind of fish were watching us do all this. Our deep dive also happened to be on a wreck, another first for me. It was the HTMS Klet Kaeow, a 60m long former gun ship. It was intentionally sank so it is in one piece sitting upright and in great shape.
If you are interested in diving, Thailand, it is a great place to learn. Of course, it takes a while to get here, and the airfare isn't cheap. But, once you get here, things are very cheap. And, we loved getting to know the other divers on the charters. They are from all over the world, but very few Americans. Taking scuba courses in just a few days means that you are at it all day long, then doing a little homework at night. For Jesslyn, that was about five and a half out of seven days. She joked that she felt like we were at scuba camp (and she loved it).
Thank you Kristyn for being a great dive (and drinking) buddy. Your buoyancy and tuk tuk negotiations skills are amazing. Thank you Matthew, Mattias, and Matteo from Palm Beach Divers in Koh Lanta for your expert instruction and patience with us! It was Jesslyn's great experience during the open water certification and my dives with you that convinced us to do the advanced course.
- Jake
This is one of the dive sites. OK, so the scenery above water is pretty good too.
Everything is OK with Kristyn and Jesslyn.
Matteo, Jesslyn, and Mattias. We didn't cover that hand signal in class.