Koh Tao

Today is my first day on the island of Koh Tao. Yesterday I left Koh Samui, after having stayed there for almost 5 months. On Koh Tao, I will hopefully teach as much as possible before returning to Samui on the 22nd of March, where I will depart for Sydney on the 24th.

For now, I can now start to discover this island more, a location, a location where I have already been many times in its waters, but barely on the land.

Yesterday, I left Samui very early to the ferry. I discovered that I still have so much luggage with me, despite reviewing everything whether I would need it or not. Still, I had way too much stuff. I will need to check that again thoroughly, before traveling again, or the excess baggage fees will kill me. I will most definitively have a lot of luggage, as the diving gear is quite a lot of stuff and I need to take it with me; fins, mask & snorkel, BCD jacket, wetsuit, boots, reel, torch and all sorts of small stuff. I already anticipated that extra weight when flying to Oz, by pre-book extra baggage allowance. However, I will need to bring the weight down even further, as I may still exceed that extra allowance. Well, I got almost a month to sort that out.

Yesterday was not a very nice day to arrive on Koh Tao. Skies were very much overcast and we had several heavy rain showers. As I had taken the early morning ferry, I had the whole day yesterday to get organized on the island. With some help from Planet Scuba (affiliated scuba diving school of Samui International Diving School - SIDS) where I will be doing the diving with), I found a nice clean 1 bedroom only room just outside of Mae Haad town, the main village on the island. Funny enough, I later discovered that one of my colleagues just lives 50 meters away and I can actually see her house. Luckily, I get along with her very well, so no problems there! I also got a moped again to take me around, but for the long run is not really necessary, as the island is quite small and most stuff can be reached by walking around. Maybe I am a bit lazy there, but it is only for a month and the cost is not that high.

After having sorted out my place to stay and a means of transportation, I took some time to relax and talk to some of my colleagues down at the diving school. I already knew several of them, as we have been on the same boat when I was diving with SIDS and again now whilst my stay on Koh Tao. I get along very well with most of them, so they made me a very heartedly welcome! We went for some drinks - had a great mango lassi (fresh mango/ yoghurt drink) - and had a good time catching up. After all, my last diving with SIDS was before I did my IDC, so that was around midst of January. The colleagues I was with are quite an international company, as they are from Thailand, UK, Netherlands (!) and USA. There are some more nationalities at the scuba diving school, so more to meet down the road. It was very good talking with them in this way, as usually there is little time when being on the boat. Equipment needs to be set up and disassembled, customers need to be attended to and obviously there is some diving as well. And as soon as we get back to the pier of Koh Tao, I usually had to go straight onto the ferry, back to Samui. Being able to talk to them in a very relaxing manner was very nice.

Later that evening I went for diner on my own to Mae Haad. I decided to go for some Italian and by coincidence I ran into some other colleagues. I could join them and we had a lovely evening with good pizza, some very nice red wine and lots of fun. Apparently, one of the people was leaving for a holiday today, so it was bit of a goodbye journey. Later he learned, that the holiday was cancelled, but anyway, it was a very good evening all together and a very warm welcome to Koh Tao!

Open Water Scuba Instructor

I have completed the IDC & IE successfully and can now call myself an Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI)!!!!

I have to wait until the paperwork has been processed by PADI which should take about 2 weeks. So by end of February, I will be able to teach! For that reason, I will go to Koh Tao until I have to return to Samui for my flight to Sydney on the 24th of March. Koh Tao will most likely enable me to do many certifications, as many tourists go down there for dive courses.

But first things first. After a total of 2 weeks of training in the IDC (see also Camille’s blog with some pictures), last weekend the Instructor’s Exam (IE) came about. Four type of elements were tested; diving theory and PADI Standards & Procedures, Confined Water teaching, Open Water teaching and Prescriptive Knowledge teaching. Two days full of activities, but also waiting as the group was split in two and there was only one examiner.

Saturday was a day of introduction, Dive Theory and Open Water presentations. I felt quite confident about the theory as I had prepared it well. I managed to achieve 92% and above scores where 75% would suffice. The open water exercise in the afternoon was a lot more difficult, where I had to teach two specific skills and had to watch for possible problems and correct them on time and correctly. My fellow students were at that moment students and one an assistant. Earlier in the IDC, I was able to say everything seemed to be okay without spotting the actual problem, also referred to as someone may as well had a sigar in his mouth and I did not spot it. Mistakes are there for a learning purpose, so I was very keen to spot every step. Unfortunately, the visibility in the water was very bad (<1 mtr) so that did not help very well. I managed to complete both exercises successfully (pfff!!!) and also completed the rescue diver skill of ‘unconscious diver at the surface’ very well, although my fellow student Adam, who was playing the victim, might disagree as I pinched his nose quite hard while pretending give mouth to mouth resuscitation.

The evening of Saturday was spent on preparing next day’s confined water pool presentations and the classroom presentations.

The next day had a later start, as the first group was in the swimming pool. When they were finished, we all had to demonstrate 5 skills which I also managed to do very well within the minimum requirements. Then it was our group’s turn to conduct the pool presentations. With only a minor hick-up but with no impact on my score, also that one was done and over with successfully!

After lunch, the PADI Standards & Procedures was scheduled. This was a bit more nerve-racking as there was no remake option if I would fail, as the exam is an open book (and in print a very thick book!) exam. I completed this one also with very good scores, so it was down to the last part if I would actually pass.

This last section was the classroom micro-teaching session, where I was to discuss with the students a question which was answered incorrectly in a standardized way. The topic was Project Aware which is a very interesting topic as it has got very much to do with coral and aquatic life education and conservation.

The presentation went very well, also thanks to my bottle of bathroom cleaner (!), so after that, I had completed all sections successfully! I am very, very happy about this, as this was the principal reason for going to Koh Samui. Being an instructor will enable me to travel all over the world and work there. For now, that is still quite some time away, apart from the few weeks in Koh Tao. Right now, I am enjoying my achievement, but not too much as I have started today with Specialty Instructor training which will set me up for becoming a Master Scuba Dive Trainer (MSDT). I will do specialties such as deep diving, night diving, navigation and others which will increase my employability. But that is a later concern!

For now, I have got a big smile on my face and am looking forward to actually start teaching!

Thank you all for your support and interest in my current life’s adventure!

hugs & kisses,
g.

p.s. Plenty of pictures will be on the net as soon as I can be online on a faster internet connection as it is currently so sloooowwwwwwww......

IDC

I am currently half-way through my IDC which is an acronym for Instructor Development Course. Today is a day of relaxation before the course continues tomorrow. Not completely though, as I had to do the PADI standards exam in my own time before Monday morning. This exam marks the last item of last week’s work which basically consisted of the Assistant Instructor Course.

This IDC is the principal reason why I came to Samui. After successful completion, I will be a PADI Instructor, or to be more exact, a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) which is the first instructor’s level. However, I will continue straight-away to become a Master Scuba Dive Trainer (MSDT) which will allow me to expand on the type of courses I will be allowed to teach. I will hopefully complete that by the end of February.

For now, the first week was very exiting, sometimes a bit nervous, fun, enjoyable, some ‘death by powerpoint’-experiences, but overall a very satisfying experience with great supporting staff and other candidates. We are in total 7 candidates, coming from the UK, Sweden, Austria and, off course, The Netherlands. Completing this week successfully would make me already an Assistant Instructor (AI) but as we are continuing straight into the instructor’s course, this is only an intermediary step and not processed (application with PADI etc) as such.

The activities we did this week included a detailed insight of the PADI system, the vision behind it, how to conduct the knowledge teaching sessions and naturally training sessions in the pool and in the sea which was a lot of fun to do. This last part we did yesterday under difficult conditions, as there were 1 meter waves and a stronge surge. I managed to be a bit sea sick and 'feed' the fish, but completed the required tasks. Obviously, I made some mistakes, or better phrased, there was room for improvement :-) but overall the results gave me confidence that I should be able to complete the whole course successfully. I will need to show that during the Instructor Exams (IE) which will take place on the 9th and 10th of February, so please keep you fingers crossed for me!