Anika and Michele are PADI Divers!

Michele, Michi and Anika outside the dive school 

Just before Christmas Michele and I took an intensive four day class to learn how to safely and enjoyably be ambassadors to the marine world. Michele had been a certified diver a long time ago but she hadn’t dove in over 15 years so she wanted to refresh her prior knowledge. We took the classes at Chaloklum Dive School in our village, which was convenient and a fun experience.
On the first day we met our instructor, Michi, an older and very experienced diver from Germany, though he has spent the last decade here on Koh Panghnan. We spent the first half of the day watching instructional videos and reviewing the material through quizzes. Mom could recall certain information and I had borrowed a diver manual to study earlier in the week so classwork wasn’t too demanding. The first day we also learned how to assemble and disassemble our gear kits, before going down into the water to practice some basic skills. What I didn’t realize is how heavy all that stuff is! You have a tank, (the bulk of the weight) wet suits (2 in my case) and plus weight belts, which are straps with multiple lead weights on them. Walking the 15 feet into the surf is easier said than done!

The next day was similar, just with water skills in the morning. Mom and I practiced clearing our masks to get water out at depth, taking our masks on and off underwater and dealing with air supply issues, from inconvenience to emergencies.
The third day we did our first shallow water dive. There was a 450 yard swim from the shore to the reef we would be diving. This was more of a practice dive, the water wasn’t very deep, only 5 meters.  Everything we learned was measured in metric but it wasn’t too tricky because we have had a few months of travel to wean our minds off feet and yards.
This dive was mostly putting our knowledge together. It was fun too! We saw a cuttle fish which are less common this time of year and so many fish that I hadn’t seen snorkeling. Everything went smoothly and got us pumped up for our real dive at Sail Rock tomorrow.

Suiting up before a dive!

After lunch and cleaning and putting away our equipment I took my final exam. Michele didn’t have to as she had already been a diver. A 75% passes and I was in the 90% range. Michi reviewed the test with us and then taught us how to use dive tables. Dive tables are calculation instruments that divers used before dive computers. They are a little tricky to grasp the concept of but once you understand they are simple, it’s just math.

We went to bed early that night, to get a good sleep before Sail Rock!