I want to be under the sea!

Hey guys,

Hope you are all well. I last left you just as we were about to leave Ko Pha-ngan for Koh Tao after the hangover from hell following the Full Moon Party!

I'm delighted to inform you all that i've now done something a little bit more productive with my time other than sunbathing and drinking whisky out of a bucket and i'm now a qualified Advanced Open Water diver.

I've developed a new love for the ocean and diving is one of the most amazing things i've ever done. So much so I have decided to come live out on Koh Tao early next year and do my dive master training.

My love for diving didn't hit me immediately though. We arrived in Koh Tao on Monday morning two weeks ago. We had just about enough time to check into our rooms at Crystal Dive Resort, and get some lunch before we had to spend the whole afternoon in a classroom.

We then had to meet at 8am the following morning for more classroom work and tests. That afternoon we were taught how to set up all our equipment and then spent two hours in the bottom of a swimming pool learning skills such as how to clear your mask underwater.

By this point, i was dying to get in the sea and just go diving. Wednesday 14th was Sarah's birthday and we had to meet at 7am (that was pretty tough!) for more swimming pool skills and had an exam that afternoon! I was quite pleased with my 85%!

As part of the Open Water qualification you have to do four dives and we did our first two dives on the Thursday afternoon. There was a small group of six of us plus our dive instructor Justin and Dive Master Trainer (DMT) Jase. I must admit I didn't really enjoy my first two dives and by the end of the day was thinking maybe diving wasn't particularly for me.

The following morning however, I did a complete U turn. I did two great dives and absolutely fell in love with it. Since then, I can't seem to get enough of it. The dive sites here are great and the ocean at the moment is so calm and clear.

So, after qualifying we then decided to sign up for the Advanced Open Water course. That ran over two days and basically just needed to do five more dives. Justin taught us for that course again and it was brilliant. One of our five dives included a night dive which we did last Monday evening and also a deep dive, diving down to 30 metres.

The Open Water qualification only takes you to 18 metres. We also got to take a camera down on one of the dives which no doubt you'll be able to have a nosey at of few of them on this blog.

The Advanced course is by far the better course so it's definitely worth doing if you were ever to do the Open Water. There are a lot of skills you've got to learn in the Open Water course, which can get a little bit boring, whereas the Advanced course is just about the swimming around and looking at things. We've seen some amazing fish and coral. I'm yet to see a whale shark though which would be pretty cool.

Since finishing the courses Sarah and I have been on a few fun dives. Just got back this morning from a fun dive with Jase and a dive master called Andy (altough he's Justin Lee Collins to me and Sarah as he looks so much like him!)

When I come back next year I either want to work as an underwater videographer or a dive instructor. At the moment I'm leaning more towards the underwater videography as I already have most of the experience; all i'd need to learn is how to film underwater! The underwater videography course is a 4 week course after you have completed the Dive Master training so my plan at the moment is to come back out here next January to get the rest of my qualifications and hopefully get a job! I quite like the idea of being a dive instructor too so that couple be one to think about for the forseeable future.

We're finally tearing ourselves away from Koh Tao on Wednesday I think. We're going to head to Phuket for a couple of days and then to Ko Phi Phi. I've heard the diving on Phi Phi is pretty amazing so really looking forward to that, although i'll be gutted to leave Koh Tao.

Speak to you all soon xx