Scuba Diving

This month the Samui Explorer team set out to find out what it's really like to learn to Scuba Dive. SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus and most people learn to dive with PADI, Professional Association of Diving Instructors. There are many dive operations on Koh Samui, we spoke to Helen who has just completed her PADI Open Water certification with Aquademia Dive who are based in a beautiful resort, Baan Bophut in the romantic Bophut Fisherman's Village.

Helen- I stayed at Baan Bophut on the recommendation of a friend who stayed here last year. The hotel is right on the beach and has a swimming pool and as I am travelling alone I liked the idea of being in a family run environment. Bophut, being a smaller village with lots of great restaurants and bars, was also appealing as I find it easier to meet people in a smaller place. As soon as I was picked up from the airport I felt like part of the family and got chatting to Lucy who runs the hotel. Lucy gave me a map of the island and pointed out all of the best places to visit as well as other places to go like the Marine Park and Koh Phangan. We got chatting about the diving and I decided to give it a go. I am not very good at swimming and I was very nervous about doing the course so I had a little go in the pool first and decided that it was time to overcome my fears and jump in with both feet.

The first day of the course was in a classroom where myself and two other girls watched some videos. The videos were a bit cheesy but easy to watch and I was surprised how fast I picked up the information. Our instructor Liam made it light hearted and good fun and the morning passed really quickly. In the afternoon we got kitted up in wet suits and diving equipment and Liam put us through our paces in the pool. I found most of it pretty easy to pick up, but taking my mast off was a bit of a trail as I am not that confident in the water. Liam was really cool about the whole thing and let me take my time and practice until I felt comfortable. We were in the pool for about two hours, with some breaks for cold drinks in between. By the time we had finished that I didn't want to get out. Breathing under water was slightly daunting at first but once you have taken your first few breaths its amazing how natural it feels. One thing I wasn't really anticipating was the noise of the bubbles as they go past your ears!

The following day we got picked up by mini bus from the hotel and taken to the pier where we met Liam and took a fast ferry over to Koh Tao. Liam jumped off at Phangan to get us some delicious sandwiches and we watched a movie on the crossing. Once we got to Koh Tao we got off the ferry and boarded the big dive boat that took us out to Mango bay, a really beautiful beach with lovely clear water. We put on our dive equipment and then jumped off the back of the boat. It was a bit nerve racking with all the bulky equipment on but once we were in we floated effortlessly around the surface and we joined by lots of inquisitive fish. Once we were feeling relaxed and comfortable we let the air out of our jackets and slowly descended to the bottom and rested for a few moments on the sand. It was really amazing to just sit there and watch the fish from the bottom as well as the snorkellers on the surface. We then went off on our dive and it was just so easy, I was amazed how much easier it is to swim with fins on and not only can you go ahead but up and down to, it must be what it feels like to be in space! We dived for about forty minutes and then came back up to the surface near to the boat. I really didn't want to get out of the water; it was just the most amazing experience.

After some lunch we did a second dive at a dive site called Japanese Gardens which was even more beautiful than the first. By now I was starting to feel a lot more confident even when we had to do some of the skills we learned in the pool on the actual dive. Liam stayed close to us the whole time and signalled to us underwater to go up, or come down, stop, look, I feel like quite an expert of sign language now too! After the dive we got back on board and made our way back to the pier where we joined the ferry back to Koh Samui. We filled in our log books on the way back to Samui and went through Liam's fish book to identify what we had seen under water. We had seen parrot fish, baby barracuda, anemone fish and a moral eel.

After and early night we got up the following day and went back out to Koh Tao. This time we were able to dive a bit deeper. Our first dive site was called Twins and was really pretty; here we saw a clown fish and lots of colourful reef fish as well as bumping into a trigger fish that we stayed well away from as they don't like you to dive around their nesting area. Liam pointed out a sting ray under a rock and we watched some cleaning fish eating bits off larger fish above the coral. Our final dive was at a site called White Rock.

On the way back to Koh Samui we did our final exam which is a 50 question multiple choice exam and was really a lot easier than I had thought. Liam taught us how to use dive tables so you know how long you can stay under the water for and how long it is from diving until when you can fly. I really enjoyed the three day course and we celebrated our new found skills at the Sprit house, a beach bar at our resort. I particularly like the course because there we only three of us so we all got lots of attention and didn't feel pressurised to go faster than we wanted to, which for me was really important because I am no water baby, well I wasn't, I think I am now!

If you would like to learn to dive in Koh Samui please contact a professional dive centre such as Aquademia Dive at 08 1091 0107 or Big Blue Diving Samui at 0 7742 2617