Trip Report: PADI Open Water Certification in Thailand w/ pics

[octopi]

I was in Thailand a month ago, on a month long trip with my family (my parents were scouting out a holiday condo) and while I was there I did something I had been meaning to do for a long time...get my diving certification! I've FINALLY gone through all the pictures and will throw a few in here to fill it out.

I don't know if there are many divers on 2p2, but I have to say I'm loving it. Sadly, I currently live in a landlocked province in Canada, so I don't think I will be able to dive all that much, but it's still a skill I think is great to have. It's changed my whole outlook on vacations, and I'm looking forward to seeing some new sights when I go to Hawaii in January.

We did our course as a family of four in Phuket at Dive Asia. It's a German run company, extremely well known in the area and has an excellent reputation. Not all companies can say the same in the area, unfortunately. Some are scummier than a lady boy's junk in Soi Cowboy at 6am, and are gone the year after they open. So do your research. We picked the Open Water course, which would certify us to dive to 18m/60 feet, dive with a guide, and basically be self sufficient on a boat.

There are other courses like a more basic getting into it and more extreme courses you can do as well. The price was just around $350 CDN, each. This included our instruction, tests, equipment for four days, transport, boat, food on the boat (which was incredible) and air tanks. It's the same price in my home town to do the course, except you do not get the same open water experiences and dive in freezing water. I would highly recommend planning a trip around getting a certification, if you can (do it early in the trip) or getting it while on vacation, especially in a place like Thailand where the diving is amazing all year round.

Dive Asia's classes are small, and there were only five of us, to one instructor. Our family was joined by a German fellow, and by another instructor who was new to the company and trying to get experience.

DiveAsia has it's own instructing pool, which is uncommon. Most courses are run at a hotel's pool. Open water courses are four days long at Dive Asia (sometimes they are stretched out even more). There are two days of in-class and in pool instruction, and then another two of diving and skills in open water.

We started our first day by arriving, and being told our swimming tests were first. While these are not to weed people out, they need to know if you can sit in water and tread it until the boat comes for a pick up, and swim around enough to control yourself underwater, to avoid dangerous animals and touching coral. So we had to swim 200m in lengths of the pool and tread water for 10 minutes. My mom isn't in the best physical condition or health, and she was able to do it which was a real shocker. Conversely, my dad, who is in the best fitness of his life, and runs in the desert and lifts weights etc, could hardly swim and almost pooped out during the treading water. He's not a strong swimmer. But we all passed!

They run through many skills, from putting your equipment together, submersion, emergency skills like clearing your mask of water underwater after removing it, buoyancy, equalization of your ears, air sharing, signals, and how to calculate safe diving on tables. It's extremely intense, and our days were long, typically about 6-7 hours split between class and the pool.

There were six actual open water ocean dives. Only two were 'fun' dives, the rest were dives where we practiced skills. We did three 40-45 minute dives each day at areas around Phuket, including Koh Bida Nok, Phi Phi and similar popular sites.

The dives were incredible. Going into this, I had an extreme phobia of fish and of deep water. It's extremely frightening to just deflate your floation vest and plunge into the deep, seeing fish pass you on the way down.

Animals: We saw incredible things, from the tinest shrimp hiding in a cavern, to stingrays, great barracuda, hawksbill turtles, jellyfish, triggerfish guarding their nests, clownfish (ie, 'Nemo' fish), morays, sea snakes, urchins, moorish idols and angelfish, crown of thorns, huge groupers, and even my name sake; octopi! Not to mention the coral which was even more impressive. I had to keep up with my buddy often because I would lag behing, staring at a huge table or fan coral. The tsunami hit this area hard, but left most of the underwater world intact, I am pleased to say.

Our dive sites were

Koh Bida Nok
Koh Bida Nai
Koh Dok Mai
Ratcha Noi (Marina Bay and Ratcha Noi Bay)
Ratcha Yai (Homerun Reef)

They are some of the 'easier' dives to do the in area and although very popular, were not that packed. Our boat had 30 people on it, maximum, and we were the only beginning group. There were Americans, Koreans with huge cameras, Japanese and lots of Germans diving. Everyone was very friendly, and the boat was spacious, with lots of snacks and food. The boat staff were courteous and very helpful, especially to us newbies.

This was a tiny little beach on an island near Phuket. A girl who was just snorkelling on our boat said she swam over to see who was the catamaran. Apparently it was a European couple who owned the boat and had brought their team of servants with them. They were off spearfishing to catch them their lunch. Talk about fantasy!



This is our instructor, Bee. Bee is her nickname, and she had a special dive suit made to reflect that, as you can see.





Me and my mom. Koh Ratcha in the background.



Our boat. It fit 30 divers, max. The bottom was where all the equipment and tanks were. The top was our relaxation and eating area.



Here we are getting our brief for our next dive. We typically go over depths, currents and the type of wildlife to see.



This is my dad





Some of the wild life.



Bubble coral, in the background



A clownfish hiding in an anemome





A lionfish



Blue starfish, very common on the seafloor



Moray eels



These fish were very common near the top of the water. As soon as you stuck your mask in the water, there they were, nibbling at you. Yikes!



Koh Bida, behind me. This was a sheer limestone island that plunged 60 feet into the ocean. All the way down, coral walls and tonnes of fish. It was astounding.



Me!



A sunset on our last day of diving



The pictures were mostly taken with my dad's little Sony CyberShot. He bought a special underwater housing for it, and filters to help diminish some of the color changes that occur underwater. It worked alright, but I'm glad we got all the parts on Ebay for a lot lower price than retail. Some of the particularly awesome shots were, unfortunately, cheats taken with my Nikon D70 at the Paragon Aquarium in Bangkok. They're good for wow factor with friends!

I'd love dive stories, especially about Oahu. Any sites good in particular?

[4_2_it]

A+ Trip Report. These underwater pictures are excellent. What kind of camera did you use?

[kurosh]

I scrolled through looking for bikini shots. I am sorely disappointed.

[mason55]

I'm a certified PADI Rescue Diver and was halfway done with the Dive Master course when I quit diving for various reasons (mostly I was going to college and wan't going to have money to dive as much any more). I started when I was 12 or 14, whatever the youngest age is that PADI will give full Open water certification to. I'm always jealous of the people who go through their initial training in nice areas. I did mine in lake and quarries in Ohio. You should actually look into that, just because you're in a landlocked province doesn't mean you'll never get to dive. Canada wont be anything like Thailand but you can still have fun in big lakes.

Cabo san Lucas was probably my favorite place that I've been diving in terms of overall experience. We did some deep shipwreck dives there that were fun, although I admit being halfway into a boat with no way to turn around 130 feet down with 4 Mexican guides that dont speak English got pretty scary. Some of the most interesting dive in "things in saw underwater" terms were doing wreck dives in the Great Lakes. Most of my diving was in the Caribbean and while it was interesting, there was nothing that stood out to me other than lots of pretty fish.

Anyway, if you want to continue to pursue diving, I recommend finding a local dive shop. Most decent sized cities will have at least one that schedules trips. Continuing on the certification path is another good way to keep diving while continuing to learn new skills. If you're interested in the animals then there's a specific course you can take to learn all about underwater life that will apply towards your PADI Advanced Certification. I found that the certification courses and corresponding dives were some of my most interesting, due to the fact that I felt like I was really learning something as opposed to just going out and looking at fish underwater. A lot of that probably depends on the type of person you are though.


Hmmmm sorry for rambling but haven't talked about diving for quite awhile and I miss it.

[By-Tor]

great report and awesome pics.





also, i think bee bee is a man baby!

[siccjay]

Awesome pics. Congrats on finding Nemo.

[Lazy Meatball]

I have no interest in diving but I found the book Shadow Divers to be a pretty good read. It's a non-fiction about some guys diving at shipwrecks off the New Jersey Shore. It has a lot of insight into the diving culture and the dangers involved. It's written to be appreciated by non-divers, but I think those with a more invested interest in the subject would enjoy it as well.

[bwana devil]

great trip report. makes me want to go to thailand and dive.

i finally got my diving cert after having too many "wow" experiences while snorkeling. i knew if i liked snorkeling that much, scuba diving would be great. i still enjoy snorkeling because it is a different experience though.

ive been in the mayan riveria off of mexico, in a small town south of cancun/playa del carmen. the water there is amazing and from what i understand, some of the best diving in the world. prices are reasonable for the entire trip because it is mexico prices and relatively close. for future trips, you may put it on your list.

could you tell me more about the digital casing you used? how much did it cost, how deep were the pics taken that you posted, how deep can the casing withstand, and finally which pics in the thread were taken while diving.

[orange]

thanks for the report, looks like a fun time.

[BDub1]

Great trip report and pics (even the cheaters!) I have been diving for 40 years and love it, though I only really do it on trips to great climes...Carrib, Hawaii, Tahiti, etc. In fact, I leave Saturday for a week to Maui and will be diving with daughter and her boyfriend on Sunday. There is a great live aborad, The Nekton, that goes to some great places and has everything you could possibly want. I am trying to convince a friend and my daughter to do this next break she has from teaching. Google Nekton and marvel at their craft, itineraries and set up. Beautifully executed. Thanks again