Diving days

Monday 1st June
After studying on and off for 4 days last night we sat down to the written, theory exam part of the PADI. I (Lin) was pretty pleased with how confident I was for the most part, with just the dive planning and an unclear diagram giving me a bit more difficulty. Anyway this morning Wolfgang checked our scores. Unfortunately ( and it turned out to be very unfortunate) I moved from one section to the next wrongly and so thought I had suddenly made a lot of mistakes. I realised my mistake and Wolfgang reread the answers. This lead to my exam paper looking a bit confusing, but in fact I had achieved 96%! I felt quite proud, but our instructor got a bit between his teeth and had a real go at me. He wouldn't let it drop and I ended up walking out on the dialogue, in tears! I sat and thought about the situation whilst Brent had a chat to W. I decided not to continue with the course, feeling that the relationship between W and I could not progress and also aware that Brent would get on much faster if I were out of the scenario. Needless to say W came up with a solution, which I was very happy about: Eric, the older guy, who may own the business, would take me out this afternoon and I could then decide whether or not to continue with him. The afternoon session was great. I enjoyed Eric's sense of humour: before we hit the water we had a good talk and he told me to breathe as if I were enjoying a cigarette .. he's a smoker, as is W. but he certainly looks good on it! He made me laugh and lot and the dive itself was a lot of fun just enjoying the house reef, feeling sea cucumbers, getting a manicure from the cleaner shrimps and spotting the puffer clams and lots of beautiful fish. The day ended happy!
Brent here. I was quite astounded by the way W got at Linda and I think he was quite shocked at the way Linda came back to say she wasn't going to continue. I let him have his say and then asked if he could just let me speak. I told him that we were both in education and Linda had a far more responsible position than me. I then stated that although I respected his professionalism in my opinion he had made a bad judgement in this case. He started to draw lots of conclusions about Linda's character from this one mistake. I set him right on this. It created a rather strange scenario in that I then carried on my training with him. You have to realise that in diving people literally have your life in their hands and I wasn't quite sure whether this incident would upset the balance in OUR relationship. Anyway I first went to check Linda was ok then suited up to go out with a session with him. Fortunately all went well with the exercises we carried out. The afternoon session also went well and I had completed all my confined water sessions successfully. Tomorrow was the dive off the boat and would complete my PADI.

Tuesday 2nd June
Today was my big day. The first dive off the boat is a tense affair. I got all the kit ready. Wetsuit, weights, octopus ( breathing mouthpieces, depth and air pressure gauge, low pressure hose) fins, snorkel and mask. This takes on a rather relaxing property once you have done it a few times. You realise that your life depends on it being set up carefully so slow and steady is the order of the day. Wolfgang was my buddy so I have to check his BCD ( bouyancy control device) weights, air, releases and all his hoses. Everything in order we headed out to the small motor boat in the bay. Everything is handed to the dive master and you jump aboard. The boat speeds up and bounces over the waves. I was understandably quite nervous. The first boat dive involves entering water by dropping backwards and this was to be my first time. We soon approached D'Lagoon a beautiful area. There were already other dive boats there. Donning tank, fins and mask I was ready to go in. Fortunately on this boat we were able to take the giant stride into the water. Once in we slowly descended. The reef was amazing teaming with all kinds of fish. Sometimes they were single, sometimes huge shoals of fish would swim by. The coral rose steeply by my side as we wound our way up. Fish swam so close. Very different from the snorkeling experience. Once you are below the surface you realise that your ascent has to be slow and measured. The aim is to use as little air as possible by reducing all but the most necessary movements. Wolfgang gradually ascended stopping for 3 minutes at 5 metres we waited. Our nitrogen balance ok we gradually went up looking above us all the time I was surprised to find we were right next to the boat. We climbed back in and returned to the resort feeling content that I had now competed all the elements of my Padi and was an official SCUBA diver!!

Arrriving back at the resort Wofgang got me to fill in all the paperwork. I was told there was a dive in the afternoon to a place called Tiger Rock. This proved to be in the next bay so the boat journey was very short. We arrived and I did my back dive into the water – no problem. The top of the rock just sat out from the surface but as you descended it dropped steeply down. This was the first time I had not dived with Wolfgang so I had some time to reflect on my practice. Everything went smoothly and the coral was fantastic. I kept checking my air and reporting it back to Eric who was leading the team. It was about 30 minutes into the dive that Mervin the other dive master double checked my air supply only to find I was almost out. I had been reading the WRONG dial duhhh depth not air. I could see the look of concern on Mervins face as he indicated we had to go up. He also took up a young boy who was diving with us. Half way in the ascent he offered me his secondary air supply. This is another regulator that allows you to share someones tank. I swapped my regulator for his easily and was pleased that the training kicked in. We ascended to five metres and stopped. I wasnt panicking but felt very guilty that I had run out of air. On surfacing I apologised profusely to Mervin. He seemed to be ok with it which was amazing. For me it had been a big learning experience and one that would probably help me take more care in future.

Lin here: well today Eric and I dived on the house reef again after I'd worked through some of the remaining skills to qualify me for the PADI. Actually I'd done quite a few of them before with W. but I was happy to practice them again as this really improved my confidence and security in the water: by the end of the day I was comfortably clearing my mask and exchanging my regulator for Eric's secondary source octopus. We'd even ascended together using his air. All that remains in terms of skills is the compass skills and the CESA( controlled ascent). In the afternoon we went out for a dive and once again I loved it. Amonst lots of wonderful fish we managed to spot a huge marble grouper and a blue ring angel fish.

Wednesday 3rd June
Today I (Lin)woke up feeling very chesty and realised that I'd probably overdone it yesterday. I really didn't feel up to any dives today. Eric was fine about this and I took a rest day. Read a lot and slept a lot!

Brent here. Today I was due to do another dive. I was slightly nervous after yesterday but knew it was important to get right back on the horse so to speak. The boat took us out to Tokong Laut. Like Tiger Rock this proved to be a small rock sticking out of the sea which hid a cornucopia of fish including blue spotted ray, bamboo sharks, snapper, parrot and angel fish.
The dive went very well as did the ascent and I came back feeling justifiably pleased

Thursday 4th June
Lin here: well I felt fine this morning so met Eric and 9.30 to complete more of the skills: once again some of these were a repeat of those I'd learned with W. and I felt quite comfortable removing and replacing the weight belt and BCD on the surface. We repeated these underwater and I had a go at a CESA. and at using the compass underwater. Not surprisingly, given my navigation skills on land, I didn't find this easy, but with practice I got the idea. In the afternoon I did my first fun dive from a boat diving up to 18 metres. When we arrived at our destination ( Tiger Rock) we waited for the other group to enter the water before I got ready ( see Brent's description of this). I was sitting on the edge of the boat about to roll in backwards when one of the lads had a bit of a panic in the water. Whilst Eric settled him down I felt very pleased by how calm I felt... I was ready for this! I leaned back and entered no problem. The dive was amazing for me: we saw a star puffer fish,a titan trigger fish, tiny squat lobster and shrimp as well as brown banded pipe fish . The rock itself was quite beautiful as were the corals. To be swimming amongst shoals of beautiful coloured fish is very special and I felt very fortunate to have found such a wonderful teacher.

Brent here. This was my day off. I really did need to just chill and read. My body was feeling the effect of so much diving!

Friday 5th June
Today began well. We'd both woken early and were having a chat at 6am before packing our stuff ready to move chalets, when April knocked the door. A turtle was in the process of laying her eggs and she invited us to bring our cameras down to the beach to watch her return to the sea. This took some time, but it was a beautiful morning and lovely to see the sun rise. We felt a bit sad as we watched the turtle shuffling sand into its pit, where she thought her eggs were. In fact the fisheries staff had already removed them, but she was unaware of the futllity of her hard work...quite sad actually. When she returned to the sea we were able to get quite close and take some photos. Great!

We were keen to do a dive together now that we'd both qualified as PADI open water divers, so signed up for this morning's dive to Tokung Laut. Brent had enjoyed this dive on Wednesday and I was keen to do it. It's a 30 minute boat ride to the site and 2 Bubbles boats did the trip with 3 dive masters: Mervyn and the two Erics. Brent and I were one team and were supervised by (old) Eric. This was an absolutely brilliant dive for us. Eric manages to find so many fish. After descending this time from a rope as there was a bit of a current our little group began to explore and I was chuffed when I spotted another Moray Eel, before Eric! He then shone his torch under part of the rock and pointed out our first bamboo sharks... we saw quite a few of these as well as puffer and box fish. As we continued the dive we met up with Mervyn's group and I enjoyed the feeling of being amongst other divers, with some above and some below me. Then, well into the dive, which went up to 19.5 metres, we spotted a turtle. It was the resident 3 legged green turtle, covered in algae, which we'd been told about! When we first saw her she was feeding, but as we watched she slowly began to ascend. We were quite close to her and it was very special. I have to say that I (Lin) got a bit too enthusiastic and started to follow her up...oops! After a couple of metres I realised I was going up too fast and quickly deflated my BCD to rejoin Brent and Eric. What an amazing experience. Our little team was last out of the water, which pleased Brent no end, as his previous dives had been shorter and he'd had less air left.

Saturday 6th June
A rest day for us and boy were we ready for it! We slept over 10 hours last night and today tried to get our sore feet rested: we both have nasty wounds on them from our fins. Around 4.30 we went off for a snorkel in the area recommended by April. This was just fab! At first the visibility was poor but as we went further out it began to clear and, hiding amongst the coral, I spotted quite a large puffer fish. Then we both began to spot the sharks. This time they were reef sharks: these are about 3 foot long and have a black tip on the dorsal fin (top fin). As we continued we couldn't believe our luck when we spotted another green turtle. She wasn't bothered by us at all and we were able to follow her for quite a while. I was slightly bothered by the shoal of long thin fish with spearlike mouths, which was just below the surface above the turtle, but Brent carried on regardless. We saw a lot more of these creatures on our way back to shore and later found out that they were needle fish. We enjoyed swimming amongst shoals of different coloured fish before climbing out...definitely ready for another rest!!