Day 165! Today was the final day for this groups open water. It’s been really cool being with them since day 1, when they weren’t sure about if they wanted to dive… now they are obsessed! I know someone who had a similar experience (me). Today was an amazing day and I experienced one of my favorite dives yet on our second dive!

Another day, another dive! Today I woke up nice and early for the morning boat. I was assisting day 3 of the open water course I have been working with.

They were super stoked to start the day because they signed up for their adventure deep diving specialty. This meant we were going down to 30m!

I grabbed some fried chicken from the piers fried chicken lady. Then we set off to our first dive site, which happened to be Southwest Pinnacle again! I guess I’m getting major reps in on this dive spot now.

The boat was packed today! It’s also been packed this entire week for some reason, it’s not even peak season right now.

While we made our way over to Southwest Pinnacle, our boat boy, Nine, was trying his luck at fishing. He wasn’t very successful but it was fun to watch!

We did our briefing and got the divers ready for their deep dive. And off we went!

All pictures and videos curtesy of Tom!

This dive was incredible! Each one at this dive site has gotten better and better since day 1. We made a similar twist and turns as the last time I was here, but we started our dive around 30m to show off the power of absorption. Tom, the instructor, also brought down a water bottle at ambient pressure and showed how it was crushed at the bottom.

Near where we were showing off the power of the ocean, there was a small anemone with saddle clownfish (the ones from finding Nemo). They’re not the most common to see in Thailand, so that was a nice treat!

The giant school of fish was still around and in the same spot. But this time there was a ginormous grouper playing around in the sand below. We also saw plenty of other amazing fish like barracudas and a king mackerel, and some really impressive coral.

There’s a lot of coral bleaching happening with the rising temperatures, but luckily not at Southwest Pinnacle yet.

It was another very successful dive at this dive site, which made me very happy.

We had a pretty long boat ride to our next site, White Rock!

We sat on top, eating fruit and chatting about the dive, traveling, and the upcoming dive. I tried eating my second piece of chicken… but the ants had somehow gotten to it, so that was a bit disappointing.

I also chatted with Kit a lot on the ride. It’s been really fun so far getting to go through this with him.

We strapped up for our last dive and took a nice group picture to commemorate them completing their first diving course.

It was really cool assisting them from just trying out scuba diving and then committing and going through the open water. It was pretty rewarding on my end too, knowing I played an impact on their experience and joy!

I also took a group picture for Kevin’s group (another diving instructor). I of course took a goofy picture of myself on his phone, since it was in my hand. But… it somehow managed to make its way onto the Taco Divers Instagram… learned my lesson!

The second dive was 40 minutes of pure bliss! It was so freaking gorgeous and easily my favorite dive so far.

The ocean was so blue it was clear, the wildlife was gorgeous, and the coral was beautiful. Unfortunately there’s a lot of bleached coral here but a lot of it is still very beautiful.

We had a blast cruising around in the water and I felt like I really was getting my buoyancy spot on this dive! We even dove through the cave that’s at this dive site, this was super cool.

After a double boat yesterday and an early boat today, I was exhausted. Today I had the afternoon off, so I went back to the hostel, helped unpack and clean gear, and then joined the other divers for lunch.

Since I wasn’t diving I got myself a chicken quesadilla. After finishing, I immediately went to my room for a much needed nap.

After an amazing nap, I woke up and played guitar for the next hour and a half! I started to learn Northern Attitude by Noah Kahan, I’m very excited to have this song on my repertoire.

I then made my way to the hostel to see what was going on. I ended up playing pool with a couple of the hostel staff, winning and losing. And then one of the workers challenged me to a game of chess!

It’s been since Hoi An when I played my last physical game of chess! The game was going really well and it was neck and neck… then he made one mistake and I ended up winning the rest of the game.

It was a really fun game and I’ll probably play more in the future!

I hung around at the hostel a bit longer and then my friends and fellow DMTs rolled up. We were going to go watch the sunset again, this time on the beach! So we went on a short walk to Sairee Beach, where we sat and watched a spectacular sunset.

We stayed till the moon came out and then headed to Mama’s for dinner. It turned out the restaurant was closed, so we went across the street for Pork Leg. I got a wonderful. Thai Chicken Cashew and a mango smoothie!

After dinner it was time for bed. I’m exhausted and tomorrow is going to be a very very long day… but I’m VERY excited!

Tomorrow morning I’ll be joining my friend Lydia (another DMT and former Taco Shack volunteer) and she will be navigating us through the dive site. We’ll be going to the same ones as today, but with how good they were yesterday, I’m excited to go back!

– Elie