Day 210! Wow! Where’s the time going! It’s already almost August, which means in a few weeks I’ll be wrapping up my dive master and heading to Australia after that. But that’s still a ways away. Today I took my first fun diver out solo and wrapped up another assist on a rescue course. Finishing this course also came with a nice little surprise too!

Time for another early morning! Today I woke up, after sleeping through the entire night, with a bunch of excitement. I was taking out my first fun diver without anyone else from the dive staff (instructor or DMT)!

I had no clue how this fun diver was going to be under the water, how experienced they were… I knew nothing.

But it turned out I was going to be leading a guy, Patrick. I believe he was from the UK but had been living in Australia recently. He was a really nice guy and fun to chat with on the surface… but I still wasn’t for sure how he’d be under the water.

I ran through our dive briefing of the first dive site, Chumphon Pinnacle. Since it was just us two, I’d be slightly in front and he’d be just behind me to my right or left, but close enough to still be within reach in case of an emergency.

We dove in and when we got in the water, we were immediately surrounded by thousands of non stinging jelly creatures, called Salps (sea squirts). I have no clue why there were so many of them, but it was a pretty wild experience to jump into them.

We did our free decent into the water and made our way down to a max depth of 27.1 meters.

Over the next 40+ minutes, we made our way through a fairly misty dive site due to a thermocline. But that didn’t stop us from checking out the swim through on the dive site and seeing the giant schools of Fusiliers. We also saw a ton of batfish and even a white variety… but when I went to take a picture, my GoPro was dead. I forgot to charge the battery…

So unfortunately no pictures today, but tomorrow I should have some!

We made our way back to the start of the dive site, I found the boat, and we ended our first dive! Patrick was ecstatic and had a blast on the dive! It was pretty cool seeing how pumped he was and knowing I helped play a part in it and made sure we found our way safely.

The second dive site was the shipwreck HTMS Sattakut. It was still just us two so we made our way to the shipwreck buoy and then descended down to the wreck. As we descended, the visibility got worse and worse. Some of the worst visibility I’ve seen since diving (Aow Mao was by far the worst still).

Thankfully, Patrick and I could see each other for the most part and we could still see some of the shipwreck, but we had to be fairly close. I was able to find the captain’s cabin swim through and it was a cool feeling going through such a “spooky” tunnel.

It really felt like we were the only ones at the dive site because of the visibility. But eventually I saw Kit and his fun diver and then one of our instructors group as well. From the shipwreck, I led us north to the dive site Hin Pee Wee.

The swim over was pretty crazy, as it felt like we were just diving into nothing. But eventually the pinnacle came out of nowhere and we were able to circle it for the rest of the dive.

This dive was 43 minutes long with a max depth of 24.6m. There was unfortunately no reason to go down to the bottom of the ship wreck since the visibility was even worse.

With these two dives down, I finished my first solo fun dive lead! Patrick had a blast and I’ll be diving with him most likely in the future. He was a great first fun diver to go with!

I then had to rush back to Taco Shack to eat and get back to the boat.

This afternoon I was finishing assisting the current stress and rescue course. Today the first dive involved me playing the victim again.

I was a panicked diver on the surface and Chris and Sophia had to come help me. But if they got to close to my arms I’d climb on top of them and dunk them under the water. Since it was day two I went a bit harder on them.

We then did the unconscious diver skills on and under the water. I of course was the unconscious diver…

We ran through the skills and practiced taking divers from the surface of the water to the boat.

When Chris and Sophia were changing tanks before we left the dive site (mango Bay)… I looked Sophie in the eyes and just jumped off the side of the boat to be a panicked snorkeler.

Chris came to my rescue but he messed up a bit and got too close to me… so I dunked him under the water a few times.

The second dive was the fun one… the hell dive.

But first, Guada and I went into the dive site (twins) to hide a “lost buddy” aka Guada’s SMB with a mask attached to it.

First, Chris and Sofia had to search for this object using the search techniques they had learned in class today. After they found it though, the fun began!

We went to a shallower spot of the dive site and started the craziness. We were ripping their masks off, regulators out, asking them for air sharing constantly, purging our regulators in their faces while they dealt with other challenges, etc. it was obviously a bit hectic.

But they both took it with stride!

We wrapped up the dive, completing their stress and rescue course.

As we were heading back on the boat, Guada came over and told me she left a present in my bag for me… turns out it was 1000 baht! She was really thankful to have me assist her first rescue course and I was glad I was able to. The tip was unnecessary, I of course thanked her tonight, but I put it to good use!

I immediately paid for my electric and water bill of the month and then treated myself to a nicer dinner.

I was super exhausted and hungry after my double boat today. So I went back to my room, showered, and then met up with my friends for dinner!

Kit, Lydia, Sina, Chelsea, Hector, and I all went to High on Chai for some Indian food. I had never eaten here since it was pricier… but I was excited to have Indian food again for the first time in a while.

I had a Punjabi Paalak Paneer and it was really freaking good.

After dinner, Hector, Chelsea, Sina, and I hung around and played cards. It ended up being a really nice evening. But I was so ready to fall asleep for the night.

Tomorrow I’ll be taking more fun divers out! I hope it goes as well as today’s did.

– Elie