Twenty Years Coming
In my youth, which may be five years gone or twenty years gone, (a gentleman never says); I backpacked the east coast of Australia. Upon reaching Cairns, everyone who traverses this route generally decides to become scuba certified and start exploring The Great Barrier Reef; I was no exception. Except in my case when I went for the medical checkup I was turned down due to a heart condition with which I was born. The doctor told me that it is probably not a problem but I would need more tests if she was going to give the clearance to dive. At that time, being a poor backpacker, I did not have the funds for more tests, so I sadly gave it a pass. That stuck with me for a very long time, mostly because it was the first time in my life, I was told I couldn’t do something. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believed that diving was dangerous for me, however, whenever someone broached the subject I always said, “Yes that’s something I should really look into one day.” Well without going into too much regret, I am kicking myself hard, very hard, for losing all that time.
My boyfriend and I had planned a short trip to our favourite island Koh Tao. We had travelled to the island before for a little anniversary “vacay” and thought that it would be nice to return to somewhere we knew since we were only going for a few days. This was at the same time the third and current wave of Covid was starting to hit Thailand pretty hard. We went back and forth on whether it was safe to travel or if we would even be allowed to fly, when very unexpectedly Sam, the man, decided that he couldn’t make it. I opted to still fly as the numbers were low enough for me, a true hypochondriac, to still not worry. But with several days at my disposal what was I to do? This is when the idea of becoming a certified diver took hold. I had the time (Koh Tao is known for its world-class diving) and it would be an easy way to keep busy whilst travelling solo. But was it even safe for me? There was only one way to find out. I hit up my doctor and had him look over all my charts to see if I was okay. It turns out that yes, yes I was! I kind of kicked myself then and therefore not doing this earlier. It wasn’t until later that I discovered how much harder an “ass whooping” I would be giving myself.
I only had a couple of days to organize this certification but I knew that it would be possible as it took three days to become open water certified and I had five. I quickly got on everyone’s good friend TripAdvisor and wrote down all the scuba shops, of which there were many, that had a 4.9-star rating and gave them all a call. Only one actually picked up the phone. Thus, by default, it was this shop with which I went.
Getting to Koh Tao, which is located about two hours ferry from Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand was actually really easy, all things considered. My dive shop was very kind. It organized a pickup and shuttled me to my hotel, which was included in the package. If I’m polite I would call the accommodation minimal. If I am less than polite; I would call it crap. In the end, it was fine, as I had no intention of spending much time in the room.
Opening My Mind To Open Water
The course started the next day with an in-class lecture by my very first, and coincidentally very last teacher on the island, named Titou. I showed up, notebook and pencil set in hand, and at the ready. I was there to learn and was ready to put my best foot forward. I had watched Moana the night before which set just the right tone for the class. Titou is tall and known well on the island for his long blonde locks. He definitely had a surfer vibe going for him and clearly had built a life around the ocean, demonstrated by the ease with which he took us through the information. I should probably tell you a bit about my water experiences before this; just to set the stage.
I used to be a lifeguard and a competitive swimmer. I have no idea why my father forced me down those routes, being Canadian, I would nearly die a hypothermic death every Saturday and Sunday and three times during the week training in the dead of a -20 degree winter. But it meant that I could swim. My family also often took vacations, usually in Central America each year to escape the aforementioned deadly winter, so snorkeling was always something I enjoyed. I heard stories, however, of people who were born into the ocean and learned to swim before they learned to walk. Those people are not me. I was always very nervous of the water, you know, untold monsters just lurking below the surface ready to cover me in slime or rip off a leg. I should also mention flesh eating bacteria and undercurrents. Needing to pee and little fish swimming up your pee hole and getting lodged inside your bladder, and swimming having not waited a full hour after eating were also part of my fears. It was all very concerning. Needless to say, I was facing a small fear then.
The course started with a bit of confusion, as the island had not seen this many people in a long time. It was the Thai New Year, Songkran. Songkran is a huge holiday in Thailand and many people decided to do exactly what I was doing, have a holiday and learn to dive. After the initial organizational confusion, we settled into class, with Titou at the helm, and started learning the basics. It was all straightforward albeit a tad scientific. They introduced to stuff like: how deep do you have to be before your lungs resemble a scrotum. You know, science. It had been a while since I had learned anything completely new so I was very much into it, even though a lot of it was how to stave off death while under the water or the many many ways you can die with drowning being the nicest. Titou was very thorough and explained everything effortlessly. I’m sure that had something to do with the 1 834 756 times he had taught the course before. Being a yoga teacher, I sympathised, as it is all about repetition and you really have to love what you do to keep it fresh and fun.
The next day after breakfast, despite not waiting a full hour; we were in the water at Mango Bay. Here we learned what they called “skills”. Very important skills like retrieving your regulator, breathing “thingy”, if you lose it underwater, how to purge your mask of water should it fill up, and how to share oxygen with a friend who ran out. Again, Titou breezed through the skills with the authority of someone who really knew his job well. Although it was fun learning I was more taken aback by the environment. Allow me a moment of reflection, because as you see, much like the rest of the world I hadn’t ‘experienced’ much in a very very long time.
Covid for Thailand started out pretty easy. In fact, compared to many countries we were very fortunate. Thailand closed its borders hard when the pandemic started, much to the detriment of the tourism industry, however, we lived a pretty free life compared to many people. Most people, however, were stuck in the country with very little going on. I am not usually in Bangkok for more than a couple of months at a time before flitting off somewhere, so having been in the city for well over a year, with only weekend excursions; things became very very mundane. Not complaining, but there’s only so many times you can explore Chinatown before you’re really not discovering anything anymore. Here I was, though, cradled in-between these two small mountains covered in lush jungle and spritely palm trees, surrounded by white sand, and the clearest water in which I’ve ever spent any amount of time. There were a lot of fish, maybe 3 meters offshore and they were very comfortable swimming around us while we did our skill lesson. Titou explained that when we kicked up sand, we actually kicked up nutrients that the fish ate. His words were lost on me, though, as I was already halfway through a Little Mermaid fantasy. When one of the little fish bit me, that brought me back to the course and to the fact I was actually underwater and doing this thing I had dreamed of doing for such a long time.
Skills And Drills
The third day started with confusion as well but quickly settled down. I was to have a new teacher today by the name of Carmen. The first thing you notice about Carmen is her hair. She was adorned with big flowing locks of curly hair. After a while on the island, you could always easily spot her on her motorcycle careening down the road, curls billowing behind her. The second thing you noticed is her smile. She had one of those smiles that beamed and made you feel at ease with her. The third thing you noticed very quickly about Carmen, after noticing her smile, was that she had a very commanding presence and wasn’t going to take any of my shit. I was incredibly happy about this, as today was the first day we were going into the water, at depth, to learn more skills and safety procedures. Today underlined how lucky I was that both my teachers had been competent and could teach. I was very nervous but somehow knowing I was in good hands made me feel better. This experience really cemented, for me, the importance of a teacher and how a good one can make all the difference.
The third day was a bit long. It was a lot of practicing and a lot of safety instruction which meant a lot of going up and down, practicing one procedure until we got it and then another right after. I couldn’t complain too loudly as I was still in the middle of The Gulf, diving in crystal waters, on a warm tropical day, with a lovely teacher; but repetition is repetition. We were in a group of four so all of us took turns trying out what we learned individually and in partners. After the good part of the day going up and down and practicing our procedure until Carmen was happy, we boarded the boat and waited to hear if we passed. I ponied up to Carmen on the boat, batted my eyelashes a bit, threw a coquettish glance over my shoulder and asked if I had passed. She looked at me sternly for a second and I was waiting for another tongue lashing, of which I had received several (when I screwed up). I told myself it was all part of self-betterment, but quickly her face melted into that brilliant smile and she told me that if I had passed the written portion I would be certified. I was ecstatic as I did do the written portion earlier and did manage to pass. Pro tip : do the reading because most of the exam answers are directly taken from the textbook quizzes. I was a diver and certified to 18 meters. I wasted no time and pleaded with Carmen to push my paperwork through because I wanted to go out on the afternoon boat for Fun Diving. Carmen was nice enough to oblige and within minutes of returning to shore, I was out again but this time as a real diver.
A Lady Diver
Well there I was. I was just certified and I was out on the boat again being whisked away to one of Koh Tao’s many top notch dive sights with a totally new Dive Master, by the name of Lady. Literally every time I said “HI” to her the opening of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert popped into my head and I could not get that song out for the rest of the day.
“Hey Lady, you Lady, cursing at your life.”
Every time – every time! That aside, responsibility hit me rather hard as I bounded over the waves. I had to look out for myself now. Although the responsibility of keeping everyone safe resided with the Dive Master, Lady’s job was no longer to babysit me and make sure I was doing everything right. That was my job now. I was going to be submerged under the water, practically all alone, my only life system strapped to my back and I had the sole responsibility to make sure I wasn’t going to die. Oh crap! Now is a good time to tell you that I don’t even drive a car because I don’t trust myself to be that responsible. To those who dive, you are probably thinking I’m being way over dramatic. Lady did. But to those who fear the ocean or don’t dive perhaps you see my point. Either way, Lady took me under her wing and yes ladies and gentlemen, I did not drown that day. In fact, I had the most incredible dive ever. This was the first time in my life I got to experience what was under the water, free from constraint, to be part of the ocean, and just float and admire. And there is a lot to admire.
The first thing I noticed was life. There is life everywhere you look. Not one surface is not covered in animals or plants, or itty-bitty little organisms. When those National Geographic documentaries talk about this sort of stuff you don’t get it. The oceans really are alive and thriving with so much LIFE. It comes at you from everywhere as well. You can look to the side and see multicolored coral with fish darting here and there; look down at the sand and see shrimps and more fish, bottom dwelling fish; look up and another school of larger fish will be swimming over your head. This is nothing to fear but everything to make you believe that life might be all too beautiful to take in. I have never, and if you’ve read my other blogs you know I do tend towards overdramatic, but believe me when I say I am not being overly dramatic here. I have never been more in awe than I was at that moment! Everything that people had told me over the years made sense. The oceans are an entirely different planet right here on earth, they are a highly organized, highly sophisticated entity that makes it both glorious and horrifying at how awesome they are. Everything is new and strange and beautiful and there is just so much to take in. By the end of the two dives, I was exhausted and extremely happy. I went from a mundane life of Netflix and cleaning to discovering an entirely new world in a matter of days. It was a lot to take in but I can assure you I wasted no time in signing up for my advanced course.
Advancement To The Advanced
The next day I was up early and at the Dive Shop throwing down my next payment for my Advanced Certification. The way I saw it was that if I could get certified up to 30 meters that would open a lot of dive sights for me and then I could just relax and enjoy being a diver. You see, with whichever company you decide to go to, PADI or SSI (which are the two big Dive Schools), the criteria are the same. Open Water is the first course and you learn the basics of Diving and if you pass you are certified to dive to 18 meters. If you decide to do your Advanced, then you are allowed to Dive to a depth of 30 meters. All of this continues under the supervision of a Divemaster. If you decide to go further there are speciality courses that allow you to dive even deeper, use speciality equipment, or do other fancy things under the water. Included in the Advanced course were other skills like; underwater navigation and learning how to use a dive computer, which is a little watch that tells you how deep you are or when it’s smart to come up. I was very eager to learn all of this.
My new teacher was a very nice gentleman by the name of Gary, and here is where I cannot stress enough the importance of teachers and teachers who love their jobs because with Gary, I was not so sure. I think he was just over it. Songkran holidays had been long and hard, and in the span of one day the entire island emptied of local tourists leaving only the few remaining, like myself. There was one other person on the course with me and I think Gary wasn’t so interested in going through the motions of teaching us. The course consisted of three specialty dives designed to teach us a new skill: the first was a deep dive going to 30 meters; the second was a night dive and the third was a navigation dive where we had to navigate underwater using a compass.
I was there for all of it and spent the night reading the textbook to make sure I knew what I was doing because clearly Gary wasn’t so concerned. The deep dive was actually very, very cool as it was at the HTMS Sattakut, which was an ex-Thai Navy boat sunk off the coast of Koh Tao to provide, in addition to the natural reef, a home to wildlife and a very cool dive sight. The wreck was eerie in all the best ways and seeing it in real life was a nearly indescribable experience. I felt like I was in a movie or a Nat Geo documentary. I could almost hear Richard Attenborough narrating my movements as I traversed the wreck.
“The young diver approaches and effortlessly glides along from bow to stern, taking the in the abundance of wildlife”
That’s a bit optimistic as I was seriously nervous. The deep dive didn’t feel much different, but the mood definitely changed. The water was murkier despite the pristine conditions Koh Tao offers. It was colder, and there was literally no sign of the surface. We were deep -like deep deep.
“Just keep calm and breathe”, I told myself. It was impossible to see the whole wreck, so as we glided along with it new features would emerge out of the depths showing off its long haul and grainy spikey details. Giant Groupers hid in doorways, schools of silver “some-kinda-fish” did acrobatics around the vessel, while thousands of sea urchins clung to the metal, making any contact with the wreck dangerous.
We were on a mission, however, so Gary led us down to the very bottom of the wreck to exactly 30 meters. There we hung out for a moment, with the huge ship silently towering over us and then we surfaced. That was it. We had a little time at the beginning to check everything out but the main point of the dive was to make sure I didn’t pass out or get narked at 30 meters. Narked, I later found out, is when too much nitrogen enters your body from the gasses you’re breathing and it produces a high-like state. This state, although fun, is very dangerous under the water. There was no narking for me so that was good.
The next dive was the navigation. I was given a compass to attach to my wrist, a two-minute explanation of how to use it, and then I was told I was to find my way back to the boat after the dive. I had read technically how to do this but if we were solely relying on me to get us back safe, “We are in for a very long swim.” , I thought.
This dive was a bit off. We went to a location called Shark Island, which was reputed to be very beautiful. However, we didn’t really enter the dive site. Instead, we went to the side and Gary pulled out a pack of eggs. I had no idea what was going on. Without explanation, obviously, as we were underwater, I was given an egg and was motioned to crack the egg. I did and much to my surprise the yolk stayed intact and floated around like a little yellow balloon. I had no idea what we were doing but I tapped my floating yellow ball around a little bit and then we swam off. Perplexed, I followed the leader as we swam past gorgeous lavender fields of soft coral to a spot somewhere in the open ocean without many features. It was then Gary pointed to me, the compass, and motioned for me to locate the boat. Using my skills I had read about, I toggled the compass, looked around, toggled again, lined up something called a lubber line, toggled again, and triumphantly pointed towards the boat. Gary shook his head, “No”. I was incorrect and Gary started swimming off in another direction. (I wasn’t shocked as my directional capabilities are terrible. This runs in my family. My mother used to get lost in our hometown after only living there for more than twenty years). Still completely confused as to how I got it wrong I followed Gary as he swam away but then started veering around in a large arch and back directly the way I pointed. I was right after all. I opted not to say anything but silently congratulated myself on my very first win over a directional challenge. As for the egg, I found out on the boat that it was meant to show the pressure of the water on our bodies. The pressure at that depth kept the yolk intact. It was nice but since none of this was explained to me you can imagine how weird that was. Anyways, I cracked an egg and found the boat, the night dive was lovely as well and in the end, I managed to scrape away with a certification. I was ready to get diving.
Sevenseas Media To The Gulf of Thailand
My boyfriend sadly doesn’t share my newfound enthusiasm for all things underwater. He occasionally enjoys a snorkel here and there but is most happy being a land dweller. We did, however, do a lot of snorkelling around the island. It was at Shark Bay that we were having a look around when I noticed a bit of plastic stuck between the rocks. I attempted a free dive down but having to equalize my ears, whilst holding my breath, whilst trying to reach for garbage proved a little too much of a multitask for me so I gave up. Disgruntled about leaving plastic in the ocean I swam over to Sam and said, “We gotta’ organize a reef clean up”.
When I come up with ideas such as these, of which there are many, I usually get an eye roll and a groan, as when I say,” WE” need to organize some such thing, it usually ends up being ME coming up with the ideas and HE who must organize the whole thing. I’m a visionary, not an implementer, what can I say? In this case, however, I had other people to help out. I quickly messaged Carmen and Titou and it took them all of 12 seconds to agree to do it and maybe 12 seconds more to outline what needed to happen. I was kinda expecting we would meet up, snorkel, grab some garbage, umm THEY grab garbage whilst I hold the bag and make sure everyone had a cool drink waiting for them afterwards with some light finger food, and call it a day; things, however, escalated quickly. Within maybe 36 hours, Titou had organized a boat, a captain and 60 tanks of air. Carmen started a Facebook group for all the divers on the island (of which we had 30 members) to get ready for the Reef Clean. She had organized gear for those who didn’t have it. They both researched where best to dive to find single-use plastic, and I agreed to come up with the funds.
The funny thing was I hadn’t actually secured any funds by this point and was flailing around quite desperately in an attempt to do so. Fate was on my side, however, and after finally getting Giacomo, our fearless Seven Seas Leader on the phone (he was busy) to explain what was happening; it took him about 12 seconds to agree to help out. Everything was in place.
I have done many charity events such as these in the past and it’s always an uphill struggle trying to gain interest. Understandable. But you can imagine how shocked I was by how quickly, and enthusiastically everyone got on board- literally. We had a boat full of divers, who were very eager to get into the water and make the ocean that much nicer. It was my job to come up with garbage bags and cookies for the boat, as well as, to document the experience. Other than the cookies I honestly needn’t have done anything. Everyone came along with mesh bags ready to fill with plastic. We had underwater cameras – very fancy ones. Free divers came as well to help and film both above and below the water, and everyone brought tools such as knives (which I was told I was not allowed to use), gloves and all the accoutrements of a proper Reef Clean. What an island and what a fantastic group of volunteers who took literally no encouragement to help out!
Due to the generosity of Seven Seas, we were able to afford two dives at two locations. Bag after bag of single-use plastic, discarded fishing nets, which are the most dangerous human additions to the sea (I learned), and other plastic oddities, like a deck of cards landed on the boat, to be secured and sorted by Titou. Teams were divided into shore and reef so both the reef and the area closer to the shore, (which usually holds a lot of plastic due to ocean currents leading the plastic in towards the island), could be cleaned. It was incredible! Carmen even allowed me two minutes between her cutting a discarded fishing line from the reef to watch a Blue Spotted Ray swim along the sandy bottom. I was the only inexperienced diver on the boat, so I stuck to Carmen like glue. As a group we managed to pull five huge boxes of rubbish out of the ocean and thanks to another NGOs support we shipped it off to Bangkok to be turned into fuel. All the plastic was taken off the island so it wouldn’t turn into landfill and risk rolling back into the ocean. What an incredible day with a very dedicated group of people!
Bangkok was struggling hard to control this outbreak of Covid and it made no sense for us to return back home where it was dangerous when we were safe and very happy on this island. After a short discussion, Sam and I decided to book our hotel for another month and see what the cases were like a week to week before deciding to return to our home. Looks like I had more time with the fishes after all. Stay tuned.
We had thirty divers, doing two dives, at two different locations, and we managed to pull 5. KG boxes of plastic out of the ocean
Mark Scodellaro
Neo hippie, yoga non- guru, and man of mystery. Avid traveller but only recently started writing about it. Yoga enthusiast, activist, and teacher in Bangkok. Loving father of four fur babies.