Day 1: Introduction to Diving November 11, 2005
Posted by Martin in : Education, Health & Sport, Thailand , trackback
My bungalow was an adequate fan-cooled double room with a clean bathroom and shower. I was booked into the Beach Club Resort, at the far end of the island’s hub.
I spent much of my day reading my books on a rock. I rented a PADI Diver’s Manual and decided to spend a few hours pre-learning everything that the course would cover.
Over about 4 hours I’d got as far as about page 80, still well into chapter one and I was a little apprehensive as to how we’d be able to learn the book over just 4 short days. I knew the course would not be difficult but it’s always a little daunting venturing into the unknown. I like to prepare for my studies in advanced so that the classroom sessions would be easier to absorb.
We met our group at 4pm. Our Teacher Zigor was Spanish, a nice guy who’d been in Koh Tao for years. I was to study with Carla and Joy, two English girls about my age who were traveling the world together and with Jennifer and Priya, also English girls who’d been island hopping in Thailand.
Sadly Jennifer had been advised not to do the course as she was an asthma sufferer although she was invited to tag along with the group and to go snorkelling as we dived. It was a friendly group although we didn’t really get much opportunity to socialize outside of the training.
The video was interesting, Zigor left us to watch it and we sat there without him for the 2 hours. All of us were tired and it was difficult to hold back our yawns so I’m not sure how useful the video really was aside from providing a good introduction. It was cringeworthy to see how PADI had tried to liven things up by using a Mr. Bean character to demonstrate how not to dive.
The video finished at 6pm and I was in bed, fast asleep by about 8:30.
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