Thursday 07-07-2011

After a great Classroom session and Confined, Finley was ready for her first Open Water dives!

Finley met up at 08:00 in the restaurant of Ban’s Diving Resort to go on the dives, Finley was a bit sleepy, but very excited! Again on the boat Finley was the talk of the day and everyone wanted to have a talk about her! After the briefing Finley geared up. She is not used to where scuba equipment, but she liked the looks of it, So much cooler then diving without scuba gear!

On Dive 1 Finley went to Japanese Gardens on Koh Tao, the sun was up, very calm water and great visibility. Equalizing went of course perfect and Finley enjoyed seeing the other students adjusting their buoyancy for the Dive, the more people wanted to hold Finley the easier they got their own buoyancy under control, Finley acted already as a PADI Instructor.

The second dive was way more fun because she could finally repeat some of the Skills from Confined. Finley practiced: Partially Flooded Mask, Fully Flooded Mask. Regulator removal, Recovery and Clearing, Alternate Air Source Stationary, Neutral Buoyancy and after a great swim around the Dive site she made an Alternate Air Source ascent to the surface!

What a great morning! In the afternoon Finley joined the classroom session to go over her homework the Knowledge Review questions of chapter 4 and 5 from the PADI Open Water Manual. In this presentation Finley had a great time talking about the Sharks and how much they are in danger, the students all decided after the talk to sign the Shark Petition and get Project Aware Certification Cards to help the cause! Also during this presentation Finley heard a lot about the next course; The PADI Advanced Open Water course! In the end of the day she found out that 14 out of 16 students where very excited to continuo with the Advanced Open Water course so she also signed up for it! In this course Finley would even learn more skills, go deeper, see more things and especially the Night Dive made her most excited! The Open Water Exam was a piece of cake for Finley and she passed with 100%!

Friday 08-07-2011

Today Finley felt even more excited, no more classroom and exams, just diving left to get certified as a PADI Open Water Diver!

The briefing was awesome, this time she heard about the C.E.S.A. and Navigation haha it was so funny to see Finley miming the skills in the briefing! After a Giant Stride in the water she was ready for the real thing. Finley had trouble making a sound through her mouth but, it came from here fin with bubbles and all, never seen it before, but after checking with PADI it was ok for Finley the Hammerhead shark :) This time the Dive site was called Twins on Koh Tao and it was a great dive again, with Turtle's, Nemo's, Stingray's and Angel fish all over the place!

After the surface interval Finley got ready for her last dive. After that one she would come up as a certified PADI Open Water Diver! She was told during her briefing that after surfacing Finley would feel stronger, more smarter and prettier! As a PADI Diver you are a better person! It's trough!

Only Hover and Mask removal was left and then a fantastic dive on White Rock one of the best dive sites on Koh Tao! The mask went very well and you will see it soon on my Open Water Video that was shot that day by Nick (Sharky) Thomas from The Film Company, one of the best underwater Film Company’s in south East Asia! The moment Finley came up she screamed harder than the other students, Finley was finally certified!!!!!!

Later that night there was a small celebration with food and drinks in Darawan a fantastic new restaurant on Koh Tao and then quick to bed because the next day Finley's First Advanced Open water Course started!

Marcel van den Berg # 492721

www.filmedonkohtao.com (Big Project Aware Supporter!)

www.duikeninkohtaothailand.nl

www.facebook.com/bansdivingresort