Advanced Sinking
- Timothy McDaneld
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Koh Tao
While Neil and Mom were in Mexico to go bike with one of his friends at a bike festival, Dad and I decided to go to Thailand early so I could get certified in scuba diving. Koh Tao, which translates to Turtle Island, is where we decided to get me certified. I got certified with Big Blue which was one of the original dive centers of Koh Tao. My instructor's name was Chae and he was from Hawaii. Chae was a wonderful instructor and taught me many useful things. An example is equalizing your ears.You need to equalize your ears because the deeper you go the more pressure there is on your eardrum. For example, have you ever felt pressure in your ears when diving to the bottom of a pool? How you fix that is by plugging your nose and exhaling without letting any air out. My favorite part was ocean day which was the first time I got to go out into the ocean because the first two days we were practicing in their pool. We stayed directly across the road from their shop. We spent three days on certification and then a few after fun diving. In total I got about three dives because but I missed the five in the middle because my ears were swollen from the pressure of the first two. But luckily on the last dive of the last day I finally got down one last time before we left to meet Mom and Neil in Ao Nang.
Sadly one thing that affects Koh Tao is coral bleaching. Coral bleaching happens when the water is too warm. When the water is too warm Coral will expel algae called zooxanthellae algae which is the algae that gives coral its color. So when the coral expel the algae they lose all their color which turns them white. Rising water temperatures are caused by global warming. Coral bleaching will also happen with low tides and pollution.
Koh Lanta
Koh Lanta is an island in the Andaman sea. Koh Lanta is part of Thailand. When we were in Koh Lanta Neil got scuba certified and I got an advanced scuba certification. We were with a scuba company called Blue Planet Divers which is one of the scuba companies. Koh Lanta means " Island of a million eyes". My instructor's name was Joel. Joel was a great instructure and fun to be around. He taught me lots of interesting things and a lot of useful tips on scuba diving. I also did some modules like search and recovery, navigation,waves, tides and currents and animal life. One thing I learned about is lift bags. I think lift bags are very clever. I learned about them during my search and recovery module. A lift bag is the opposite of a parachute. How it works is you have a special bag and you fasten ropes that acth to the object you want to lift, then you blow air into the bag which will be pulled up. It is kind of like a hot air balloon but underwater but without the “Hot."You can also use many kinds of bags as substitutes it doesn't need to be a special one. Neils instructor’s name was Josh. While I was underwater I saw lots of interesting plants and animals like the moray eel which we saw on almost every dive. Other animals included lionfish, parrotfish ,scorpionfish, surgeonfish and triggerfish and that's just naming a few! Some of the other animals included hawksbill turtles, blacktip reef sharks, crabs, cuttlefish and lots more! So far I've been to ten dive sites in my life and 15 dives because sometimes I went to the same divesite twice. Sadly we had to leave Thailand but luckily it was to go see my best friend in Vietnam. And that was the end of scuba diving for the trip. I now conclude this blogpost from our apartment in Spain.
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