PADI, diving and Instructor Development (IDC)

Today I completed some beach dives with Joep and all specialties for this month have been bagged.

The bight dive at Sail Rock was a first for me and it was awesome! First of all, from Koh Phangan it only takes one hour with Haad Yao divers boat to Sail Rock but than seeing the rock in a totally different (night) perspective was fantastic. The hermit crab above was just one of the creatures we saw.
This cowry shell, guarded or sandwiched (?) by two sea urchins was another awesome shot and view during the night dive at Sail Rock.

After these two days worth of diving, Joep and me took off to Koh Samui to complete more specialties and Aldo went to the Perhentian islands in Malaysia to participate in a PADI IE, since had to leave 26th September, back to France. He passed the IE successfully by the way! Well done Aldo!

The picture above shows Joep and me after having completed the Emergency Oxygen provider and instructor courses at the local hyperbaric chamber in Bang Rak.

Gas Blending was also on the menu, since Joep participated in a Go Pro Max package, which ultimately gave him 8 Instructor level specialties. Here he is looking at a table with Nitrox mixes together with James.

Today, Joep and me went to Chaweng Beach for an Underwater Navigation dive and two Search & Recovery dives. We found tons of stuff again and had two great dives. Amongst others 6 or 7 masks, a fin and a snorkel where found and even a piece of a jet ski was picked up by Joep.

The coral bleaching was a lot less compared to one month ago!

One of my highlights was this Conus Betulinus, a massive big Cone shell. However, just like last months Textile Cone shell (amongst the three most dangerous cone shells to handle!) at Sail Rock, with a guest living in it, this one also had a guest living inside, at least, that's what I think since he didn't attack! It's the biggest cone I've ever seen so far and I was really impressed, once more showing what interesting creatures can be found at Chaweng's beach! During the other dives today I saw a big sting ray and a cuttle fish amongst others.

Anyway, this month's specialties are bagged, tomorrow there's a Project AWARE International beach and underwater clean up at the same location on Chaweng Beach, so I'm sure we can bring some more rubbish ashore!

The next IDC is also on it's way and starts in two days, 26th September, so stay tuned, plenty of updates and posts coming your way!

Camille