With almost 2 years in the making, 3 postponed trips to Samui, endless emails, a few presentations and a bippedy boppedy boo-ey, we just hosted a Koh Tao holiday for Samui kids!
We were blessed to have been chosen by the very prestigious International School of Samui to host a large gathering of their kids for 3 nights while we taught them to dive, or furthered their diving experience, we taught some of them to snorkel and we showed all of them what a great place Koh Tao is for a few days away.
Some of the adventurous 11-16 year old’s were keen to get their Junior Open Water licenses so we chose our team of Instructors best suited to the job. While other Instructors jumped at the opportunity to teach the other certified divers their SSI Advanced Adventurer certification.
After a very pleasant 90 minute trip over from Samui with the Lomprayah Catamaran, the kids & teachers from ISS were welcomed and checked in to their rooms. Then those embarking on their Open Water course prepared themselves for a boat journey after lunch to the very stunningly beautiful Mango Bay to do their confined water session in water deep enough to stand up in.
While the intrepid beginners were being taught how to scuba dive the rest of us went for a very exciting afternoon of snorkeling in Aow Leuk where we managed to see a few baby blacktip reef sharks swimming in-between and amongst us.
With the sun beating down and the exercise taking its toll on everyone the dinner presented to us at Barracuda that night was 5 star luxury!
Tuesday morning and our group of certified Junior Open Water divers were now heading out for their first dive of the Advanced Course. 2 dives at Mango Bay and Buoyancy World learning how to navigate and control ones buoyancy. Like a duck to water these guys knew exactly what they were supposed to do and with conditions over 30 meter visibility the morning was a great success and a great omen for the afternoons divers out on their first 2 Open Water dives to a maximum depth of 12 meters. Meanwhile the rest of us snorkelers went off on a hike in search of a deserted bay or beach and were lucky enough to find 2 beautiful bays with white sandy beaches and turquoise clear water teeming in all sorts of fish life. In the afternoon the snorkelers gathered to make a concrete structure we will use to build an artificial reef. Dinner was held at Blue Water but with the night divers on the Advanced Course joining the party later everyone seemed happy to get an early night.
By 6:30 the following morning, last night’s night divers were out again! This time for the last 2 dives of their SSI Advanced Adventurer course. The Open Waters had an exam to take but the snorkelers were heading out on Big Blue Boat for a morning snorkeling around Koh Nang Yuan where we had a very exciting encounter with a huge triggerfish and a couple of blacktips.
Once the Open Waters had returned from their successful outing and becoming Open Water Divers and Advanced Divers we all gathered at Maya Bar for a final evening of fun with a BBQ buffet laid on and a few spontaneous beach races laid on by the teachers, before culminating in a 20 minute video we gathered the troops to watch featuring themselves and all the activities they have been engaged in over the last 3 days.
A full on week with lots of fantastic memories and achievements to be shared and enjoyed for the kids the teachers and us at Big Blue. Thank you everyone for making this trip possible especially the International School of Samui and congratulations to all the divers and hope to see you all back here on Koh Tao again as soon as you are all able.
