Many people traveling around Asia will add Thailand to their itinerary, and more often than not, this will lead to them venturing down to Koh Tao. The problem is, they leave Koh Tao until the very end of their visit. How is that a problem I hear you say? I don’t really, as that would imply having voices in my head, which may be true but I would never admit to it on here…again. It’s a problem for one simple reason. People learn how to dive and only allow themselves just enough time to get the open water course finished. Well, isn’t that what they came to do? Yes indeed, but the vast majority of people who do learn to dive just want more and more, and if they’d only allowed themselves 2 extra days, they would be able to take their diving much further by doing the advanced course. I’ve just taught two open water courses- 9 people in total, and they all loved it and really wanted to do their advanced, but were all leaving straight after to get the plane home.. what a bummer.
If you thought you’d had a good time on the open water course, the advanced course will probably blow your mind. It’s 5 dives with a different theme for each dive. Each dive focuses on a different area of diving to make you a more rounded diver with way more confidence in your ability than when you finished the open water course (I think I just broke the record for the number of times dive, dives, and diver can be used in a sentence). You will learn the basics of underwater navigation and be given lots of tips on how to improve your buoyancy. You’ll also go on a deep dive to 30 meters and learn the correct procedures for ascending safely. Navigation and deep you have to do, but you can then choose to do a night dive (the closest feeling you’ll ever get to being in space), a fish identification dive, a computer dive, or a wreck dive; the HTMS Sattakut; it was a US Navy landing craft infantry ship, and was involved in 3 battles in world war 2 before being bought by the Thai Navy and donated to Koh Tao in 2011 to act as an artificial reef. It’s also the nearest dive site to Big Blue!
The best bit is that on the open water course you are not allowed to have a camera with you- you need to be focusing on yourself. But with the advanced, you can rent a camera, or take your own and snap away to your heart’s content! We all know that one of those shots will be your next facebook profile picture. Following your open water course, 5 more dives will really start to shape you into a relaxed and confident diver, and you’ll probably want to keep diving for the rest of your life- the statistics don’t lie!
So give yourself a bit more time for your trip to Koh Tao, enjoy the open water course and then really enjoy the advanced course! I promise you will agree with me, but you’ll have to do it to know that.
