We recently had the pleasure of teaching five 11 year old’s their Junior Open Water Course. Three days of fun and adventure, 5 dives consisting of a looong session in the pool followed by 4 dives in the sea, and an unexpected world of marine encounters.
The first day of the course is always centered around the equipment and learning how to use it and why you need it what it does and what to do if something happens while you are scuba diving in the sea. Practicing the skills needed to be a safe & healthy divers is always done in a confined environment like a swimming pool or a bay or beach shallow enough for the students to be able to stand up in.
Once the kids had been introduced to their equipment & shown how to put it together and what it all did the Instructors demonstrated the skills required to be a diver. They were shown how to buddy check, how to get into the water, how to stay positively buoyant and then in the shallow end of the pool they went through the skills themselves after watching their Instructors demonstrations.
Having completed all the shallow skills the group then went into the deeper part of the pool to practice their buoyancy control and their streamlined swimming. The kids were awesome. No problems at all and after a very successful session in the pool we all went out for sunset drinks and dinner at Whitening Restaurant.
Day 2 of the Open Water course always starts with a classroom session reminding us of what we have learnt so far and how to adapt that understanding for the Open Water. After a lovely lunch at Blue Water Restaurant the kids, the instructors and the Mums all set out for the afternoon on the boat headed for one of Koh Tao’s most beautiful locations Mango Bay. With crystal clear conditions and a flat calm surface the group donned their equipment jumped into the water and off we all went for our first open water dive. Our first encounter was with a couple of nosey batfish who swam directly through the middle of our group and then we saw all sorts of other tropical reef fish including butterfly fish, bannerfish, and heaps of squirrel & soldier fish before ending the dive with a great big Emperor fish swimming along passed us.
Day 3 we spent the morning completing the theory part of the course with a small multiple choice exam in which everyone passed with flying colors and then out on the boat for our final days diving. Today we headed out to Nang Yuan Island to dive Japanese Gardens where we encountered a batfish that swum with us for most of the dive and then headed out to one of Koh Tao’s very best dive sites called White Rock. With 20 meter visibility and the site teeming with life the group set off for a 10 meter deep dive around the site and had a great encounter with a sting ray that slid across the ocean floor and then a face to face encounter with a huge but very docile Titan Triggerfish while we practiced using a compass.
And having completed all the skills necessary to pass the Open Water Course including a swim test a 10 minute float and a multiple choice exam the Instructors were delighted to be able to certify Lulu, Kamilla, Liam, Grisha & Peter as brand new Junior Open Water Divers.
What an awesome experience that was to be able to show kids the beauty of the underwater world in all its glory. Conditions were fantastic, the sun was out and the kids were pure naturals who are now addicted to scuba diving and have vowed to come back to us in June to do their Junior Advanced Course which will introduce them to a deep dive to 22 meters, a wreck dive & a night dive!
Can’t wait to be there with them in June again and hope to see more junior open water students in the coming months.
