Within a week of arriving on Koh Tao we had become qualified in Emergency Fist Response (EFR) and Rescue Diving, as well as clocking up a few more dives.
The next step was to start our Dive Master Training (DMT) to become Dive Masters. We purchased our dive manuals, bag, slates, checklist and all other necessities needed during our DMT. The checklist had about 20 tasks that we needed to complete before we could become qualified Dive Masters.
You can do the course in as little as 2 weeks, but because we entered on a 60 day tourist visa, we need to do a visa run shortly, so decided to do our DMT over 2 months.
This was fine with us as it meant we had 2 months worth of free diving and the opportunity to assist with as many courses as we could to build experience and training if we were ever to do our Instructor Development Course (IDC).
Almost everyday we were out on the Buddha Boat, diving from 2-5 times a day! But wouldn’t you if you were greeted with this view everyday?
I do not think there is any better feeling than the weightless feeling you feel when scuba diving. Diving is so relaxing and a great time to loose yourselves in the beauty of the underwater world and your thoughts.
Some of the marine life we saw whilst here included jellyfish – probably one of my biggest hates when diving. One rough, dark dive we did at our deep dive site Chumphon we became surrounded by hundreds of little jellyfish stinging us left right and center. Everywhere you looked you could see them, from floor to surface, was horrible. When we finally got back on the boat it smelt of a fish and chip shop as everyone was dousing themselves in vinegar.
But saying that, when they don’t sting, they really are beautiful creatures to watch.
Stingrays, porcupine fish, banded sea snake, turtle, cobia and barracuda are just a handful of the marine life you can when diving in Koh Tao.
Some days, when we were at a dive site that we had explored many times before, we would practice blowing bubble rings. Click here to see Tim blowing three perfect bubble rings 12m under the sea.
After every few days we would only dive either in the morning or evening and go explore the island.
The beaches were pretty and a couple times we borrowed our mates scooter and explored the hills where we came across some beautiful views.
On Christmas Eve we decided to go diving wearing Christmas hats – just to help get into the spirit 🙂
During our 2 months living on Koh Tao we made some really great friends, we look forward to catching up with the Buddha crew again somewhere else in the world.
You could almost say they became like family
And then the day came when we had signed off everything on our checklist, assisted with multiple courses from open water to rescue diver (my personal favourite). When we had passed our exam we were officially signed off as Dive Master 😀
Unfortunately though, in Thailand, well Buddha really, to ‘officially’ be signed off as a Dive Master you need to complete what is known as ‘The Snorkel Test’.
The Snorkel Test consist of people donating whatever they like to a bucket, from beer, cider, wine, shots, tobasco sauce and even pepper. Fully blind folded you have a snorkel in your mouth and your helper pours the bucket of whatever down the snorkel. The first person to finish wins. However, because you have a mask on you cannot breathe, which makes things more challenging.
You can watch our Snorkel Test video here.
It is safe to say that life was pretty darn good here on Koh Tao, it was sad to leave, but we are sure we will meet up with the Buddha Crew again.
