Maddy Love
- Maddy Love's trip Koh Tao
First training session of PADI advanced certification. Navigation using kick cycles and natural navigation.
Dive 2: buoyancy. The best buoyancy I've ever had! I learned how to do headstand using my breath to hover upside down and now it's my favourite thing to do in the water!
Dive 3: night dive. Viz was shitty, there was a current, my regulator mouthpiece was damaged and missing a side so I had to hold it in my mouth while trying to clear my mask. Challenging! I was proud to conquer my own trepidation about diving in the dark
Dive 5: lighthouse. Lots of beautiful fish for our fish ID dive. I know lots more hand signals now to describe what I'm seeing!
Dive 5: fish ID. I found my first anemone! I learned the difference between parrotfish and wrasse, and played hide and seek with some beautiful fish.
Dive 4: deep dive. I love deep dives! Easy and fun and nothing I felt uncomfortable with. Having awesome buoyancy makes these dives so much fun. Cool twisty Dr Seuss coral that twist to loops...
2016-07-11 - Hin Wong Pinnacle, Koh Tao, Thailand
21m - 44 min - Dived with Wolf from Big Bubble
2016-07-11 - Liam Thien, Koh Tao, Thailand
16m - 55 min - Dived with Wolf from Big Bubble
The wreck dive began with a stop at the cubes which will form an artificial reef. A cleaning fish thought I was a large fish in need of a thorough clean! It felt like a tiny bug crawling on my leg and took a while to convince it to go away! We saw big fish in the turret. Viz was pretty awful.
2016-07-12 - Japanese Gardens, Koh Tao, Thailand
15m - 54 min - Dived with Wolf from Big Bubble
2016-07-13 - Lighthouse Bay, Koh Tao, Thailand
10m - 67 min - Dived with Wolf from Big Bubble
This was a beautiful dive, our second at Lighthouse. My gear was playing up today, My Mares BC seemed to keep inflating no matter how frequently I deflated. I communicated with Wolf successfully to let him know what was wrong, and he recognised that my inflator hose was leaking air into the BC and disconnected it. As it was a shallow dive and I felt confident, we were able to complete the dive. My BC did not function except as a weight belt. When we returned to the boat I exchanged the faulty BC for a fresh Aqualung model and had no further issues. I was pleased that I not only had developed the communication skills to solve the problem without surfacing, but I also did not panic, even when it became clear that I would have to rely on my own natural buoyancy. It tested my ability to dive well under pressure and to maintain buoyant using the skills from the advanced course.
2016-07-13 - Tanote Bay, Ko Tao, Thailand
18m - 55 min - Dived with Wolf from Big Bubble
2016-07-15 - Southwest Pinnacle, Koh Tao, Thailand
25m - 42 min - Dived with Nuz from Big Bubble
Our first dive at my favourite dive site in the Gulf - possibly the world. Our guide, Nuz, mapped the pinnacles for his Dive Master qualification, and his passion was contagious, even pre-dive. The site is white rock submerged mountain terrain covered in gardens of magnificent anemones. The sealife are amongst those with the most character I have encountered in Thailand: big, animated groupers, triggerfish, and schools and schools of prey fish. Watching the predators pick off the smaller fish, and observing schools of fish through other schools of fish was a huge highlight. The viz was incredible, the sun was out, my kit was working perfectly, and I felt like the little mermaid because the water was so clear and still. We dove with the Germans.
2016-07-15 - Southwest Pinnacle, Koh Tao, Thailand
24m - 47 min - Dived with Nuz from Big Bubble
The first dive was so amazing, we didn't bother going elsewhere for our second dive. We went straight back down to enjoy that perfect viz again!
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