So finally, we have 3 candidates for you to peruse.

Our 1st contestant, from Finland is Katti..

She enjoys laying on sunny beaches, drinking cups of coffee and eco projects. As an qualified instructor… she is able to teach but cannot be bothered. She regards hersef as a bossy character, who likes to crack a whip in and out of the bedroom! She hopes for world peace and love of all animals.

Contestant No.2, hailing from Calgary, Canada is Tina. Also a qualified instructor, her favorite food is German sausages. She also sleeps without pillows, as she brings her own to bed! She hopes for more money and less ear infections. She hates the photo below, so it may be replaced in the coming week.

And finally, the dregs of the barrel, contestant No. 3 is Justine, from some weird island in Scotland. She works as a videographer, and enjoys all types of Italian meals… Salami being one of her most tasty meats. She has a love/hate relationship with Simon and has a lot of bruising as a result! She hopes to never be electrocuted by the boat again.

So get voting folks, the winner will get a very small beer as the 1st prize.! You have until the end of the month!

Up early (AGAIN!) for the final 2 dives of my 1st Open Water Course, team teaching with Fred.

I met the tired students at the dive centre, and had the Divemaster Trainee pack their bags while I sipped a cup of coffee..

When the videographer turned up, we took our bags to the boat, set up our kit and briefed for the 1st dive to Chumphon Pinnacle…. Due to Chumphon being a deep dive site, we decided to move the remainder of their skills to Dive 4.

They all did very well, controlling their buoyancy and following me… sometimes I find it very difficult swimming backwards for nearly 45 mins, and being aware of where i am going!. They enjoyed the dive immensely, seeing some larger forms of life etc.

Next dive, we dropped down to Buoyancy World for skills, mask removals, fin pivots, hovering, and navigation, then Fred returned to the boat and I continued with with dive.

All done, they were now certified (after I filled out paperwork for 2 hours!)…

They all finished the video with a shot jumping from the top of the boat… this was where we almost had a big problem. The 1st guy who jumped in slipped as he jumped, rammed his foot on the top of the boat and went into the sea missing the boat by inches! I was extremely concerned… But he popped up, and besides some bruising to his foot, he was okay… It could have been so much worse… (Video to follow!)

We returned and I went back home to sort our laundry out, while Jen started an Open Water Course (academics)…

In the evening, once Jen was finished, we watched the Open Water video, and then returned home for an early night. Jen was particularly deflated by her day.. She is teaching academics to a class of 18.! A bit of backchat from students, and general confidence issues from Jen had her feeling very low… But a bit of focus, and she is back on top cracking the whip.!

Today I was supposed to start Team teaching but it was put back a day so I put myself on the afternoon boat for a fun dive.  Luckily enough, Simon was doing the Open Water exam with his students and swim test and was then also on afternoon boat doing open waters dives 1 & 2 YAY!

On the boat I was talking about last years trip and mentioned that it was just typical that as soon as we left koh Tao, Whale Shark were being spotted nearly every day, then I looked up and just shouted WHALE!!!!!!  .I’d spotted two Bryde’s whales 150mtrs from the boat  …there was a wave of excitement and the boat changed direction heading towards them.   People were kitting up and ready to jump in, especially the videographer group on the boat but the whales changed directions several times, once surfacing just infront of the boat which was amazing and then headed out to, so be abandoned the chase and continued onto ‘Twin’ dive site.

I was so happy to have spotted them and on the first fun dive kept on checking the deep, just on the off chance that I might see them again.   That would have been amazing.

The Dive itself was great, a few of us decided to go and look for the Secret Pinnacle and managed to find it with some vague directions from one of the Instructors.  It made a nice change and obviously there was no one else there.   On the way back to the boat I found a 0.8kg weight and some rubbish so just stuffed that in my pocket.

The 2nd dive was a ‘Japanese Gardens’  a very relaxed and cool dive.  I spotted a tiny baby sweetlips and saw the resident eagle ray a couple of times.  Humphrey, the resident Trigger Fish was about but seemed to be pretty chilled.  I also found another weight!  A day of finding things!

On dry land, kit washed and packed away I met Si in the bar and we grabbed a coke and chatted about the days events.

Later in the evening it was the IE party (newly passed instructors) so we went to Dirty Nelly’s to have a beer to congratulate everyone and then headed home for an earlish night!  It had been a long day and we were both very tired….

Jen