long time no writing - sorry.
i finished my instructor exams, and i did quite well in comparison to what i thought i would do, it was 3 days of solid exams, 1st day all written , second and third day all practicals, but i got over 92% on everything so it wasnt to difficult in the end. once we qualified we all had a big party starting at about 10am the day we finished...so by about 3pm we were all pass out drunk on the beach so we never ended up having a "night out".
we had a few days of then started the MSDT program, which is like a higher level of instructing, that was really easy all went really well. we got to dive with underwater propulsion scooter thingys, which was awesome, there pretty fast and save your legs, we went down to chumpon pinnacle and jetted around with the bull sharks for ages. managed to find the big daddy shark which is about 3m long, and fat. then we finally after so many dives got to see them feeding, this bull shark just absolutely nails this fish out of the blue, it was sick, but then it turned and started coming at me and my dive buddy, so we were out of there pretty fast, it was fucking terrifying.
unfortunately the day after that i ate something real bad and came down with food poisoning which totally crippled me so i had to spend a night in thai hospital on a drip, which was a horrible horrible experience. luckily im fine now though.
the final day of the MSDT involved doing a deep wreck dive on an old ship called the unicorn, it was sunk off koh tao as an insurance scam, the crew claimed it was carrying expensive cargo but when the wreck got checked out the only thing found on it was dog biscuits. anyway, that wreck sits and about 45 meters and we went to it of a technical diving boat, so all the guys who work on that boat are the bat shit crazy cave diving type who strap on about 7 tanks and swim into a cave towing a peice of string on a reel to guide there was out. nutters. fortunately we wernt going inside the wreck, the visibility was only about 2 meters down that deep so we were pretty limited on what we could do. it was a good set of dives though. got totally done by nitrogen narcosis on the first dive and i was just starting at the ship like "woooooowwwww" haha.
now the MSDT is done, there was a big night out last night because a few people are leaving over the next few days, including my house mate, owen. but apparts from that theres not alot going on on the island. might go diving tomorrow but i cant really decide. anyway hope everyone is well.

Ro

19.

hey everyone.
sorry its been a while since i wrote, basically my instructor course has been coming to and end so ive been working solid all the time. i havnt even been diving properly since my last post because we've been doing so much work in the classroom. yesterday i had my 6 written instructor exams.... on my friggin birthday =/ but it was ok, passed all of them. today i have my presentation exam where i have to give a mini lecture on diving, then i have an open water teaching exam, basically, alot of exams, and even more tomorrow. so its stressful times but if i pass these next 2 days then im officially and instructor and you can all meet me in australia and ill teach you how to dive haha. in other island related news - my wonderful house mate owen returned from a night out with a vicious story. he was in one of the big bars on the island, which just happens to be a mafia bar. and some white guy walks into him, so he pushes him, without realising this guy is mafia (probably there only white member but still) and literally turned around to see loads of thai guys and 3 of them showing guns and him.. then the guy said "your a decent guy, but remember i could make you disappear and no one would ever know about it" ............ fuck going to that bar ever again.
in other news my house is a mess because one of our dogs got in last night and fucking destroyed everything. i wouldnt say im missing home at all but yesterday made me really miss my mates.
over the next couple days after exams finish some of us are guna get a kayak and try and get around the whole island in a day.. obvious with beer and shit as supplies.
last time i was here we found an area of a small bay where baby blacktip reef sharks live, so were guna go down there and play with those guys, there tiny only about a meter long in total.
hope everyones well!

Ro

incredible..

its been a few days since my last post so i hope everyone back home is doing well. over the last few days ive been basically rinsed all the time because the people i mostly live with work for another dive centre lol, but i still go to there dive bar wearing my ban;s diving shirts... good times all round. anyway, ive been rushed of my feet doing my instructor training and yesterday we had our first hardcore exams, 7 divemaster exams in the morning, a few hours of in water assesment, then a standards exam, it was an intense day but everyone passed easily so we all got a day of today, and are now all assistant instructors, just 2 more weeks of the course left. today was a day off but the idc instructors told us to stay in the classroom and do exams, everyone stayed accept me and one other candidate, we were like, fuck that, and got on the diveboat to go for a normal fucking dive. best descision i ever made.
the sea was rough as fuck, rain was pelting the boat, but me and my mate connor got our gear on and jumped off the boat before it moored on the bouyline, so we could be in the water first, did a free decent to 20m where we saw a huge bull shark swimming in the distance, we were about to follow it but.... this emormous whale shark (about 5 meters long) cruised into site, i could barely breathe it was the most awesome thing i ever saw in my life. because of the weather the current was bad but we had compasses so we went away from the dive site into the open blue, we found 9 bullsharks together circuling a bait ball of fish, then the whale shark swam past again.... 9 bull sharks and a whale shark in the same feild of veiw.. breath taking. the dive went on and we saw about 20 bull sharks in total, got back to the boat and everyone was just pumped. great atmosphere. just got back now, cant wait to go gloat to everyone... muahaha. anyway i dont have long i have work to do for tomorrow :<
big love to people back home.

Ro

what just happened?

been a few days guys, ive been totally rushed of my feet.
i went out working as a divemaster leading to chumpon pinnacle a couple days ago, a site famed for big ass bull sharks, i teamed up with a lass called anna to lead the dives which basically ment we were working with 6 divers and not 3. unfortunately on chumpon we didnt see anythign because the visibility was terrible and we just basically got unlucky. we then went to a site called green rock and got caught out as the tide started to change, landing us in a horrific current, none of us could swim against it and all the sand got kicked up so you couldnt see your hand infront of your face, we literally had to use compasses to find out way back to the boat. on of the fun divers lost his buddy (who was his GF aswell (twat)) anyway, so we had one diver that had gone but we couldnt see, then one guy rocketed to the surface (which is a cardinal sin of diving) and nobody could stop him, and he really fucked himself up. everything was ok and we found everyone and got back to the boat, but this rocket man got decompression sickness from his ascent and got rushed to hospital, so the last couple days ive been running around trying to sort stuff out with insurance etc. luckily it was him that fucked up and its nothing to do with the divemasters, so its a releif to not be responsible for this nutter, but god its stressful.
im working 6.30 am till about 5pm at least every day because of the instructor training, its so hard core, so at the moment im just going home and lying down, eating a bowl of noodles and relaxing with my housemates, who are all divers aswell.
i hear theres loads of snow at home - im gutted im missing out, but equally i cant complain about where i am.
i hope everyones alright back at home, send me some emails and that!
take care

Ro

Finally Back

I eventually arrived in bangkok airport only to find that i couldnt see nina or nathan anywhere, i had no idea what to do because i didnt have there numbers or anything, so i was running around bangkok airport like a special looking for people for about an hour, before i eventually surcummed to complete despair, but as i was sat there in the airport lounge bench think planning what to do i saw nina walking past so i just screamed NINA across the airport, good times. we all went out in bangkok and went to an amazing restruant called cabages and condoms, i have photos but ill have to upload them later or on facebook.
the next morning i flew south to koh samui and when i got there all the ferrys to tao were full, which was a disaster because theres not many places i hate more than koh samui so i wanted to get off that island on the same day, eventually after everyone refusing to sell me tickets i just walked to the pier and bribed the leader guy like 4 quid and told him i needed to get across today for a wedding, and they let me on so it was all good. i arrived back to the same house with new people in it, but owen one of my good friends from my previous trip was still there which is great.
i spent yesterday reaquainting myself with people and working as an assistant instructor for a big open water group. there was this one guy who took so long to learn the skills that i was in the pool for 6 hours teaching, by the end of it my skin was just like falling off it was minging.
today i went down to the muay thai gym to speak to them about a fight in febuary, but they were a bit annoyed that im not guna start training with them till late january, oh well.
iv got some work as a divemaster tomorrow leading people around a site called chumpon pinnac
le, and because of the season at the moment its teaming with bullsharks rumored to be almost 4m long, this is guna be my first lead in 3 months so its quite literally jumping in at the deep (shark infested) end. so im on my way home now to brush up on some stuff before work.
missing everyone back home, hope i see you all again.

Ro