we took the ferry across to Koh Tao we were told that the seas were rough this morning, but we didn't think much of it!we boarded and put our bags downstairs then went to sit up on deck. this was probably one of the most fun ferry crossings i have ever encounted!

shortly after departing the first victim already fell ill and started throwing up! but the waves just got worse and worse. the swell was huge and the boat was crashing through 12 - 15 ft waves easily. the boat was swaying up, down, left, right! it was brilliant! on an odd occasion we'd have a full wave come flying over the deck and straight at us! the best moment was when two kids from below deck came up and were compleatly dry then they stood where me and josh were! big mistake! by this point you could tell when a wave was about to come over the deck. and they stood there for about 1 min and nothing happened, then as predicted the ship rolled just right and BAM! hit them square on! in an instant they were sodden to the bone, much to everyones amusement!

i think it was actually like the program 'Deadliest catch'! it was that bad.

we got off the ferry at Koh Tao and looked around for our dive school. eventually we acidentally ran into Mike (a south african that works as a dive master for Asia Divers) he basically threw us into a pick up and drove us to the dive centre. this was like a luxury resort that had a pool in the middle of the apartments. we basically signed our names on the dotted line saying that we wer'nt ill even though i had an ear ache and josh had a cold! then we payed our 2000 baht for our dive books and found our room.

we walked around Koh Tao for a while just looking for somewhere to eat and get some money out.

later that day we met up with our group that contained 3 americans, 1 canadian and 2 english. it was a good group and we had a french and an english instructor.

that night we had our academics that contained looking at screen and taking notes. then we went to bed early so we cound get up and dive in the morning!

we got up around 8am after i woke up all 4 americans becasue tey forgotten thier alarm clock! so we all headed down to the pool where we got measured up to fit in our wetsuits and weight belts etc. the first thing he taught us was to fix on our equiptment to our tanks and teach us the "buddy system'! we found it quite amusing when Oli (french instructor) taught us the buddy check as "Bankok Women Really Are Fellows" apart from he said it in a strong french accent! so it sounded like "Bankok Women Rarly Air Velows" and all of us were stood staring at him thinking What is this bloke on about!

we did all our pool training and passed it with flying colours! it included doing mask clearances, BCD checks, breathing techniques etc.

that evening we did another acadamic session this time watching a video with Rich (English instructor) where we basically watched a video and filled out our books. this time though Rich gave us homework to do! we had to do a couple of confusing questions which included confusing nitrogen charts! but the next day we were doing some open water diving!

we woke up early again this time to do some academics but it didn't matter becasue in the afternoon we went out to do an open water dive.

we sailed out to the mooring point which was just round the bay. this was just to give us a taste of what its like. so we jumped in the water and swam to the bouy, slowly after alot of careful instruction we shimmied down the line to the sea bed! so i was nelt 5m down underneath the water and doing some boring stuff like we did in the pool, mask clearance etc. after 10 minutes Ian (one of the americans) felt abit uneasy and decided to surface. that was the end of his diving career! so we all continued and eventually passed the tasks again like buddy air breathing etc. i spent alot of this time getting dragged round by the swell and gringing my knees over dead coral on the sandy sea bed and at the same time a fish was trying to eat my leg!

after getting back to the surface we were all extactic! its hard to explain but it was such a good feeling! i think Ian missed out on that abit! so we all packed up our tanks and headed back to the resort.

day three was constantly diving so we were glad about that. this time we went out with Rich. who took us to twin rock. it was a place where we could just do a couple of manouvers to satisfy him that we were capable of diving. so we did a couple of resurfacing manouvers on a line so Rich didn't lose us! after acouple more tasks underwater we ran out of air and had to surface. where we sailed to Shark Rock. this was a peninsular under the waves that varied from 10 - 30m. we were only going down to 12m on this dive which was just for fun. and we saw a giant pufferfish that was about 2m long but it wasn't puffed up so it was hard to tell. Rich also showed us some cool little fish like angel fish and banner fish. while we were all gathered round a sea snake about 30cm long swam past and scared the s**t out of one of the americans. another fish we have been warned about was a Trigger fish! these bugg*rs are suposedly huge and as rich so kindly put it "have big F**k off teeth!" (cheers Rich). no one told us what one looked like so Josh (the yank) whenever he saw a fish swiming towards him he'd panic and point his flippers at it.

after we got off the boat rich told us what we are suposed to do if a trigger fish charges at you and what one looked like which put joshs mind at ease! when we got off the boat i managed to jump onto the pier that looked sound apart from it hard slimy algea all over it but it looked dried. so i jumped down and slipped right onto my arse and managed to have my head and shoulders over the side of the peir dipping in the water, one arm paddling to keep my self afloat and othe other one gripping onto the slippy pier! josh (yank) said he could just see two feet poking up in the air. help came soon enough in the for of mark and miles! who pulled me up to see ive got a huge graze down my chest and i think i broke my toe! anyway all in a days work!

that night we all went out to watch some thai boxing from down the road which cost a small sum and we went with the two english lads on our course. we watched some blokes in silk shorts kick the s**t out of each other while consuming our own body weight in Chang!

we had to wake up at daft o clock again but this time it was harder with Changovers! we borded the ship ( this time without fatality) and with a filmmaker that Asia Divers had employed to film our exlopits. she made it really well and managed to put it to some music that fit amazingly well with what was being displayed.

we were with Oli on this dive and we went down with a pair of sunglasses, we were all thinking "God knows why" but it turned out we were in an underwater band! (sounds Gay i know but it looked good) anyway after seeing a couple more verieties of wildlife such as another Sea snake. we set out to make the 'rock film'! this involved a couple of guitarist, a singer, a drummer, two dancers and i was the bassist! i took abit of inginuty and took off my flipper for a bass guitar!

after that session we took a short swim around messing about for the video. and while we waited for the three minute saftey stop the americans endulged in a mock gay romp. it was quite distubing to watch especially when in the saftey stop you all have to stay within a fist of eachother along the mooring line! so obviously that was added in the film.

we got back to the resort fully quailified open water divers and celebrated at the resorts bar. i managed to get a couple of free beers fromn the bar staff for being bruitally subjected to unnessasary verbal attacks off one of them! we watched our video for the day and she wanted 400 baht for one copy! so only one of us bought it, hopefully they'll send me a copy!

anyway that night we stayed at the resort and we were heading out to Koh Phi Phi in the morning.