Advanced diving course Tauchen Klappe die Zweite

After we left Koh Rong Sanloem after completing our open water dive course, we were excited about future dives in Vietnam and Japan. 

While perusing the dive sites in Japan, we noticed several ship wrecks and got really excited until realising that we would not be able to do the dive. Open water licence only lets us go down to 18 meter max depth. 

We went to Koh Rong, an island next to Koh Rong Sanloem to meet up with Juraj and his husband and friend to spend a few days together.. However by the time we got there Juraj and crew had decided to go see some ladyboys in Thailand 🇹🇭. Feeling a bit disappointed after travelling so far, especially being on an island we were not really interested in seeing (party island!) we needed to do something to make the trip worth while. 

Soooo we went DIVING AGAIN jumping on the first boat to get the fuck off Koh Rong and arriving in the peaceful pier of Eco Sea Dive we were excited about beginning the advanced adventurer course. Edit

Anfang des neues Jahres wollten wir uns mit einem von Jamies Freunden aus  Berlin treffen. Dieser war mit Ehemann gerade auf einer Vietnam und Kambodscha-Reise unterwegs… da die beiden unbedingt @auf die Insel Koh Rong wollten@, um Party, Sonne und Strand zu geniessen…trafen wir uns auf dem Backpacker-Domizil. Doch leider schmissen Juraj und Ehemann ihre Plaene kurzerhand um, da sie noch ganz dringend Bangkok einen Besuch abstatten wollten und liessen uns auf der geschaeftigen Insel kurzerhand nach  Tag zurueck 🙁  Zunaechst ziemlich enttaeuscht, ueberlegten wir nach Alternativen … da wir sowieso vorhatten einen fortgeschritten Tauchkurs entweder in Vietnam oder in Japan zu machen, um in Japan die Moeglichkeit zu haben nach Schiffwracks zu tauchen (mit einem Anfaengertauchschein darf man nur bis zu 18 m tief tauchen, die meisten Schiffwracks befinden sich aber in 20-30m Tiefe, wofuer man eine fortgeschrittene Qualifikation benoetigt)… so entschieden wir uns kurzerhand ein Boot zur Nachbarinsel Koh Rong Samloem zu nehmen und bei Eco Sea Dive auch unseren Fortgeschrittenen Kurs zu belegen… die beste Entscheidung, die wir treffen konnten! Es war wieder super unter Wasser und besonders mit unserem Tauchausbilder Stevie 🙂    

With the course we got 5 different specialty dives and could choose 3 ourselves. 

1. Navigation (compulsory) 
2. Deep (compulsory) 
3. Perfect buoyancy 
4. Wreck
5. Night 

Perfect buoyancy was one of our selections as when diving it is best to make yourself weightless, so you don’t sink or float up, just hover at the level you want. It helps you go for longer dives when you perfect it as you conserve a lot of air it is also handy for doing any functions underwater and not having to move to stay up or down. 

Our new trainer Stevie was excellent at explaining how to make it work and it is so much fun being able to swim along and then to go over an obstacle just taking in a slightly deeper breath and then down breath out more. 

The next choice was wreck diving. We selected this as there are so many sunken ships throughout the world and it would be so amazing to explore them more, they act as unnatural reefs and the sealife they support while decaying in their salty grave is immense. 

And finally we really wanted a night dive. Having just a single beam of light projecting into the pitch dark is eerily exhilarating. The night life in the sea is much different from the day. We saw crazy crabs who seemed pissed right off with a light in their eyes.. The best part was when we almost rudely awakened a sting ray. Fortunately Stevie noticed it before we got all Steve Irwined. 

Now we are fully licensed to go to 30m and have some big plans for future dives.