Master Diver Geoff French.............

Last year we had Sonja French staying with us. She was a natural at scuba diving. Sonja had never tried scuba before but after two sessions in the pool and a go in the sea....she was off! Sonja went on to take her Open Water Course at the local Padi Centre and passed it with ease.....she's hooked.

This year we are pleased to welcome her papa, Mr Geoff French.




Geoff has never tried scuba diving either but after just ONE session in the pool, it was clear he had plenty of confidence and ability. We progressed to the sea the next day and dived at the lovely coral reef at Kata Beach.


Geoff was able to drop the 6 meters to the seabed with no problems at all regarding equalizing and we were soon sorting out the fin pivot exercise to establish initial bouyancy control.






It's always great fun to watch someone on their
first ever dives; their eyes are bulging with the excitement of what they are seeing for the first time...and the face is beaming away in a big big smile!


This is when a learner's buoyancy control can rapidly evaporate!
The diver is so excited and interested in what's all around that the
'drift' (arse first) to the surface starts...folowed by strenous efforts to get back down.



This can all be a tiring process.....rising up, swimming back down...up, down, up, down. Exhausting for the novice diver and highly entertaining for the watcher!




Here's Geoff taking a well deserved break on the bottom....before launching himself into an impressive succession of underwater swallow dives and somersaults.

Geoff stayed down for 50 minutes on his first ever attempt which is very impressive indeed. In fact we only came up then because he'd worn himself out with his underwater aerobics...and the fact that he was now wearing every weight we had between us to keep him down.

But for sure, next time everything will be a lot better. Now then, Sonja, ain't you proud of your papa????