Martin's First Dive

Martin Arnold from Surrey is currently on holiday with us over in sunny Phuket. Martin has never dived before and was up for the challenge. We started off with a pool session and after a bit of a natter about the gear etc we then headed off to our favourite first dive site at Kata, Phuket. There is a nice inshore coral reef at Kata and the viz is usually pretty good. There's always stacks to see which is great for a first dive. The reef is buoyed off to protect snorklers and divers against the real menace and danger of jet ski's. (Why are they allowed in areas where there are families trying to swim with their children??....utter madness!) The rope around the reef allows a novice diver to hang on and gently descend to within a couple of feet of the sandy bottom...a perfect way to make a first gentle descent. And there's Martin telling us in diver sign language that he is OK!

 Martin has dropped free of the surface rope and is making his very first underwater fin kicks. We are at 4 metres.

 And now at 5 metres.  The bottom is sandy and then the coral reef start to appears. So, you have kneel on the sand and stay motionless and the fish will all come back towards yo...what a nice way to start your very first dive...and in 30 degree C sea!

 There are hundreds of different fish on this reef and many different species.

 There's always a puffer fish hiding under the reef.............

 Many different types of coral, anenomes and colourful fish make diving at Kata hard to beat.

There's always a need to be careful as there are many lionfish hiding under the coral...so watch out for where the hands go.

Martin's first dive took us down to 8 metres and we stayed there for 50 minutes with plenty of air left at the end of the dive. Shallow, clear warm water makes Phuket a delightful place to learn and it's great to see how many of my guests are up for having a go.....we ain't what could be called Spring Chickens any more so it's all the more credit to our guests that they take that first dive. As is usually the case, Martin looked very happy when he was down there with so much to see and we will do another dive togther tomorrow. He is especially keen to impress upon his daughter that he reached the dizzy depths of 103 metres....you see...anglers...they HAVE to exaggerate everything.

In a couple of days Martin's daughter joins us and is coming to Phuket to take the PADI IDC (Instructor Development Course)...it must run in the family,