Posts by Sarah

My favorite course to teach

By Sarah, 15 May, 2012, No Comment

Many people pass through Davy Jones Locker everyday taking many different courses. As an instructor perfection is a priority and we like to make sure we have fun with it as well. My favorite course to teach is the Rescue Course. Though I haven’t taught many in my year and a half of teaching, I always know it’s going to be an exciting three days when I get assigned one. The rescue course if the first course you will take as a diver that will put responsibility in your hands. It will make you into a better diver by being more cautious and aware but also make you a better diver by teaching and giving you the skills to help look out for your fellow dives out in the water. You will learn basic first aid, then get in the water and learn how to deal with diving emergencies by practicing many different scenarios. The Rescue course is a very serious course, but that doesn’t stop the other instructors and I from making it a very fun and enjoyable course just like any other course taught at our shop. My favorite part of the course is the ‘Dive from Hell’ done in open water on the last day. We go out on the boat and bring a few dive master trainee’s to help out and role play as ‘victims’ and set up scenarios all around the dive site so you have a chance to take what you learned in the pool and apply it to real life situations. A lot of ciaos is created above and below the water and between all the laughing and running (or swimming) around you get to take your skills and put them to the test. By the end of the day you (and your instructor) will be exhausted but satisfied because now you will be a certified rescue diver!
By Sarah Gilbert

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You’re in Charge

By Sarah, 6 May, 2012, No Comment

Here at Davy Jones Locker we teach a lot of different courses to a lot of different people. The best and most rewarding of them (I think) would have to be the dive master course. The dive master course is the first step to becoming a professional diver and not only improves your diving skills but also puts you in a position where you will be guiding other divers and helping instructor’s with students that are just getting into the sport. With the title will come responsibility that will put you in charge and will help you grow as a diver and a person. You will learn how to navigate around all the dive sites that Koh Tao has to offer and enjoy the marine life that comes with it. It can be challenging at times, but always turns into a very rewarding experience whether you decide to make a career out of it or just do it for the fun of it. The dive master course can be done in as little as 2 weeks as long as you have at least 40 dives under your belt to start out with and 60 dives by the time you finish the course. Most divers however stay for months at a time to get the experience and see how a dive shop works while racking up their dives so they end up coming out of the course with not 60 but maybe hundreds of dives. At Davy Jones Locker you will get unlimited diving during your dive master course and if you succeed in finishing it you can come back to Koh Tao any time you like to enjoy the free diving that you get for LIFE with our shop. When the course is finished we top it off with an outrageous party and the traditional ‘Snorkel Test’ that every dive master trainee must do before entering into the world of PADI professionals. If you love diving then what are you doing at home reading about it….come sign up for our dive master course today!

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To dive or not to dive, that is your question?

By Sarah, 15 April, 2012, No Comment

Many people walk into Davy Jones everyday asking themselves ‘Hey, should I try out this diving thing or not?’ Sometimes it has to do with being on a budget or being short on time, however sometimes (though you may not want to admit it) you might just be a little scared. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it shouldn’t stop you from getting into the water. Not only does Davy Jones have some of the most professional (and a wee bit crazy) instructors but diving is also a very rewarding and enjoyable experience.

Take one of my newly certified open water students for example. Kine from Norway came to Koh Tao with the idea of diving on her mind. She loved swimming, snorkeling and the ocean, but unfortunately had a near-drowning experience as a small child and since then has always been uncomfortable with having water around her face, mouth, and eyes. But with some encouragement she decided that she would give diving a shot. The pool session took some extra effort and she struggled with certain skills, in particular the mask clear and removing from the face. At first she didn’t think that it would be possible to do it and almost gave up. With a little help from her friend and some extra time in the pool with the instructor, by the afternoon she was not only clearing her mask but swimming around without it on!

The next day began with the first open water dive and there was excitement mixed with some nervousness as the class geared up and prepared to jump in. Kine was not so keen on the jumping part but again, with some encouragement she made it off the boat and into the water only to become (what I think) as the best student in the class. She was first down the line, great buoyancy, and was very good on her air consumption. Best of all, she loved it! Every dive after that was a walk in the park and today she finished her course and is now a certified open water diver.

Even better, she signed up and is starting her advance course. At the beginning she was asking me if she could stay above 10 meters, now she will be getting certified to dive to 30! So go and give it a try, you have nothing to lose. You never know, you may end up finding a new love in life!

Instructor Sarah, DMT Hannah & Open Water Students

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Why I love teaching Open Water

By Sarah, 28 January, 2012, No Comment

Jenny, Philippa, Sarah, Megan, Leiann

As a dive instructor, there is one thing that will never get old. Coming up with a group of students after open water dive 1 and hearing them all, in union, state how unbelievable it was. Ohh’s and ahh’s and every once in awhile someone going (my favorite) ‘why couldn’t we stay down longer?’ (Mmmm, I wonder why?) It’s even better when it’s a group of classy English ladies, who spent days prior to the course (between their hours of scheduled sunbathing rituals) asking you every question imaginable and who were terrified that something might go wrong. They almost had me stressed out more than them about the course, and it hadn’t even started yet. Who would have guessed, that group of girls would have ended up becoming one of my favorite groups of Open Water students to date and also some great friends that I hope I can meet up with later in life. Well start with the introductions. First off we had Jenny, the fun loving (but sometimes forgetful) student who liked to share stories about her travels, especially when she had a near death experience with a coconut. Then there was her side kick and best mate Philippa, also known as Flip, eager to dive with a love for The Foo Fighters. Leiann, who was traveling with her father (also a fellow PADI diver) and wanted to see what all the fuss was about, then Megan, who had tried diving once before (well just say it wasn’t the best experience) and was very nervous about giving it a second go. The first day started out with a pool session, which ended up not only being one of the longest one’s I have ever done, but also the funniest. It began with 4 very nervous but excited girls all asking multiple questions at once (sorry girls if I got a little snappy with you, it was out of love I swear), continued with many skills, some easy, some difficult, and some (to their surprise) a piece of cake. No tears were shed during the almost 4 hours spent in that pool, but there were a few times when we all had to come up to the surface for air, not because they were having a hard time breathing from their regulators, but because we were all laughing so hard underwater our ribs were starting to ache and we needed a breather. I felt like a mother hawk watching her chicks take that big leap into the air the next day, as all 4 girls plunged into the open sea and I watched them descend into a world that they would never forget. The fear of the unknown ocean was turned into a love for it, right before my eyes, and it made me remember why I loved my job so much. After surfacing and hearing what use to be uncertain questions turned into ‘OHMYGAWDDD (that was brilliant, that was amazing, that was unreal, ect, ect.) I knew they were hooked. I couldn’t help but laugh, while briefing about the second dive, I explained about the family of clown fish we would go visit (ok girls, all together now, ‘OHHHH NEMOOO!’) and my smile only got bigger when at the end of the day, their complaints about getting up early the next day to have to finish the course became complaints of how they wouldn’t be able to sleep, since they were that excited to go diving again. The last day of the course went as planned, lots of excitement with some more ohh’s and ahh’s, but ended with the satisfaction of taking what started as 4 terrified and nervous girls and certifying them into PADI open water divers. Its times like these that make me love what I do, to be able to watch people grow within themselves as they conquer a new task that is in front of them, sometimes scary at first but in the end very rewarding. And to be honest, if these girls can do it, anyone can (again, I say that out of love).

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My First Whale Shark

By Sarah, 7 December, 2011, No Comment

Sarah & the Whale Shark

It’s my first month on this rock they call Koh Tao and as the divers enter back into the shop’s territory after their morning or afternoon dive there is one word that you pick up in their mixed rambling of conversation. Whale shark. While others get excited and run to put their name down on the boat list, I don’t think much of it. This is now the 3rd place I have worked in the past year and a half that was known for its popular visitor, Mr. Whale Shark, but I had better luck buying lottery tickets then having one grace me with its presence. It just never happened, I never got that lucky. I was either not on the boat at the right time, not diving at the right site, or just the 1 in 20 divers that happened to miss the biggest fish known to man swimming overhead. So it wasn’t the main reason to go fun diving that Saturday morning. The shop was headed to a dive site known at Chumpon, a pinnacle about 45 minutes north west of the island that was known for always making a diver happy. Lots of colorful fish, huge grouper, and yes (or so they say) the occasional whale shark. Not a bad reason to get up at 6:30am I’d say. So as we jumped in the water we were met with mild currents and great visibility, but it was still just as good as ever. Schooling giant barracuda right in front of your face, fields of pink anemone and giant menacing looking grouper that in reality are more afraid of you then you should be of them. Not a bad dive I would say and definitely not a bad way to start out your day. As we came up to do our 3 minute safety stop at 5 meters the current pulled us from the pinnacle and we found ourselves floating in crystal clear blue water. It had been a good long dive and we were all starting to get low on air but it had been well worth it, Chumpon never failed to amaze me. As my friends and I signaled that time was up and started to surface, I did a double take. Out of the blue it came, like some huge UFO out of a Spielberg movie, except this time it came with spots and a tail, a shark tail. I looked back at my friends who were also just as awestruck as me, but unfortunately unlike me, they were low on air. After a sorry look they signaled to me that they were heading up and went to the surface. I glanced back at the whale shark that was heading straight for me. Nope, I will not be missing it this time and quickly swam back down to be at eye level with it. It was by far the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Later friends would tell me ‘he was only 4 meters long, just a little guy. The last one I saw was 10.’ Do you think I care?! That fish could have been 40 meters long, it was still the biggest thing I had ever seen, and to have it swimming next to me, only a few feet away, I felt like the krill and plankton you always hear are their only source of food. It took my breath away, which in the end benefited me because I got to spend the next 5-10 minutes alone in the ocean with one of its most unbelievable creatures. I took my alternate out and purged it, watching it twist and turn as it came back for more of my bubbles, swimming over top of them like it was in some whale shark Jacuzzi. This was my first whale shark and I had it all to myself. In that moment I felt like I could spend the rest of my life, or at least the day, just following that fish around. But all good things must come to an end and as I saw my time down in the sea was starting to run short, I waved (yes, I actually waved) goodbye to my new found friend knowing I would be seeing him again. As I got back on the boat all I could think to myself was, wow, this is not a bad way to start off a day.

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