Night diving deserves a quiet night

Night Diving is one of those activities that you kind of have to be forced into, but once you're there and diving, it becomes a magical experience that really takes you to a new place within yourself where you have to conquer your fear and trust not only yourself, but your buddy and your equipment as well. But, if you can "feel the fear and face it anyway," you will be the recipient of some sites and memories that will last a lifetime. To begin, there was a strange little storm that rolled in about 2 hours before we were due to leave for our night dive so Alex and I assumed it would be cancelled, as this is the precautions one should take when night diving...that is, do not dive when there is a storm. However, this was not the case so off we went at dusk on the choppiest most sea sick inducing boat ride of our lives to an equally choppy and sea sick inducing stop where we had to get into all of our gear while standing on a bucking bronco of a boat and jumping into the darkest water...like ocean of blackness...that is full of rolling waves that smack into your face, as you inhale gulps of the saltiest water imaginable. We were all struggling to get our regulators into our mouths and quickly descend into the midnight blue water with only a tiny flashlight shining down below our fins. Alex and I refused to let go of each other's hands the entire dive, as it was truly frightening when we did an exercise where you put the flashlight against your chest...the light part of the flashlight...so you are sitting on the ocean floor in complete darkness. paralyzing fear, but then you move your hands around and the water becomes illuminated with glow int he dark plankton that looks like flecks of neon green and silver glitter swirling above our heads and all around our bodies...kind of a Little Mermaid moment really...who would have thought Disney would have been so spot on with the underwater details. So, we carried on exploring the nocturnal sea creatures that hide beneath coral and swim around where it dark. We saw huge puffer fish with parrot fish under a huge ledge of red coral. I think they were dating...the parrot fish looks like an opal with a rainbow of colours all around its' body and the puffer fish has huge alien-like eyes that take over its' entire face and they literally stare at you. It could have been the fact that I blinded the poor thing...accidentally I might add...but using a flashlight in the darkest of waters is not the easiest task to master..alright! We also saw so many stingrays and chased them around the sea floor for a while. The one thing I did not like were the thousands...and I do mean thousands...of sea urchins lining the sea floor and all the coral and rocks so you have to be so careful where you move and land and navigate yourself between rocks. They look like blackish purple ocean porcupines with one strange neon blue and yellow eyeball in the centre. They will hurt you so you have to stay away. Then, it was time to ascend...it went so fast. Usually, ascents are calm and easy and it is nice to reach the surface and feel the warm sun on our faces, but not during a night dive with vigorous waves meeting you on the surface, smacking you in the face and battering you against the boat and the buoys. We made it back to the boat, then to the beach, then to our beds!
Today, we finished our Advanced Diving Course with a Deep Dive to 30m and an Underwater Photography Dive near a wreck site. We were a bit nervous about the deep dive, as there are all sorts of illnesses and ailments you can get underneath the sea surface and they have to tell you about them all so you can be safe, but it is scary. Nitrogen Narcosis and the Bends are my two favourite, but we have been very safe and secure thus far and today was no different. Well, the sea floor felt fuzzy and a bit slimy to me like very oily soft hair, as we landed in some algae I think. The way Steve (our scuba instructor) likes to check if you are experiencing Nitrogen Narcosis is with what he calls simple math problems when you reach 30m such as 3 + 5 - 2 x 6 - 3 =. Now, this is not simple to me and considering I got 4 + 2 incorrect when we were practicing on the surface (I think I was just focusing on the dive at the time), I was a bit nervous about this. We both nailed our math problems and were not inflicted with any sort of ailments and Shark Island was one of the most colourful dives we have had to date and there was so much to look at and take in. Shark Island is a large rock with several smaller rocks surrounding the large rock and all different kinds of coral in every colour imaginable and so many sea creatures it was hard to stay focused on our dive. It was like being a kid in a candy store looking from left to right and all around us with the bright colours catching our eyes and drawing our attention so rapidly. When you dive deep, you use your oxygen a lot faster than when in shallower waters so we only spent about 41 minutes below, but wow, what a 41 minutes it was. We took a nice long break on the surface and swan around a bit in the warm crystally blue water eating pineapple and watermelon until we took our second dive to learn how to take underwater photographs. Not our best moment, but we are learning. We went to a wreck and found some other random things submerged below, as well as some coral and fish. Taking photos underwater is just so difficult. The camera case is so buoyancy and likes to float away, lighting is strange and fish don't pose for pictures! We both wanted to chase them around, soon realizing that this technique does not work so we just remained as still as possible and waited for them to come to us. Then, with great sadness, it ended and it is all over now. We cannot believe that after 5 days we are certified and can dive to depths of 30 metres...just 5 short days ago we were normal non-scuba diving individuals and now look at us. New skill, new expensive hobby and some new found friends and bravery! We leave Koh Tao tomorrow for Koh Phan Nang for a full moon party and a new island to explore, but leaving Koh Tao will be sad, like leaving most places has become. We are not sure if this is because we are getting ever closer to the end of our travels or it is because we become attached to places where you spend so much time and have memorable experiences like scuba diving...probably a bit of both.