A new generation of divers - part 2

Last week, Wicked Diving started the Open Water course with 3 students from the Foundation for Education and Development (FED) as part of a unique program to train up some of their students to become Dive Guides, which will allow them to find work in the diving industry in Thailand.

The theory and pool training were done over last weekend and this weekend it was time for the Open Water part of our course with ChaiChai, Japu and Myintzu. Marcel, together with Divemaster Trainees Lucy and Lukas, took them to a local reef called Khao Nayak. A short boat ride away from the harbour of Tublamu, this is an ideal place to start the first dives of your open water course. Shallow water, big sandy areas to practice your buoyancy and there is quite some interesting marine life to be found as well.
Two dives were planned and after a thorough dive briefing it was finally time to gear up, do the buddy checks and get in the water!
After a small descend on the line, we all landed in the sand and it was time to adjust, acclimatize and go for the dive!

Conditions were perfect: no current, 15+ meters visibility and a comfortable depth of 7 meters. All three did a great job! We could see the big smile on ChaiChai’s face behind his mask and regulator when he saw the first fish! After a bit of swimming around over the sand, we went to the rocks and corals and found some lionfish, a honeycomb moray eel, Moorish idols, angelfish and much more. After 45 minutes it was time to go up, have lunch and do a short snorkel session over the rocks..

On the second dive, there were a lot of exercises planned. Regulator retrieval, mask flooding, air sharing, buoyancy exercises etc. Again, all three did great and showed us that they are absolutely comfortable in the water. After the exercises there was some more time left over for a small dive to find some more interesting marine life.

Having finished dive 1 & 2, sadly it was time to head back to land. The good thing is that 2 more dives were planned on Sunday. This time it was instructor Collin, together with Lucy and Lukas, to take them back to Khao Nayak for the final training dives of the course. More underwater adventures and again they did great on the skills and on the dives.

Now only the final exam is left and once they pass that, we are proud to certify them as our first Burmese Open Water divers in the history of Wicked Diving!


None of this would be possible without you - our guests and friends. As part of our Ethical Dive Center program - 2% of all our proceeds got to support projects that improve our local community and environment. This course comes at no cost to the kids. When you dive with Wicked - you make a difference.

There is still more to come from these amazing kids. Keep an eye on this space :)

-Wicked Diving, Thailand