Diving in Krabi, Thailand @ the Phi Phi Islands

After lot's of procrastination, I finally took the plunge literally with my wife. We finally took up our PADI Open Water Diving certification. On 17th Dec, we checked into the Aonang Buri Resort in Krabi, I have always wanted to return to Krabi after being there in 2003 with the VS Cross-Country Team. We first checked in with our instructors at the Aquavision Dive Shop, where we tried on our gear and got to meet our Dive Instructor, Liz and the rest of the guys at AquaVision. Check out there well stocked equipment room here. Geri trying on her gear Once we had picked our gear, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the next day ahead. Bright and early the next day, we boarded our dive boat: Let's take a look at our dive boat:

Here we see our Dive Instructor Liz giving the divers and snorklers the orientation and safety briefing for the boat:

Our Open Water Dive Instructor, Lertlid aka Liz was a fun, easy-going guy who set us open-water newbies at ease and yet constantly reinforced the key concepts and fundamentals for us so that we could master the core diving skills competently So step by step, we were guided in the setting up of our equipment. 1)First, let's check out the the dive deck. Here is where our oxygen thanks are kept and where we get ready to gear up 2)Next we connect our Buoynacy Control Devices to our oxygen tanks 3)Next we connected our oxygen regulators to the tank 4)After connecting our regulators, we test the pressure and check our gauges. After that we check our regulators to make sure that they are able to provide a smooth flow of oxygen. 5)Next we fitted our masks, snorkels and weight belts: To make sure that we'd got it right, Liz tested me and ask me to set up HIS equipment. From the looks of his face, I think he wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do- Heh heh.. seeing me fumble with his more advanced set-up must have sent shivers down his spine.

After all that, we're ready to go diving. Check out the clear water and great visibility for our dives!

Here's a video of our diving experience taken by the videographer Anja Ullberg.