Hello Koh Tao

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Arrival on the afternoon ferry, and they forget to pick me up….thankfully someone came back to get me a little while later. It was a beautiful wait, I felt as if I'd re-entered island time and all was once again at equilibrium. Put away my day to day watch and took out the Matrix cause it’s dive time……

Got to Big Blue and immediately met my DM for the next day, he was awesome. Welcomed me with open arms and was super excited to dive with me. I asked politely if he could make a call and find me the ever so difficult and enormous creature…. The “Whale shark”. He then proceeded to tell me my call time was at 6:30AM!!!!!!!!! So I figured….why not, have a few beer and head to bed….lol…..ya right…………hahahahahahhahaha. Enjoying the afternoon sun passing the time I met some great people. Spent the day/evening chatting about experiences and life, swimming, drinking and laughing. Exactly what the doctor ordered after such a busy week and a half in Bangkok. Fire Poi, music and a wonderful night had me loving this tiny island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand. Forced myself with all my will to end the night before it began again as I was diving the next day.

However, I can’t leave you without a favourite quote or moment of the evening….

Me: Have you been to 40m?

Funny French Canadian Guy: No, but I been 8 mins and less…..

Me: CRACKING UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Waking up bright and early at 5:45am, I stumbled down to the restaurant at the beach. Craving bacon like it was my job after a month in Malaysia I ordered what any meat eating person would after a night of drinking and dancing: bacon and eggs and it was only $2CAD….lol……Greeted by my DM with a smile, we joked about how much nicer we would feel after getting in the water. I finished my breakie, and headed to grab my gear. It was boat time! Excited to get the day started we briefed and chatted as a group on the sundeck for the 45 min journey to what would be the best dive of my life thus far. My DM joked that he had called the Whale Shark and asked it to make an appearance for me, and though it is Whale Shark season in Koh Tao the sheer number of them left makes then very difficult to find. So down we go for what was going to be a deep dive around the Chumphon Pinnacle a diver’s favourite around here. I was just stoked to get back in the water after three weeks off. Sounds like I have a very difficult life……I know………….I’ve been told by many people….hahahahahah… Getting all geared up and turning on my camera I realised I had forgotten to bring the strap to attach it to me. Worried I might drop it I decided to leave it on the boat, down to 30 we go, seeing tons of barracuda, schools and schools of fish, groupers, cobias, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the MASSIVE shadow, turned my head, realising I didn’t have my tapper, and grabbed the DM’s fin and shook like crazy while making as much noise as I could to get his attention. IT was a WHALE SHARK!!!!!!  At that moment he turned towards me as it swam cm’s away from our faces. Watching like a movie we followed it for as long as our watches allowed us to….lol. During our safety stop after numerous happy dances, one of the girls pointed down, and again, right below us there it was again “The Whale Shark…………….AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The couple that was in my group had missed it last week and it was their last day. We were all ecstatic and when all the groups returned to the boat we celebrated with high fives, laughs, and pure excitement. Remembering that our DMT and a guest had missed it due to camera malfunction during the dive. I felt for that guy man, he did NOT look happy at all but I guess it’s the chance you take to capture a moment. Due to our long deep dive we needed to rest for an hr. So we all chatted amongst ourselves about whether we wanted to try again…..limited by depth and NDL’s we choose to move on and see another fabulous site that is rarely divable due to currents. But today for us, the seas were calm, the skies were clear, and the sharks were out.