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A day in the life of a Koh Tao Divemaster Trainee

My first encounter with a whale shark by Rachel Jones.

“This morning I left early to assist a course. As part of the Divemaster course we assist open water and advanced students during their diving in Thailand so today, like most days the alarm went off at 6 (way to early..) but once on my way to the dive school I woke up, I walked my way through the coconut trees: heard the birds singing and saw the sun coming up. What a way to wake up! Within 10 minutes I arrived at the dive school, there was a pleasant vibe, nice weather and a nice group of students. I was assisting my instructor on a advanced course and this was the day for their first deep dive: 30 meters!

It is so beautiful in the early morning on the dive boat, the colors of the morning sky, the sea like a mirror, wind in your hair and a nice cup of coffee in your hand. Half way through our trip to the dive site (about 30 minutes) our captain received a call from another captain… He spotted a whale shark.

After that the mood changed, no more relaxing but we all got straight into our dive gear, did our buddy checks… we even put on our fins, ready to jump into the water once the boat would stop.

When we arrived at the dive site all the student where so nervous. They had no clue what to expect… seeing a shark at your 9th dive is a scary thought. One of the students could not go under in the deep blue sea because he was breathing too heavily … I saw he was confused about the whole shark thing and explained to him that a whale shark only eats plankton… He calmed down and a few seconds later we emerged together in the Gulf of Thailand. We joined the group and followed the instructor down.

We where diving for about 10 minutes and just when we thought the whale shark had left she came by and said hello… So beautiful and not scary at all, even if she was only 4 meters (this is a baby, the grown ups are about 15 meters) it felt like some kind of magic … she was so close to us, maybe only 1 meter away. It was hard to concentrate on the students and I tried not to loose sight of them. I had never seen something so cool!

On our trip back everyone was so enthusiastic. The chance of coming face to face with a whale shark is so small. Some people have made 2000 dives and never seen one. My students got the chance to meet up with this beautiful creature after just 9 dives.”

Rachel Jones, took a Thailand Gap year in 2008