I would like to introduce you to Reto, who decided to sign up for his Open Water Course on our live aboard Reef Encounter. Only after 3 days and 2 nights, including 8 day dives and a final exam, Reto was an Open Water diver!
The course started with his first open water dive in our beautiful reef location Norman Playgrounds.
Usually the first confined session is the hardest, performing mask and regulator removal under water is not an easy task but guess what? Reto smashed it! So we were able to continue the session as a fun 30 minutes dive!
The course started with his first open water dive in our beautiful reef location Norman Playgrounds.
Usually the first confined session is the hardest, performing mask and regulator removal under water is not an easy task but guess what? Reto smashed it! So we were able to continue the session as a fun 30 minutes dive!
Norman Playgrounds is one of my favourite dive sites. The visibility is usually exceptional (15-20 meters) and a couple of huge Grey Reef Sharks are usually hanging around "Shark Mountain". The highlight, however, is our local resident Tyson! He is a Queensland Grouper of around 1.5 meters long that I can assure you...would intimidate anyone under water!
Day number two started with us jumping in the water at 6.30am for our early morning session at the same location. This one never disappoints..on our way to the training sandy area a school of 40 Humphead Parrot Fish surprised us while working on the new skills. What a start of the day! This is the largest spicies of parrot fish that can be found in the Great Barrier Reef. When encountering these gigantic parrot fish during the day, you will most likely find them wandering around on their own or maybe in groups of two or three. At night, however, as a defense mechanism, they will gather in huge schools until later on in the morning when all the predators are gone and it is safe to spread out.
Day number two started with us jumping in the water at 6.30am for our early morning session at the same location. This one never disappoints..on our way to the training sandy area a school of 40 Humphead Parrot Fish surprised us while working on the new skills. What a start of the day! This is the largest spicies of parrot fish that can be found in the Great Barrier Reef. When encountering these gigantic parrot fish during the day, you will most likely find them wandering around on their own or maybe in groups of two or three. At night, however, as a defense mechanism, they will gather in huge schools until later on in the morning when all the predators are gone and it is safe to spread out.
For our dive number 3 we changed location within the same reef system, Norman Fingers. This location offers amazing topography and a great variety of marine life too. On this dive Reto performed the under water weight belt and BCD removal and replacement. This is a hard one too, especially for beginner divers that do not master their buoyancy yet. Of course, Reto exceeded my expectations and carried all the skills out efficiently!
The last day of the course is basically a review of all the skills, so the more we repeat them, the more confident we feel performing them. Since Reto was a brilliant student, we enjoyed the last two sessions going for fun certified dives!
All in all an awesome and successful course. Congratulations Reto - my latest Open Water Diver! Safe travels back to Europe! I hope you enjoyed the course as much as I did!
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