Inspire Steemit #9: Let's dive in...scuba diving Pt .1! O(∩_∩)O我的潜水日志①- 考取PADI开放水域潜水执照

It was not longer than a few days ago when I saw a post of a Steemit friend of mine (@nostalgic1212) having posted a thread about getting her scuba diving license. I felt really happy for her! As I used to be a diver myself, I know how great it feels to pass your first real diving test. About 3 years ago, I made a decision to give myself a very special birthday gift – my first scuba diving license! Soon after I went to Thailand and as a result of my small enterprise – I got my first diving license - PADI OPEN WATER DIVER.

At that time, have I made a choice to go to Tao Island (also widely known as: Turtle Island) in Thailand. The reason for that choice was pretty simple. Koh Thao is internationally recognized as world famous 'dive factory', as people tend to call it. It is the cheapest place in the world to get your diving license, for instance OW (Open Water Diver license) which I was aiming at getting at that time. In terms of the course itself, it was 4-day long diving course, which basically cost about 2,000 RMB – it's considerably cheap taking into account that it equals half the price of the license you can get on Sanya (China) and much cheaper compared with other destinations in Southeast Asia. For my own convenience, I made a decision to choose a local Chinese diving school located on the island.

The OW examination process was fairly easy and simple. From what I can recall, first day was just a day long lecture about the pure theory. In the morning the next day, there was a practical lesson taking place in the pool. The third day was a big deal as it was a diving in an open sea. That was what I was afraid of the most. There were two diving sessions that day (maximum dive depth 12 meters) + homework assignments, a review and the final exam afterwards. On the fourth day we had two diving sessions in the morning (in an open sea) and two more in the afternoon, which makes it 4 overall (maximum dive depth of 18 meters) + diving skills test in the end of the day.

That's me with my scuba diving classmates

Haha, look at this! This photo is kind of unique and very special to me at the same time. It shows my first jump into the sea, fully armored in my scuba diving costume! You have no idea how scared I was that day. Still, having all these things said, this is a stepping stone for every scuba diver out there!

The actual venue where my scuba diving test took place was the sea of the Chumphon Province. I remember it as if it was yesterday - there were a plenty of very tall rock columns, where both hard corals and soft corals grew, right there on the surface of the undulating stone walls! There was a huge variety of different microorganisms growing in between the corals, too. As you can imagine, there were a lot of different species of fish living there as well. That day I felt very blessed, as I was lucky enough to have seen the whale shark and a turtle, not to mention other types of beautiful marine life there. Follow me and here we go!

Right after the exam, I came back to China. I received my PADI OPEN WATER scuba diving license after about 2 months, it was sent to China via post by my Padi Center. The cool thing about this license is, that it allows me to dive freely in the ocean with no more certifications needed. I believe it was really a wonderful experience. I think only those who tried scuba diving can actually understand the term 'blue poison'. When you enter this world, there is no way back. Like a one way ticket. In my personal opinion it's one of the best 'addictions' you may ever have. I don't regret a single minute spent underwater. Truly a pure magic!

---

前几天看到有个steemit的小伙伴@nostalgic1212 发表了一个考取了潜水驾照的帖子，真的很为她开心，，因为我曾经也是个潜水员，所以我懂得通过潜水考试时候的喜悦心情，大概在3年前左右，我想送给自己的生日礼物就是考取人生第一个潜水执照，所以我选择了来了泰国，考取了我的第一张国际潜水执照-PADI OPEN WATER DIVER 开放水域潜水员

当时我选择的是泰国的涛岛（又称：龟岛），原因很简单，涛岛号称世界“潜水工厂”,几乎是世界上考证最便宜的地方，比如OW（Open Water Diver，开放水域潜水员）课程来说，4天的套餐差不多是人民币2000元左右，比三亚便宜近半，也比东南亚其它地方便宜得多。我为了学习方便，所以当时选择当地一个中文潜水学校。

图片详情请见英文部分！

当时考OW的流程相对比较简单，我记得到达了涛岛的潜水学校后，第一天是学习理论课，第二天是上午是泳池实践课下午继续是理论课，第三天开放水域（出海）潜水1，2（最大下潜深度12米）+课后作业点评及期末考试。，第四天上午是开放水域（出海）潜水3,4（最大下潜深度18米）+潜水技巧考试。
我的潜水同学们:

这个是我第一次下海的照片，哈哈，鬼知道当时我真是克服了多少的恐惧，才迈开这关键的一步！

我的考试海域是春蓬府海域，我记得那里有个很高的岩石柱，硬珊瑚和软珊瑚生长在起伏的石壁表面上，而丰富的微生物借此生长在珊瑚之间，这就引来了大量的鱼群，kiki很幸运的看见了鲸鲨和海龟, 当然还有很多其他美丽海洋生物，快快和我一起来看看吧！

图片详情请见英文部分！

考试结束后，我回国大概2个月左右收到了来自padi中心发给我的padi OW 潜水证，以后有了这个证书，我就可以自由畅游海洋里啦！真正热爱潜水的人都懂得中了“蓝毒”的感觉，当你进入了蓝色海洋世界的一刹那，真的仿佛打开了新世界的大门，那是一种欲罢不能的瘾！