Barrier Reef Australia Blog

Hi there, it’s me Robbie with blog number 3 for Barrier Reef Australia on how I became a qualified a full time PADI Open Water Scuba Dive Instructor.

If you would like to read my previous blogs just follow these links:

• Blog #1 - Why Try Scuba Diving Part #1 - How Scuba Diving Became My World!
• Blog #2 - Why Try Scuba Diving Part #2 - My Love For Scuba Diving

Doing the PADI Open Water scuba diving course changed my life and thought process in so many ways.

Now being a certified diver, after having completed my dive course in Thailand, meant that the doors were open for me to travel, and to dive destinations that I’d never had the desire to visit before with the pure intent of scuba diving.

It was like a new world for me that just had to be explored and being just at the beach wasn’t enough for me anymore.

If I were on the beach, I’d be wondering what lies beneath the water. How deep was it? Were there any wrecks? Could there be sharks? Actually, the idea of diving, rather than snorkeling or just swimming around, made me feel safer in open water.

Watching movies and or films about sharks put ideas in my head that simply weren’t true but I didn’t know better and the more dives I did with sharks, the more comfortable I became. Now all I want to do is dive with them.

The following year, my girlfriend and I had our vacation plans screwed by visa issues between South Korea and China, so we had to come up with a plan B.

After a few long conversations, we decided to put our new found passion into high gear by getting certified and becoming fully fledged dive masters.

The idea of advancing our dive skills and knowledge, while exploring the ocean was just too exciting. So we began researching destinations to which we could afford and be PADI DMs with lots of aquatic life all within our budget.

We found a tiny little island in the Philippines called Malapascua. Now it’s famous for the dive site named Monad Shoal, which is known for having year round thresher sharks and oceanic manta rays as well as whale sharks.

The scuba dive courses and hotel were well within our price range, so we booked our flights, gave our one month notice to our employers, and we were off with a plan to stay for two months living in the Philippines.

Once we arrived to the island, we were given an orientation of the dive center and the area.

We were scheduled the following day to begin our advanced dive course which was just five dives and with no exam.

Now of the five dives that we’d complete, each dive had a purpose.

We were given multiple choices as to which dives, with certain skill sets that we could obtain, to choose from.

I chose deep, enriched air, navigation, drift, and videography. My girlfriend chose the same with all except videography. She preferred peak performance buoyancy.

Now each dive came with theory and knowledge reviews that we had to complete beforehand.

They were quite easy and went smoothly with a relaxing beer or two at the dive center bar and lounge area. We managed to complete the advanced scuba dive course in just two days and added a few fun dives afterwards. It was a pretty exciting beginning and it had only just begun!

Great Barrier Reef tours: if you are lucky enough to be taking a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and not all of your fellow travelers are wishing to try scuba diving then take a look at these great reef trips that provide the option to dive and to snorkel.

You may spend the day on a pontoon (stable platform) that has all the in-water toys, or take an island tour or even a reef and helicopter scenic flight combo tour or choose your perfect Great Barrier Reef tour from here.

Cheers from me and keep an eye out for my next blog for Barrier Reef Australia.