The journey with Kon-Tiki, from Open Water to Scuba Instructor

I took my first breaths underwater when I was 8, in Cyprus, hanging on to the instructor’s BCD and breathing from his alternate air source. The ocean had always fascinated me and now I got to experience it for myself and I loved it.

When I came to Kon-Tiki and Koh Lanta the first time, I was 15, and then I was finally going to do my Open Water course. Four days later, I had become a certified diver and guess if I was excited! Next year I did my Advanced course with Kon-Tiki Phuket and a couple of years later I was graduating high school, with a plan to go back to Koh Lanta and do my Divemaster course. After several holidays on the island I had gotten to know Kon-Tiki and decided that if I was going to do this course, it was going to be done here.

In the fall of 2012 I walked back through the doors of Kon-Tiki Lanta and was introduced to my new instructor, Joachim, who took great care of me throughout my course. During the process I got to know the dive centre and how things work “behind the scenes”. Joachim was (and still is!) an amazingly inspiring mentor and it didn’t take long before I realized I wanted to become an instructor.

I stayed on Lanta for the rest of the season, working as a freelancer for Kon-Tiki. After going back home to Sweden for the summer, I came back in September this year. In mid-November, I started my IDC, blessed with the course director Isa Fayos. The IDC contained long hours in the classroom, several sessions in the pool and a couple of days in the ocean as we prepared for the examination in Phuket. The course was incredibly fun and finally the hard work paid off as I passed my examination.

As I am writing this, I am back home on Lanta, waiting for PADI to process my instructor application and put me in “teaching status”. As a 15 year old, I began my diving career with Kon-Tiki and here I am, five years later, just waiting to jump back into the water with my first open water students. I want to say a big thank you to Kon-Tiki and the amazing staff for having been so supporting during all this and I can’t wait to start the rest of the season, as OWSI #318035.

/Matilda

Resan från Open Water till Divemaster

Jag drömt om att få dyka ända sedan jag var en liten pojke. De första försöken att simma under vattnet var spännande – hur länge kunde jag hålla andan och hur långt kunde jag dyka? Resultaten blev bättre med tiden och tävlan med vännerna var stenhård. Som 7-åring i simskolan klarade jag hela 25m bassänglängden. Gissa om jag var stolt! Långt senare, eller vid  185 cm lång, fick jag prova på riktig dykning med utrustning (Discover Scuba Diving) i Dominikanska Republiken. Efter ytterligare några år blev det ett provdyk också på Cypern. Det var så fascinerande att kunna andas under vattnet! Jag ville så gärna ta mitt Open Water certifikat, men var jag lite ängslig för att dyka djupt….Semestrarna tillsammans med familjen – tre livliga barn och en fru med egna åsikter, gjorde att tid för dykning aldrig fanns.

År 2009 hade jag bestämt mig för att äntligen ta min nybörjar- eller Open Water kurs. Jag vände mig till Kon-tiki i Ao Nang, Krabi tack vare en rekommendation från min barndomsvän. På bara tre dagar hade vi tillsammans med instruktören klarat av teori, poolövningar samt Open Water dyk. Det var underbart att bli av med oron för djupare dyk. Jag hade inte ont i öronen och jag visste hur lätt det var att avbryta dyket om man så ville. Det var bara att dyka och njuta av den underbara världen under ytan. Nu hade jag blodad tand!

Jag återvände både 2011 och nu 2013 till Ao Nang och Kon-Tiki. Nu har jag gjort min Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver och senast Divemaster kurs med dem. Dessutom har jag haft tillfälle att bygga på med så kallade specialties som. Cavern Diver, Night Diver och Deep Diver. Jag har nu upptäckt att världen under ytan bjuder på nya upplevelser i så gott som alla hörn av  världen.  I skrivande stund kommer mina barn, 13, 15 och 17 år ner till Thailand. De ska alla tre göra sin Open Water kurs med Kon-Tiki på Koh Lanta.

Varför kommer jag tillbaka? Som land är Thailand fantastiskt välkomnande och dykningen är väldigt mångsidig. Den avgörande orsaken är att jag trivs med stämningen, den positiva attityden och gemenskapen som jag fått uppleva. Det är personligheterna på Kon-tiki som gör den stora skillnaden.  Vi ses igen!

/ Niclas

The life of a Swedish School student to a divemaster in Thailand – what a change of life!

My name is Charlie Klehr and I am a student from Sweden from the high school Real. In the first year at High school we were told to decide a subject in the adventure course, at the same time I decide to follow my dreams. So now three years later I stand as a Divemaster with experience in Thailand that will make you a story!

I went to Thailand for six weeks that became to change my life. Hoping of experience that could after my school lead to a work, but somehow I’ve got in love in the future because I found my way of living. I could never imagine the big change of me after the weeks alone, after the weeks to be adult, after weeks to take responsibility. I could feel the absolute freedom, so nearly as the feeling of the water in Thailand, you can’t see it but you know it’s there so clear is it sometimes! It was truly the living dream. After my weeks at the boats with people, smiles, laugh, I know that Kon-Tiki is something more that I will gladly recommend for people who wants good diving and fun days at sea. At my work I’ve got the best dives in my life that will be captured in my heart, that I will come back for.

Tree simple words are Kon-Tiki Passion, Professionalism and Environment.

Charlie Klehr

 

 

 

The adventure of a Kon-Tiki trainee – part 2

Monday- Today was my first day on the small boat who we call Ing-Marie, this time a family from Austria had rented the boat privately. It was I who took care of the snorkelers but they knew what they were doing, so it was mostly just to swim down and show them a couple of fishes that they were curious about.

Tuesday- The snorkeling guiding course has now started. We did some studying in the classroom the first day, but mostly oral presentations and practicing briefings.

Wednesday- Sheraton was my place this day. I worked with Mauro at the hotel and helped some Asians who wanted to try some diving in the pool; I think they really enjoyed it!

Thursday- Today has been really tough! All the equipment and associates were in need of new price tags, so I went around our shop and checked if everything had the right price and the tag had the right look.

Friday was my long wanted day off but same as last time, I did not have enough energy to do anything, just took it slow at the beach and went to the shop to check so everything was ok for upcoming week.

Saturday- This day was the day I have been waiting for since I got here, my first day of the Open Water course. It was just as amazing as I thought it would be. The pool was truly funny

Sunday- The adventure continues, second day of my Open Water course´, still totally awesome! Our teacher knows what he is doing and the pool, one of the best things I ever done.

Monday- Today me and my friends; Nikko, Ida and Jessica finished our snorkeling guide course; it was basically just swimming and some rescuing. Ida did her first briefing in front of some guests and I think she did pretty well!

Tuesday-Today I went out with my OW buddies, first day at sea! I will always remember that amazing feeling when you take that very first step into the ocean and you feel bubbles all over and then, when you see everything beneath the waves. It’s just a feeling of freedom and happiness! Everything is so calm and the only thing you hear is your breath.

Wednesday- This was the very last day of the course and also the beginning of a whole new adventure through life.

Thursday-Today I just lay in my room, read some in the new diving book, (the advanced course). Not much to tell.

Friday- Did a lot of paperwork in the shop today, helped some customers with some papers for a Diving course,

Saturday- This day I Spent on the boat helping everybody in and out of the boat, I was a so called drystaff. We went out to Mosquito Island and Monkey bay snorkeling. I think most of the guests enjoyed the day totally and all of them seemed very happy at the same time as many of them were exhausted.

Sunday- Today is my day in the shop, writing on the blog, I am really happy to be inside today because it is raining cats and dogs outside. Now the staff is dropping in and we are going to listen to a guy from PADI who’s going to talk about how we can be better at our briefings and security on the boats.

Hope you all had a great week and that your upcoming week will be even better. I will write more about my experiences next week, bye for now friendly greetings

/Rasmus

A Divemaster trainees story

Before I did my PADI Divemaster, I would describe myself as an individual who loved and cared about the ocean and the life within it. This is one of the reasons I learnt to scuba dive, as it allowed me to gain more understanding about the marine world, and what I and other people can do to help it.

However, after doing my PADI Divemaster with Kon-Tiki, not only has the way I am thinking changed, but also how I look at it. I chose to do my PADI Divemaster so that I would develop skills, both social and physical that would enable me to work as a PADI professional. In the end this would result in my guests and my own future enjoyment, being able to do things I never had before. Having completed my PADI Divemaster with Kon-Tiki, I can confidently say and believe I have gained such skills. Not only has Kon-Tiki given me fantastic training, by me working with, and learning from numerous different instructors a intenstity levels that I believe are optimum for PADI Divemaster training. They have aslo made it extremely enjoyable, making it fun and exciting. These, I believe are another two vital ingredients in successful learning. I would like to say a special thanks to the instructors I worked with and specifically my mentor.

To whoever may be thinking about doing this course in the future, I would highly recommend this dive company. The last 5 weeks have been some of the most enjoyable and interesting ever! I cannot wait to put the skills I have learnt here into practice in the future.

Thank you Kon-Tiki

Guy Ph