After 20 years of being based only in Patong, Scuba Cat has decided to open a shop in a new area, NaiHarn.

Naiharn Shop

Two years ago was a big change for Scuba Cat with the closing on the beach road shop and the premises moving to the Kee Plaza and Soi Wattana shops.

During this time we noticed that many of our return customers just came into the Soi Wattana shop to see us again, and so we decided to close the Kee Plaza shop and move out to a new area of Phuket to offer a better service covering a larger area.

So for the first time we are now out of Patong……..

Naiharn at the south of Phuket Island is an quieter area with a what most people think is the best beach on the island.

The bay is surrounded with Palm tree’s and there is the famous sunset viewpoint of Prom Thep Cape close by. There is also the lagoon area behind the beach which is great for children to swim and paddle in all year around.In the green season it is sometimes possible to surf in the area too.

Prom Thep Cape

The area has many good restaurants and cafe’s all along the main area and there are hotels and guest houses to suit all budget and taste, but it is not a big party area, more a chill out place. There are some good bars if you want but people tend to visit just 1 or 2 in a evening rather than many as is the case in Patong.

Rawai is very close to NaiHarn, and although there is no beach there, this area also has good restaurants on the shore area. The Sea Gypsy’s have been resident in Rawai for many years and have small market area where trinkets and fresh sea food are for sale.

Rawai

Along the shore line there are many local long tail boats which offer trips to the close coral island for the morning or afternoon.

The whole area is not really know for the shopping or markets, but these can be easily visited in Phuket Town or Patong with a short taxi ride.

Our new shop is located on Sai Yuan Road opposite the popular Da Vinchi Italian restaurant.

The shop is newly built and has a retail area, fully equipped classroom and office. We will be conducting all courses from both Naiharn and our Patong shops, so you can choose either depending on the location of your hotel.

Classroom

One more improvement we want to offer is free transfers to and from the boat that will now include the Naiharn and Rawai area’s and the hotels along Visit Rd to the pier at Chalong.

Why would you choose an e-learning course when it could be more expensive than the standard course after paying the fee’s?

The reason is simple, for more convenience, you can complete all the classroom portion of the course at your own pace prior to arrival, so no classroom whilst on holiday. All you need is a high speed internet connection.

At the moment you can do this for the Open water, Advanced open water, Nitrox or enriched air specialty, Digital Photography, Rescue diver, Dive Master and Dive Theory. There is even the Scuba Tune up on line.

have also introduced the e-learning gift pass, you can customize this for special occasions, such as birthdays, holidays, weddings etc, as you are even able to provide a personal gift message to the recipient.

So if you are trying to think of a different present this may be the answer.

Thanks you to Scuba Cat’s two new Divemaster’s Sarah and Cal who organised this mornings clean up on Patong Beach.

At 7.30 am this morning we met at Scuba Cat Diving in Soi Wattana, Patong.

Just after 8.00am, after two cups of coffee we were ready to get to work!

We arrived at Patong Beach and were each presented with a pair of “Orange” Rubber gloves and a black bin bag. Cal and Sarah arranged us into two teams, starting in the middle of the Beach and working away from the other team. We had 1 hour! Lek, one of Scuba Cats Drivers, was with us all to act as the collection point for the morning. Bottles, cigarette ends, used condoms!, to name a few things we found…… oh how we wish there were ashtrays and trash bins on the beach, what a difference that would make!!!!

Thanks to Sarah and Cal, Divemaster’s for organizing the morning, Bryan and Reidar for helping us during their IDC, Matt DMT and  Max, Ben and Thibault for joining us during their University Internship with Scuba Cat.

And of course a big thank you to the “Bin Men” from Patong, for helping us dispose of the Rubbish afterwards.

We realized an hour wasn’t long enough to really make a difference so we have decided to carry out a beach cleanup in Patong on a monthly basis as part of our IDC, along with our already scheduled monthly Underwater Cleanup.

If any one wishes to join us for either event please contact us for more details.

Bryan Donaldson is Scuba Cat latest Divemaster having completed all the requirements for the course this week.

"Bryan"

This is a very proud moment for all of us here as we have known Bryan for a while now and he has completed all of his courses with us here at Scuba Cat. Bryan is very unique to us as I am sure he is to , nearly all of his theory training has been done using Elearning, even one course that he has yet to complete the Practical training for!

Bryan spent along time working overseas and used the evenings to complete all of his theory before he came to us to complete all of the diving in Phuket.

We first met Bryan over a year ago when he came to Scuba Cat to complete his Open Water Course with our Master Instructor, Sean Porter. He had already completed the E learning theory for this course. After a successful course went on to complete his Advanced Open Water Course then returned home but his diver training did not stop there.

"Briefing"

Whilst away he completed his training for the Rescue Course, Nitrox, and Digital Under Water Photography on line again.

Bryan came back to Scuba Cat later that year doing his Rescue Diver Course and EFR with another Master Instructor Claus. And the speciality training with Tony Lock completing 5 specialities, Night, Deep, Search and Recovery, Nitrox and Wreck. He was now with ‘s elite… Master Scuba Diver.

"Bryan"

Returning back to his day job again Bryan embarked on his elearning for the Divemaster, not only completing this but also completing the Dive Theory online too.

Bryan came on board MV Scuba Adventure as part of his training to Hin Dueng and Hin Mueng where he practiced leading dives, got an insite into boat Management and of course drew maps and gave briefings, a great addition to his Divemaster Course. (and still found time to sleep!)

"Hard at Work!"

The practical portion of this course was recently completed, by his original Instructor Sean having been started by Master Instructor, Vince Callahan.

Bryan qualifies as a Divemaster on 18th June 2012 with 120 Dives and lots of experience assisting Courses, on Daytrips and Liveaboards.

We are looking forward to starting Bryan’s IDC (Instructor Development Course) on 1st July, and yes you guessed it he has already completed the elearning portion of this course too.

Congratulations Bryan! Do you want to be next?

Friday….

The IE starts I have Finlay on the table, the Shark Project Aware mascot, (I had kinda stolen it during the IDC), the surroundings were beautiful it was the first time I had ever done an exam with flowers on the table and a table cloth, time and effort had gone in to making this a nice place to do the exams.

Finley

There were some speeches and some motivational stuff then we were given our folders with our skills for the next couple of days, I don’t really get that excited about things but when I saw the skills I had to present I really could of jumped in the air and shouted YESSSSSSSSS

Knowledge Development Presentation

• Dive Master Manual, Knowledge Review Chapter 5 Q8

Confined water teaching presentation

• Demonstrate Rescue Breathing Using Pocket Mask only

Open Water Teaching Presentation

• Mask removal and replace
• Knot Tying Sheet Bend
• Rescue Demonstration Mouth to mouth

And 5 skills from the skill circuit.

First exam

OPEN BOOK STANDARDS

Question one, I knew the answer, and didn’t need to look it up, but I did anyway just to make sure many of the answers were like this, still I reminded myself not to assume I was right and double checked. I finished handed in my paper and got told take 10 have a break then come back, so off I went had a drink (coffee) then came back.

Second Exam

DIVE THEORY

I finished with a lot of time to spare, I did not go back and check my answers I find that when I do that I end up doubting my original answer and getting it wrong so last box ticked and I handed it in I waited while they marked it finally ….. Congratulations you passed I had scored high on all of them lowest mark was 85% I scored 95% on standards too.

Relief now all I had too do was prepare for the next day,

I went back to the classroom with Roy and Marc and prepared for the next day’s class room presentation, and our slates for the pool.

Saturday

Confined Water

Red team (that was us) were first in the pool, I was relieved I wanted this over with, I swore that if I screwed up on the skill circuit I was just going to grab a load of weights and not come up ever, no way was I going to go back to Big Vin and say I failed, it was going fine until I did remove equipment and replace, I missed a release and yes the examiner saw it… now with Vin that would have been a 1… shiiiiit still just keep going.

Confined Water Presentation :  Mouth to pocket mask. I did my demonstration then had the students do it, 1st mistake pocket mask upside down spotted and corrected in about 5 seconds flat, second student dunked the head, I saw it coming next thing I know I was given the cut and skill over.. Fastest cut of the day … I knew that was a pass…

Scores were 4.8, and 23/25 not perfect but high.

Back to the hotel (Kata Beach Resort) ….

Knowledge Development presentation

I went second out of our group. This was not my best subject, lots to remember and lots of places to get it horribly wrong, but Sarah and Sean had done their jobs well Point by point I hit the critical attributes , Passed second highest marks…..4.6

That was it for Saturday that left Sunday, I knew that the game wasn’t over there was still time to screw up.

Open Water

Sunday again we were first in but first time to do an awesome briefing, this is where it matters almost more than in the water, while nobody wants a bad score it can happen, but a good briefing and de-briefing can save the day, I wanted points on my side just in case, I had been prepared well during the IDC by Sarah and Sean now all I had to do was apply it , briefing went well so as I swam out to the dive site I was hopeful but still mindful that almost anything could go wrong. One of my team mates was talking about skills, I told her shh you know it don’t wind yourself up, yeah but… no shh I started singing she joined in and chilled we got to the patch of sand laughing dropped the line in and were as ready as we could be.

Rescue Scenario

All was going well then a release on my victims BCD wouldn’t release; damn I missed a breath, immediately gave two breaths, no prompting and carried on….

Score 5

 Under water

I had dived this site and knew how much space wasn’t there, I swear it’s the teeniest patch of sand you have ever seen especially with 5 of you in it and skills to do.

People took their goes then it was my turn, 1st guy fumbled with his mask, cut redo…

Remember … damn he did it again… redo oh crap this isn’t good and again, stress levels are going up, am I wasting time? Have I nailed it? I could almost see it falling apart right here… stop breath focus, briefing was good just get this guy done and move on…job done, next one mask replace upside down… stop redo… remember… he got it right second time…. Up to the surface back to the beach

Swimming back I knew in my heart I had done enough, but I had to sit on the excitement I still had the de-brief to do. Stress levels around me got higher, I stopped listening I needed to focus on my de-brief I wanted a 5 that mask thing was bothering me.

On shore, I wrote up my debrief. De kitted and packed my gear…then it was time

I listened to the others then gave mine…. Well done Ivan you passed 4.8

Passed - The Red Team

That night I got a text message from BIG VIN… a man of few words, he did not disappoint ….”Well done mate welcome to the club”. Praise indeed.

IE Over and I passed it was the 25th of March 2012 and I had been at this since mid way through January. Final Hurdle the IE Party at Molly Malones………….

I stayed in Phuket until May team teaching and guiding, I also took some Speciality Instructor Certification with Scuba Cat.

It’s been one hell of a journey, and many people to say thank you too.

So I’ll just say thank you to every one that has added to the experience and knowledge I have acquired, ALL the Instructors and Dive Masters at Scuba Cat.

To Big Vin, for giving me all those 1’s and for sharing his knowledge…  If you ever want to become a DM I really don’t think you could ask for a better Instructor anywhere in the world.

Little Vince, For showing me more about how to help the qualified instructors during my Divemaster training, from setting up bouylines to accounting.

Kiwi, for being a mine of information and having time to answer even the dumbest of questions.

To Sarah and Sean for giving us hell and preparing us to go through the IE with the highest scores.

To my partner Cameo, for making it possible for me to be here and keeping our world running at home.

And to my Dive Buddy, Patience that sat and helped me go through all the e-mails and number crunching at the beginning and had faith in me during my journey.