My name is Charlie, as my blue eyes and blond hair might tell you, I’m from northern Europe, Sweden in fact. Since I graduated school I’ve been working abroad with the ocean as my office. I been working as dive guide since 2013 in Thailand, but in the end of last year I decided that I was ready to share my passion about the blue world to others. So I did my instructor course and that was one of the best decisions of my life.

To teach diving and to feel the excitement among the students when we finally splash down in the water, slowly descending to my favourite part of our world. Seeing the huge smile behind the regulator causing a minor mask-leak when they finally manage one of the tasks underwater and to watch them starting to share my passion is the best feeling in the world. It’s truly a privilege to be able to work with this.

When I’m not teaching or guiding my absolute favourite activity is to photograph the stunning marine life around me. If I ever stays dry on a day off, I love to explore the nature and to catch the adventures around me.

Come by for a chat. It’s very easy to find me, I’m the guy with the huge smile and dreadlocks!

Why do I blog?

It all started off when I met a magnificent Green turtle many years ago. The beautiful creature changed me so drastic that I after that moment knew that the ocean was my future. The big adventure started and I was off to the wonderful world. I was finally a part of the adventures that I was reading about as a child.

The peaceful ocean calms me down. It makes me humble by showing it’s glory and what’s worth dying for. Each time I enter the ocean, I can hear it whisper. One day I couldn’t just ignore the whispers so I decided to give the ocean a voice that could touch people.

I gives the ocean a story from my eyes. I will fight to inspire all of us, to a better world.

Divemaster Lukas

Hometown:  Salzburg, Austria

Why I started diving:  I’ve always been interested in underwater life, so trying it on my trip around Thailand seemed like a good idea.

What keeps me diving:  I really like the weightless feeling you have while diving and there is always so much to see, so no two dives are the same. It’s great to share the passion with so many other divers and see them enjoy diving just as much as I do.

My favorite thing to do in Moalboal during my surface interval:  I do like to go fun diving on my day off. Besides that the Kawasan Falls and Mainit Hot Springs are cool trips, or simply relaxing in a hammock and enjoying the sunset.

Some of my favorite creatures:

Lionfish: As a kid visiting the aquarium, this was always the one that fascinated me the most. Even after seeing loads of them in the ocean, it’s cool to watch out for the different kinds.

Papuan Toby: Very colourful fish, but also terrible swimmers, often found in pairs dancing around each other. They are related to puffers, so they are able to “blow up” as well.

Planning Our Dive With a Buddy

Our open water student planning and leading their first dive with Instructor Andy and Divemaster Lukas

The thought of planning a dive with our dive buddy for the first time may be a little scary or even overwhelming at first; but then again was it so different the first time we submerged our heads in the swimming pool or the shallows on the beach with a 2^nd stage in our mouths?  Let’s start out by remembering one of the cardinal rules of diving: Always dive within our limits and training.  This may mean that we plan our first dive to the local swimming pool, or a pond at the golf course; we should of course ask permission first as we aren’t advocating trespassing in full SCUBA gear.  You may also find it easier to start you planning by talking with a local dive shop or finding a local dive club to meet up with and ask for either some good local dive spots or maybe even a local orientation dive with someone who has dived the site before.  Starting well within our limits and training will reduce stressors during our dive allowing us to focus more on the dive and aquatic life, ultimately leading to a much more enjoyable experience that we will feel comfortable repeating.  Some things to take into consideration when deciding on a local dive site may include but not be limited to: current (or the lack of), visibility, water temperature, site accessibility, altitude and proximity to local emergency medical services.  For this segment we are going to focus on selecting a site with appropriate current and visibility.

Current and Visibility Considerations

Students visiting our airplane wreck at Umbrella with lower visibility.

Diving with current or lower visibility can make for a very enjoyable and relaxing drift dive or may be necessary to visit a blue water wreck or Manta cleaning station; however, it may not be appropriate if we are trying to plan a relaxing dive with a buddy.  Why don’t we start out with a dive site that is well within our limits, training and experience; somewhere with what we call pool like conditions?  However, don’t be fooled into thinking that lakes, reservoirs or ponds won’t have current or visibility concerns.  Lakes close to an ocean, bay or river may have tidal swings and often have pretty significant thermoclines; which are layered changes in water temperature and can cause significant turbidity.  Reservoirs can obviously experience significant changes in current if they are being drained or filled and may also have significant changes in visibility due to algae blooms or runoff from heavy rains.  While still water ponds may seem clear and void of current changes they may be used for irrigation and often can have silt bottoms that can easily be stirred up clouding the water for hours.   These concerns can easily be addressed with a little research online, by reading a book on local dive sites or having a conversation with a fellow diver or professional with experience at the site.  When we take these potential issues into consideration while planning our dive we become empowered and can use site condition changes to our advantage and to find times with more ideal conditions or dive profiles that are site and condition appropriate.  A good practice for planning our first dives could be if we are uncertain then make sure we ask; whether that be online, in a dive shop or maybe a dive club.  Having more information than we need will most likely be much better than not enough.  Once we have this information and our first dive under our belts and in our log books we will most likely find it much easier for repetitive dives at this site and may find that in time we become the local expert that others come to for advice…

The Next Stride

Check in next week when we will discuss some equipment considerations and recommendations.  Please feel free to send us your questions, comments or input about this series or requests for future series.

Please send comments and questions to Andy@QuoVadisResort.com

View the previous post here:  I’m a Certified Diver: Now What?

Pernilla Sjöö MSDT

Hometown: Jönköping Sweden

Why I started Diving: I started dive because i have always been a water person and i was very curious about the underwater world. So when we planned a trip to Thailand i decided to take my Open water in Sweden. After the my first breath underwater i was already hooked. Since then i have traveled to many of the best dive site over the world.

What keeps me diving:  There is so many places to go to and so many reefs to explore. But i enjoy every day i go out for a dive here in Moalboal because our reef are just stunning.

My favorite thing to do in Moalboal during my surface interval:  Pack a picnic and head to Kawassan falls early in the morning so you have the beautiful waterfall all for yourself.

Some of my favorite creatures:   My favorite creature underwater is our beautiful sea turtles. They have been around for 110 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. The green turtle that is very common here in Moalboal and can weigh up to 317 kg. They are so relax underwater and often take a nap on the corals. Turtles can hold their breath for hours if the rest and sleep underwater. They just need to inhale 1-3 seconds at the surface before they dive down again. Every time a see a Turtle i get a BIG smile on my face. We can spot sea Turtles at all of our dive sites here in Moalboal.

My other favorite is Clown trigger fish because it just looks awesome. We often spot them at our dive site Umbrella.

Your Goals

Instructor Pernilla with her graduating course

It’s been on your bucket list for months or maybe even years. You’ve watched them, with all that equipment on and the huge smiles, laughing as they return on the boat or swim slowly on their backs out to the reef to disappear below the surface. Maybe you have a longer holiday this time, or maybe you have finally run out of excuses to not take that step; whatever the reason, you have finally ticked off the box and are a full-fledged, card carrying PADI diver. This could have been last week or last month or even 20 years since you joined the ranks of certified SCUBA divers. The question often is the same…What do I do next?

While you may have started diving as an experiment and adventure into a new world it has probably evolved into something else. Whether you are continuing to dive to further explore the underwater world, to hone your underwater photography skills, for the meditative peace and tranquility or just for some fun exercise; the challenge of increasing your diving skills to the next level is often rewarded by enhancing our overall experience. There are many ways to take your skills to the next level; including continuing education courses, trying new environments and dive style or planning your own dive with a buddy. After witnessing the transformation in my students after they plan and then execute their first dives without a professional; I have been inspired to dedicate a blog series to exploring and promoting this practice.

Our Role

Night dive at Quo Vadis, by Kentaro Katori

As professional dive shops and divers, we are here to make your diving experience a pleasant, relatively easy and comfortable one. We are happy to handle the logistics and equipment, plan the dives and share our favorite sites and passion for the underwater world with you; in addition to offering continuing dive education and training. However, believe it or not, the idea of becoming a certified diver is that at any point, you and a fellow certified dive buddy can grab some equipment and cylinders, plan a dive within your limits and training, then dive your plan. A crucial concept being that you plan your dive within your limits and training (if you are uncertain, please ask someone more experienced or a professional for advice or assistance). Planning and executing your own dive can help raise your confidence as a diver and will most certainly increase your experience and skill level. Be warned though, as you probably already know, diving is addictive and once you have experienced diving your own plan you may begin to feel slightly frantic as you are planning and impatiently waiting for your next dive vacation. Not to worry, though it may not be a vibrant coral reef, you may have many opportunities to increase your bottom time locally while meeting new dive buddies or strengthen bonds with existing ones…

The Next Stride

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing pointers and tips for planning your own dive, recommended equipment, local considerations and continuing education options for divers. We would like to invite you to follow along, send us your questions and comments and even pick our brains for possible diving locations near you. Hopefully together can open the doors to new diving experiences and take the next steps to increasing our dive skills and confidence as certified SCUBA Divers.

Read more about the author in his meet the staff profile.
Please send comments and questions to Andy@QuoVadisResort.com

Instructor Andy

Hometown: Portland, Oregon USA

Why I started diving: My parents were divers before having children; I remember listening to their stories and looking at their equipment in the basement, always full of fascination. When I was around 12 years old, my parents took me for my first dive as a try dive with an instructor in Hawaii; I was hooked ever since.

What keeps me diving: It is an amazing opportunity to get to talk about my favorite hobby with others who are just as passionate or fascinated. Getting to see students change uncertainty and anxiety about diving into excitement and a passion for the new world they have begun to discover; their triumph in facing and overcoming the challenges of developing their dive skills is truly inspirational. I am continually amazed with how much I discover every dive, even if I have dived the same site and profile 100 times, I feel as though there is always more to explore and learn.

My favorite thing to do in Moalboal during my surface interval: Whenever I have the chance to explore the roads and paths in and around Moalboal I am not disappointed. The beautiful scenery is abundant and seemingly endless.

Some of my favorite creatures: There are too many to list, but here are a few that always make me smile…

Sea Squirt: Often overlooked these are members of the Ascidians, a group of around 3000 unique species and are relatives of the vertebrates. They start life as a tadpole larvae, eventually settling on a home and undergo a metamorphosis to what you see here. They are equally beautiful and fascinating to me.	Juvenile Yellow Box Fish: These poor swimmers always make me laugh, with their small fragile fins and uncoordinated frantic movements. I am always excited to see them or their close relatives.
Nudibranch: With somewhere around 6,000 species I haven’t even began to attempt to learn their names. However there are many sites and forums dedicating to their identification. For many divers the hunt for the nudibranch is equally exciting and challenging as trying to snap the perfect photo in exquisite detail.

Contact Andy via email at Andy@QuoVadisResort.com

I just started reading a book about a sunken treasure onboard a shot down airplane, and today I got to visit an actual sunken plane at Umbrella Point. At about 20 meters there’s a wreck of a small plane that was put there a few years ago to create an artificial reef. You come down a slope and find it sitting on the edge of the drop-off, and even though you know it has been put there intentionally, it’s still a bit airy when you spot it looming in the distance.

We didn’t find any treasures today, but we did see a Juvenile Sweetlips, Pygmy Sea Horse and lots of sea turtles. One had even taken a liking to the plane and was resting on the sand just below the nose.