Open Water Course

Living in Nth Queensland there will not be a better time or place to get into scuba diving. So with my son Daniel, I put my wife and daughters on the plane to visit their friends in Melbourne and dropped into Remote Area Dive on the way home. Before they touched down, we had booked ourselves on the Open Water Diver course and purchased fins, boots, mask and snorkel; we were on our way! I must say, a lot of the credit for planting the seed goes to my boss Dan, who had attained the title of Instructor in his time with RAD and Gordon who just wouldn't stop talking bout his diving exploits around the world - thanks to them both for opening my eyes to a different way to see the world!

Pool sessions were conducted by Amanda (AKA Bickie) in RADs owners personal 3m deep pool... (talk about a neat way to write off your pool installation and running costs - could have installed heating though, you'd think he knew it was Townsville and water temp of less that 25 is cold!). The moment of my son's first breath underwater was not lost on me, having seen his first breath and now this combined with the way he picked up the skills independently really hit the pride nerve!

Daniel and I off Pelorous Island - Oct 2013

RADs dive program is centered around three key things; the desire to share with you the amazing world of diving, their boundless professionalism and the amazing Orpheous and Pelorous Islands, a short 25 min boat ride east of Lucinda. With a multitude of dive sites, an incredible crew and a skipper that is recycling all of his jokes on a new audience - which by the way are always as funny as dad jokes, which is always! - we set off to the top end of the Palm Island group of islands. For the boat enthusiasts, RADs purpose built dive boat has twin 250HP 2-stroke engines which deliver the punch you need when you need to get somewhere quickly.

Our Open Water instructor was Fabs (AKA Fabio/ Jaques/ Maaaaate - if you're around long enough you will get a nick name - generally from messing up somewhere), he took us through the course which was really hidden behind diving the inner reef of the Great Barrier Reef. There was so much to see, the course just happened in the back-ground. Yeah, there were times the sight seeing was interrupted by kneeling on the ocean floor carrying out the required skills or ascending safely without your regulator in your mouth, but the overwhelming majority of the time was sensory overload knowing the privileged position of being in the GBR doing things many will never do.

RADs Instructor Fabio
The most beautiful man in the world... Apparently....

Fabs took us through and certified we could conduct our skills and drills safely and on our 5th dive, he proudly added my son and I to his growing list of successful open water divers trained. Thanks mate! you will always be a valued member of my extended family and an honorary Aussie. We both enjoyed your stories, candor and tutelage throughout the weekend and certainly owe it to you for showing us the wonders of the world under the sea! To each of the RAD crew that make the weekends possible, a massive thank you! you have a great setup and amazing instructors that ooze enthusiasm - it is a wicked combination that will serve you well in the future!

Our very first dive at "Dark Side" (Pelorous Island) we saw a shark! A little 1.5ish m white tipped reef shark circling a nice bommie - looking hungry - and our first few nudibranchs, an incredible fish that has so many different  forms and colours that are wonderful to see - and of course Nemo & Dori... amongst the sea anemone, just like in the movie (except both fins were about the same size...) - What we didn't see was P Shermans mask with '42 Wallaby Way, Sydney' written on the back... On our 5th Dive, the 1st as a certified diver, Daniel and I buddied up but didn't stray too far from the group. As I cleared a bommie over the top, my heart skipped a beat as I was very close and almost on top of a bronze whaler shark! alright he was a good 5m away, but there was nowhere to hide if he was after some lunch!

Anyway, Daniel and I had accomplished something amazing. The world now has another domension and one we are both really keen to explore! especially WW2 wrecks where ever they may be - can't wait!