How is Koh Lanta diving

Now after my internship I have been working as a DM and I love it. I'm diving a lot and gain experience in this business.

In this blog I was thinking that I will tell you about the dive sites around Koh Lanta

Koh Haa
(Five Islands)

Breath taking environment during surface intervals.

Probably one of the closest dive site from Lanta, from Khlong nin it's only 1,5 hours to get there. Many people say that they can dive there everyday. With five different islands and approximately sixteen dive sites it has a lot of variety 

Koh Haa is known for its visibility usually around 20 meters. 

The marine life 

Common reef fish for Thailand.
Travellys hunting

Macro life is good. If you dive a little bit deeper is not unusual to see dancing durban shrimps, Ornate pipefish and  nudies.
Turtles will  turn up once in awhile.
Colorful hard and soft corals.

Easy conditions so it's perfect for all levels.

Hin Daeng/ Hin Muang

Two dive sites three hours from Antigravity in the middle of the ocean. Beautiful dive sites with purple/white soft corals and orange/red soft corals, it's truly the most stunning underwater  environment around Koh Lanta. The best place to see Manta rays.

The reef is deep and the current could be strong so most of the dive shops requires advanced divers.
Marine Life 
Tons of life from macro to reef fish.
Manta rays is usually coming here for cleaning
Turtles and whale shark could also been spotted here.

Koh Wean 

(Train station)

One of my favorite dive site. Two years ago they sank this train and is now home for marine life around Koh Lanta. It's something different with the diving at Koh Wean. The train wreck is more like a hole train station with 22 wagons, rails, sign and an engine. One of the dives are an artistically reef. With 6 meters high cubes.

Marine Life 
Macro Life
Schools of snappers
And big reef fish

The wreck is on 18 m so it's OK for Ow divers.

Koh Bida
The Dive site is located next to Phi Phi here the marin life is blasting. Tons of fish and also a very good place to see both turtles and sharks. Good for al divers. Both soft corals and hard corals can be find here and if you diving at Hin Bida you have a good chance to see Leopard sharks.

Koh Rok

Stunning environment on the surface with crystal blue water and white sand. Lots of bubble coral and big sea fans. Koh Rok is an awesome place for snorkeling and is the best place to see turtles.

I'm Done With My DIVEMASTER!

When I first arrived to Koh Lanta from Sweden, I didn't really know what to expect or what I would Achieve. I was so nervous the first day at the shop when I was meeting everybody, but it went so easy and seemed that I was one of Anti Gravity from the start.

Now approximately 2,5 months later I'm done.....
I finally finished my divemaster course and of course i'm so happy about it. I would really take the chance to thank everybody on Anti Gravity who helped me gain experience and always  give me tons of good advice. 

I can now look back and see where I started. An Advanced diver with to few dives to start the divemaster course. But I will tell you this are you dedicated enough you will learn and become a super good divemaster it doesn't matter how you start. I feel now that i'm a better diver now and I know that i'm so more confident in the water as a divemaster.

Fun coincidence was the Manta Ray that turned up on my final dive I had to do for completing ,y divemaster. It was like the Manta wanted to say good job and good luck!!


I always been that way, looking for new things that evolves me as a person. So i've got this huge confident boost and now that i'm ready for the next challenge when that arrives. But that is for the future now I will keep grow in diving and see what that take me.

Thanks again to all that supported me in this !

A bad day of diving is better than a good day of working

Hello!
Hope you all are alright since last time. I'm keeping working on my internship and it seems like i'm done soon.

How is it to live on Lanta

Well what I hear from people that arrive here and what they expect from Lanta is that they think it is a very calm island, a relaxed place with loads of swedes. That is a good picture of Lanta but it's så much more to it.
Yes, Lanta is a very good island if you would like to relax and just enjoy your vacation. Beautiful beaches down the south and less busy from Khlong nin and down to the national park. It's more cars and more people around sala dan area. I would  recommend everyone who is travelling to Lanta to live more south in Lanta.
Koh Lanta is an big island and you can do so much more than just relaxing and get a tan from the sun. A motorbike is very good to have to get around the island

Oscars list of activities to do in Lanta

• National park: Located in the very south of lanta, 2 km trek in the green jungle, if you are lucky you could see monkeys in the tree tops. Advice: Start the trek from the top.  If you don't like to do the trekking you could go directly to the beach area. Blue water, white sand  and a lighthouse on the top of an hill and works great as a view point. entry fee 200 baht.

 
• 
  Emerald cave: If you are on Lanta, Emerald cave is one of those things you have to do. Emerald cave is usually included in the 4 island tour which is a "snorkeling trip to four different islands around Lanta. The best way to describe emerald cave is that it looks like a beach inside a volcano 
  

Mai Keao cave: Also a cool thing to do if you not afraid of get a little dirty or sweaty. The cave is located in khlong nin and you get a guide during the hole tour. Three hour tour inside a big cave with astonishing big halls. In the end of the tour you would see hundreds of bats sleeping on the roof of the cave.

Old townLooks like a old cowboy town with small cozy cafes with proper coffee. Also old town is a good place for doing some shopping and just enjoy your time there
 

And of course diving, but more about that in the next post.

If you want to know more about Koh Lanta use Tripadvisor....

Time flies

Time flies 

Now one month through the internship, I have of course learned tons of things in diving but I have also meet very good friends. It's funny how your working colleagues become your good friends on work and on my spare time.

The working days look different from day to day.  One day I'm on the boat and diving in the beautiful coral reefs of Koh Lanta  and the other day I'm in the shop taking care of customers and studying. Sometimes we are doing our workshops in the pool or out in the ocean. I prefer the workshops of course more than sitting and study because then you can try on how a divemaster works and act.
Yesterday I did the most of my water skills swimming 400 m,  800 m snorkeling and floating in 13 min with 2 min kicking water without arms. It was exhausting but fun. Home I'm use to exercise but I have been little lazy since I came here, but now I will try to exercise swimming more.

I have started to assisting in some courses and i think it's great fun. I like teaching and see how the students gets better and better. The instructors i'm assisting let me often show the skill as well to the student witch is a good way to learn. I noticed that you get to learn the students pretty good how they are and what they do back home and I find that interesting

We have starting practicing rescue skills again because it's one of the skills I have to master. I think tho that professional divers should practice this skill frequently so they are up for the task when something serious happens.

At this of the season it's a lot of Manta Rays in Hin Daeng. Hin Muang. I hoping that I will soon get on a boat who is going out to this magic dive site.
Yesterday I completed my Skill circuit for Divemaster and with good results. Now I have a few workshops left until i'm "done" with all Divemaster skills and workshops.
So I now hope that I soon could call me a Divemaster and join the professional family of diving.

Fun evening, cooking at Anands place 

The start of the internship

The start of the internship!

A few weeks into the internship and I have learned so much about the dive industry. I really like to do my divemaster on an internship because you don't have to hurry everything, you learn and then you can adapt your theory in the real world while I'm working.

I finished my rescue diver course three weeks ago and after that I started my DMT around christmas. The first thing I did was to go through my crew pack with the divemaster manual, PADI standards, the Encyclopedia of recreational diving. I like this material especially the encyclopedia where you can find interesting reading about diving. A lot of the days in the beginning has been about the PADI standards and learning how to be a professional diver and how to work and adapt to PADI standards.

Many days have been studying for the theory test 1 and 2 and I just passed both those tests yesterday, which feels very good to be done with.
Now I have sessions and workshops ahead of me and I will try to do my very best on every single session and test. I've assist the IDC students on Anti Gravity in their sessions witch have been fun and educational. We simulated problems that can happen and when I was practicing guiding DSD the "students" gave me a hard time..... 

I really like the diving in Koh Lanta with Anti Gravity beautiful dive sites and new thinking.
For me it feels like the people here are very helpful and I can learn much from them if I just ask and observe what the divemaster are doing. Eventually I will form my own style and how I will work with my customers so they having the best diving trip they ever had.
After the few days of storm a dive boat have got stranded on the shore outside the dive shop. So sad, I can just imagine how the owner feel. The staff from Antigravity have helped with cleaning the beach from wreck parts as much as we could. Our fresh water pipe to the boat is also broken and today we will try to fix it. It's fun to do something different for example diving down and repair a fresh  water pipe  

Me and my swedish friend, I assisted his group

My secret santa present!

My christmas present to myself

Hello!

Hello my name is Oscar Bjork from Sweden and is 21 years old.

I decided to write this blog to show everybody who is interesting in diving and want to read about diving or how it is to do a divemaster course and a divemaster internship in Koh Lanta with Anti Gravity Divers.

So I will soon start my divemaster internship and I´m so glad that I will do it on Koh Lanta and with Anti gravity. Anti gravity is a dive shop in the south of Klong nin beach. I have only be here for less then one week and I have been so welcomed. Such good people and I have learn so much just on the last couple days. Learning some of the equipments how to fix them and how they work.

Anti Gravity staff is like a big family, they help each other or example in my case I have such good help with finding an accommodation, where to by cheap food and how to dive better. Most of the time we do a lot of stuff together. Like eating on the evenings and just hang around in the dive shop. That is so nice because I thought that it would be a little bit lonely so i brought four books but I don`t think I will be able to finish them.

I will start to tell you about my rescue diving course. So first I started to do the EFR (emergency first response) A really interesting course where you learn to act in a emergency situation for another person. You learn how to plan your actions when you are in an emergency situation so you can save as much time as possible to save the other person. You will learn how to do CPR if the person not bleeding, seriously bleeding, shock and spinal injuries. I think every human should do this course because the world would be a much safer place if everyone has the knowledge to save a person in an emergency situation.

Cheers!