Rebecca McGowan, a Group GB Taekwondo athlete, shares her post-Olympic journey into the world of scuba diving. Alongside her associate, Bradly, the couple took a much-needed dive vacation in Thailand to reconnect with a sport that has turn out to be a key a part of their lives past athletics.
You know the way some folks dream of lounging on a seashore, basking within the solar for weeks, with nothing on the agenda however leisure? Yeah, that’s not us. As athletes, staying nonetheless has by no means been our sturdy go well with. Even on vacation, we crave journey. So, after the whirlwind that was the Olympic Video games, we determined it was time to get again into certainly one of our favourite escapes: scuba diving.
Journey to Assist Decompress
Within the lead-up to the Olympics, life was a continuing blur of coaching, technique, and psychological focus. Each waking second revolved across the Video games. However we would have liked one thing to assist us decompress, one thing to shift our ideas away from that relentless tempo. That’s how our post-Olympic dive journey in Thailand got here to be. And belief us, it was precisely what we would have liked.
We had all the time deliberate to dive in Thailand, however then an unimaginable alternative popped up: finishing a PADI Specialty course. It was as if all the pieces aligned completely. The PADI Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver course, with its versatile eLearning, became a every day ritual. Simply an hour a day, diving into one thing fully completely different, was our option to mentally unwind and refocus. Studying about enriched air not solely broadened our diving information but additionally gave us one thing to get enthusiastic about as we counted down the times till we may discover Thailand’s dive websites.
Diving has this unimaginable manner of giving us new targets. As athletes, we’re hardwired to all the time intention larger, and diving suits completely into that mindset. From incomes our first Open Water Diver certification to setting our sights on changing into Grasp Scuba Divers, scuba diving offers an outlet for our ambition past sports activities. It’s about reaching private wins, difficult ourselves, and persevering with to develop. We’ve made it a mission to discover the underwater world as usually as doable, and we’re even looking out for a dive membership in Manchester to maintain pushing in the direction of our targets.
Since getting PADI licensed in 2019, we’ve added some fairly superb experiences to our diving resume. We began with Open Water Diver in 2019, adopted by our Superior Open Water Diver in 2020, and made it a behavior to discover each cities and oceans wherever we traveled. Diving is our steadiness. Within the high-pressure world of elite sport, all the pieces feels fast-paced and intense. However underwater? It’s a unique universe—calm, peaceable, and awe-inspiring. It’s precisely the distinction we crave.
Our Thailand journey was an opportunity to dive deeper, actually and figuratively. We took on the Enriched Air (Nitrox) Diver course and did six unforgettable dives with Mr. Tee from Enjoyable Divers Phuket. Mr. Tee, our Divemaster, took us to a number of distinctive websites, together with two shipwrecks and a number of other reef and pinnacle dives. Every website supplied one thing completely different, and it felt good to be again within the water, taking advantage of our time without work.
We attempt to maximize our diving experiences on holidays, though we solely have restricted time without work every year. Thailand gave us an opportunity to see a variety of marine life and dive environments. Each dive introduced one thing new, and regardless of our tight schedule, we felt like we bought a stable glimpse of what Thailand’s underwater world has to supply.
Extra Than Only a Pastime
Diving continues to be greater than only a passion for us. It’s a option to step again, reset, and discover pleasure in a world that’s the other of our traditional grind. Whether or not we’re setting new diving targets or just soaking within the tranquillity of the ocean, scuba diving retains us motivated and grateful. And truthfully? We will’t wait to see the place our subsequent underwater journey takes us.
Article written by Rebecca McGowan, a Group GB Taekwondo Olympian athlete
