+++++Interview by Dolphin Divers,Thailand Team+++++
'For me, scuba diving is the best thing ever happened to my life' - Nicole Pilcsik
A woman who very loves to dive and called it her passion for the rest of the life, Nicole Pilcsik. She were started to learn diving in her home town where is no sea there but with her strong will brings her to be a Dive Master who went from country to country for diving. Let see what makes her feeling so deep with scuba diving down below.
When was your first diving?
I started diving only three years ago, it happened by accident me and my two brothers got a open water course as a Christmas present from our parents in Hungary. I was working back at that time and living in Hungary and we all three of us starting the open water course and after that they teach theory at the first time. I’ve got in the water and got introduced to the scuba’s equipment and the basic of diving. It was in the pool fortunately we don’t have any sea in Hungary so we started exercise and everything in a pool and I remember that we start around 9 or 10 in the morning I didn’t even know how much time we spending in the water because I was really enjoying myself. So like after4-5 hours in the pool, my instructor said okay we’re finish, and I felt like oh already finish? I don’t want to stop and after that I was really like it, I felt delighted and lots of positive feelings. I had found immediately what I wanna do for the rest of my life and this is not something the will become a hobby but much more. So basically since that I stopped everything out and I spent all my money or my saving for go on diving and buy all my own equipment and we always travel a lot, even before with my friends family’s brothers but now in the last few year in family’s vacations , holidays and everything was planed around diving.
So we can say It was a starts point for your career?
Well At that time I didn’t know how far I’m going to get to be diving. I knew that this is something that I definitely want to continue but that time when I started It seems to be so unreachable to even you have your own equipment. Let be honest this is not a cheap sport you have to have a good financial um security financial backgrounds to be able to support your diving. So at that time I didn’t know how I’m going to get all this money to have my own equipment but I didn’t know how can I get enough money to do as many diving.
So how you do with that problem?
So basically that time I was working as a store director in a very famous and successful company. It’s a worldwide fashion company. I was worked at the biggest store in Hungary, I was working hard then I managed to get the financial background to support my hobby and my passion. So that how I did. We had two days off a week even like my days off I went to diving. I called my instructor and said ‘I’m stressing so much I just need to be on water, can I please just borrow a tank?’ and he goes like ‘what you wanna do?’ said I just wanna go to the pool and sit down on the bottom and be in the water. So he was very supportive and then he came with me obviously because I was not allowed to go on myself. I found that scuba diving you know that like not only refreshing but also it have to relax my mind and I found be in the water, now I always say like this is my job. So some people you know they’re smoked or they goes, you know drinking alcohol or other like addictions for me it just diving I just go on the water.
For you, What is the good point of diving or there have any weak point?
Okay, that is a hard question umm I think scuba diving is the best thing that ever happened to me. Myself I know I had changed a lot but of course I’m still the same person that I was before but however, learning scuba diving and also experienced different diving experiences meeting and working together and diving together with different divers and see other instructor and see different diving center, how they operate their own business helps me to see curtain things in different ways. What I’ve learn as personally learn from diving is self control, more Patience and I’ve always consider myself to be a very focus person and having set that and if I having a goal set I always did everything to actives my goal, I can not to doing something like halfway so if I decide to do something I did it 100 percent, so back to the question what I think the strong point for scuba diving I think it teaches everybody for responsibility you know diving can be dangerous if you don’t follow the safety roles and the regulations, people have to understand that this is amazing activity and it gives you so much joy and pressure however if you brake the safety roles you can not only put yourself into dangerous but you can only put your dive buddy and other dive member into dangerous too and also you have to know your limits, in diving you really have strike on your limits and it also teach me respect toward marine lines even though made me participate marine conservation in Philippines I had so much respect toward the sea and other marine animals.
For the weak point of diving, the only thing I could mention that unfortunate not many people can not afford diving because this is an expensive sport but personally I wish that everybody can try at least once.
How many dives you have done? And which one is your favorite?
At the moment I have 350+ dives, I’m not exactly sure on the numbers out of these 350, I left close 200 as a divemaster so about 150-180dives I did like as a recreational diver of diving it just like fun dives and after that I became a divemaster a was leading the dives. For my favorite dive I can not pick just one because the places I’ve chance to dive there are always different like Philippines there are very rich of micro stuffs it’s like a small things, like in Kroasia you have a lot of deep dives I really like that the water a little bit cold, for example here is in Asia has a lot of cape dives corals and in Egypt I just like visibility with the sharks and here in Thailand what I really like is the whale shark and also the beautiful of the coral which is absolutely amazing. So I can not pick just one because every places has their own unique things in the water. Just be on the water that’s good enough for me.
If there anyone who wants to be a diver, What is recommendations you’ll give to them?
My first advice will be to look at diving centers and looks for a dive instructor that they trusts completely and they’re happy to put their life into that person’s hand. And to make sure that diving center or instructor follows the rules and had the passion for diving because again I going back to what I said earlier ‘safety’ is very important for diving and after that I will recommend them not to rush themselves, take their times diving whenever you can get experience, learn, gain see things, and don’t rush themselves will be my advice.
Any recommend for dives sites around koh Chang?
I really don’t know what I expect when I came here, so that the dive site that we always goes to, I think they’re really really good because they are also naturally design for beginners not so experience divers to the dives sites around koh Chang are pretty shallow but deep enough for advance divers and shallow enough for open water divers or for the people they are doing the courses 20.16. I personally, if you ask me which one is my favorite part again I couldn’t pick one but I will pick Hin look back and the HTMS Chang. I picked Hin look back because that’s where we had a chance to swim with whale shark many times and also it beautiful, rich of marine life so even though we go there very often, we can’t get very bored of the dive site because you’ll always see something new and even though I’m not a big fan of wreck diving, I do like wrecks but If I has a chance to choose between going to coral reef 21.18 and go to the wreck. I’ll go to coral reef but this wreck is absolutely beautiful, a lot of story behind and again it’s suitable for both open water and advance divers not because it’s 30 meters depth but also because sometimes we have current there and so just good to have experience behind when you go to the wreck.
'For me, scuba diving is the best thing ever happened to my life' - Nicole Pilcsik
A woman who very loves to dive and called it her passion for the rest of the life, Nicole Pilcsik. She were started to learn diving in her home town where is no sea there but with her strong will brings her to be a Dive Master who went from country to country for diving. Let see what makes her feeling so deep with scuba diving down below.
When was your first diving?
I started diving only three years ago, it happened by accident me and my two brothers got a open water course as a Christmas present from our parents in Hungary. I was working back at that time and living in Hungary and we all three of us starting the open water course and after that they teach theory at the first time. I’ve got in the water and got introduced to the scuba’s equipment and the basic of diving. It was in the pool fortunately we don’t have any sea in Hungary so we started exercise and everything in a pool and I remember that we start around 9 or 10 in the morning I didn’t even know how much time we spending in the water because I was really enjoying myself. So like after4-5 hours in the pool, my instructor said okay we’re finish, and I felt like oh already finish? I don’t want to stop and after that I was really like it, I felt delighted and lots of positive feelings. I had found immediately what I wanna do for the rest of my life and this is not something the will become a hobby but much more. So basically since that I stopped everything out and I spent all my money or my saving for go on diving and buy all my own equipment and we always travel a lot, even before with my friends family’s brothers but now in the last few year in family’s vacations , holidays and everything was planed around diving.
So we can say It was a starts point for your career?
Well At that time I didn’t know how far I’m going to get to be diving. I knew that this is something that I definitely want to continue but that time when I started It seems to be so unreachable to even you have your own equipment. Let be honest this is not a cheap sport you have to have a good financial um security financial backgrounds to be able to support your diving. So at that time I didn’t know how I’m going to get all this money to have my own equipment but I didn’t know how can I get enough money to do as many diving.
So how you do with that problem?
So basically that time I was working as a store director in a very famous and successful company. It’s a worldwide fashion company. I was worked at the biggest store in Hungary, I was working hard then I managed to get the financial background to support my hobby and my passion. So that how I did. We had two days off a week even like my days off I went to diving. I called my instructor and said ‘I’m stressing so much I just need to be on water, can I please just borrow a tank?’ and he goes like ‘what you wanna do?’ said I just wanna go to the pool and sit down on the bottom and be in the water. So he was very supportive and then he came with me obviously because I was not allowed to go on myself. I found that scuba diving you know that like not only refreshing but also it have to relax my mind and I found be in the water, now I always say like this is my job. So some people you know they’re smoked or they goes, you know drinking alcohol or other like addictions for me it just diving I just go on the water.
For you, What is the good point of diving or there have any weak point?
Okay, that is a hard question umm I think scuba diving is the best thing that ever happened to me. Myself I know I had changed a lot but of course I’m still the same person that I was before but however, learning scuba diving and also experienced different diving experiences meeting and working together and diving together with different divers and see other instructor and see different diving center, how they operate their own business helps me to see curtain things in different ways. What I’ve learn as personally learn from diving is self control, more Patience and I’ve always consider myself to be a very focus person and having set that and if I having a goal set I always did everything to actives my goal, I can not to doing something like halfway so if I decide to do something I did it 100 percent, so back to the question what I think the strong point for scuba diving I think it teaches everybody for responsibility you know diving can be dangerous if you don’t follow the safety roles and the regulations, people have to understand that this is amazing activity and it gives you so much joy and pressure however if you brake the safety roles you can not only put yourself into dangerous but you can only put your dive buddy and other dive member into dangerous too and also you have to know your limits, in diving you really have strike on your limits and it also teach me respect toward marine lines even though made me participate marine conservation in Philippines I had so much respect toward the sea and other marine animals.
For the weak point of diving, the only thing I could mention that unfortunate not many people can not afford diving because this is an expensive sport but personally I wish that everybody can try at least once.
How many dives you have done? And which one is your favorite?
At the moment I have 350+ dives, I’m not exactly sure on the numbers out of these 350, I left close 200 as a divemaster so about 150-180dives I did like as a recreational diver of diving it just like fun dives and after that I became a divemaster a was leading the dives. For my favorite dive I can not pick just one because the places I’ve chance to dive there are always different like Philippines there are very rich of micro stuffs it’s like a small things, like in Kroasia you have a lot of deep dives I really like that the water a little bit cold, for example here is in Asia has a lot of cape dives corals and in Egypt I just like visibility with the sharks and here in Thailand what I really like is the whale shark and also the beautiful of the coral which is absolutely amazing. So I can not pick just one because every places has their own unique things in the water. Just be on the water that’s good enough for me.
If there anyone who wants to be a diver, What is recommendations you’ll give to them?
My first advice will be to look at diving centers and looks for a dive instructor that they trusts completely and they’re happy to put their life into that person’s hand. And to make sure that diving center or instructor follows the rules and had the passion for diving because again I going back to what I said earlier ‘safety’ is very important for diving and after that I will recommend them not to rush themselves, take their times diving whenever you can get experience, learn, gain see things, and don’t rush themselves will be my advice.
Any recommend for dives sites around koh Chang?
I really don’t know what I expect when I came here, so that the dive site that we always goes to, I think they’re really really good because they are also naturally design for beginners not so experience divers to the dives sites around koh Chang are pretty shallow but deep enough for advance divers and shallow enough for open water divers or for the people they are doing the courses 20.16. I personally, if you ask me which one is my favorite part again I couldn’t pick one but I will pick Hin look back and the HTMS Chang. I picked Hin look back because that’s where we had a chance to swim with whale shark many times and also it beautiful, rich of marine life so even though we go there very often, we can’t get very bored of the dive site because you’ll always see something new and even though I’m not a big fan of wreck diving, I do like wrecks but If I has a chance to choose between going to coral reef 21.18 and go to the wreck. I’ll go to coral reef but this wreck is absolutely beautiful, a lot of story behind and again it’s suitable for both open water and advance divers not because it’s 30 meters depth but also because sometimes we have current there and so just good to have experience behind when you go to the wreck.