Dive shop in Thailand wins top honours for Environmental Achievement.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Diving, the parent company of Big Blue Tech came in third for the Project AWARE International Environmental Achievement Awards for 2009 listing them as number 1 in Thailand.

Project AWARE Foundation honors dive operators around the world who display commitment and excellence in their efforts to protect underwater environments within business operations and their community. “The Environmental Achievement Award is about rewarding vision, excellence and pursuit of conservation. More importantly, this award ensures the enjoyment of underwater environments for future generations,” said Henrik Nimb, Project AWARE Foundation Director, Asia Pacific.

The following Asia Pacific Environmental Achievement Award 2009 winners operate in an environmentally responsible manner and demonstrate an outstanding commitment to conserving underwater environments through education, advocacy and action.
1. B&J Diving Centre – ABC, Malaysia
2. B&J Diving Centre – Salang, Malaysia
3. Big Blue Diving Resort, Thailand
4. Blue Season Bali, Indonesia
5. Crystal Dive Resort, Thailand
6. Deep Sea Divers Den, Australia
7. Dive Tropex Tokoriki, Fiji
8. Dive! Tutukaka, New Zealand
9. Eco Scuba, Korea
10. Gangga Divers, Indonesia
11. Kon-Tiki Krabi, Thailand
12. Malapascua Exotic Dive Resort, Philippines
13. Matava, Fiji Islands
14. NZ Sea Adventures, New Zealand
15. Ocean Elements, Malaysia
16. Plunge Diving, Australia
17. Scuba Cat Diving, Thailand
18. Sea Hounds, Singapore
19. Sea World Dive Center, Philippines
20. Subsurface Fiji, Fiji Islands
21. Thresher Shark Divers, Philippines
22. United Divers, Australia

The number of amazing initiatives and actions implemented by the Project AWARE Environmental Achievement Award Winners is inspiring. Congratulations! For information on planning your own environmental project or becoming more environmentally sustainable contact Project AWARE.

Similan Islands, Thailand - Big Blue Tech continues their technical diving expedition with the boarding ontheir liveaboard vessel the Mv Pawara bound for the Similan Islands over the course of a 4 day / 4 night trip.

The Mv Pawara is a luxury class liveaboard owned by Big Blue Diving and chartered through Big Blue Khao Lak and offers diving trips to the best of the Similan Islands off the west coast of Thailand.

Big Blue Tech uses this trip to conduct a TDI Extended Range Yvonne Fries, Helen Artal, Thomas Hallstrom and Duncan Tyler conducted by TDI Instructor James Thornton-Allan and assisted by Andrew Cavel.

Technical diving in the Similans is perfect for divers who want to see the best diving conditions in Thailand with a diversity of marine life and clearity unseen anywhere else.

At the moment the Mv Pawara is the only boat setup for technical diving with on board nitrox and oxygen fills along with Big Blue Khao Lak being the only centre in Khao Lak offering technical diving. This will be the second trip this season with many more scheduled in the coming months.

Technical Divers venture out on the Similan Islands

Similan Islands, Thailand - Big Blue Tech continues their technical diving expedition called the Golden Horseshoe Expedition with the boarding of their liveaboard vessel the Mv Pawara bound for the Similan Islands over the course of a 4 day / 4 night trip.

The Mv Pawara is a luxury class liveaboard owned by Big Blue Diving and chartered through Big Blue Khao Lak and offers diving trips to the best of the Similan Islands off the west coast of Thailand.

Big Blue Tech uses this trip to conduct a TDI Extended Range, TDI Compressor Operator and TDI Gas Blender course for Emily Billingham, Mark Slinn, Matt Payne and Andy Cavell.

The team returns to land on January 17th where we’ll updating the news with pictures and video from our adventure. Before heading off to Sra Keow in Krabi and then to Phi Phi Islands.

Big Blue Tech will be closing it’s doors for training for the entire month of November based on annual flooding during monsoon season. This picture is from last year.

For those that can’t remember what it was like November 2008, here’s a reminder

Technical diving trips will still be conducted to Khao Sok and the Similan Islands but this will only be open for already certified technical divers.

During this month Big Blue Tech will undergo many changes to it’s facilities, staff and diving destinations.

Big Blue Tech will say goodbye to many veteran staff members but welcomes two new employees.

Panos Iosifoglou

Panos is a long term employee of Big Blue Diving, his humor and friendliness got him the job in the first place but his spoken language of Greek and German let him keep it. Panos has moved to Big Blue Khao Lak where he will be the regional representative for Big Blue Tech while working for the recreational diving industry. Panos is an experienced instructor and has been on all our expeditions. If you want to know about technical diving in the similan islands he’s the man to ask. he can be reached at panos@bigbluetech.net

Ash Dunn

Ash is scheduled to replace Christos Kardana as facilities manager on December 1st. Ash who is a “water and heating molecular engineer” or “plumber” is from England and has goals of staying in Thailand for the next 5 years. He speaks with thick “Jordie” accent which means he won’t be answering phones but he was hand picked for the job because he is a hard working and trust worthy man. His love for Hip-Hop from his time playing basketball for England’s national team will quickly be replaced with forced fed heavy metal on 24 hours a day in the tech room. he can be reached at ash@bigbluetech.net

Changes
Big Blue Tech will also be expanding both in physical shop size and equipment to accommodate the diving schedule in the new year. With focus on Koh Tao for training and expeditions for diving.

Big Blue Tech would like to thank everyone who helped us for this season and we look forward to diving and working with everyone again in December.

The past few days after the return from the Khao Sok we’ve been quite busy sorting out all the equipment and gear for the next serial of training and diving. We’ve also been gifted with 2 teenagers from Sweden who are here to gain work experience during their 2 week holiday. Although they have come here for big blue diving we decided to steal them for the day and get them to work taking pictures of our new resort.

Welcome to Big Blue Anders and Alicia!!

Here’s what they had to say about their first day…

“Today was the first day here at Big Blue for us. As Marine Biology students from Sweden we are here to gain work experience in the diving industry and its associated marine branch. We will be here for about 2 weeks and we hope to learn a lot about diving and also get a view of how the company runs. When we first came this morning we met Kayleigh who will be looking after us during our stay here. Today we have met almost everyone at Big Blue and all of them are really nice and welcoming. We were shown around and now have more understanding of how things work around here. The coolest thing so far must have been when Christos showed us all the equipment that is needed for technical diving and we learned about how to make sure you get the best air combination in the tanks depending on the depth of the dive planned. To sum up, we had a great day here at Big Blue! Everyone we met has been really friendly, happy and they are all very professional! We can hardly express how grateful we are to Big Blue for letting us come here and learn. We can’t wait for tomorrow!”

Christos has also been given a long awaited day off and decided to go free diving this morning as the sun rose over the mountains of Koh Tao. Not a bad way to spend a day off.

Below is a collection of our hotel we use for all our technical diving students.

Living and diving on a small island can be unpredictable in so many ways, one of the more intrusive ways is the weather. Without warning it can change from hot and sunny to cold and rainy, recently Koh Tao was hit with a storm that lasted a few days ( see “Blown Away by the Diving“, took down some trees, threw sand in our eyes and general put everyone off the idea of going into the sea. That short period of boredom and gloom is over now with the return of the sunny and hot season typically enjoyed by all in Koh Tao and exactly what you would expect from a small island.

Koh Tao is unique beyond anywhere in Thailand, it has yet to be given a large airport which means the groups of people here are determined to enjoy the island. It’s always been considered a hippy backpacker place so it’s still quite young and fresh in mood and atmosphere. The shop owners are relaxed and leave you to browse with out the high pressure sales tactics. And the number one great thing about Koh Tao is the absence of the sex industry found most commonly in other parts of Thailand. Here on Koh Tao you would never see a “go go bar” in other places already mentioned you can’t avoid them. Most people already know this about Koh Tao and that’s what makes this place a great place to put your feet up.

Even the manager of Big Blue Diving wrote this: “ I woke up this morning I had an early morning swim from my house on Sairee Terrace south, a couple of hundred meters, to Sairee Beach & then back again. Me & my lovely wife walked the dogs down to the beach & then we had breakfast on the balcony at home. Then when I drove into work this morning the breeze was a refreshing break to the early morning heat of another beautifully bright hot sunny day. I went to yoga & put the fans on full. I got to spend most of my working day in my air conditioned office & then I’ve got a wedding party at the beach tonight at sunset. Then tomorrow I got to do the same again though I might replace my yoga work out with a couple of dives at Chumphon Pinnacle! I’m living the dream : ) Are you? “. Sounds good to me.

With the weather change brought about a mad rush of diving, Christos couldn’t wait to get back in the water to start taking pictures again and generally everyone is in a good mood soaking up the sun.

Below are some pictures taken over the past few days. The photo’s Christos took can be found >here<

Action Asia Magazine publishes a dive planner guide annually. This year “Action Diver” features a comprehensive guide to diving around south east asia.

Under their Thailand section they gave us a good write up and plenty of contact information for travelers who pickup the free publication to reach us easily.

as written.

“Big Blue Diving is one of Thailand’s longest-running dive centers, with a d ive resort on Koh Tao on the east coast and a dive centre offering trips to the Similan and Surin islands from Khao Lak on the west coast. Big Blue Diving on Koh Tao offers accommodation from dormitories to luxury bungalows on the beach. With three large dive vessels departing twice a day they can offer up to 12 different dive sites daily. Big Blue Diving also offers tuition for technical diving and cave diving at the Khao Sok National Park. Their west-coast dive operation services the Similan and Surin Islands by speedboat and by liveaboard. Boasting a choice of liveaboards departing daily, Big Blue Diving Khao Lak is quickly becoming a popular choice for divers on the west coast”

We love that last bit since all our technical diving is done on the west coast during that time of year. imagine graduating from your technical diving course amongst manta rays at 50m.