Technical divers and deep divers descend of famous dive site.

Koh Tao, Thailand

Today, in combination with the graduation of a TDI Decompressions Procedures course was the graduation of 12 dive master candidates who completed their Deep Diver and Nitrox Diver course with Big Blue Tech Instructors Thomas Hallstrom and Andy Cavell.

Over the 3 dives on the full day trip the students were exposed to 40m and the use of nitrox for the first time. This training is required for anyone wishing to join us on wreck diving trips coming next week.

While Andy and Thomas were in technical diving gear for safety the students, being recreational dive master interns, were in a single cylinder.

The course was combined with several different agencies which was based on the students preference.

On top of the 3 great dives it was also Martin birthday which he spent celebrating at the front of the boat from seasickness. I’m sure he’ll have a repeat performance tonight for his birthday party.

Big Blue Tech are one of the few schools who frequently conduct full day trips and this was the first one of the season after a pause from strong winds. Although the conditions at sail rock weren’t ideal it was different with soft and hard coral not seen on koh tao and an abundance of marine life not seen elsewhere.

In other news Technical Diver Nick was being lead by Technical Divemaster Ash Dunn around the site gaining more experience and continuing his fun diving with us after a day off wreck diving.

Solo Diving once considered technical diving and discouraged by certification agencies is now seen as an acceptable practice for those divers suitably trained and experienced. Rather than relying on the traditional buddy diving safety system solo divers are skilled in self sufficiency and are able to take responsibility for their own safety while diving. The first Training Agency to offer a Solo Diving certification was SDI (Scuba Diving International) in 1999. To date they remain the only agency to formalise this level of diver training. Additionally Big Blue Tech is the only school on the west coast to offer this course (including Bangkok, Koh Samui, Patatya and Koh Pang-Nga)

Other certifications have this style of course called either independent diver or self sufficient diver but nothing beats the label “Solo Diver”

Big Blue Tech completed this course for Mark (dive master intern from Pattaya) Matt (Oil Industry worker from Pattaya) and Andy (Big Blue Tech Dive Master Intern). The course took 2 days with a morning of theory and 4 dives.

The skills learned on the course including aspects of dive planning, gas monitoring, redundant breathing sources, navigation and physical stamina. The students were pushed close to the edge of their comfort level with the introduction of new methods of diving.

The course is designed to train a diver to a level where he can dive on his own without supervision providing he/she has a backup breathing supply. Additionally their SAC rates were calculated so they could effectively determine their gas consumption prior to the dive.

One of their last two dives let them explore Chumphon Pinnacle (Koh Tao’s premier dive site) with the support of surface cover who had their dive plan logged.

Matt and Mark return to Pattaya today after a night on the town. Andy went straight back to working towards his technical divemaster course by assisting on an Advanced Nitrox Course.

Below are some pictures of their course.

A group of archeologists from Yogyakarta have discovered ancient Chinese ceramic artifacts estimated to date from between the 13th and 16th century AD in the waters around Genting Island, off the coast of the Central Java town of Jepara.

Head of the team, Priyatno Hadi Sulistyarto, said Friday the findings indicated that the Java Sea was a busy international trade route.

“From the features of the artifacts, which depict animal and flower motifs, albeit not so detailed, we assume the commodities were manufactured as mass products. They have characteristics commonly found in the Ming Dynasty,” Priyatno said.

The 16 member team includes three underwater archeologists. A dive master from the Association of Indonesian Diving Sports was hired to lead the underwater search.

The artifacts were located 200 meters from the coast, at a depth of between two and 2.5 meters.

Local resident Suminto, 28, said people on the island were aware of the artifacts for a long time but did not think they were historical items.

Priyatno said his team was originally searching for a shipwreck around Genting Island and the remaining parts of Karimunjawa Islands

Event took place on July 31st

Sail Rock dive site has been described by many as the best scuba diving destination on the entire east coast of Thailand.

There have been many rumors going around as to where the name comes from however we believe it’s because of the famous sail rock in the black sea which looks very very similar. Described here on wiki.

The site is a big granite pinnacle that breaks the surface half way between Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Tao and as there are no other rocks around it acts as a congregation point for all the fish in the surrounding area.

The pinnacle drops down to 50 meters in the sand and is typically dived in a circular route around the rock, spiraling slowly shallower. If currents are strong however, dive masters will guide customers around the sheltered areas, avoiding hard fining in the currents. There are other outer rocks a little deeper that can be seen from the main pinnacle and are home to reef sharks.

On a clear day, with light filtering down into the crystal blue water, the granite boulder looks stunning. Enormous schools of trevally are all over the dive site and they energetically harass the smaller fish which bunch together and move as one for protection from these darting raids

Because of the distance and the logistics required to reach the dive site very few schools on Koh Tao actually bother to reach this dive site. However Big Blue go there about twice a week with the aid of 3 boats, on board kitchen (galley) and space for 40 - 50 divers.

On this day in particular Big Blue Tech joined the boat for some technical diving, photography and just enjoy a day out on the seas.

The trip was accompanyed with several different courses and activities from Advanced and Dive Master courses to Recreational and Technical Fun Divers.

In the technical diving community it seems to be a common opinion that mixing technical diving and recreational diving on one boat is something of a problem, however we feel it’s a great environment to be in. Many divers have never seen such diving methods and are generally curious and interested which makes it a great chance to educate divers in other styles of fish watching.

Additionally the technical diving team wanted to explore some GPS Marks given to us by the boat captain and his friends with our sea bottom sonar along the way. Some proved promising and we would later return alone to the marks for further exploration.

Although the day was good the weather turned on us quite quickly causing strong current on the dive sites. This left the technical divers with one big dive and resorted to relaxing on the boat while the other divers did 3.

Below are some images from the day.

The Big Blue Tech family became a little bit bigger with the arrival of Andy Holdaway to start his technical dive master internship which will take him from a rescue diver to a member of staff as an instructor in a few months time.

Andy joins us from England where he has spent the past few years as a Royal Marines Commando and served with our director James Thornton-Allan over 4 years ago. Andy has been to Koh Tao before but this time he’s staying.

Being as Andy already has a relationship with the staff means there’s been quite a few late nights and shakey mornings. However the celebration of his arrival is over and now it’s time to get to work. Andy will be enrolling in the following courses.

PADI Divemaster Internship
TDI Technical Divemaster
TDI Advanced Gas Blender
TDI Service Technician
TDI Advanced Nitrox
TDI Decompression Procedures
TDI Extended Range
PADI Open Water Instructor
PADI Specialty Instructor - Deep and Nitrox
BSAC Compressor Operator

Once that’s done Andy will be joining us to take over the responsibility for all our specialty course training and freelancing for recreational diving while he builds up experience to take on the ominous role of TDI technical instructor.