Recreational divers take a try dive in technical gear.
Koh Tao, Thailand
Big Blue Tech hosted a technical “try dive” this afternoon for some of our eager divemaster interns. BSAC Extended Range Instructor Andy Cavell conducted the afternoon which included ocean dives in the gear.
While many might of seen this already in a swimming pool at your local dive shows we thought it would be better to invest the time and energy to take the divers into the environment they would be diving in. Some skills include buoyancy and trim which would only be really experienced in their familiar surroundings of salt water.
Typically a try tech dive includes basic safety skills of equipment setup, self rescue, out of air and isolating problems. After the first skills the interns had the longest (albeit shallowest) dive every with some diving over 1 hour in some of our secluded bays.
Assisting Andy was BSAC Instructor and Technical Divemaster Ash Dunn and Technical Divemaster Thomas Halstrom who were all out for the afternoon with the 4 interns who were Johan, Tom, Martin and Jennifer.
Big Blue Tech has been providing experience dives to Nick Andrianov, an experienced TDI Trimix Diver who joins us from Hong Kong on a brief holiday and diving trip. Nick has been diving with us all week getting dives in some caves, caverns and most recently on our small wreck in one of the confined bays on Koh Tao.
During his week stay Nick will be exploring all the dive sites Koh Tao has to offer and taking a trip to the Unicorn Wreck on a wreck wednesday trip hosted by a local technical liveaboard.
Nick received one on one leadership from our in house technical divemaster team. This is the first time Nick has dived in Thailand and enjoyed diving without large crowds, which made us wonder how it must be diving where he’s been!
Technical diving and cave diving in Thailand featured in french magazine.
Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech along with photographs from Christos Kardana have been featured in a 5 page spread in the french magazine Atacamag which can be read online through their website at Atacamag. Atacamag is an outdoor magazine which focuses on sports outdoors and interviewed Christos last year when they were travelling conducting research for their Thailand feature.
The magazine explores technical diving in thailand along with a focus on Koh Tao and cave diving in Khao Sok.
Big Blue Tech completed a TDI Advanced Nitrox Course yesterday with the combined afternoon of skills which embodied both TDI Decompression Procedures and TDI Advanced Nitrox.
With the flexible curriculum offered by TDI it was possible for the training team to introduce interesting and valid skills which are appropriate for the diving ahead.
The students on the course were Mark Slinn, Andy Cavell and Ash Dunn who are all working towards a future as a technical diving instructor.
One of the signature skill introduced involves using a 3m marked line on the sea bed and having the divers wearing full technical diving gear start at the 1m mark and start fining, during fining the diver must remove one decompression cylinder without loosing control, upon reaching the end of the line the diver stops and begins backwards kicking, collecting his decompression cylinder while kicking backwards and returning to the start where the diver turns 180 degrees and moves away. The goal is to not use your hands and focus on perfect trim and balance while performing these skills.
Backwards finning can be quite difficult initially, to help this process we provide Jet Fins to our students as part of the equipment they will be using during the course to enhance the ease of learning. Here is a video to help illustrate the skill:
Additional to these skills was task loading with 8 cylinders removing and replacing each one while maintaining buoyancy. The training team felt the students really excelled and didn’t see them disturb the bottom, without being told to, during both 50 minute dives.
This would be the last dive until the after christmas as the students progress on to their Gas Blender and BSAC Instructor course.
Big Blue Tech opens it’s doors today to start the new season after closing during the annual monsoon that hit’s the east side of Koh Tao, however the monsoon never happened. Despite diving destinations on the east coast of Thailand like Pattaya being effected by consistent rain and flash flooding; koh tao was sunny and dry.
The many wise locals of koh tao who have been on the island before beer swear that monsoon is coming and that we shouldn’t be opening just yet. So against better judgment we opened the doors of Big Blue Tech and welcomed all the new activity.
One of the more regretful events is the departure of Christos Kardana who’s leaving Thailand to go to England to delve into the plentiful job market there. Regardless we hope he’ll find nothing but misery and come back in the new year.
Today isn’t without celebration as it’s also the first day for Ash Dunn who has been training to become the new Facilities Manager for this past month and walked right into work this morning ready to get to go.
Today is also the first day for our new technical diving interns who have a very long list of courses and goals to complete over the next 3 months on their way up to becoming a technical diving instructor. You can read more about them tomorrow.
Big Blue Tech will be conducting a 4 day Cavern Course in Kao Sok National Park. The following dates are available.
June 18th - 23rd ( 4 spaces )
This trip will be open to divers from around Thailand.
Pre-Requisites: Must be minimum Advanced with 20 dives ( Redundant Breathing System Provided)
Conduct: The course will be done on site in the national park over a 4 day period of 6 dives with academic plus dry land skills. Certification as a Cavern Diver will be received after completing 4 dives and a final exam with 2 experience dives to follow.
Included:
- Ferry to and from Mainland Thailand (if required)
- Transport to and around Khao Sok
- 4 nights accommodation in a 4 star resort inside the the National Park
- Manual and Certification
- All gas and cylinder fills
- All equipment (Reels, Torches, Dive Gear)
- All food and drinks (non alcoholic)
- Park Entry Fee
- Boat Fees
- 4 Training Dives
- 2 “fun” Experience Dives
Not Included: Beer
Tekkies: Technical gear is available for those certified, included in the course price.
Certified Cavern Divers:
For those certified we will be running exploration trips in conjunction with this course, this will allow certified divers to use the boat and compressor to conduct 4 days of diving
Gas:
Nitrox, Trimix and boosted oxygen available on site, on request.
Prices: Contact Us.
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Past Events, look at these pages for images and video
Big Blue Tech will be conducting a 4 day Cavern Course in Kao Sok National Park. The following dates are available.
June 5th - 9th ( 4 spaces )
This trip will be open to divers from around Thailand.
Pre-Requisites: Must be minimum Advanced with 20 dives ( Redundant Breathing System Provided)
Conduct: The course will be done on site in the national park over a 4 day period of 6 dives with academic plus dry land skills. Certification as a Cavern Diver will be received after completing 4 dives and a final exam with 2 experience dives to follow.
Included:
- Ferry to and from Mainland Thailand (if required)
- Transport to and around Khao Sok
- 4 nights accommodation in a 4 star resort inside the the National Park
- Manual and Certification
- All gas and cylinder fills
- All equipment (Reels, Torches, Dive Gear)
- All food and drinks (non alcoholic)
- Park Entry Fee
- Boat Fees
- 4 Training Dives
- 2 “fun” Experience Dives
Not Included: Beer
Tekkies: Technical gear is available for those certified, included in the course price.
Certified Cavern Divers:
For those certified we will be running exploration trips in conjunction with this course, this will allow certified divers to use the boat and compressor to conduct 4 days of diving
Gas:
Nitrox, Trimix and boosted oxygen available on site, on request.
Prices: 19,800 Baht
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Past Events, look at these pages for images and video
Today we woke up early, had a large breakfast and headed down to the peir for our first load of dives. The trip would take 45 minuts by longtail boat, which is essentially a big canoe with a car engine on the back with a prop. Not complicated but it works.
As the boat departed bruce started assembling his side mounted diving system which proved to be a much better system for cave diving as he could enter restrictions far easier then had he been wearing conventional technical diving gear.
The first dive would be at the Temple Cave which is just about the limit in which you would consider a cavern. Your can see the natural light but you can get into complete dark if you wanted to. The first thing you notice strickingly different about this cavern system to others is the height of it running from 2m down to 32m giving a large open area to explore. We would spend the majority of our time practicing skills but the remaining time spent diving around.
All divers had redundant breathing systems either in technical diving gear or single tanks while carrying a RBS or Pony.
Other unusual features are the submerged trees. Khao Sok lake is man made after the built a dam and flooded it. You can see an entire flooded forest and even a village although too deep for recreational dives. This made diving in Khao Sok very unique and interesting.
The second cavern would be in a hole in the wall, in a random place along a cliff. Appearently the locals know these places because the elders could remember hiding in them during the communist influx. Whatever the story may be, here we were, 10m deep and going into a cavern in the middle of no where. The great thing about these systems that everyone noticed was how clear the visibility was once you got inside. Outside it was terrible and green but clear like gin inside.
