Technical diver training completed in the Gulf of Thailand

Koh Tao, Thailand -

Big Blue Tech celebrates the graduation of Magnus Baer form a TDI Extended Range course after completing his final 4 training dives on our wreck the “Big Blue Wreck” which is a sunken ferry discovered earlier this month.

Over the last 4 training dives we cleaned up the wreck removing obstacles and fishing nets to make it more attractive and safer for divers to penetrate and enjoy in the future. Not only were the tasks challenging it was also a great chance for Magnus to experience working underwater and keeping track of his environment and responsibility as the dive progressed.

The TDI Extended Range course is the pinnacle of deep air diving where the technical diver learns to explore to a depth of 55m using mixes of oxygen to handle the decompression stops.

Certain areas of the world provide spectacular dives at depths deeper than 39m/130 feet but you will not have access (or very limited access) to helium. The TDI Extended Range course teaches you the proper techniques for utilizing compressed air as a breathing gas and with a maximum depth of 55m/180 feet you won’t have to miss those dives. The Extended Range course will cover topics and skills such as

• Equipment requirements and configuration
• Decompression options
• Use of surface marker buoys
• Buddy rescue
• Narcosis checks and management

Although this is the end of the course it’s not the end of his diving and will continue to join us on trips and expeditions in the future to gain valuable experience as a certified technical diver which is essential after certification.

Thailand is described  as being “the new technical frontier“, Thailand has numerous world class sites for divers of all standards, making it an underwater adventure paradise. Some wrecks still remain unidentified and all sit just as they sank.

Huge freighters, POW ships, drill ships, tankers, munitions carriers and even a US WWII submarine can be counted amongst the historical wrecks littering Thailand.

The Andaman and South China Sea’s, all the wrecks listed have been located over the last five years and are truly untouched. Along with Caves and Caverns that are being discovered every day with untouched decorations and long rewarding penetrations.

The recent discovery of a sunken village in Khao Sok National park and the on going wreck discoveries in the Similan Islands open up Thailand to the technical diving community with more variation of challenges and adventures than any other technical diving destination.

To the right is a list of diving locations we use frequently for trips, training and planned expeditions for certified technical divers. The list is a summary of destinations, for more information about where we’re going and where we’ve been look at our news section and upcoming events.

---

Chumphon Pinnacle

Location: Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand

Description: Underwater pinnacle used for training, warm up dives and experience dives. This is also the only place to see sharks large predatory sharks in the region.

Depth: 45 meters

Visibility: 20 - 25 meters (65 - 80 feet)

Rating: ****

Availability: Daily from December to October

Sharks, Sharks and more Sharks. This busy dive destination is used by everyone on Koh Tao. Although not suitable for open water dives since the site starts at 16m this dive site is one of our more accessible deep sites where 50m is found easily.

The main attraction is Bull Sharks, Gray Reef Sharks and Whale Sharks which can be found daily. We use this site for training purposes and for fun technical diving when you just want to watch the sharks go by for hours.

---

Gulf Of Thailand Wreck Liveaboard

Introduction:

This 3 day technical wreck expedition joins the MV Trident to the HTMS Pangan

These dives are in complete in tropical conditions at 50-60m

Pre Day: Travel from your destination anywhere in Thailand to Koh Tao where the Boat Departs in the evening.

Day 1: 2 Deep Accelerated Decompression Dives

Day 2: 2 Deep Accelerated Decompression Dives

Day 3: 2 Deep Accelerated Decompression Dives - Return Home.

* a optional warm up and check out dive is available if required prior to the trip.

Costs: 40,000 Thai Baht - When Booked Online (course or training not included)

Included:Food, Drink, Accomodation, Boat Fees, Nitrox, Oxygen, Equipment (Regulators, Wing, Backplate)

Not Included: Personal Diving Equipment, Diving Insurance

Water:Salt

Location: Gulf of Thailand

Availability: Montly February to October

---

Cave and Cavern Expedition

Introduction:

Our 4 day Cave and Cavern Expedition is designed not only for training but also for certified cave and cavern divers.

Pre Day: Travel from your destination anywhere in Thailand to Khao Sok National Park

Day 1: Reel and Line Practice, Jungle Trekking, Relaxing, Swimming

Day 2: 3 Fresh Water Cave or Cavern Dives - Water Fall Tour After

Day 3: 3 Fresh Water Cave or Cavern Dives - Trek to hidden lagoon.

Day 4: 3 Fresh Water Cave or Cavern Dives - Head Home

Costs: 20,000 for certfied divers, to combine with a course see specfic course.

Included:Food, Drink, Accomodation, Transfers, Equipment, Torches, Reels, Park Entrance Fee, Boat Fees

Not Included: Nitrox, Oxygen, Technical Equipment (If Certified)

Water: Fresh

Location: Khao Sok National Park

Availability: Monthly year round.

---

Sunken Village Expedition

Introduction:

Our 4 day Sunken Village Expedition is designed for Technical Divers who want to try something completely different.

These dives are in complete darkness in water about 25 degrees at 50-60m

Day 1: Travel from your destination anywhere in Thailand to the National Park

Day 2: 2 No-Decompression Warm Up Dives with one night dive.

Day 3: 2 Accelerated Decompression Dives

Day 4: 2 Accelerated Decompression Dives

Day 5: 2 Accelerated Decompression Dives

Costs: 30,000 Thai Baht - When Booked Online

Included:Food, Drink, Accomodation, Transfers, Equipment, Torches, Reels, Park Entrance Fee, Boat Fees, Nitrox, Oxygen, Technical Equipment (regs, wings, plates), Diving Insurance

Water: Fresh

Location: Mainland Thailand

Availability: Montly year round

---

Similan Islands Technical Liveaboard

Introduction:

Our 4 day Similans Technical Liveaboard is designed for Technical Divers who want to explore the Similan islands in the comfort and style of technical diving with staff and crew who know how to accomodate you on our vessel the Mv Pawara.

Day 1: Travel from your destination anywhere in Thailand to the Khao Lak (free pickup from Phuket Airport is available. Depart in the Evening.

Day 2 :Up to 4 Technical Dives including night dive.

Day 3: Up to 4 Technical Dives including night dive.

Day 4: Up to 4 Technical Dives including night dive.

Day 5: Up to 3 Technical Dives arrive back in Khao Lak with transfer to airport or town.

Costs: 35,000 Thai Baht - When Booked Online

Included:Food, Drink, Accomodation, Transfers, Equipment, Torches, Reels, Park Entrance Fee, Boat Fees, Nitrox, Oxygen, Technical Equipment (regs, wings, plates)

Water: Salt

Location: Similan Islands

Availability: Bi-Monthly November to April

Freediving is any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold underwater diving. Examples include breathhold spear fishing, freedive photography, apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the most public attention is competitive apnea, an extreme sport, in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath without direct assistance of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba).

Recent interest in this sport has caused dive schools to look at this side of diving as a great alternative to traditional underwater interaction. A recent article in the Times about Freediving in Koh Tao reviewed the sport, the island and the local leaders in free diving; Apnea Total. In the article Guyan Mitra says:

By the end of the two-day course, I was comfortable at 20 metres, a depth that had sounded inconceivable 48 hours earlier. Plus, I was able to dive Ko Tao’s newest underwater site. A boat had recently sunk — without casualty, thankfully — creating a modern wreck around which a kaleidoscope of tropical sea life was investigating.

Using my new-found skills, I was able to probe and glide in and around the wreck, just like my fellow fish. Not quite a merman, but getting there… definitely getting there.

That article in its entirety can be found here

Additional interest was generated from the inflight magazine for Bangkok Airways; “Fah Thai” where photo journalist and fellow technical diving enthusiast Ayesha Cantrell reports about the growing trend of breath hold diving growing on Koh Tao. In the report Ayeasha says:

Go scuba diving around Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand and you may encounter a mermaid. Propelled by her monofin to depths of 50 metres on a single breath of air, Monica Ganame is the nearest you’ll get to meeting one of these mythical creatures underwater.

The Argentinian-born professional free diver wears no air tank or other bulky scuba gear - instead, Monica can hold her breath for up to six minutes and explore the underwater world in its truly natural state. The absence of dive equipment not only allows Monica to interact much more closely with marine life, but also to feel a part of the ocean herself.

Ayesha is referring to Monica Ganame who is co-owner of Apnea Total on Koh Tao, that article can be found here

One of Apnea Totals protege’s is Jeroen Marteens who became a freediving instructor through their school. Jeroen is your typical freediving instructor; Tall, slim and appears to be someone who likes his yoga and perhaps a bit of incense. Jeroen join the Big Blue Family to start our Big Blue Freediving department and has been very busy ever since. With maximum 3 people per course.

Jeroen will be taking out members of the Big Blue Tech team for their freediving course later this month, although there were grumblings between wearing 6 cylinders or none at all it is a fringe and extreme side of scuba diving so technical diving and freediving have quite a lot of similarities.

You can find more details about these courses: Freediver Basic and Freediver Advanced

Koh Tao is a small island in the gulf of Thailand and with all small islands the weather can change quickly, without warning and stay on the island for far longer then anyone would like.

But bad weather doesn’t stop the hordes of divers from exploring the pristine coral and enchanted pinnacles below our tropical waters. Although the surface may be bumpy and wet; the conditions below the water are perfect.

The past few days the tech crew have been hiding from the wind by servicing our compressors so they’re in top form for the high season which starts in August.

Yesterday, the tech crew watched the dive boats get bounced around in the sea, furiously emptying beer bottles in case a make shift raft was needed. Despite our chants of “wreck, wreck, wreck” nothing exciting happened; i guess the boats here really can handle the waves.

If you diving isn’t your thing then there’s always plenty to do on koh tao like rock climbing or watching naked men run along the beach(?)

The gulf of Thailand holds many treasures for technical divers, some well known and documented, others still shrouded in mystery and yet to be discovered. When it comes to wreck diving in the gulf of Thailand and nearby regions, the MV Trident is the spearhead in technical diving and ocean exploration.

Based on Koh Tao Island, The MV Trident and its crew have direct access to the post world war 2 wreck infested waters of this region and Big Blue Tech was lucky enough to join a recent expedition to the infamous Thai Navy Vessel the HTMS Pangan (His Thai Majesty Service) for 3 days of technical diving.
A large military vessel, the HTMS Pangan was built in 1927. Weighing 2000 tons with a crew of 81, the doomed vessel sank at 10pm on July 19th 1961, apparentely due to a storm. It is argued that no such storm with enough power to sink a vessel of this size could have possible existed at that time of year, and other theories surfaced with time as signs of a large fire were discovered close to the wheel house. This theory was further exacerbated by the fact it was carrying old (unstable) ammunition with the mission of dumping it at sea. All the crew were rescued by a Japanese freighter the Ms Daisei.

This trip comprised of a group of technical divers from various dive schools from around Koh Tao, including Brian Wilcox and Christos Kardana who both completed their TDI Extended Range course conducted by James Thornton-Allan at Big Blue Tech. Putting their new found diving skills and knowledge to the test, the 3 day expedition would prove challenging and yet enlightening with respect to technical dive exposure within deep sea wreck environments.
Christos who is already a certified technical diver and was part of the June expedition when a sunken temple was discovered in Khao Sok National Park joined the trip as a Technical Underwater Videographer.

The MV Trident boat is not your normal livebaord-which is fitting because this is not your normal diving- and with that in mind the most important items were fully stocked; diesel, fresh water, oxygen and beer!.

With the ceremonial fireworks offered to Buddha to grace us with good seas and great diving, the typical goodbyes ensued to wives, girlfriends and friends as we started our overnight journey to the dive site which is about 50 nautical miles north-east of Koh Tao Island. The dive site is out of mobile phone range so it would be the last contact with the outside world for 3 days. There is a satellite phone on board afcurse, but its for emergency use only.

Isolated from the rest of the world, the divers on board could focus on setting up their gear, analyzing their gas, planning their dives and for some people packing there closed circuit rebreather. Making sure everything was sorted the night before meant you could wake up and just jump straight into the water…perfect
The Trident locates the dive site by means of GPS and Underwater Sonar. A diver is sent down using a shot line and anchor line to tie the vessel directly to the wreck making it easy for the divers to get on to the wreck with very little effort. Decompression is also made effortless with the decompression station; a trapeze structure suspended below the Mv Trident with 4 surface supplied oxygen regulators. This allows the divers to keep their bailout oxygen for the unlikely event they loose the wreck or get blown off the deco station if the weather was to turn.

The wreck is lying on it’s port side with many areas for penetration and exploration. Over the years of diving the wreck has been shifting and changing to the effect that the stress of the collapse has thrown objects out of the wreck and into the sand. Such objects like portholes and brass pieces have been recovered and stored for preservation leaving many intact and in place objects still to be seen. Our first dive here 3 years ago had divers exploring the wheel house which is now not possible as the structure is weak and collapsing. However there is still many areas to explore providing the diver has the training and experience to wiggle into the spaces.

Like many wrecks in this area, the corridors and doorways are smaller than expected. For many western divers this is a challenge as the ships are built in Asia for Asian men. You only need to look at a Japanese sailor and then an American sailor to see the difference. American and British vessels have typically larger spaces and doorways and are easier to get around. Thankfully this wreck has many openings and exits so if you do find yourself wedged in a room and unable to go back the way you came you just have to swim out through the deck.

The first dives of the trip were a real eye opener for many. For Brian “I don’t get Narked” Wilcox it was his first sense of narcosis and for Christos “I check everything” Kardana this was a great illustration of what happens to expensive video mounted underwater torches when you leave the caps out. Oh dear; no longer torches but expensive water holders. If you watch the video in future and wonder why some parts are dark then that’s why.

The most aggressive dive of the trip was a thirty (30) minute bottom time at sixty (60) meters one hundred ninety eight (198) feet. Below is a sample of that dive and what our decompression obligation looked like.
Descend to 60 for 3.0 (3.0) using 21/0/79
Level at 60 for 27.0 (30.0) using 21/0/79
Stop at 36 for 1 (33.0) using 21/0/79
Stop at 33 for 2 (35.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 30 for 2 (37.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 27 for 2 (39.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 24 for 2 (41.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 21 for 4 (45.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 18 for 4 (49.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 15 for 6 (55.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 12 for 9 (64.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 9 for 12 (76.0) using 36/0/64
Stop at 6 for 26 (102.0) using 100/0/0
*Simulated Profile, Do Not Use!

As the dives continued Brian was exposed to more challenges including wreck penetration and recovery skills. Brian was skeptical at first with regardS to penetrating the wreck but once inside he was impossible to get out; the true calling for a wreck diver.

During these dives Christos continued to film above and below the ocean and is in the process of putting together a video of this trip and the HTMS Pangan.

Once again it was a perfect trip with great sun, good times and narcosis induced diving, all with thanks to the MV Trident and its crew.