Local divers rediscover a local shipwreck on Koh Tao.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech internship coordinator Dean Jenkins took several divemaster candidates from Big Blue Diving out to local dive site “Japanese Gardens” to look for the little wooden wreck that disappeared a few months ago.

Using search patterns the wreck was found at 20m about 300m away from it’s origional location. The vanishing story comes from people who saw a large steel boat use the wreck as a mooring, when it encountered big waves it dragged the wreck away but failed to tell anyone where they put it.

Today the text came into the office that the team was successful and a mooring will be put on it, again, so other divers on the island can enjoy it.

For more picture and origional story look here and here

Today Big Blue Tech celebrates the graduation of Matt Payne and Emily Billingham from their TDI Decompression Procedures course on Koh Tao, Thailand.

The course began with advanced decompression techniques with running schedule with required stops along with buoyancy, gas switching methods, lift bag deployment, while on the small wreck at Japanese Gardens dive site. Emily had completed her Advanced Nitrox over a month ago and required a minor refresher but Matt had just completed his course the following day and was rolling through the curriculum with ease.

After 2 hours of diving we returned to the dive shop to plan the following days diving at Chumpon Pinncale with a dive profile of 45m for 30 minutes. Because the students excelled in their buoyancy control we allowed them to use pure oxygen for decompression for stops 4.5m and shallower.

This morning Big Blue Tech cruised to Chumphon Pinnacle and jumped in to the water early in the morning. Descending to 45m the visibility was in excess of 30 meters. Cruising down to depth we could see the recreational divers above pointing frantically out into the blue. Looking out in the direction they were point we could see a large bull shark skimming the thermocline. Moving away from the shark area Emily pointed out two lion fish huddled at the base of the pinnacle. The students followed their schedule bringing them safeyly to the surface in just over an hour. The students were also given a Suunto Vytec gas switching computer as a backup to their slates.

Finishing their accelerated decompression the divers were met by a Box Jellyfish which has been reported stalking divers around the pinnacle for a few weeks now.

Matt continues on to Khao Sok for his TDI Cavern Course and Emily returns to teaching recreational diving for Big Blue with plans to continue on to Extended Range in the Similan Islands.

Today Big Blue Tech celebrated the successful completion of a TDI Advanced Nitrox Course for Ash, Matt and Andy.

The students come from different backgrounds and environments. Matt is a oil and gas worker based in Kazakhstan but frequents Thailand; he completed his SDI Solo Diver course last month and has come back for more serious diving. Ash is a Divemaster Intern with Big Blue and will soon move up to join Big Blue Tech in December. Andy comes from Denmark where he is actively serving in the Danish Army as a Sergeant and this is his break before returning home for overseas deployment.

The TDI Advanced Nitrox course is based on familiarity with technical diving methods and equipment, buoyancy, oxygen handling, mixes of nitrox above 40% and extended depth to 40m. Some of the highlights of this course included some wreck diving at Japanese Gardens, some cavern diving at Green Rock and diving with Bull Sharks at Chumphon Pinnacle.

Some of the students will continue on to Decompression Procedures which teaches the methods behind decompression diving and more advanced skills while others would continue to gain experience or return home.

In addition, Christos was awarded the TDI Semi Closed Rebreather rating after completing all the skills and requirements for the rebreather and accompanied the course for more experience and training on the rebreather.

A few days ago some members of the Big Blue Tech team revisited the little wreck in Japanese Gardens dive site that was sunk on purpose a few months ago.

Christos visited this wreck recently with Yvonne Fries and Sonia Cork to get some pictures and practice taking still shots on a wreck.

The wreck has become very popular on koh tao. It opens up the ability for more people to experience wreck diving in Koh Tao, an experience that was previously reserved for only experienced divers.

Below are some pictures from his dives.

The waves and wind have increased causing havoc on our diving schedule and making it generally rough on our side of Koh Tao

These waves and wind proved too much for one dive school ,who will remain anonymous, when their boat got into a bit of trouble and was sank in a shallow dive area where it was hiding from the elements.

One benefit to this unfortunate incident is the creation of a shallow and publicly accessible wreck where previously all the wrecks on Koh Tao were reserved for technical diving or experienced divers. In comparison this new one can’t really be called a Ship Wreck, it’s more a sunk boat.

This wreck is lying upright in 15m of crystal clear water with a buoy line on it for everyone to see. There’s nothing particularly interesting inside except the odd news paper or sunglasses but you can see the tank racks that would hold the scuba cylinders for their customers. There is the slight hazard of the petrol and oil that leaks out which could be smelled on our gear after the dive.

On this day we used it for some simulated deep wreck training with some underwater photography equipment and we had the wreck all to ourselves.

Unfortunately the wreck is wooden which means it won’t last long. We lost a boat of the same size a few years ago in similar conditions, that one was gone and swept away in a few months. Hopefully in it’s protected location it will have a better chance of being an source of amusement for a while. For directions, go to the furthest buoy line from Japanese Gardens.

These photos have been edited to protect the identity of the owners.

Yesterday was a Discover Technical Diving Day for Hannah, Nora, Andy and Meriaea (spelling?) at Big Blue Tech.

The day was broken down into a short theory session, equipment assembly, skill introduction and then a dive. The Dive was done a Japanese Gardens which is a confined bay at Nang Yuan Island next to Koh Tao.

After the theory sessions where the philosophy of technical diving and the principles behind it we explained the gear was loaded on to the Long Tail and then on to the main boat which was commandeered by us for the day.

After assembling the equipment it was time to get in the water and practice some skills like gas shut down, sharing air, buoyancy, using a lift bag and reel. After that we went to the surface and went off on a 75 minute dive. Normally this would not be possible because of the limited amount of air in one cylinder. But in technical gear we all came up with more than enough to stay down longer but some were getting cold.

The divers were shown areas of the site never seen before including a cavern/cave where you can surface the entire time you’re inside. It’s safe for beginners to have complete access to the surface but still creating that essence of cave diving.

Back on land the equipment was cleaned and put away. If you would like to join us for an afternoon of experiencing technical diving contact us and it can be arranged with a days notice.

Two girls had so much fun they decided to have a little kiss at the end. Being equal rights advocates and all who are we to stop them.