Big Blue Tech has a lot of compressors, in fact we have 8 in different places around thailand from a small portable gas powered one for expeditions to a compressor so big it takes 10 people to move it. Many would think they’re not all needed but when one breaks it causes panic and mayhem around the dive resort.

Recently one of our older compressors decided he had enough of his life pumping gas and committed suicide. It was touch and go as the compressor doctors debated about putting him out to pasture or fixing him. It was decided to let the compressor go and replace him with a new one. The compressor that passed on had been with the school for over 15 years and was the first compressor ever to be bought at Big Blue.

The new one is a Bauer 250 with the “state of the art” P41 filter (basically more filter for the air) and it’s one of the new toys added to the collection of bells and whistles.

Additionally Christos returned from Singapore with his Amphibico Underwater Housing which looks very serious indeed. Christos claims its the housing the BBC and National Geographic used before HD moved on the scene.

A video of a Great White shark that ends up in a shark cage with a man from Plettenberg Bay has been seen by millions of people on YouTube.

The clip, which shows Pieter Boshoff, 38, coming face-to-face with the shark, will also be shown on Sunday on the programme Untamed and Uncut on DStv’s Animal Planet channel.

According to Boshoff the incident happened about eight years ago at Gansbaai, when shark cage diving was still quite new to the country. He was there that day with his brother to take underwater photographs.

Boshoff and another man were in the cage when the sharks were lured closer with raw fish. Boshoff says he was taking photos when the Great White shark of about 4m suddenly swam straight into the cage.

The impact caused the shark’s head to get stuck between the bars. “With all the thrashing about, the shark moved deeper and deeper into the cage. The steel was bending more and more and the other guy and I moved to the bottom of the cage.

“At one stage there was only the camera between me and the shark. There were a few tense seconds when the shark could’ve easily taken a chomp out of my stomach.”

In the process, Boshoff and the other diver also almost lost their air supply. The entire incident was caught on camera.

The shark knocked Boshoff out of the cage with its head, at which point he and the other diver were able to swim to the surface.

Boshoff later went to Cape Town, where a team from National Geographic interviewed him about the incident. That interview is part of the clip which can now be seen on Untamed and Uncut.

Boshoff says he thought he was “on his way out” that day. Since the incident, he hasn’t climbed in a shark cage again.

“I actually prefer surfing, thank you very much. I still get nervous when I see something that looks like a shark in the water.”

The Trieste II was anchored in a parking lot, not in metal-eating saltwater.

Yet salty air off Dogfish Bay and red duct tape were ravaging the deep submergence vessel. A fixture at the Naval Undersea Museum since the facility opened in 1991, the Trieste II was rusting away.

A Port Orchard company, with $80,000 from the Navy, is reclaiming the historic vessel. A two-month renovation will wrap up in a couple weeks.

“It’s gone places they don’t build equipment to go anymore,” said Pat Spicer, project leader for Q.E.D. Systems. “It’s as interesting as it gets, but it’s a huge, huge challenge.”

Museum visitors aren’t likely to give the Trieste a second glance. It looks like a giant propane tank with little orange propellers, but its feats are impressive. Certified to operate 20,000 feet under the sea, it discovered and photographed debris from the submarine USS Thresher, which sank in the Atlantic Ocean with all hands on board on April 10, 1963.

In 1969, it again submerged 10,000 feet to investigate the wreckage of USS Scorpion, which sank May 22, 1968, southwest of the Azores. It photographed the submarine and compiled a report to determine how it was lost. And you can bet sunken American subs weren’t the only ones it investigated.

The Trieste II was the first submersible to recover man-made items from the ocean floor, first to certify “hydronauts” for extreme depths and time in the vessel, and first to operate a tethered “flying eyeball.” It was deactivated in 1984.

The ship’s condition didn’t seem too bad at first. Only 4,200 square inches appeared damaged. When workers looked deeper — and pulled off strips of red duct tape that had been on the vessel for years — another 24,000 inches was discovered, said Ron Roehmholdt, museum exhibits chief.

Spicer and his crew found rust holes as big as basketballs, he said, and there were little trees growing on top of the ship.

First they had to pressure wash the vessel, then blast the good part with a Sponge-Jet system — like sandblasting but with softer projectiles. They took power tools to the rusty areas and had to rebuild some places with fiberglass and metal epoxy. Those spots were smoothed over with putty. About all that remains is the final painting.

“We’ll probably never do something like this again,” Spicer said of the company, which is accustomed to working on submarines, tugboats and barges. “It’s been fun. It’s nerve-racking, I tell you that. It’s easy to get overwhelmed because there’s so much rust.”

The Trieste II, which was featured in National Geographic and TV documentaries, was like a big balloon, Roehmholdt said. It carried aircraft fuel, which is lighter than seawater, for buoyancy. To descend, seawater was pumped in. To go up, it discharged iron shot. Powered by batteries, it could stay down for 12 hours traveling at 2 knots. The three-person crew only had a little port hole to see through.

“As far as technology goes, it’s an absolute marvel, a national treasure,” said museum curator Stephen Crowell.