Antarctica conjures up images of lots and lots of snow, ice, glaciers, penguins and very little to see, but one thing you would never imagine doing here is Scuba diving. Well, think again! Even though the freezing temperatures that routinely plunge below -40°C (-40°F) and hurricane-force winds have created extreme conditions which have resulted in a land virtually devoid of life. No insects, no plants, no major terrestrial flora or fauna exist here. Yet, life thrives below the thick ice in the icy waters and McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea has some of the most spectacular diving in the World.

Ice diving at McMurdo SoundMost of the diving in McMurdo takes place during the summer months of September to February (especially December and January) where temperatures are a more bearable around 30°F (−1 °C). Divers break through the 1.3-3m (4-10ft) thick ice using boring tools like a diesel powered auger, ice saws, ice chippers and even high explosives to make a hole about 1.3 m (4ft) in diameter and a portable hut is placed over this. The hut placed over the hole is mostly to keep the hole from freezing over again and it also provides divers a warm place to suit up. With freezing temperatures and winds outside the portable hut exposed Scuba equipment is at risk of becoming inoperable if not careful.

The water below the thick layers of ice remains a near constant temperature of -1.8° C (28.8° F) and once under, divers can experience an unbelievable visibility of 300m (990 ft)! Once a divers eyes adjust to the one percent of sunlight that makes it through the ice, they describe the experience as flying over a darkened landscape of hills, valleys and sheer cliffs and if one were to look up a spectacular glowing blue cover with a moon like crater that is the ice and hole, is their reward.

McMurdo Sound divers encounter colorful examples of sea life, including bright yellow cactus sponges, green globe sponges, starfish, sea urchin, jellyfish, sea anemone and some brilliant soft coral. One can even spot a Emperor Penguins gracefully swimming to find a meal of squid, fish or crustaceans. Needless to say diving at McMurdo Sound requires a high level of skills and proficiency in drysuit diving.

by Christos Kardana

It’s easy to get excited about Khao Sok National Park. Astonishing areas of ancient rain forest, exotic rare wildlife and countless trekking routes provide the ideal setting for the avid explorer or outdoor enthusiast. It also provides the perfect backdrop for diving fanatics such as ourselves here at Big Blue Tech, were we are all about going ‘deeper and darker’.  Khao Sok National Park’s 165kmsq lake - created by a damming project in the early 1980s- provides a rare and challenging environment for advanced divers. The lake is mesmerising, with limestone sheer cliffs and pinnacles surrounding the immense body of water. The water itself is a layer cake of debris covered surface, sulphur induced mid water columns and finally crystal clear water engulfing submerged tree tops at 60m in what can prove to be the most serene and yet challenging diving site for many. Big Blue Tech returned to this favourite destination to conduct the August TDI Cavern Course, in what was our first visit since our successful Technical Temple Expedition back in June.

Cavern and cave diving is an exhilarating experience appealing to a wide array of divers from speleological fanatics exploring the limestone formations formed over years of natural weathering and water flow erosion to hardcore divers looking for the challenge of extreme dive exposure and expedition planning and logistics.

The Big Blue Tech TDI Cavern Course is a 4-day expedition with fee covering all costs involved during the length, including overnight boat and minibus transport there and back, food and drink cover and the certifying course and additional dives as well. The TDI Cavern course is the first step in overhead environment training covering all necessary skills for chamber diving within an ambient light source putting you on the road for full cave diver in the future if your up for the challenge. Starting at our home headquarters in Koh Tao it’s a simple and pleasurable journey to the Khao Sok National Park resort.

Surrounded by evergreen forest, flowing streams and peacocks, academic presentations and theory Q&A is covered followed by hands on practical reel work including tie-offs and placements, team diving contact drills and light and air source failure bail out techniques.

Day two means we can finally get in the water and after a delightful traditional long-tail boat ride through the lake; a full skill briefing is conducted before kit up, entry and penetration of our main training cavern, ‘Temple’ defined by its stalactite and stalagmite formations all but lost with history to what is now an astonishing underwater chamber. Students lead the dive itself practicing appropriate reel work and buddy and light techniques all under the direct supervision of our head instructor, James Thornton Allan. The skills are perfected on the second dive within ‘Peters’ Cave; home to a cathedral type chamber that divers can surface in floating through narrow corridors.

Day 3 completes the skills required for certification as a cavern diver, of which we will not mention (we cant ruin the surprise!), with Day 4 allowing for adventure dives at new sites within the park, providing the perfect situation for newly qualified divers to utilise there new found skills in the true nature and reason of why cave and technical diving evolved to what it is today…Exploration!

Big Blue Tech’s August Expedition consisted of two students: English technical dive-master intern Andy Holdoway and instructor Panagiotis Iosifoglou of Greek German decent. Past students Sonia Scott and Yvonne Fries returned for a third and second time respectively for the love of the sport, adding further cavern dives to there log. As Andy and Panagiotis were already TDI Advance Nitrox Certified they were qualified to dive on a technical twin set rig, an addition they both agreed lent itself perfectly to the type of diving involved, while the girls utilised recreational kit with bail out pony cylinders across there torso.

Andy found the whole experience exhilarating stating “I feel alive again” with Panagiotis or ‘Panos’ as we call him, remaining speechless for the majority of the trip, every now and again doing the old “This is Sparta” routine before donning his tech kit. The girls loved the trip, as did we all here at Big Blue Tech, and the logistics and planning are already under way for our September Expedition.

If you are interested in our Khao Sok Cavern Expeditions or any of our training courses, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@bigbluetech.net

All photographs are © Christos Kardana / Big Blue Tech.