Big Blue Tech will be closing it’s doors for training for the entire month of November based on annual flooding during monsoon season. This picture is from last year.

For those that can’t remember what it was like November 2008, here’s a reminder

Technical diving trips will still be conducted to Khao Sok and the Similan Islands but this will only be open for already certified technical divers.

During this month Big Blue Tech will undergo many changes to it’s facilities, staff and diving destinations.

Big Blue Tech will say goodbye to many veteran staff members but welcomes two new employees.

Panos Iosifoglou

Panos is a long term employee of Big Blue Diving, his humor and friendliness got him the job in the first place but his spoken language of Greek and German let him keep it. Panos has moved to Big Blue Khao Lak where he will be the regional representative for Big Blue Tech while working for the recreational diving industry. Panos is an experienced instructor and has been on all our expeditions. If you want to know about technical diving in the similan islands he’s the man to ask. he can be reached at panos@bigbluetech.net

Ash Dunn

Ash is scheduled to replace Christos Kardana as facilities manager on December 1st. Ash who is a “water and heating molecular engineer” or “plumber” is from England and has goals of staying in Thailand for the next 5 years. He speaks with thick “Jordie” accent which means he won’t be answering phones but he was hand picked for the job because he is a hard working and trust worthy man. His love for Hip-Hop from his time playing basketball for England’s national team will quickly be replaced with forced fed heavy metal on 24 hours a day in the tech room. he can be reached at ash@bigbluetech.net

Changes
Big Blue Tech will also be expanding both in physical shop size and equipment to accommodate the diving schedule in the new year. With focus on Koh Tao for training and expeditions for diving.

Big Blue Tech would like to thank everyone who helped us for this season and we look forward to diving and working with everyone again in December.

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.