Divers advance their theory and dive skills in Thailand.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech celebrates the graduation of Magnus Baer from the TDI Advanced Nitrox course which was conducted over 2 days with 4 technical dives.

Continuing from Magnus’ Intro To Tech course this course builds on those skills with the introduction of using high mixes of nitrox and using nitrox to manipulate the absorption of nitrogen. Big Blue Tech decided to introduce the use of a sling or stage cylinder to help get Magnus ready for his Decompression Procedures course which would follow the next day.

The TDI Advanced Nitrox Course qualifies divers to use enriched air nitrox from EAN 21 through EAN 100 to a depth of 40 metres/130 feet during dives hat do not require staged decompression. Often taught in conjunction with the TDI Decompression Procedures course, this can be considered the foundation of your technical diving career.  Advanced Nitrox is also a great course for those wanting to extend their bottom times in shallower depths such as scientific diver, and a must for SCR or CCR divers.   The course cover topics like

• Equipment requirements
• Dive planning
• Oxygen tracking
• Blending methods

The 4 dives was a team effort by Technical Instructors James Thornton-Allan, Andy Cavell and assisted by Technical Divemaster Thomas Halstrom.

Technical divers return to shore after 4 days at sea

Khao Lak, Thailand - The Valentines Tech Expedition contingent of Big Blue Tech return to Khao Lak today after coming ashore from the Mv Pawara after the completion of a 4 night technical diving liveaboard on the Similan and Surin islands.

The liveaboard was the base of our diving while completing a TDI Extended Range course which trained the divers to conduct accelerated decompression dives to depths of 55 meters / 180 ft using 3 mixes of gas with air, nitrox and oxygen over 4 cylinders worn simultaneously.

This course was delivered by James Thornton-Allan and Andy Cavell for students Yvonne Fries, Helen Artal, Duncan Tyler and Thomas Hallstrom.

This would be the second technical diving trip in the similan islands for Big Blue Tech this season and again it proved to be a holiday setting with challenging and interesting dives. While the diving conditions are described below it was the extra touches of relaxing watching movies, sun tanning on the roof and trips in the dinghy to the beaches, which really made this trip relaxing and enjoying as a holiday.

Technical diving is saturated with bravado and peer pressure which have lead to serious diving accidents around the globe, we’re more about having fun on the surface and focusing as a team underwater which allows each diver to relax and progress at their own pace. In addition to our relaxed atmosphere we also encourage a alcohol free environment and no smoking during the diving day which has contributed to our perfect record of no diving related injuries.

The Similan Islands is located off the west coast of the west side of Thailand just north of Phuket from a town called Khao Lak. There are several ways to reach the similans by speed boat, long tail or liveaboard and is listed as one of the best diving destinations in the world.  The Similan and Surin Islands are protected marine parks managed by the Thai government to prevent fishing and destruction to help the marine environment sustain for generations to come.  Divers must pay a park fee to enter the marine park which is enforced by roaming park police boats. It seems the greatest enforcement in the area is getting the money from the dive tour operators rather than protecting the environment from fishing or negative effects like litter or pollution but it’s a better system than nothing at all.

The dive sites we visited on our trip was East Of Eden, Boulder City, West of Eden, Elephant Head Pinnacle, Christmas Tree Point, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock, Richelieu Rock(sunset), Koh Bon Pinnacle, Boonson Wreck.

Over these sites we found ourselves at the mercy of very strong currents pushing us in all directions with changing temperature. On a dive a Elephant Head Pinnacle at 55m a freezing cold wall of cloudy water washed over us making the visibility very limited and giving all of us instant brain freeze that took your breath away. While we were struggling to adjust to the temperature we were being pushed all over the place at a very fast rate, so strong that you couldn’t kick against it to keep in place, our only option was to hide behind rocks and do strategic zig zag movements through the dive site back up to recreational diving depths where is was warm and clear again but it was an experience that taught everyone how to handle vicious currents and how to stay together as a team.

On a dive to Koh Bon we finally saw Manta Rays, thankfully our instructor dropped his mask off the back of the boat, as he went do to get it just below the surface we noticed two large manta rays circling us about 10m below us. This would be a first for some of the divers who have had plenty of chances but never actually seen one. The Giant Manta Ray or “Manta Birostris” is mostly black with a white underbelly, long triangular wings and a tail without stinger. It also has a pair of movable flaps just in front of its mouth. They can grow up to 3-4 meters wide and are recorded as up to 22ft or 670 cm in diameter or “disc” size making these very exciting animals to be witness to. These gentle giants are also one of the few rays that don’t sting so you can get quite close without worry of harm. We spent in total about half an hour with these majestic animals, while other divers were restricted by their single cylinder and no decompression limits we spent over an hour at depth without any concern for air or decompression since the dive was planned well in advance.

As the final night rolled around many started falling asleep after dinner showing clear signs of fatigue from the days diving. It was decided as a group that we would skip the last 2 dives and sleep in, we would come back with the speed boat to visit Koh Bon Pinnacle at a later date. It was also the 11th of February which is Andy Cavell’s 27th birthday. We all knew that coming back from the trip and it being Andy’s birthday that we would be well into a few drinks so it’s good to rest up for such vigorous Olympic style consumption.

Returning to shore we unloaded the boat into our taxi and headed off to our hotel for a nap, shower and relaxed for the next few days until the 13th when we would head off to the big shipwreck off the coast called the Sea Chart 1 which is 85m long in 40m of water.

Special thanks to the staff of Big Blue Khao Lak and Mv Pawara for taking such good care of us and bending over backwards to accommodate our trip.

Advanced nitrox divers graduate with bull sharks in Thailand

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech celebrates the graduation of Yvonne Fries, Helen Artal, Thomas Hallstrom and Duncan Tyler from a TDI Advanced Nitrox course conducted by TDI Instructor James Thornton-Allan and assisted by Andrew Cavell and Ash Dunn over various dive sites on Koh Tao Island in Thailand.

The TDI Advanced Nitrox course is designed to orientate the student about rich or high mixes of oxygen and their advantages while wearing technical diving gear. The use of low mixes to advance deep diving and the use of high mixes to add extra conservatism to optional stops during the dive.

The students learned about carrying a decompression cylinder, oxygen handling and analysis and vairous other skills. The final dives were conducted using nitrox to allow the diver to flow through a no-decompression schedule switching to different mixes of nitrox the shallower the dive went. This course certifies the diver to delve to 40m using up to 100% oxygen depending on the depth and if the situation is warranted.

The final dive was also held at Chmphon Pinnacle where we were met by Bull Sharks that live at that dive site creating an exciting atmosphere for learning and diving.

The students were issued certification after and exam and progress on to their TDI Decompression Procedures course tomorrow with a return to Chumphon Pinnacle for some more dive time with the sharks. You can read more about the Advanced Nitrox course here: TDI Advanced Nitrox Diver Course

On January 4th 2010 Big Blue Tech arrived at Rajjaprabha Dam on Chiew Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park to head out towards the raft house which would accommodate use for the duration of the TDI Cavern Course and BSAC/TDI Compressor Operator Course. The course was taught by James Thornton-Allan for students Andy Cavell, Mark Slinn, Emily Billingham, Piotr (Peter) Paulo and Malgorzata (Margaret) Babiak

As the team arrived at the resort we set up the area for the compressor and charging of the torches and then it was time to head out to the diving area to start the skills of the course.. The course needed to be staggered to maintain a ratio of 4 to 1 for the instructor which meant James took Peter and Margaret for their first training dives while Emily, Andy and Mark practiced their buoyancy in fresh water with their technical diving gear. The buoyancy and control came naturally to Peter and Margaret who come from Poland where the majority of their diving experience is in freshwater, additionally both Peter and Margaret are diving professionals who own Asian Divers in Phucket. Peter himself is a PADI Course Director and a Tec Deep Instructor Training for PADI/DSAT. For all divers the skills which need to be performed with comfort include using a reel and line to run a continuos guidleline, propulsion and finning techniques, loss of visibility and primary flashlight / torch failure and various other skills to make the diver comfortable in this ovehead environment. Addition to these skills all diver require 2 sources of artificial light, to reels and 2 sources of air supply.

On the 5th Peter and Margaret completed their course and received their certification followed by Andy, Emily and Mark on the 6th.

For Andy, Emily and Mark these newly developed skills would be further put to use in the coming days of the expedition when we explore shipwrecks on the west coast of Thailand. The Advanced Wreck and Cavern skills are quite similar as they both illustrate the procedures for dealing with an overhead environment.

On the 7th of January the team heading off the lake after a few thrashings of rain where Mark commented “I started the day off with possible heat stroke and now I think I’m coming down with hypothermia!”, we loaded the truck and headed off to Khao Lak which would the our base for diving for the next week.

Big Blue Tech completed a TDI Advanced Nitrox Course yesterday with the combined afternoon of skills which embodied both TDI Decompression Procedures and TDI Advanced Nitrox.

With the flexible curriculum offered by TDI it was possible for the training team to introduce interesting and valid skills which are appropriate for the diving ahead.

The students on the course were Mark Slinn, Andy Cavell and Ash Dunn who are all working towards a future as a technical diving instructor.

One of the signature skill introduced involves using a 3m marked line on the sea bed and having the divers wearing full technical diving gear start at the 1m mark and start fining, during fining the diver must remove one decompression cylinder without loosing control, upon reaching the end of the line the diver stops and begins backwards kicking, collecting his decompression cylinder while kicking backwards and returning to the start where the diver turns 180 degrees and moves away. The goal is to not use your hands and focus on perfect trim and balance while performing these skills.

Backwards finning can be quite difficult initially, to help this process we provide Jet Fins to our students as part of the equipment they will be using during the course to enhance the ease of learning. Here is a video to help illustrate the skill:

Additional to these skills was task loading with 8 cylinders removing and replacing each one while maintaining buoyancy. The training team felt the students really excelled and didn’t see them disturb the bottom, without being told to, during both 50 minute dives.

This would be the last dive until the after christmas as the students progress on to their Gas Blender and BSAC Instructor course.

This morning Big Blue Tech, a technical scuba diving school,  started a TDI Advanced Nitrox course on Koh Tao, Thailand. This course runs over 2 days and exposes divers to the use of nitrox to 40m and up to pure oxygen. Today the course was attended by Andy Cavell and Mark Slinn along with Ash Dunn and Emily Billingham.

The TDI Advanced Nitrox Course qualifies divers to use enriched air nitrox from EAN 21 through EAN 100 to a depth of 40 metres/130 feet during dives hat do not require staged decompression. Often taught in conjunction with the TDI Decompression Procedures course, this can be considered the foundation of your technical diving career.  Advanced Nitrox is also a great course for those wanting to extend their bottom times in shallower depths such as scientific diver, and a must for SCR or CCR divers.   The course cover topics like, Equipment requirement, Dive planning, Oxygen tracking, Blending methods.

You will use the TDI Advanced Nitrox Diving manual for your course, which explains in an easy to understand practical manner the complex information that Advanced Nitrox divers need to know.

The course began this morning with a dive to Chumphon Pinnacle, one of Koh Tao’s deep and best dive sites. Since the divers had experience in technical diving gear we were able to begin the dives deeper than normally. Emily had joined us to test out new equipment before joining the January expedition.

The divers had various skills to perform but we distracted by the appearence of over 20 sharks and a minke whale. Only the technical divers saw the minke whale underwater but everyone saw it on the surface as the whale cressed to show all everyone he was there.

After the two dives Andy said ” That was cracking like ” , “I’m well chuffed me”; for those that don’t speak northern english he said “What a wonderful dive i just had, i am very happy with the experience”.

The divers had drifted a considerable distance on their lift bags which attracted the large mamall who swap within touching disance of the divers. On the second dive of the morning the divers were again distracted by the swarms of bull sharks who were feeding on the abundant schools of fish. These sharks have never been interested in dives (knock on wood) and just circle around keeping a safe distance from the divers whom teh sharks are afraid of.

The divers performed really well despite all the action, unfortunately not all the same experiences can be shared by all. This week alone we have seen solo diving with shale sharks, simulated decompression with a whale and gas switching with sharks.

The course still requires an additional 2 dives which will be completed the following day.

Just a reminder, we accept new courses starting in February but spaces are filling quickly leading up till May.

Today Big Blue Tech started a Full Face Mask course on Koh Tao. The Full Face Mask course from TDI is designed to get divers comfortable using a full face mask and understanding the benefits and advantages. The divers who joined the course was Ash Dunn (staff) and Mark Slinn (Intern). Andy Cavell was supposed to join us but instead took his girlfriend fun diving in the afternoon and then he’s leaving to take her back to Bangkok.

The full face mask we use for training is the AGA Divator mask. These masks are the most popular choice of full face mask for public safety divers around the world. One of them came from a dive in the Canadian navy who was kind enough to bring it to Thailand for us.

These masks are perfect for cold water, television or film work, low visibility or chemically sensitive water. The mask covers your entire face allowing you to breathe through your nose or mouth, additionally it helps people who have a cold or any kind of dental, nose or eye problems.

While we were working in shallow water getting used to the skill of removing and replacing the mask other staff were busy loading up for the afternoon of diving and even Emily (big blue staff) came by to give the mask a try.

In the afternoon the staff and interns were busy cleaning the Apeks regulators (xtx 200 series with environmental series) and assembling new equipment recently purchased for the upcoming busy season.

Although today is Thursday, we’ll be closing for a long weekend as Andy Cavell is away in Bangkok, Mark moves into a new flat and Ash is celebrating his Divemaster Graduation (pictures coming).

Big Blue Tech starts again on Monday with the TDI Intro To Tech and Advanced Nitrox Course followed by a trip to Khao Sok National Park for a TDI Cavern Course just before Christmas break.

Today Mark Slinn (intern) and Andy Cavell (intern) completed their TDI O2 Service Technician Course. This would be the most recent service and technician related course after completing their TDI Visual Inspections course last week.

The o2 Service Technician builds on servicing regulators and cylinders but to a “oxygen clean” level. The students began by stripping and cleaning an Scubapro Mk2 1st stage and R295 Second stage and cleaning it removing any source of hydrocarbons. After a full clean and inspection the regulators we re assembled and tested. After full assembly the regulators were marked and recorded to be used in future training when breathing oxygen underwater. You can read more about this unique course here.

As the internship progresses the interns will be required to attain the SDI Divemaster certification and later the TDI Technical Divemaster certification. Since they are already PADI Divemasters all they had to do was cross over their skills and fill the gaps in the training.

One of these gaps is the most unpleasant swim tests and “surface recovery” or “ditch and don” exercise. The swim test are similar to other organizations with slight differences and the ditch and don exercise is rarely in a divemaster program in any official capacity (although many introduce it). At lunch we hit the water to cover these skills and stamina tests. The ditch and don is described as sinking your scuba gear, freediving down to it and assembling it underwater in about 3m. There are more steps to it but that’s the general description.

All of them did really well except Mark. Mark is a former soldier from the Parachute Regiment and is considered rather tough, however a cold got in his way and he couldn’t get down. He spent the remainder of the day blowing his nose and generally moaning on the surface with the instructor. He’ll get another chance in a few days.

In the afternoon the students cleaned their lean decompression mix cylinder while Ash cleaned twin set in preparation for our epic diving adventure in January. Once the practical work was finished the students sat a written exam and put all the tools away to prepare for the TDI Compressor Operator Course (distinctive) tomorrow.