Recreational divers take a try dive in technical gear.

Koh Tao, Thailand

Big Blue Tech hosted a technical “try dive” this afternoon for some of our eager divemaster interns. BSAC Extended Range Instructor Andy Cavell conducted the afternoon which included ocean dives in the gear.

While many might of seen this already in a swimming pool at your local dive shows we thought it would be better to invest the time and energy to take the divers into the environment they would be diving in. Some skills include buoyancy and trim which would only be really experienced in their familiar surroundings of salt water.

Typically a try tech dive includes basic safety skills of equipment setup, self rescue, out of air and isolating problems. After the first skills the interns had the longest (albeit shallowest) dive every with some diving over 1 hour in some of our secluded bays.

Assisting Andy was BSAC Instructor and Technical Divemaster Ash Dunn and Technical Divemaster Thomas Halstrom who were all out for the afternoon with the 4 interns who were Johan, Tom, Martin and Jennifer.

One of the busiest months on Koh Tao starts off with a bang.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech was very busy today with the combined effort of most staff working around the clock with different activites.

Dean Jenkins was out taking the divemaster interns out for a dive on one of our local wrecks and tooks some time out for some diving in tech gear. Ash and Andrew were working together to complete a Search and Recovery Specialty for Felix including search patterns, lift bags, knot tying and scenarios. Helen is teaching advanced level courses and spent most of the day in tech gear and analyzing nitrox.Thomas was out on the rebreather. Duncan and James had the day off so played football on the beach.

This might not seem very hectic but tomorrow is the start of a tech course from beginner to extended range followed by more technical diving leading up to a trip at the end of the month.

Technical divers return home after 2 weeks on the road.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech returned to Koh Tao this morning after completing 2 weeks on the road during a technical diving expedition.

The team members including James Thornton-Allan, Andy Cavell, Yvonne Fries, Helen Artal, Thomas Hallstrom and Duncan Tyler completed their full tech course with a certification of Extended Range and explored a variety of diving styles and environments to make the divers very well rounded and confident.

In the end the students logged 30 technical dives in fresh and salt water and depths up to 55m.

This is the second successful expedition this year with another one planned for the end of April which takes divers to Singapore for Trimix diving. For more information about how you can join future trips or training feel free in contacting us.

Technical divers explore the new shipwreck off Khao Lak

Khao Lak, Thailand - In August of 2009 the Mv Sea Chart 1, a bulk carrier from Thailand sank in rough waves during a the journey from Myanmar to Vietnam. The vessel was carrying 1200 tonnes of teak wood and sank during rough seas off the coast of Khao Lak. All crew and passengers were rescued and after the Thai Navy surveyed the wreck is was buoyed and opened for diving.

Last month Big Blue Tech conduced 3 days of technical diving during their “Golden Horseshoe Expedition” and found the wreck to be ideal for technical diving because of it’s size and depth.

The wreck now lies on it’s starboard side in 40m with a length of 85m. The wreck is still quite new but marine life continues to grow each day. Every dive conducted on this wreck reveals new passages, doorways and entrances with challenging penetrations and obstacles.

During the 4 technical dives we conducted more penetrations then before and secured many door which were previously locked into the open and tied off position allowing divers to safely enter these areas.

In addition to the wreck we found a “Ghost Pipe Fish” which is a rare type of fish which looks like a spiked piece of coral and always swims facing down. With Lion Fish and other venomous type things everywhere it’s important to look where you’re going at all times to avoid a nasty sting.

Below are pictures from our 2 days of diving.

For more information on the sinking look here at: “Andaman Sea storms sink Thai bulk-carrier”

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.

Divers advance to the level of conducting decompression dives

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech celebrates the graduation of Yvonne Fries, Helen Artal, Thomas Hallstrom and Duncan Tyler from a TDI Decompression Procedures 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 Decompression Procedures course is designed to train a diver who has training in technical diving in the methods and skills involved with decompression diving. Recreational diving is considered no stop which means you can leave your depth and ascend to the surface at anytime (optional safety stop recommended), with decompression diving the diver has absorbed into their tissues (muscles and blood) a lot of gas which is forced in during deep and long duration diving of compressed air. Because the tissues are saturated with nitrogen it’s mandatory that decompression divers stop at certain depths for certain periods of time to let the nitrogen bubble leave the body safely. Failing to do this safely can cause the bubble to expand to fast causing decompression sickness or “the bends”. To those unfamiliar with diving, our atmosphere is made up of a concentration of 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen, divers use this air in our tanks after a filtration system, it’s the concentration of nitrogen which effects the divers at this level.

The skills the divers had to learn were varied from following a complex schedule itemizing their stops and time, buoyancy skills like oral inflation of their wing at depth to deployment of back-up mask. Other skills continued throughout the 4 dives of this course which lead the divers to receive the coveted certification which is the most recognized internationally as a entry level technical diver.

The students were issued certification after and exam and progress on to their TDI Extended Range course tomorrow with a trip to the similan islands and khao sok national park. You can read more about the Decompession Procedures course here: TDI Decompression Procedures Diver Course

Technical diving and cave diving in Thailand featured in french magazine.

Koh Tao, Thailand - Big Blue Tech along with photographs from Christos Kardana have been featured in a 5 page spread in the french magazine Atacamag which can be read online through their website at Atacamag. Atacamag is an outdoor magazine which focuses on sports outdoors and interviewed Christos last year when they were travelling conducting research for their Thailand feature.

The magazine explores technical diving in thailand along with a focus on Koh Tao and cave diving in Khao Sok.

Follow this link to read a copy of the issue - ‘Atacamag - Numero 7‘

Technical divers travel north to dive with Manta Rays

Phi Phi, Thailand – Big Blue Tech departed from Phi Phi Island today to head back up to Khao Lak after it was decided that the island held no more interest for the team of technical divers.

Yesterday we dived in Maya Cave which was reported as a great cave worth a visit which we felt posed very little challenge and did give us a rush of adrenaline like other caves we have dived in during this expeditions.

Last night the team spoke with other divers on Phi Phi about the caves, the recreational divers who have never had any formal training in overhead referred to the other caves as “swim through”. This new information put doubt into our minds about the value of staying any longer in exchange for diving somewhere else. The decision was made to not go diving today and instead packed up and left the island.

Technical diving on this island as part of an expedition is very difficult to the point of frustration. We had major problems simply getting from one point of the island to the other with our gear let alone arranging boats and air fills. However it’s very unusual for a divers to travel through the country like this with their own equipment so it was not a surprise that we would encounter some problems.

While Phi Phi was great for a party and all normal holiday making and relaxing it’s a lot like Koh Tao in many ways but nowhere near as developed and established which could be a result of the Tsunami which wiped out Phi Phi island 5 years ago, an event which is remembered in subtle and respectful ways throughout the island.

Anyone wishing to visit Phi Phi should contact Susan at +66 0892894789 who arranged all the transport, accommodation and bookings really well over the phone and was essential to the modest success we got.

This evening the tech crew arrived back in Khao Lak where we would take out our speedboat for a couple days diving on the Similan Islands to look for Manta Rays. This is also the end of the road for Emily who returns to Koh Tao to get back to work teaching scuba diving at Big Blue.

The tin dredging shipwreck off the coast of Khao Lak

Khao Lak, Thailand - Big Blue Tech explored the shipwreck called Premchai which was a tin mining vessel which sank in 21m during a storm in August of 2001. Although this wreck doesn’t pose much difficulty in terms of technical diving it’s still a great wreck to practice penetration and general conduct in and around a shipwreck. The abundance of marine life was astounding and in many situations the fish had to be scared away to take a picture of the wreck.

Although this would be the only time this wreck would be explored it was a great second dive of the day with an alternative shallow dive.

Additionally some website have reported this shipwreck being intact which might of been the case before the Tsunami but now the wreck is very much broken up and upside down. Still a great dive!

Looking back on 2009 Big Blue Tech remembers the people that came to our little island in Thailand and left such a profound impact on us we couldn’t forget them.

Big Blue Tech was very active in 2009 and helped shape the growth of technical diving in the region. It seemed wherever we went many would follow which exposed technical diving to more divers than ever before a success seen clearly by the creation of technical diving sections in many other recreational diving schools on the Island further solidifying Koh Tao as a major diving destination in the world.

This year Big Blue Tech issued over 200 technical, rebreather and cave diving certifications. We became a TDI and BSAC Technical Diving Facility and began teaching technical diving instructor courses to our interns.

But we couldn’t of done all this without our customers, staff, divers and friends who helped us along the way. We need to thank specifically Cory Lewis, Oskar Sjöström, Christos Kardana, Tim Klein, Andy Holdaway, Darran Jones and Matt Rolph for their support.

We also remember those of the technical diving community who are not with us anymore. This year had too many technical diving accidents around the world and with that our hearts go out to the families of these divers who are without their loved ones this holiday season.

Looking forward to 2010 Big Blue Tech is expanding and growing at the same rate for the past 3 years. We finally broke ground on the expansion giving us twice more space for our staff and equipment to work. We will also be offering TDI, SSI and BSAC technical diving instructor courses issuing the most respected certifications in the technical diving community, this is a result of our staff becoming instructor trainers for each certification agency.

Additionally in 2010 Big Blue Tech will be taking on another senior instructor to accommodate our expansion and hoping to have a third new instructor to help with our peak season in May. We got a bigger compressor for all our cave and cavern diving in Khao Sok because the Bauer Junior just isn’t big enough. And finally we’ll have our continuous flow trimix system working hopefully by the end of January.

Unfortunately we say goodbye to Guillaume Fargues who leaves Big Blue after 6 years as an instructor to join a different dive school in his goal to become a PADI Course Director. We wish him all the luck in the world and would like to remind him it’s only a 5 minute walk to come see his friends so no excuses!

So happy New Year, save diving and we hope to see everyone again in 2010!

Big Blue Tech completed a TDI Intro to Tech course today for Andy Cavell and Mark Slinn who began the first level in water skill development for their technical diver internship.

The TDI Intro to Tech course is the perfect course for divers who have heard about technical diving and want to find out more about this exciting branch of advanced recreational diving. This course walks students through the special techniques, planning procedures and skills that set technical diving apart from traditional sport diving. It will show them how to improve their dive planning methods, in-water skills and streamline their existing gear configuration, in a non-threatening and fun learning environment. The specific skills this course will highlight are: Advanced Buoyancy Control, Gas Management, Situational Awareness, Trim, Gear Configuration and Selection and Many More!

TDI’s Intro to Tech course is a useful stand-alone course for the diver who wants to become a more skilled, more proficient diver regardless of if he intends to move on to technical diving. The course may also be used as an introduction to the TDI Advanced Nitrox course and the TDI Decompression Procedures course. And finally, it is also a good refresher for certified technical divers who may want to refresh their skills or have them re-evaluated by a TDI technical instructor.

Although the students did not need this course to start their official technical diving series it was offered to them to have 4 additional training dives to enhance their overall skills and start with a solid foundation of buoyancy and trim before moving deeper through different challenges in the future.

The course was also completed with the assistance of Ash Dunn who is working towards his technical divemaster certification which requires assisting a variety of technical diving courses.

The students progress on to the TDI Advanced Nitros and TDI Decompression procedures this week along with TDI Gas Blender and TDI Advanced Gas Blender with the use of helium for trimix.

Christos Kardana, former tech crew member of Big Blue Tech has put his photo’s online on Flickr for everyone to see.

The majority of his work was composed during diving trips with us to Khao Sok and other diving destinations we ventured over the past 6 months.

On his website he describes his method by saying:

“Utilising multiple cylinders and mixed gas blends, technical diving allows you to dive beyond the standard recreational range. Characterised by extensive equipment requirements, added redundancy and decompression procedures; technical diving allows for exploration of deep water environments, wrecks and caverns.”

His collection can be seen HERE

Introduction:
This is the highest level certification course for divers wishing to utilize the Inspiration / Evolution Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) for advanced mixed gas diving. The objective of the course is to train divers in the benefits, hazards and proper procedures for advanced mixed gas diving on a CCR and to develop advanced CCR diving skills appropriate to technical diving to a maximum of three hundred thirty (330) fsw / one hundred (100)
msw.

The student must:
1. Be a minimum age of eighteen (18).
2. Have a verified log of a minimum of one hundred (100) CCR hours distributed over a minimum of one hundred (100) dives on the Inspiration / Evolution CCR. Fifty (50) % of these dives must be deeper than one hundred (100) fsw / thirty (30) msw. All to be deeper than twenty (30) fsw /nine (9) msw. If the diver has one hundred (100) hours on another CCR unit recognized by TDI, only fifty (50) hours are required to be on the Inspiration / Evolution.
3. Have completed and qualified the TDI Air Diluent CCR Course or equivalent from agencies recognized by TDI.

Duration:
1.Minimum of four hundred twenty (420) minutes open water training to be completed over a
minimum of seven (7) dives.
2. Four (5) dives must be decompression dives.

Price:
From 50,000 THB When Booked Online

Course Includes:
Certification, Manual, Equipment Rental, Instructor and Student Gas and DiveSorb.

Not Included:
Accommodation, Food and Drink, Diving Insurance (DAN), Boat Fees

Download the full course outline in PDF

From November 7th - 11th Big Blue Tech will be conducting technical diving on the similan islands.

This journey will be conducted from our liveaboard the Mv Pawara. For more information click here

Our liveaboard customers will be picked up at their hotel or at the airport in the afternoon, and taken to our pier at 7pm and board the boat. Most days we will depart around 9pm after a full boat briefing and a full hearty dinner. Customers usually spend the time after dinner getting to know their fellow passengers and dive staff whom they’ll be spending the next 4 days with. Some nights we will depart as late as midnight to accomodate some of our customers who fly in late to Phuket. In either case, guests usually go to bed about midnight and sleep through the overnight trip to the Similans.

You’ll wake at 7am by music played over the intercom letting you know that its time for Dive 1. Most people stumble out of bed bleary-eyed and get greeted by staff who help you in to your equipment and get you in to the water. It’s true that most guests finally wake up at that moment. Dive groups are a maximum of 4 people, and the first dive is what we call a check-out dive. Your leader will see how well you dive and how your air consumption is.

At the end of this and every dive, you and your group will surface and indicate to our dingy that you’re ready to be picked up. This dingy will pick you up and take you back to the liveaboard. No surface swims, ever.

As with every dive, once back on board, our staff will help you out of your equipment and place it in the racks for you. You can grab a quick freshwater rinse from the shower on deck and then head up to the outdoor eating areas where a hot breakfast awaits you. Our staff will rinse your gear and fill your tanks while you eat.

After breakfast, most people head back down to their cabins for a nap before the next dive. All the cabins are individually air-conditioned so as the day gets hotter, you’re still comfortable to nap.

Dive 2 is at about 11am and most people wake for this one a little more refreshed. Dive groups might be reorganized to put divers of similar skill levels together, based on observations of the check-out dive. Ovbiously we never split up people who want to dive together.

After Dive 2, we serve lunch on deck. After lunch, we usually offer an activity for the day. Usually, this invloves taking the dinghy to the shore of one of the island where you can lay on the beach, snorkel with turtles, go hiking, or just do nothing at all. Some customers prefer to stay out of the heat and spend their time in the air-conditioned lounge watching one of our DVDs in stock. Sun worshipers may decide to skip the ride to the beach and spend all their time on the sundeck. Others may prefer just to stay in the shaded decks reading or relaxing with the other passengers.

Dive 3 is usually about 2pm, followed by the entire afternoon to relax or go to the beach.

For those interested, the night dive is normally about 7:00pm. For anyone who is not an advanced diver, you can do your Adventure Diving Night training, or even take the full advanced course while on the boat.

After the night dive, dinner is served and after that some people head straight to their cabins, others prefer to relax on deck having a beer and talking about the days dives and discussing what adventures they hope to have on tomorrows dives.

This is a typical day on a 4-day cruise. on day 3 there is no beach to go to, as the dives are at rocky pinnacles, so people just relax on the boat. This is where having a nice big boat really comes in beautifully. Theres always plenty of room for everyone.

On the final day of the cruise, we only make dives 1 and 2, and return to our pier about 3pm. Theres usually a lot of photo taking and email exchanging among new found friends, and after some goodbyes to each other and to the boat we drive our customers back to their hotels.

To join this event of future events contact us at info@bigbluetech.net