Shark Decompression in Thailand
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
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.
