Instructor Zac conducted a PADI Oxygen Provider course for the interns currently undergoing Divemaster training, to better prepare them in event of an emergency.  Divemasters trainees Kevin, Seb and Nick decided to expand their dive knowledge and skill further by enrolling in our popular Deep, Wreck & Nitrox PADI Specialty Courses.

Over the past few days myself and the lads have been heading out to explore some of the deeper parts of Koh Tao dive sites along with the local wrecks.   Wednesday we dived the lesser visited MV Trident wreck, an artificial reef project and a previous technical dive boat.   Though slightly murky due to its depth (Max. 36 meters) the conditions overall were quite good, the highlight been towards the end of the dive with a large school of fusiliers been hunted by mackerel observed above the wreck, we would have all liked to stay down a bit longer but unfortunately we were rapidly approaching our decompression limit.

Yesterday we headed out the Chumphon pinnacles to gain further experience at depth.  This time we decided to take some Nitrox along with us so we would have the same problem as the previous day.   After an hour surface interval we dived again on the HTMS Sattakut using our richer 36% blend.  Kevin lead the dive and I spotted a baby pipe fish on one of the cooling vents only about 2/3 cm long.  This time Gas supply became the limiting factor of the dive instead of decompression thanks (or tanks) to the Nitrox.

Tomorrow we’ll finish off the training, I’ve saved the best till last; a 40 meter dive at Chumphon (the deepest allowed in recreational diving) followed by a wreck penetration dive on the HTMS Sattakut.  Next week I plan on conducting a Discover Tech Experience, to give Kevin, Seb and Nick a go in some Technical Dive Gear.

Image 1: Kevin on a 36M deep dive exploring the wreck of the MV Trident

Image 2: Seb & Nick @ 33M, exploring Koh Tao’s Chumphon Pinnacles dive site

You can see the original article on: http://howtocatchagoatbyitstail.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/the-divemaster-experience/

Technical Diving is diving to depth deeper than recreational limits (40 meters) with planed decompression conducted with mixed gases.  Ok technical diving is not for everybody, but been able to dive deeper opens up certain dive sites with only few people in the world are privileged to experience.  A perquisite, to any diver interested in technical diving, is the PADI Enriched Air Diver Course and the PADI Deep diver Specialty courses currently offered at Simple Life Divers.

Yesterday’s activities saw students; Haydon and Max, along with assistants Jon and Chris, under supervision of Tec Deep Instructor Lars conducting a dive on Chumpon pinnacles to a maximum depth of 44.4 meters.  Air was used for the bottom portion of the dive along with 50% Nitrox and pure Oxygen for the accelerated decompression stages.  ‘Accelerated decompression’ makes use of the higher levels of oxygen in the breathed decompression gas to reduce the amount decompression required, compared to decompressing using air.  Sometimes higher levels of oxygen in decompression gas can be used to make decompression more conservative instead.

Image: Lars, Jon, Haydon and Max during the technical diving training

During the dive a Narcosis test was conducted at the deepest part of the dive and a couple of lion fish were spotted, which are commonly not seen here in the gulf at shallower depths.  During my technical dives in the past couple of months I’ve discovered more new (to me) marine life than in several year of diving in Koh Tao.

After the dive a real buzz was on broad the boat.  With fellow students and fun diver all interested in the ‘strange’ activities taking place.  Hopefully this marks a new era for technical diver training at Simple Life Divers, watch this space.

Image: Technical diving aboard the Simple Life boat, Koh Tao, Thailand

On day 3, we started with skill development in confined, shallow water off the beach.  Fortunately, we found water deep enough even for Alastair to get his head under the surface before the sand turned to coral!  After they all aced their basic skills, we practiced swimming in our scuba gear and headed slightly deeper. They all learned how to be a hero if their buddy runs out of air and stayed calm, cool and collected even while removing their scuba unit and weights underwater.

After a quick lunch break, the team won out over the currents and completed their swim tests.  During their first open water dive at Twins, everyone got used to controlling their bodies in the water and enjoying some of the lively aquatic life.  As we ascended from the dive, we were told there was a whale shark just south of the boats.  We all swam along the surface with a 3 meter long whale shark for a few minutes, taking in its size and magnificence.  As we returned to our boat, we saw a large swarm of divers also headed our way, following the whale shark.  Mitch and Alastair jumped back in with snorkels to spend more time with the amazing animal as it swam alongside the Simple Life boat.

Our second dive at Sairee Reef focused more on improving skills. After skill practice, we saw a school of bat fish near the artificial reef. Andy was perfecting his weighting and showed a great ability to hover during this dive, and everyone managed great buddy communication in the lowered visibility.

The last day of the course led us to greater depths.  The third dive was at White Rock, where the team encountered various groupers and scribbled filefish.  Everyone showed fantastic control during our descent while not holding onto the line. Each person performed a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent wonderfully, and we began our fourth and final dive at Hin Pee Wee.  We practiced flips in the water during the dive and Brigid removed and replaced her mask like a professional!

Congratulations to Brigid, Mitch, Alastair and Andy for becoming certified PADI Open Water Divers at Simple Life!

The PADI Advanced course involves two compulsory dives [deep dive and underwater navigation], plus three more dives of their choosing. They arrived at the Dive shop on the first day and we sat and went through the Knowledge reviews required for the 5 dives they were going to over the next 2 days.

After this we jumped on the boat and headed to Twins to complete our first dive – Peak Performance Buoyancy where both Kyle and Elena endeavored to fine tune their breathing rate and air consumption. We practiced hovering motionlessly in mid-water for over a minute, using only our lung volume and breathing control to avoid touching the floor. We also used the artificial reef at Buoyancy world to practice our skills (and a few somersaults too!)

For the second dive – Underwater Navigation we headed to Japanese Gardens. This dive went really well with the guys performing near perfect squares, reciprocal headings and having fun trying to find their way around the dive site using natural navigation. Not as easy as it sounds!

Also at Japanese gardens we did one of my favorite elective dives – Underwater Photography. We practiced taking photos of each other, the beautiful fish and corals that are all over the dive site. We learnt about how the light affects colour underwater, how best to use it in the photos, and how colours disappear the deeper you go.

The following morning we headed out on the morning boat to White rock to complete our Deep Dive. We swam off the site into the deep where we settled in the sand to compare our depth gauges and look at colour changes at depth. We then had a great dive around the site, where we saw a beautiful turtle!

Our final dive of the course was at the HTMS Sattakut Wreck, a former Thai military vessel which is sunk near to another dive site Hin Pee Wee. This close proximity of reef and ship wreck mean there is a healthy array of marine life inhabiting the steel hulled ship. With her bow and stern deck guns still in place, striking tower and purpose cut holes in the deck the guys also got some great photo opportunities.

Well done guys on completing the PADI Advanced, I hope to see you back here one day for some more underwater fun!

The group made a start to their course on Christmas Eve with a couple of videos before we took the day off to celebrate the holiday. The following day the guys came bouncing back raring to go in full festive spirit.

We started with some dive theory about safe diving practices, planning dives and how our equipment works before the guys were ready to hit the water.  They got their first taste for diving in the shallows of a beach off of the island Koh Nangyuan where they learnt to master the skills for diving, which they completed with ease.

Image: The gang back at the dive shop at the end of the PADI Open Water Course

The following day the guys dived straight in and had a great first dive at Twins where they learnt how to control their buoyancy and had great fun with the Christmas tree coral, yeah that’s you Ren. The group then completed their second dive at White Rock where they reached a depth of 12m and completed some further skills.

Finally, our last two dives allowed us to explore right down to the PADI Open Water maximum depth of 18m, where we got to see groupers, bat fish, queen fish and more at dive sites Shark Island and Hin Pee Wee.

The guys rocked up here for their orientation on day one and we sat and watched a couple of PADI videos to get an overview of what to expect in the following days ahead.

The next day we arranged for the team to meet at 10:00am and spend some time in the morning going over theory work. We covered different aspects of diving such as how pressure of the water affects the human body, the meaning of good buoyancy control and the importance of safety procedures. Showing ‘ginger tendencies’, Caitlin was a little slow with a few concepts but thanks to her brilliant & patient instructor we managed to get through ;p

In the afternoon we made our way to Japanese gardens where the guys had to pratice setting up their equipment and making sure everything was checked before heading into the water. The guys also had to do a 200 metre swim. This is where Jo did a great job having devoured a huge pizza for lunch, feeling a bit heavy and not being the most confident of swimmers, but under close supervision she managed to brave our flat, crystal clear waters and powered her way through the test.

Next, following a briefing we headed to a shallow area of Japanese Gardens where we had the opportunity to work through a mix of underwater scuba skills to help the team get use to their dive equipment. The guys had a little trouble at first with the mask skills but with a bit of patience and pratice they started to get into the swing of things.

The next day we met in the morning to go over some more theory work but this time it was learning to use PADI’s recreational dive planner to determine the depths and bottom times of our dives. The guys appeared a little ‘worse-for-wear’ after enjoying the Koh Tao night life (yes I mean you Jo) but were ready to learn. Takling a barrage of eager questions from Jac, and Caitlin saying ‘like’ and ‘eeeemmmmm’ a 1000 times we had some fun, got to grips with the dive table and were now properly prepared to go on their first dive.

After lunch we made our way to Twin Pinacles just off Koh Nagyuan where visibility was an easy 15 metres. The guys really enjoyed seeing the corals and marine life and were growing in confidence eager for their second dive of the day. Next we headed to the White Rock dive site and again visibility was great. The guys were more relaxed and enjoyed themselves to the full.

For the final day we went back to Koh Nanguyuam. Visibility had dropped a little compared to the previous day, but was still good none the less. The guys had a few skills to demonstrate at deeper depths than we’d previously attempted and did really well. The fourth and final dive was at Hin Pee Wee where we all made our way down to 18 metres, the maximum depth limit for the open water course. We also tagged on an additional dive, where following a sufficiently long surface interval we did a Deep Adventure Dive where we got to experience the wonders of 30 metre diving.

In the evening we all met and had some cold beers at the Simple Life Resort to celebrate the completion of their PADI Open Water Course. [It's possible that the girls had a little bit too much to drink and put on a bit of a show ]

On day 1 of the course the guys rocked up for their orientation. We watched a couple of videos to help the guys get an overview of the course and give them some idea of what we’d be getting up to underwater.

The next morning we arranged for the team to meet up at 10:00am when we finished off our diving theory. We discussed important topics including how increasing water pressure affects the human body, the meaning of good buoyancy control and become familiar with some scuba diving safety procedures.
In the afternoon we boarded the dive boat and made our way to the Japanese Gardens dive site, just off Koh Nangyuan. The guys had to practice setting up their scuba equipment and making sure everything was properly checked. Then we did a 200 metre swim and a 10 minute survival float.

After a briefing we headed to a shallow area of Japanese Gardens where worked our ay through many underwater skills to help the team get used to operating their scuba diving equipment. The duo practiced more than 20 scuba skills both underwater and at the surface. As often happens, we had a little apprehensiveness during the first attempts at clearing a mask underwater (yes I mean you Kerry ) but with a bit of patience and practice they started to get into the flow of things and become mask clearing experts.

The following day we made our first two proper open water dives and the visibility was at least 15 metres around the Koh Tao dive sites. The guys really enjoyed exploring the coral reefs and other marine life and were now full of confidence. During our second dive of the day we headed to White Rock – a shallow coral covered pinnacle west of Koh Tao and again the visibility was great. The girls were even more relaxed and we enjoyed a great dive.

On the final day of the open water course we went for two more dives and visibility was really special for this time of year. In fact, whilst diving at Hin Pee Wee we managed to peer downwards and see the wreck of the HTMS Sattakkut  [former Thai military vessel] from the surface. The guys had a few skills to do at deeper depths and really did do well, showing how far they’ve progressed since the start of the course. On the fourth and final dive we all made our way down to 18 metres, the course limit, cruising around the pinnacles and corals.

That evening we all met and had some cold beers at Simple Life Resort to celebrate the completion of their Open Water Course. Well done Gemma and Kerry – new PADI Open Water divers.

Myself and Suzane from Germany, making dives 3 and 4 of the PADI Open Water course also got to join the trip and enjoy a cracking day of diving. Within the first 5 minutes of dive 1 we saw a 5 metre whale shark, which incredibly everybody diving from the Simple Life boat got to see. When we left the whale shark and descended down Sail Rock‘s famous ‘chimney’ at the bottom we encountered 3 bull sharks and huge schools of fish.

And during our second dive – open water dive 4, we got to see even more bull sharks (but no whale shark this time).

On the way back from Sail Rock we stopped at the South West Pinnacle  dive site for a 3rd dive. During the safety stop at the end of the dive, four of our Divemaster internship trainees had yet another whale shark encounter. What an incredible day!

We all had a great trip and rounded off a memorable day’s diving with some celebratory cold beers as we motored back towards Koh Tao.

Here are a few photos from the Sail Rock dive trip:

The girls were immediately put through their paces with a marathon academic session as soon as they stepped off the boat from Koh Phangan, fully preparing them for all eventualities as they ‘dove’ in to the wonderful world of scuba diving that we all love.

Completing the academics freed the girls up to jump straight into the deep end (of the pool) to practice skills and techniques essential for their future scuba diving experiences. After some flapping around and getting used to all of the equipment, the boisterous group were ready, if a little apprehensive, for their first open water dive at Laem Thien.

Following their buddy checks, we were treated to fantastic visibility for their first dive and the group made it down to 12 m with a few stops to equalise. The group followed their training well and completed their underwater exercises without a hitch.

Over the remainder of the PADI Open Water course we completed four dives at Shark Island, Chumpon Pinnacle and Hin Pee Wee in fantastic conditions and it was great to see confidences rise and technique greatly improve.

Steph and Sofie are keen to immediately continue their scuba diving experiences and will be starting their PADI Advanced course tomorrow. Regrettably Jax and Abby have already booked their forward travel from Koh Tao on to Cambodia but leave with a new passion for scuba diving. We hope to see them all again at Simple Life!