This morning we head off on Simple Life Diver’s boat to Red Rock [Nangyuan Pinnacle] and White rock to put what we had learnt into practice.   Scuba diving conditions are excellent, though possibly a little choppy en route to the second dive site which I’d put down to the full moon. Nothing that our sturdy custom built dive boat and able sea-dog captain couldn’t handle
Anyway back in the classroom this afternoon we whipped out the laptops (3 at one stage), to do a little touching up of the photos we had taken.  PhotoShop and other imaging editing software were used for adjusting RGB curves, white balance, brightness, contrast, colour along with a few other tools.

The PADI DUP course is a great foundation course for anyone who’s just brought a underwater camera, covering pre-dive, dive and post dive techniques.

Here a couple of before and after shots from today – vote for your favourite below!

Jon's underwater photo of a clown-fish

Michelle's photo of a sea-snake, before and after editing

POLL: Vote for your favorite digital underwater photo from today’s session:

We explored the reef at Japanese Gardens just off Koh Nanguyan, getting to see all sorts of marine life including puffer-fish and titan triggerfish. The group all did really well and it was a really enjoyable afternoon.

Here’s a photo of us in the water:

Fortunately I had my camera with me and was able to get some shots of the 4 meter shark.
My dive-buddy Renee has put together this video of her experience:

The buzz on the boat afterwards was incredible with many divers enjoying their first Whale Shark encounter -  something I’m sure they will never forget.

4 metre long whale shark circling the dive site

Closeup shot of a whale shark at the Chumphon Pinnacle, Koh Tao

PADI Divemasters Olivier, Sam and Anna decided to further develop their dive credentials by enrolling on the PADI Instructor Development Course [IDC].  Myself and owner/manager Haydon have also been furthering our personal diver education by completing our PADI Tec 40 course.

Highlight of the month so far was teaching PADI Nitrox, Deep and Wreck specialties to Instructor candidates Oliver, Sam, Anna, Baden and Josh.  These are challenging diving activities which I myself am passionate about and when the Koh Tao diving conditions are this good are a real joy to teach.

Last Sunday while out completing a deep training dive to 40M we had a lion-fish sighting which are not so common to these parts. And during our ascent whilst executing a simulated emergency decompression stop the group where greeted by ‘the monster of the deep’; a circling Whale Shark.  And we got to make an exploratory dive around the inside of HTMS Sattakut wreck which was the perfect finish a wonderful afternoon.

A whale shark circles us during our simulated emergency decompression stop during ascent

Soon-to-be dive instructor Josh breathing from an alternate air source during the simulated emergency deco stop

Pictures by Videographer/ Instructor Candidate Oliver using Hero.

The guys rocked-up here for their orientation on day one, watched the first couple of Padi Open Water videos to get an insight of the course and we chatted about what we’d be getting up to over the following few days.

The next morning we arranged for the team to meet up for 10:00am and spend some time going over a bit of scuba diving theory. This helped the guys gain useful knowledge of the aspects of scuba diving such as how water pressure affects the human body, the importance of good buoyancy control and the reviewing safety procedures.

That afternoon we made our way to the Japanese gardens dive site where the guys practiced setting up their scuba 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 Phetsavane did a great job, not the most confident of swimmers but under our close supervision she braved the flat crystal clear waters and powered her way through the test, gaining a lot of confidence.

After a briefing we headed to a shallow area of Japanese Gardens where we had the opportunity to practice a variety of underwater skills, helping the team get used to their dive equipment and all important skilsl required to dive safely. The gang had a little trouble at first with the mask skills but with a bit of patience and perseverance they started to get into the flow of things and mastered their mask clearing.

The next day we met up in the morning to learn how to plan how to plan our max deth and bottom time of dives using a dive table. The guys turned up a little worst for wear after enjoying the Koh Tao night life (yes I mean you Katie) but were eager to learn. After asking a series of questions, some good ones and some not so good (thanks Ruth) the gang grasped of the dive table and were now really ready to go on their first proper dive.

Following lunch boarded the Simple Life dive boat and made our way to the Twin Pinnacles, where we found that visibility was a healthy 15 metres. The team really enjoyed seeing the corals and aquatic life and were full of confidence and eager to enjoy their second dive. For dive two we headed to White Rock, a little way west off Sairee Beach. Again the visibility was great, and the team were much more relaxed and confident in the water and enjoyed themselves to the full.

On the final day we headed back to Koh Nangyuan where the visibility wasn’t as clear as previously but still very enjoyable. The team performed a few skills to do at greater depth, and did really well to overcome any anxieties passing with flying colors. Our final dive was at Hin Pee Wee where we all made our way down to 18 metres. And we later got to tag on a Deep Adventure Dive where experienced the wonders of 30 metre deep diving.

In the evening we all met and had some cold beers (cheers Eric) at Simple Life Resort to celebrate the completion of their diving course.

Everyone here at Simple Life Divers would like to thank Eric and Phetsavane for their kind feedback. We are really glad you enjoyed the course (I did too) and appreciate all of your nice comments.

Thanks guys and hopefully see you again here at Simple Life Divers on Koh Tao in the not so distance future.

Better still we had an encounter with a whale shark at Koh Tao’s famous Chumphon Pinnacles dive site, which Simple Life’s underwater videographer Olivier managed to capture on film. The video clip is available to view by visiting the Simple Life Divers facebook group :

Footage of a whale shark, at Koh Tao's famous Chumphon Pinnacles dive site

I contacted multiple dive companies for info and the response from most were less than adequate. The correspondence with simple life divers was exemplary and relieved any doubts I had about choosing them. [In fact, I had a string of 18 emails which answered all my questions].

We were collected at the pier as promised and taken direcctly to the resort and were actually able to start the class with Steve that same afternoon which we arrived.

Not only was Steve great as an instructor, but he’s someone you’d definitely like to have a beer with (a nice perk given that you are spending 15-20 hours with your padi instructor over a 3-4 day period). He kept things funny and  light, but was also thorough and easy to follow. The dive class was limited to four people so you were never truly left out of any of it nor were you sitting there on your knees for 30 minutes while skills were being taught to others.

My girlfriend joined me for the dive course and even though she isn’t a particularly strong swimmer she didn’t have any trouble with any of the training and felt secure the whole time.

I would whole-hardheartedly recommend Simple Life Divers to anyone”.

After getting the paperwork and theory out of the way we started out in shallow water, get familiarized with how to use a scuba unit. The confined water training delivers a lot of skills, techniques and experience in a short space of time, so from starting out being a bit nervous by the end of the session the girls were able to complete lots of complex underwater skills. We focused on things like mask clearing, regulator clearing, and breathing from alternate air sources. We reinforced what we’d learned about the buddy system during our scuba diving theory sessions and worked on using our lung volume, weight system and buoyancy control jacket (BCD) to hover motionlessly in mid water. After tidying up a few rough edges the girls were shaping up well and ready for their open water dives.

The Simple Life dive boat mooring up at Koh Nangyuan, a little north-west of Koh Tao

The following day we headed out to Koh Nangyuan for our first two open water dives. Koh Nangyuan is a formation of three small islands joined by a sand bar, which sits slightly north-west of the main island of Koh Tao. The island is surrounded by dive sites, ranging shallow coral reefs with sandy training areas, to deeper pinnacles and giant scattered granite boulders. There’s even an artificial reef dive site created by the Koh Tao diving community specifically for fine tuning buoyancy control. During our two dives we go to explore the dive sites down to a max depth of 12M, enjoying the colorful aquatic life. Plus we repeated a few of the skills we’d learned the day before to further increase the girl’s confidence underwater.

We rounded off the PADI Open Water course visiting the famous Twins dive site and Hin Pee Wee (Pee Wee Rock), getting right down to 18M. The Koh Tao diving conditions were at their best, with incredible visibility so we had two great dives, and the girls were certified as PADI Open Water divers.

And they enjoyed the course so much that we followed up with an extra day of diving where we made a deep adventure dive down to 30M at Green Rock. The team got their first taster of nitrogen narcosis to be able to appreciate the effects of depth, and we got to explore the maze of giant boulders that litter the dive site.

It’s been a great few days and I’d like to congratulate Noelle, Sally, Natalie, Kalee and Gemma on becoming PADI divers!

Over the last week we have had awesome conditions at every Koh Tao dive site, with glass flat seas and 30m plus metre visibility from sunrise to sunset. Congratulations to all students that have recently completed their dive courses here at Simple Life Divers and have had the privilege to experience our underwater paradise at it’s best.

Throughout late March the Koh Tao diving conditions have been at their best

We started our with a course orientation where we chatted about what we’d be up to during the next 4 days, and watched two PADI videos to give them and introduction to some important principles. Then the following morning the guys met up for a little bit more theory and a quick review, and were then ready to get into the water.

For our first underwater training we made a shallow water ‘confined’ session, visiting the Japanese Gardens dive site north-west of Koh Tao. After showing the team how to set up their scuba unit we made our pre-dive safety checks and entered the water. We spent the whole afternoon practicing a many different skills, including regulator recovery, mask removal, tired diver tow, weight belt removal and lots of other cool skills to get the gang comfortable using scuba gear. The girls and guys cruised through the session with ease and were ready to take things to the next level.

The following day the team got their equipment packed and we jumped on the dive boat to make our way to Koh Nanagyuan, where the team were excited to make their first proper open water dive. We got to explore the coral reef right down to 12M, and had a lot of fun. After a surface interval, I briefed the team on open water dive 2 where they would put their newly learned skills to the test at greater depths. The guys handled everything with ease and after the skills practice was complete we got to make an underwater tour of the dive site,  checking out the tropical marine life and, corals and boulder formations.

The team explore Green Rock near Koh Tao, during dive three of the open water course

For the final day of the open water course and the guys final two dives we made our way to Green Rock and Twin Pinnacles with our resident underwater cameraman Olly videoing their dives. We got to explore down to 18M, navigating the spectacular giant granite rock formations of Green Rock. Some of the gang stuck around for an extra day diving where we made a 30M deep dive at the incredible Chumphon Pinnacle.

It’s been a great few days diving with a now very competent group of divers, and we hope to see you all back on Koh Tao in the future.