Hi Haydon.

Claire and I would like to thank you for looking after us during our PADI Open Water Dive Course.

We had such a good time and where very sad to have to come home.

We would like to say a big thank you to Nicki she is fantastic instructor.

In fact we send a big thanks and hello to all your crew.

We have quite a few friends here that wish to get there Dive ticket and we will be recommending they come and see you.
We will be back to get our advanced as soon as we get some more time off.

Once again a big thank you to all. Hope to see you soon.

All the best for 2010

Cheers
Rob Cicala.

In Thailand the norm is to give gifts to friends and family to wish them the best for the New Year.This morning Tremayne, Caley, Deborah and Christina were given a Whale Shark, Bull Sharks and a PADI Open Water License!

Having completed their two classroom sessions, shallow skills in the pool, and two preparatory dives, this morning saw us heading to Chumphon Pinnacles for the deepest dive of the course, right down to 18m.

Descending upon the line we were greeted by a whale shark which accompanied us through to our maximum depth of 18m, where it was replaced by numerous bull Sharks and barracuda.

At the end of this enthralling dive we conducted a safety stop at 5m where the whale shark again greeted us and then saw us off to the surface and out of the water. What a way to finish Dive 3 of the Open Water Course!

Happy New Year and congratulations to Tremayne, Caley, Deborah and Christina!

We've added a new page to the Simple Life Divers website where you can see YouTube video of Koh Tao and the great scuba diving.

You can see a selection of videos in our Koh Tao video archive, including footage from the last two dives of a PADI Open Water course, and see footage of the marine life which you'll see diving in Koh Tao such as turtles, whale shark videos and coral reef fish.

Plus, we've included some general Koh Tao videos, such as a look at some of the popular beaches around the island, and  a bit of nightlife with a short movie of fire-dancers on Sairee Beach.

Another successful Padi Open Water completed, and well done to Rachel, John, Felicity and Nicola.

The guy's arrived from the night boat and were picked up by Ek - our ever dependent taxi driver (with dark sunglasses if its early morning) and taken to the resort. We got the guy's signed up and settled into their rooms. After a day's rest they were ready to start the academics, videos and complete their knowledge reviews.

The following day we headed out to Mango Bay for our shallow confined water skills session. The team handled the skills well and were more than ready for their first dive.

Day 3 of the open water course we finished off two more videos and did the final exam. After a nice lunch break we got our equipment together and made our way to the new and improved Simple Life dive boat, following it's monsoon holiday to the dry dock in Surat-thani. Once we'd run through the dive briefing, we all enjoyed a long dive at Japanese Garden's followed by a dive at Twins. The next morning was a real treat for the guys - we made our way to Chumphon Pinnacle north-west of Koh Tao and had a amazing dive. Visibility was great and we saw five 3 meter bull shark's!

Coming up after the dive the team couldn't contain their excited and totally loved the whole experience. We celebrated their passing of the course with a few drink's at the new Simple Life restaurant. Well done team.

Secondly, to give more information on our PADI Divemaster and scuba instructor internships on Koh Tao, we've launched a Thailand scuba diving internships micro site. The site offers gap year Thailand packages and lots of information about diving internships in Thailand.

Today a great group of divers completed their PADI Open Water Course. Sarah managed to overcome the initial panic that she felt, to find she loved diving, whilst everyone else found Kfir extremely amusing with his underwater dancing.

Well done to, well, the 3.5 girls and the 2.5 guys!

Today we certified another Padi Open Water Diver. Daina from Canada choose to do the 4 day scuba diving course with us and enjoyed every minute of it.

We started as usual with the video's, watching 3 at a time, completing the knowledge review's and then a simple quiz. The next day we headed to pool for our confined water session. Daina completed the morning exercises which included regulator and  mask clearing, surface skills and of course the always fun buoyancy control with ease.

The following day we finished the rest of the videos in the morning and then we headed out to our newly reconditioned dive boat for our first two twelve meter dives. With 10-15 meter visibility and fish aplenty, we had a fantastic couple of dives. The next morning we got up bright and early for two 18 meter dives at the Chumphon Pinnacle and we weren't disappointed.

20 minute's into the first dive we saw a 5 meter whale shark. All in all we had a brillant time and Daina left with a smile on her face.

Image: Great diving conditions here on Koh Tao during December

Today we completed 5 new Padi Open Water Diver's here at Simple Life Koh Tao. The team of Steve, Jan, Phil, Adam and Sarah all passed their Open Water PADI course with flying colours.

After watching the Padi dive videos and completing the knowledge reviews, the guy's were ready to get their scuba gear on and head for the pool. The team breezed through the confined water skills session and were more than ready for their first two twelve meter dives.

The sun was shining, the water was clear and we all enjoyed a great dive at the always impressive White Rock dive site. After a relaxing surface interval the boat headed to Twins for our second dive of the day, also a cracker.

The following day we got up bright and early to be the first boat at the dive site and completed their last two eightteen meter dives. After the course we enjoyed some cold beer's in the new Simple Life Restaurant. Congratulations guys and enjoy the rest of your travels.

This morning saw the combination of happy, then sad people....!

Rachel, Frank, Nina, Lindsay and Melissa surfaced from dive four of their Open Water course with huge smiles on their faces, thrilled to know that they had successfully completed their PADI Dive training, and having enjoyed another great dive.

However, it was also a sad moment for some since, wanting to attend the full moon party, this also meant that their time with Alex at Simple Life Divers was over! Still, there's always time for another holiday, another 500 questions, and the PADI Advanced course!

Usually during late November and early December we get a bit of rain here on the tropical isle of Koh Tao, but so far in 2009 we've continued to enjoy warm sunny weather and flat seas (mostly!).

Taking advantage of the perfect diving conditions, this morning saw the completion of Jose's PADI Open Water Diving Course on Koh Tao.

Two lovely dives at White Rock and Twins rounded his dive training off nicely, with Joe demonstrating his mastery in buoyancy control and removing his mask.

Jose had a definite advantage from diving at this time of year since the group consisted of, well, just me and him! This allowed a him a lot of personal attention and fine tuning to perfect his diving technique. Congratulations Jose and enjoy your PADI Advanced dive course.

Image: Small Sergeant Major fish in Mango Bay

Congrats to Whitney, Nicole ,Scott ,Jamie and Tal on having completed their PADI open water and advanced courses with a little full moon party break in between.

We had some excellent dives at shark island , Hin Wong, Mango Bay with the seahorses and the Chumphon Pinnacle, with some big great barracudas shadowing us on our night dive at white rock.

The guys have been chilling on the island enjoying all Koh Tao's attractions including the famous Pad Thai, which Whitney and Nicole cant get enough of!

The weather is southern Thailand awesome again at the moment and the sharks have been spotted again which is great news! All the Divemasters and PADI Instructors here at Simple Life are looking forward to enjoying diving the Chumphon Pinnacles over the next few weeks.

Drew McFarlane and Gail Busby sent this short email to the Simple Life Diving Crew:

Re: Open Water course with Simple Life -

Just a wee message to say cheers for the great time we had on our course. We had cockney Luke, who was Lush!!

Will be back to do our advanced in the near future.

Image: Lydia, Alex and Kristina on the Padi open water course in Koh Tao

A big well done to Alex, Lydia and Kristina for completing their Padi Open Water Course with Simple Life Divers.

The guy's all booked through our new and improved website and got straight into the swing of things. Once all the course work was done we had a nice and relaxing confined water session in our new pool at Simple Life Resort.

The guy's were all naturals and had no problems performing any of the scuba skills. The next morning we started bright and early to see the sun rise and headed out for our first two 12 meter dives. Japanese Garden's and White Rock were the locations and with great visability the team enjoyed themselves and had a lot of fun underwater.

For the final day of the PADI Open Water course we were off to Aow Leuk and the always brillant Shark Island.

Thank's guy's for making the open water diving course easy to teach and all the best for the rest of your travel's!

Image: Tim egresses an unconscious diver whilst performing rescue breaths

Congratulations to our newest PADI Divemaster trainee - Tim on completing the Padi rescue diver course in sweet style. Very easy to teach and a quick learner we got through all the exercises with ease.

Image: PADI Dive Instructor Warren debriefs Tim on his performance

We concluded with the final scenarios in perfect conditions in mango bay, the most northern bay of Koh Tao. Tim has just started into his Divemaster course with us and is well on the way to becoming a Padi professional!

Scuba diving conditions are awesome at the moment with whalesharks still being spotted! The visibility doesn't get better than right now, so we're really enjoying the diving.

Image: Meanwhile, Alex and Steve practice flips off the Simple Life Dive boat

Image: 7 pretty Irish girls enjoying the PADI Diving Course, Koh Tao

Congratulations to the Irish beauties for completing their Padi diving Course here at Simple Life. The girls booked through our new information office located in Koh Phangan's lively Haad Rin - scene of the world famous monthly full moon parties.

After they enjoyed the festivities of the Full Moon Party, they headed over to Koh Tao to start their PADI diving course. We started off with our easy academic session, watching the always 'enjoyable' Padi videos! The next day we took the dive boat out to the Japanese Garden dive site, to make the shallow water scuba skills session. The girl's breezed through the confined water training with ease and were ready for their first two open water dives.

The next day we finished off the rest of the scuba diving academics, then headed to Twin's for our first 12 meter dive of the day. After the dive we had a nice long surface interval and then headed to White Rock for the second dive. The girl's were great in the water, a pleasure to teach.

By the time we were making open water dives 3 and 4 the following day, the girls were messing around for the camera and having a great time!

Well done girl's and have fun with the rest of your travel's.

Image: PADI Instructor Sarah briefs Jo and Laurie on safe diving practices

After the mixed weather last week, diving conditions in the Gulf of Thailand are back to their best.

For the last few days we've been enjoying soaring temperatures, pond-like flat seas and crystal clear water, typical of Koh Tao diving conditions during September.

Taking advantage of the great diving, Jo and Laurie on holiday from the UK joined Simple Life Divers for an afternoon 'Discover Scuba Diving' session under the guidance of PADI dive instructor Sarah.

For the first dive we visited the Mango Bay dive site, on the northern coast of Koh Tao island. Visibility was excellent, with bright sunshine radiating through the turquoise water.

Following a thorough briefing, the posse practiced a few scuba diving skills in shallow water, before taking an underwater tour of the staghorn corals and scattered boulders in Mango Bay.

After a surface interval enjoying the sunshine, we motored across to Koh Tao's neighboring Nang-yuan Island, making a drop off dive from Red Rock (aka the Nang-Yuan Pinnacle), proceeding on a one way dive into the scenic Japanese Gardens. Visibility was so good that the top of the Nang-Yuan Pinnacle was easily visible from above the surface.

The one way dive offers the chance to peer inside a cavernous swim-through, formed by the enormous scattered granite boulders - a spectacular feature of this Koh Tao diving site.

If you're in Thailand are are either a seasoned diver or are interested in trying scuba diving, get yourself to Koh Tao asap - the conditions don't get better than this!

Image: Perfect Koh Tao diving conditions

Bethan Manford sent the following feedback to the team at Simple Life Diving Koh Tao:

Hi, I just wanted to send a line to say that I had a really refreshing dive with you whilst i was in Ko Tao.

I felt looked after and really enjoyed it. Being back in London is tough after being surrounded by such beautiful nature and exploring the underwater world.

Best-est Wishes,
Bethan x

Just finished an Advanced Padi diving course with a cool group of people!

Had some wicked dives, bumping into whalesharks and lionfish at the Chumpon Pinnacles dive site. We had the advantage of diving with enriched air (nitrox) on some of the dives which, allowed us even more time on the deeper dives.

Our favorite critter was this guy, who was out on a feeding mission! The weather has cleared again, the sun is here and its whaleshark season!

Diving on with enriched air (nitrox), is a great way to get longer bottom times or enhance the safety of your dives. In enriched air blends, we lower the percentage of nitrogen by adding more oxygen to the gas mix, with the PADI Enriched Air diving course allowing divers to use nitrox blends containing up to 40% oxygen.

By diving with nitrox, we reduce the amount of nitrogen which we're absorbing into our body during dives, which means we can stay down for longer. This does however introduce additional complications, such as the need to be more careful when planing the maximum depth, (to avoid oxygen toxicity problems).

But by choosing the right nitrox mix for the dive site we can enjoy significantly longer bottom times - especially on Koh Tao diving sites in the 20 - 30M range.  The benefits of diving on enriched air/nitrox are especially significant on repetitive dives, where we're facing the cumulative build up of nitrogen from a series of dives. By using enriched air/nitrox mixes, we reduce that nitrogen loading, giving longer bottom times with shorter surface intervals. This makes nitrox diving a popular choice for Koh Tao diving professionals and on multi day live-aboard diving trips.

You can take the PADI Enriched Air (Nitrox) diving course in just one day, or even combine it with your PADI Advanced dive course. If you're interested in finding out more, send us an email .

Tanya Ellis emailed the following quick message to the Koh Tao Diving team at Simple Life:

Hi Guys, just hit Saudi soil after an epic journey home! Just a quick note to say thanks for the fab time, I am looking at when I can do my advanced already!

Still buzzing and thanks to you all, am wondering how much longer I have to do this HR malarky!!! Take care Tanya xxx

Being underwater and having a regulator second stage in your mouth makes it pretty much impossible to communicate by talking when you’re scuba diving. Part 3 of out series of lessons from the Ko Tao PADI diving course investigates the easiest and most effective ways to communicate underwater.

Pairing up with another diver is essential to safe scuba diving. By sticking to the buddy system, you have someone making sure you’re ok throughout the dive, giving a second opinion on navigation and the dive plan, and able to assist you in the event of a problem. Accidents are very rare in diving, but when they do occur, the most common contributing factor is that a diver became separated from their buddy or group, and ended up in a situation which they were unable to cope with alone.

So sticking with a buddy is an essential safe diving practice. But how can you communicate underwater with your dive buddy?
Although you can speak through the regulator, the sound becomes muffled, so it’s difficult (if not impossible) to make yourself understood.  So how do we communicate?

For routine / repetitive messages the fastest and easiest to make yourself understood is using hand signals. Irrespective to which country you’re from, where you learned to dive and which diving certification agency you trained with, there are a series of standard diving signals which everyone understands.

Here are some of the most common scuba diving hand signals:

Ok? Ok	Ascend
Problem	Descend
Boat	How much air left?
Slow Down	Out of air! (should never need to use this one!)

Most of the time, this series of diving hand signals are sufficient to articulate whatever it is we need to say. But in some circumstances, communicating a complex message isn’t possible by hand signals.

In this case we’ll need to use an aid. Most seasoned divers carry a simple underwater slate and pencil, so more detailed information can be jotted down and shown to your buddy. You can also buy underwater magnetic boards (similar to ‘Etch-a-Sketch’) which can be reused many times on a single dive – however these are larger and more cumbersome so less popular.

Sound actually travels faster in water than air, so noises can be heard from long distances. As we discussed, speaking underwater is impractical, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make use of sound. Tapping a metallic object (such as a dive knife) against your scuba cylinder is a great way to get other divers attention. Similarly, most dive schools implement a boat recall system of continually revving the boat’s engine in cycles, combined with hitting a metallic object against the ladder which is submerged into the ocean. Both these signals can be easily heard by all divers across the dive site, so it’s an effective way of recalling all divers to the boat.

So that gives you an insight into how we communicate underwater around the Koh Tao diving sites. Check back again soon for part 4 of our series of articles from the Koh Tao open water course, where we’ll investigate what’s included in a typical dive plan.

Part 2 of our series of articles covering lessons from the Koh Tao PADI diving course focuses on the hazardous marine life encountered diving Koh Tao and throughout the Gulf of Thailand, dispelling common myths and bringing attention to the real dangers of Koh Tao diving.

Having worked in the Koh Tao diving industry for many years, we get many PADI Open Water students who are nervous about the perceived dangers of the aquatic life that they’ll encounter around the Koh Tao dive sites.

99% of the time these concerns aren’t based on fact, but more on hearsay, so it’s our job to put the facts straight and alleviate their anxiety. But that’s not to say that there aren’t some marine species that you need to look out for!
So putting the records straight, here’s a review of the hazardous, (and not-so hazardous) marine life you’ll come into proximity with scuba diving Koh Tao, Thailand.

Sharks

Following many generations of Hollywood movies, sharks have developed a pretty fearsome reputation, leaving new divers either intrigued or petrified!
The reality is that scuba diving in Koh Tao, you’ve got to be lucky to see a shark, but when you do it’s a fantastic experience. Bull Sharks at Koh Tao’s Chumphon Pinnacles grow to an impressive size, but when you do spot one, they swim away quickly. There are no known occurrences of them attacking divers in Koh Tao (preferring to eat small fish!).
In the extremely unlikely event that you did encounter a shark which was behaving aggressively, you should remain still and calm, and slowly move away.

Image: Scott gets some special attention form a Titan Trigger-fish!

Trigger-Fish

Koh Tao’s Titan Trigger-fish on the other hand are a different deal, and are well know to the local diving instructors and PADI Divemasters.  The trigger-fish are extremely territorial, and build nests out on the sand, near many of the Koh Tao dive sites. Whilst most of the time, the trigger-fish can be seen peacefully feeding on corals, at other times of year it’s best to keep away from their nesting area as this will only provoke an unwelcome reaction!

Jellyfish

Fortunately Koh Tao diving doesn’t normally involve coming into contact with jellyfish. The most common time to see jellyfish is when you’re sitting at safety stop depth above one of Koh Tao’s deep pinnacle dive sites, with jellyfish drifting past in the current. The best action is to face into the current and keep a look-out – if you do spy a jellyfish drifting towards you, move out of it’s path. If you’re unfortunate enough to receive a sting, once back on the boat treat the sting with vinegar and remove any remaining tentacles using forceps.

Image: Scorpion Fish

Scorpion Fish

Scorpion-fish are masters of camouflage, merging in amongst the corals on most of the Koh Tao dive sites. Normally pretty small, the scorpion-fish is lined with a series of spines as a (self defense mechanism).  Generally, scorpion-fish sit very still, so if you control your buoyancy and try not to touch the corals (which you shouldn’t anyway), you won’t have a problem. If you were unlucky enough collide with a scorpion-fish and get your skin punctured by one of those spines, most likely you’d suffer local pain and swelling, which can be relieved by bathing in hot water to denature the venom.

Anemones

Magnificent anemones look spectacular and are abundant on the Koh Tao diving sites. But be careful not to brush against them – contact with bare skin can leave an irritating rash.

Rocks and Corals!

By far the most common cause of injury from diving is due to bad buoyancy control, or putting your hands where you shouldn’t. Most of the corals (and many rocks) are very sharp so grabbing them can result in cuts. It’s important to get these properly cleaned, as there are many bacteria living in the tropical water, which can lead to an unpleasant infection if left untreated.

So that takes care of our commonly encountered hazardous (or not so hazardous) marine life. Check back again soon for part three of our series of lessons from the Koh Tao PADI Open Water course where we’ll look at the buddy system and how to communicate underwater.

Image: Diving in blue water on the Advanced Padi diving course, Koh Tao

Honeymoon couple Greg and Marisa , along with future Simple Life PADI Divemaster trainee Paul have completed their Advanced Open Water diving course. With a great combination of underwater navigation, Greg cheating on the buoyancy dive, then some deep dive and dark dives, we finished the Padi diving course with a lovely dive in clear blue waters at White Rock. All good fun and well done guys!!!!

Taking the PADI Advanced diving course directly after completing your PADI open water certification here on Koh Tao, is the best thing you can do to improve yor scuba diving. The PADI Open Water course gives you all the scuba basics you need to be able to dive safely, but there's a limit to what we can achieve in four days. If you have the time (and money), by sticking around on Koh Tao for the additional two day PADI Advanced diving course we make five more dives which open up new and exciting areas of diving. You'll explore more Koh Taso dive sites, exploring deeper and further.

Arguably the biggest benefit of the Advanced diving course is that you'll log more time in the water, during which we'll fine tune your buoyancy and breathing control. Combined, these constitue one of the most important aspects of scuba diving - you'll be able to better control your position in the water [making you safer and allowing you to see more], plus you'll be able to use your air supply more conservatively delivering longer bottom times. Together that means you'll have the tools to enjoy the Ko Tao diving sites even more than during the PADI Open Water course.

In this series of articles, Simple Life Diving Koh Tao gives you free lessons from the PADI Open Water course, giving you a better idea of what to expect from scuba diving in Koh Tao, Thailand.

Part one examines how a modern set of scuba diving gear works, looking at each piece of equipment in turn.

Scuba diving equipment has evolved to become sophisticated, incredibly safe, reliable and high performance. There’s a massive range of options and features available, to allow scuba diving in any environment.

To familiarize you with how a set of scuba diving gear works, we’ll run you through a basic set, and discuss what options and features would be suitable for warm water Koh Tao diving.

Cylinder

Firstly we need somewhere to store the air which we’ll be breathing whilst underwater. Scuba cylinders or tanks) come in a range of sizes and materials. Scuba diving Koh Tao we opt for aluminum cylinders, which are resistant to the corrosive salty ocean conditions, compressing air into 12 litre cylinders at two hundred time normal atmospheric pressure (200 bar). That volume of air allows an average diver to dive for about 45 minutes at normal recreational depths, (factoring in a safety margin).

Regulator – First Stage

This is the bit which attaches to the valve of the scuba cylinder. Since the air inside the cylinder is at two hundred times normal pressure, we need to reduce that pressure down to make it breathable. This is the job of the regulator first stage. Most first stages reduce down the pressure to about ten bar above ambient water pressure (called the intermediate pressure), which is then fed down to the ….
Regulator - Second Stage

This is the bit that you put in your mouth and breathe from. The second stage contains a large diaphragm which the surrounding water pressure pushes on. What that does is adjust the intermediate pressure (delivered from the first stage) to exactly the same pressure as the surrounding water. The result is that when you breathe in, a valve opens and allows air to flow freely. When you stop breathing in or exhale, the valve remains closed allowing you to conserve your air supply.

Regulator - Alternate Air Source

In case your buddy has an equipment problem, you also have a alternate second stage attached to your first stage, which means in the event of an emergency your buddy can also breathe from your cylinder. This is one of the reasons why it’s always a good idea to stick with a buddy when scuba diving.

Buoyancy Control Device - BCD

Obviously we need a way of keeping the cumbersome cylinder attached to us, so the BCD is a robust jacket which allows you to strap the cylinder to your back. The BCD also has a second important function. You can adjust the amount of air inside the jacket so that you hover motionlessly in mid water and control your position underwater. Whilst at the surface you can inflate the BCD to avoid swimming to stay afloat, and save energy.

Wetsuit

Your body looses heat about twenty times faster in water than air, so you’ll need to wear some kind of exposure protection to keep warm. The good news is, Koh Tao diving has very warm water – usually about 30C. That means during the Padi open water course we usually wear a 2.5mm neoprene ‘shorty’ wetsuit , which keeps us comfortable during the dives.

Weights

The bad news is that neoprene is buoyant (as is body fat),  so to be able to descend underwater we have to carry some lead weights. The easiest way to do this (adopted by most Koh Tao dive schools) is to attach the lead to a weight belt which you secure around your waist prior to each dive.
Mask

Your eyes can’t focus in water, so you need to wear a mask to be able to see when diving. If you have a little spare cash and plan to invest in piece of scuba diving gear of your own, make sure you buy a mask. A good diving mask makes all the difference to your Koh Tao diving experience – if you can see properly you’ll have a much better time!

Fins

With all this gear, it becomes a bit tricky getting around underwater. To make life easier we wear large, rigid diving fins which take all the effort out of swimming, allowing us to maintain our air supply and explore the Koh Tao dive sites with ease.

That's your intro to scuba equipment for diving Koh Tao -  don’t miss part two of our series of lessons from the Koh Tao Padi open water course, where we examine some realities and myths of dangerous aquatic life!

Image: Whale Shark at Koh Tao's Hin Pee Wee dive site

Image: Marisa, Greg and Emma during the Padi Open Water Ko Tao

Today at Simple Life Divers, we had the completion of Marisa, Greg and Emma's Padi Open Water Diver Course. Marisa and Greg are visiting Ko Tao on their honeymoon - what better way to celebrate than to learn to scuba dive and check out our awesome marine life with the open water Ko Tao dive course.

It's been bright and sunny with calm sea conditions, so making their third dive at Twins and final dive at White Rock everyone was 'best pleased' and showed a great aptitude for scuba diving. The guys performed for our resident underwater videographer who captured the afternoon open water dives on film, with Greg and Marisa making Emma feel sick with their "mushy" behavior! We'll enjoy watching the video this evening with a couple of cold Tigers! Well done guys!

The rumor is there's a whale shark hanging around the Ko Tao dive sites. Normally we get a greater frequency of whale sharks sightings a little later in the year (around September), but they can turn up on the dive sites at any time - especially around the Chumphon and Southwest Pinnacles. Greg and Marisa are going to stick around on Koh Tao for the PADI Advanced course, so fingers crossed we get a chance to dive with the big fish! I'll keep my camera handy!

Image:From left Joao, Duarte, me, 'Roids', Nick and Will on the Ko Tao diving course

The above posse have just come through their four day Padi Open Water Course with Simple Life Divers.

Starting the Ko Tao diving course with an easy Academics session in the afternoon, the guys breezed through the ever popular Padi video's and knowledge review's!

The next day we were out on the boat heading to Koh Nang Yuan for our shallow water confined session. The group coped easily with all the skills and we had some fun doing the buoyancy skills, such as fin pivots and hovering in mid water, fine tuning our breathing control to adjust our position in the water.

During Day Three we visited the Japanese Garden's for our first dive. Great weather and good underwater visibility provided us with the perfect Ko Tao diving conditions, so we were able to enjoy a great dive. After a long surface interval relaxing on the boat, we headed out to White Rock for our second dive of the day, again down to a maximum depth of twelve metres, where we repeated some of the shallow skills a bit deeper to build up even more confidence.

The final day saw the team, taking a trip out to Koh Tao's Green Rock dive site, where the famous Tigger pit's are located, then finishing off the Ko Tao diving course with a visit to the nearby Twin's diving site to see Nemo.

It's been a pleasure to teach you guy's and have hope you all have fun at the Full Moon party next week.

Image: Tamir and Reuben helping panicked divers Rob and Cystal on the Padi rescue diver course, Koh Tao

Newly certified Padi rescue divers Tamir and Reuben can finally relax after three days of stress, panic, blood and almost tears!

The pair did very well with all that was thrown at them during the demanding Padi rescue course. The guys dealt with self rescue techniques, panicked divers, the famous 'dive from hell' and coping with unconscious divers. Plus we mixed in some missing divers, first aid and CPR, emergency oxygen set up and administration plus loads more.

Well done guys - it was fun for me, I hope you enjoyed the PADI Rescue Diver course too!

Tamir is also going on to start his PADI Divemaster training and will be with us at Simple Life Divers right through till September. 

Image: Blue water on the diving course, Ko Tao

Well done to Enda, Fergal and Ronan on completing their PADI Advanced Open Water Course with Simple Life Divers.

After finishing their PADI Open Water with friends Amy, Jamie, Michelle and Barry, (most of whom are teachers from Ireland), the 3 lads decided to enroll on their advanced course, to make sure they were properly prepared for their visit to Australia's Great Barrier Reef later in their holiday.

Koh Tao is one of Asia's top diver training destinations, with great value for money and World class diving. If you're looking for the perfect place to take a diving course Koh Tao is a great option, and the island’s night life is not to be missed. [We did our fair share of celebrating after the team all successfully completed their Open Water diving course].

So onto the Advanced Course: First Day - peak performance buoyancy diving through the swim-through a Red Rock followed by underwater navigation over to the new wreck at the Japanese Gardens.

Next day; Deep diving at Koh Tao's South-West Pinnacle, then Fish ID and Photography at White Rock.

Well done and all the best in your further travels. Jon

Image: Koh Tao diving never fails to turn up new surprises - this time a fan-bellied filefish

Like working anywhere, elements of the Koh Tao diving industry become routine.

But it does not take much to remind us what a fantastic job we have! All you have to do is take a look around - small tropical island, beaches and palm trees, cold beers! Even better is the amazingly international mix of people that we get to work with, and teach diving to.

But the main reason most of us got into scuba diving was a desire to explore further. As PADI dive instructors, we visit the same Koh Tao diving sites on a regular basis, but there's always something new and incredible, ready to surprise. Here's how my morning went: 

Deep down at deep 26m, west of the main pinnacle of South-West, a small cluster of rocks in the sand.

Swimming closer something hiding away in amongst the soft corals, a Fan-Bellied Filefish.

If you love taking and collecting images, Digital Underwater Photography will definitely open up your dive experiences and deliver a new diving challenge. Here at Simple Life no matter what level of diver you are, you’ll be in good hands.

Simple Life's highly experienced PADI Professional Dive Masters and Instructors have racked up 10,000’s of dives on Koh Tao. Knowing exactly where to go on the dives site can change a good dive into a great one. I’m for sure looking forward to my next fun dive.

Diving Course Koh Tao: Matt, Tom, James, Jonathon, James, Tim and Matt - almost a palindrome!

With Simple Life Divers busy after the July full moon celebrations, this morning saw the Padi open water certification earned by Matt, Tom, James, Jonathan, James, Timothy and Matt.

On our post full moon party diving course, Koh Tao diving conditions improved dramatically over the four days and we had a great time. Despite having a few ear problems, the whole group managed to excel in the underwater environment.

With the weather clearing up we visited a number of the lovely dive sites, with our final two dives taking place at Twins and White Rock. On both of the final dives the visibility was more than 20 metres making the entire experience colorful and enjoyable.

Jonathan plans to stick around for the Padi Advanced diving course, so we're looking forward to some deep diving over the next few days! Well done to all and keep bubbling!!!!

Congratulations to Kerrie, James and Steven on completing their PADI open water course in nice, relaxing settings (prior to the full moon party madness coming next week).

Good diving and some excellent visibility around the Koh Tao dive sites made it a pleasure to teach the guys.

We are now awaiting all the full moon crowds who are on the way here to learn to scuba dive and spend a few days on the best island!

After taking the PADI Open Water course with Simple Life Divers last month, Stacy and Betsy Kutcha sent the following comments to the Simple Life Koh Tao Dive Team:

To everyone at Simple Life:

Thanks again for getting us hooked on diving.

Woz was a wonderful instructor and made it easy to learn. Lisa was our dive master on a few fun dives and she made them lots of fun.

If we ever find ourselves back in Koh Tao we will be sure to dive with Simple Life.!

Go Diving!

Betsy & Stacy

BTW: Stacy and Betsy are writing up their travels through South-East Asia on their own blog. You can read independent views of their experiences, including diving Koh Tao with Simple Life Divers - check out http://mekong.kuchtaworld.net/

Already the start of July, we're entering Koh Tao's summer season which is a great time for scuba diving here.

At Simple Life Divers we get a lot of emails asking what can be expected diving Koh Tao at this time of year. So here's a run down, giving you a better idea of what you're likely to see around the Koh Tao dive sites, and general aspects of visiting Koh Tao during July, August and September.

Image: Excellent weather and Koh Tao diving conditions at Mango Bay

Myth No. 1: It's low / monsoon season in Koh Tao during Summer.

Koh Tao has great year round weather and diving conditions, except for November when we get some rain. July, August and September have warm, sunny weather with very little (if any) rain, and excellent diving conditions. Underwater visibility is generally good so you get to see masses of tropical marine life, and wave heights are usually low which means we can visit all of Koh Tao's best diving sites.

In fact, summertime is low season for dive operators on Thailand's Andaman coast. Why? The prevailing wind at this time of year blows from the South-West, so there's a very long fetch causing large waves for Thailand's Andaman coastline [Phuket, Koh Phi-Phi, Lanta, Koh Lipe etc]. Koh Tao is located in the sheltered Gulf of Thailand towards the western side of the gulf, hence we're much better protected and have great scuba diving conditions throughout during July, August and September.

So what can you expect to see around the Koh Tao dive sites at this time of year?

Whether you're taking a PADI Diving course [such as PADI open water] or just enjoying our daily Koh Tao dive tours if you're already a certified diver, you'll get to visit a mix of shallow coral reefs and deep pinnacle dive sites.

Our coral reef dive sites include Twins and the Japanese Gardens off Koh Nangyuan, White Rock and Mango Bay to the north of Koh Tao. On these sites you're guaranteed to see masses of tropical coral reef species. This includes colorful reef fish such as butterfly-fish, angel-fish and wrasses, plus more diverse marine species such as white eyed moray eels, blue spotted sting-rays and banded sea-snakes. We also regularly see hawks-bill turtles, and the famous territorial Koh Tao trigger-fish.

Koh Tao's deeper pinnacle dive sites such as the Chumphon Pinnacle and South-west pinnacle are home to our larger marine species, and visibility is usually excellent above the thermocline which sits at 25-30 meters. You can expect to see giant groupers, bat-fish, barracuda and jacks, with enormous fish populations congregating around the pinnacles.

Images: [Left] Staghorn Coral [Right] Collecting video of diving with a turtle

Diving with Whale Sharks in Koh Tao?

Everyone that comes diving in Koh Tao wants to see a whale-shark, but how likely are you to see one? The truth is you've got to be very lucky. We see whale sharks every few weeks, but it's impossible to predict exactly when they're going to show up on the Koh Tao dive sites. Your best chance would be diving at the deep pinnacle sites during September, which has a high frequency of whale-shark sightings each year. 2009 has been a good year for whale-shark sightings, and we'll continue to keep you up to date on this news feed.

Image: Dive Koh Tao with a whale shark - the biggest fish in the sea

A bonus for the coming season is that we have a new wreck dive on Koh Tao. A small wooden boat became damaged, and was dragged to Koh Nangyuan and sunk as an artificial reef. The wreck is located just off the reef at the Japanese Gardens dive site, and although small, makes an interesting addition to the dive site. The wooden hull resting in shallow water won't last long, as the high oxygen content will cause the wood to degrade rapidly, so the wreck will only be intact for a couple of seasons at most.

High Season or Low Season?

July and August are definitely one of the busier periods here on Koh Tao island. Along with late December and January it's Koh Tao's busiest times of year.

Diving Koh Tao is never a problem, as with more than 25 dives sites close to the island and great scuba diving conditions there's always something new and exciting to see.

But accommmodation is in high demand, especially on Sairee Beach which is the most popular area on Koh Tao. This demand is multiplied before and following the famous Full Moon Parties on Koh Phangan. If you plan to visit Koh Tao around any of those dates, it's wise to make accommodation bookings in advance. Otherwise you will end up facing a situation where all the quality and reasonably priced Sairee Beach accommodation is full, leaving only overpriced or sub-standard rooms available.

After a successful trip back to the UK to see some friends and family members, Matt and Sam headed for Australia to continue working as PADI Instructors in Cairns, Queensland.

On June 17th Matt and Sam returned to Simple Life Divers Koh Tao to the traditional barrage of lunch time beers and stories from the previous year.

Image: Matt & Sam (with her new puppies)

It was great for them to finally see the new Simple Life resort and to hear of the new booking office in Koh Phangan. Both Matt & Sam are looking forward to getting back into the water and teaching some new PADI Open Water students, as well as working with some of Simple Life's new Divemaster Trainees.

Feedback from Trevor Smith:

To all at simple life.

Just a quick message to say a big thank you to all involved at your happy work place. I think that simple life divers Koh Tao is a fabulous PADI dive centre and lots of fun too.
I will be definitely returning to carry on with my dive education. I intend to become a Padi Divemaster,which will in turn give me bigger balls than i already have...!!!

See you all soon guys.

Trev

Image: Andrew at the surface with a DPV

Myself and Andrew the Geordie have been having fun with dive propulsion vehicles [DPVs] on his PADI Advanced Open Water course.

We used the sea scooter's on the new wreck by Japenese Gardens, after we headed to White Rock for his Peak Performance.

The next day we completed the rest of the PADI Advanced course by doing his underwater navigation at Twins. Expanding square's, natural navigation and 30 meter swim are all part of the underwater navigation dive. We had a great time and again congrats Andrew on passing your PADI Advanced Open Water course with Simple Life Diving Koh Tao.

Myself and john Just completed a nice few days here at Simple Life Diving Koh Tao with a great bunch of people who came to dive with us following the full moon party over on Koh Phangan.

After beggining the PADI Open Water course with a nice relaxing confined water session and dives one and two , we took the gang to the great Chumpon Pinnacle where we are hoping our favorite fish the whaleshark would show up!! Had a great dive to 18m with excellent visibility!! Congratulations to all the guys, team Woz , Rosay, Nanna, Jonas, Steve, Clare, Arabella. Team Jon, Andrew, Sam, Rhian, Becky, Jen  and Holly!

Image: From left to right we have, Sally, Andrew, Sharon, Lindsay who have all just completed their Padi Open Water Course.

With a nice easy confined water session in the pool, we had our first open water dive at Japanese Gardens then on to White Rock Koh Tao dive site east of the island. Both were excellent dives but it was the next day on dive 3 where thing's really got exciting.

While on the buoy line doing our saftey stop, along came a 6 meter whale shark. The whale shark stayed with us for the next 30 minutes, with the visibility a good 20 meters we were able to watch the amazing animal from the surface.

We're all off to South West Pinnacle today to do our Deep Adventure Dives and hopefully spot another Whale Shark. Congratulations on qualifying as PADI Open Water divers guys and look forward to today's dives!

Pablo and Cecilia emailed the following message to the Simple Life Scuba Diving Koh Tao team:

Hi guys!!!!

Finally in New Zealand, no more holidays, diving, drinks, hot weather!

Only snow, work, cold days... but i can live with that. Specially after this great experience with SIMPLE LIFE DIVERS!!!

Hope to see you in this life again!!! Thanks for all!!!

PABLO AND CECILIA

Matthew Judd gives feedback on diving Koh Tao with Simple Life Divers:

A big thankyou to everyone at Simple Life Divers Koh Tao, I had an awesome week doing my PADI open water and advanced courses.

It was great being able to dive on my birthday and seeing two whale sharks in two days was awesome. Nicki thanks for doing such a great job. Also thanks to Nick, Alex, Camilla, Sneaky, and Ed (Sweatband). Luke & Hayden thanks also.

Thanks very much and I will see you all again...maybe for Hayden's and my birthday next year! Matt

Image: Whale Shark during the PADI Advanced Course Koh Tao

Congratulations to Kate, Kathy , Chris and Alvin on completing their PADI advanced course with Simple Life.

We had excellent deep dives at the Chumphon Pinnacles dive site, with the guys all experiencing nitrogen narcosis for the first time down at 30 meters!! And now the guys are hungry for more!

It's been a 'whale shark-tastic' few weeks of scuba diving and this little one came to say hello during our Chumphon Pinnacle dives!

Diving Koh Tao we're fortunate to see whale sharks all year round, but if you're diving here you do need to be a bit lucky to see the biggest fish in the ocean! Whale sharks aren't resident to the Koh Tao dive sites but are a pelagic species that migrate through the area, often sticking around the large pinnacle sites to feed on the nutrient rich waters stirred up by the current passing over the dive site.

Although you have a remote chance of seeing a whale shark all year round scuba diving Koh Tao, the frequency of whale shark sightings is increased during certain seasons, notably around May and towards the end of our peak season in September.

Whale sharks are most often seen on the more distant pinnacle dive sites such as the Chumphon Pinnacles and Southwest Pinnacle, plus also visit Sail Rock midway between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. But they don't exclusively hang around the deeper distant dive sites - on many occasions they've made their way much closer to Koh Tao to dive sites such as White Rock and Twins.

Whale sharks have been recorded of up to 12 meters in length! Most our sightings around Koh Tao are smaller than that, ranging from juvenile whale sharks of two or three meters long, to larger, more mature whalesharks which can be eight or nine meters in length!

Following up on our previous story of the Miami Ink guys joining us for a few days to enjoy scuba diving Koh Tao, Simple Life dive instructor Nicki shares her story of getting a tattoo by Chris Núñez of Miami Ink.

"Whist hanging out with the guys after diving in Koh Tao and spending some time with them - I was asked if i would like to be tattooed - and oh yeah did I, after all these guys are supposed to be the best right?

Image: Chris and Nicki enjoy a few beers in Koh Tao Thailand

They had really enjoyed the day out diving in Koh Tao and wanted to give something cool back - so a tattoo it was.

Chris Núñez did a few sketches and designed me an awesome piece. The next day I met the guys and they took me to the resort to get inked. I had 5 hours sitting and a lot of pain, but it was all worth while!

Image: Chris Núñez from Miami Ink creates a tattoo of a lotus flower for Koh Tao diving instructor Nicki

My tattoo is really beautiful and colourful, a lotus flower with water and movement.

I can't dive now for a while and i'm still sore but if you want to check out the finished piece drop into Simple Life Dive Shop on Sairee Beach Koh Tao and see me.... after all I am now The Dive Instructor to the stars!"

Image: 5 hours of tatooing, but Nicki says it was more than worth it

Image: Koh Tao Diving - Daniela, Robert, Lisa, Julie, Sophie, Ak and Sara after diving the Chumphon Pinnacle and Green Rock

This morning the Simple Life diving boat steamed out to the Chumphon pinnacle - one of the most beautiful dive sites in Koh Tao.

Sara and Ak finished their PADI open water course with us at Simple Life and today they did their adventure deep dive with Mr. Instructor Wozaa [Warren]!

The Koh Tao weather and water conditions were great and so were the scuba divers! Visibility must have been 30 meters and the oceans was full of marine life and activity.

On the second dive we went to Green Rock. Were the guys enjoyed the many swim-throughs and again the amazing visibility. So it was a funny sunny fun diving day at Simple Life Divers Koh Tao!

Image: Hans Ulrich, Henrik Nimb and Danny Dwyer from PADI present the award to Haydon and Luke in Koh Tao.

2008 was another great year for Simple Life Divers Koh Tao. We’ve trained many divers across the full range of PADI courses, continually improving and increasing our offering and have recently achieved the prestigious grade of PADI 5* IDC Dive Center.

Simple Life Divers achievements have been recognized by PADI in the annual PADI Member Awards. Pictured above Hans Ulrich, Henrik Nimb and Danny Dwyer visited Simple Life on Koh Tao to present the award to Haydon and Luke.

We were a finalist in PADI’s Diver Acquisition Award, marking our commitment to introducing people to scuba diving, and helping them take their first steps into the underwater world.

2009 is already shaping up to be another great year here on Koh Tao. Despite the worldwide economic downturn Koh Tao is proving to be as robust as ever, with great diving conditions, lots of whale shark sightings and many divers making their way here to enjoy the Koh Tao diving.

If you want to become part of the Simple Life Divers team and enjoy working in the tropics check out our scuba diving internships Koh Tao page.

With a taste of Hollywood coming to the paradise island of Koh Tao, members of the TV show Miami Ink [shown on TLC Discovery Channel across the globe] visited the island for a special show.

Image: Simple Life Longtail boy 'Tay' taxis the Miami Ink Guys out to the Simple Life dive boat

For those not familiar, Miami Ink is a reality ‘fly on the wall’ style TV show, which follows the story of a Miami Beach tattoo shop. The show has achieved great success, with the Miami Ink team creating tattoos for many celebrity customers such as Randy Orton [wrestler], Anthony Bourdain, Bam Margera [Jackass], Johnny Messner [Actor] and many more. Miami Ink has such a following that it’s given birth to additional spin-offs – London Ink and LA Ink.

In this special series the guys from Miami Ink travel the globe, checking out traditional tattoo techniques and enjoying other local attractions along the way. Filming destinations included Hong Kong, Nepal and of course Koh Tao, Thailand.

So whilst in Koh Tao, it was essential that the guys took time to check out the amazing Koh Tao scuba diving!

Image: Haydon with Núñez, Ami and Yoji from Miami Ink

We coordinated a day out on the Simple Life Dive boat with Simple Life Instructor Nicki taking Yoji and Núñez for an introductory dive, meanwhile certified diver Ami joined PADI Divemaster Lisa for a tour of the Koh Tao coral reefs.

We had great visibility, sunny weather and flat seas – perfect for both diving and filming. We took the guys to the Twins dive site just a little way north-west of Koh Tao. The Miami Ink guys got to dive the shallow granite pinnacles and tropical coral reef – lots of colorful reef fish, blue spotted stingrays, moray eels, groupers, fusiliers and more.

Image: Simple Life Instructor Nicki and Núñez enjoy a beer on the way back to Koh Tao

As a customary part of the show, the following day Miami Ink returned the favor by creating a tattoo for Simple Life’s PADI Instructor Nicki. She chose to have a large tattoo of a lotus flower, across her side [photo to follow].

The guys enjoyed their time on our tropical paradise island of Koh Tao [who wouldn’t], and I suspect have plans to revisit for a holiday in the future. We had a great time working together with the crew, and would like to thank everyone involved – especially Oceans Below, Gung for her great organization, the film crew and of course Ami, Núñez and Yoji for making it a great experience.

Image: Simple Life Divemaster Lisa, being filmed with Ami and Yoji

This episode of Miami Ink should be shown in about 10 months time, so early 2010 – we’ll give you a news update when we get to see the show!

My last day on the dive boat with some of the Koh Tao Simple Life diving crew- Sneaky, Alex, Lisa, Sarah and Steve. 

Thanks to all the diving instructors and PADI Divemasters at Simple Life Divers, for a wicked 5 weeks in Koh Tao, Thailand.

I have just finished my PADI Rescue diver course and Koh Tao PADI Divemaster internship and had an unforgettable few weeks, especially memorable for the Ladyboys who turned up at my snorkel test.. thanks for booking them in guys !!! [Although I think I was slightly under dressed for the occasion!!! :)]

Special thanks to Nicki, my mentor and PADI instructor extraordinaire at Simple Life who is fantastic. If you're looking for a PADI dive school to take a Koh Tao scuba diving course .. look no further... Keep it Simple !

If you've never been scuba diving before, taking your PADI Open Water course in Koh Tao opens up a whole new world of colorful coral reefs and tropical marine life.

You'll be sure to have a fantastic time, and taking your Koh Tao PADI open water course with Simple Life means you'll be learning from experienced western instructors, in small groups so you'll be sure to learn lots and qualify as a competent and capable open water diver.

The PADI open water course involves three areas of training - scuba diving theory, shallow water training and everyone's favourite bit - 4 open water dives on the coral reefs around Koh Tao. Usually training is conducted over 4 days, giving you chance to relax and explore spectacular Koh Tao in addition to the PADI Open Water training.

Simple Life Scuba Diving Koh Tao is now offering a premium version of the Koh Tao PADI Open Water course, which allows you to study the theory content by distance learning. PADI have launched an e-Learning system - by registering with Simple Life you can study scuba diving theory through interactive presentations on the internet. As always, our instructors are available to answer any questions that you have, so you'll be sure to understand all the important concepts before proceeding to your open water dives on Koh Tao.

By taking advantage of PADI e-Learning on the open water course, you're able to get the theory out of the way before you reach Koh Tao, leaving more of your time available to simply enjoy your holiday. Or of course, if you catch the diving bug, you could use that extra time to squeeze in a couple of 'fun dives' at the end of the PADI course.

E-learning also allows you to learn at your own pace, and can study when it's convenient.

PADI E-Learning is a premium service which means the overall cost of the Koh Tao PADI Open Water course is slightly higher, but given the advantages PADI e-learning may be the best option for you.

If you're interested in finding out more, or enrolling on the PADI Open Water course with e-Learning at Simple Life Koh Tao, drop us an email.

Image: Koh Tao Divemaster Insternship candidate Rob and Claire practicing a simulated out of air emergency

Koh Tao Divemaster in training Rob is almost ready to be signed of as a PADI Divemaster after only 5 weeks. Rob has worked hard to complete the requirements of the Koh Tao Divemaster internship in a short time. After assisting many of the Simple Life instructors on many PADI diving courses, studying for exams, learning the role of the PADI Divemaster, equipment exchange, swim tests, skill circuits, rescue assessments and fun diving for fun, Rob only had to be assessed for completing a Scuba Review and Fun Dive.

Luckily for Rob his girlfriend Claire was visiting and hadn't dove in 7 years - a real challenge. The review went swimmingly and Claire was a ideal student! After the scuba review Rob smoothly did his dive briefing and lead the dive around White Rock a true dive professional.

Well done Rob and we are all looking forward to the most important skill - The famous Koh Tao Snorkel Test! Watch Out for Rob's next Blog!

Just wanted to say thanks guys for the great time we had on our Open Water course. Nicki and everyone were awesome and I\'ll definitely be back - plans have changed so you may see me sooner than expected to do my Advanced.

Cheers
Lisa  :) 

The new Simple Life Resort luxury hotel provides an excellent standard of air conditioned [AC] accommodation on Koh Tao's popular Sairee Beach. From a standard price of 2800 baht per night for non-divers, the rooms are beautifully finished with cable TV, free Wi-fi, minibar, and pleasant balcony.

Image: Luxury hotel style room at Simple Life's Sairee Beach resort

As part of the Simple Life Family, Simple Life Divers is now able to offer you an unbeatable deal on your Koh Tao diving and accommodation package.

Rather than the standard non-divers rate of 2,800 baht per night, we can provide you with a discounted divers rate of just 1,500 baht per night on the days that you're diving with us. Given the standard of accommodation and great location on Sairee Beach, this is probably the best luxury accommodation plus diving deal on Koh Tao right now.

Image: Koh Tao's best deal on diving and luxury AC accommodation

The special price is subject to availability, so if you do plan to dive in Koh Tao and want to take advantage, get in touch with us to book your discounted divers accommodation package. We can only guarentee this discounted accommodation package for advanced bookings.