Arriving on Koh Tao: Advanced Open Water and Tech Diving

The events described in this post took place on or about July 3rd to the 9th on the Island of Ko Tao, Thailand.  For those of you viewing this through Facebook 'Notes', the original post is available on www.henrickatlarge.blogspot.com. It will enable you access to photo galleries and other multi-media material which don't transfer into 'Notes'



I took the eight o'clock bus out of Kosan road and headed toward the islands. It was a double-decker that was packed with what mostly seemed like backpackers and misfits. It wasn't that comfortable, but I was really excited for diving in the Gulf of Thailand. The nervous anticipation overcame the second rate conditions for me. Overall, the only thing that bothered me was the overwhelming compulsion to know where my wallet was at all times (including napping with it as my pillow). It was about a 10 hour bus ride. We reached the dock, and switched the bus for a hi-powered ferry right about as the sky was starting to lighten up for dawn. From there it was the Lumpraya ferry, and in an hour or two we arrived early morning in Ko Tao.

I checked into Big Blue (the resort I had booked for this part of the vacation, and met my instructor Deano. A really cool Irish guy. He would be responsible for conducting my advanced diving certification. He was accompanied by his dive-master-in-training Matt, who was a London Brit. Here was the really cool part. Apparently there wasn't anyone else starting there advanced open water certification that day only me. So, I ended up with a 3-day private course, with two experienced divers as my companions. This made it AWESOME. It was all about me the whole time. Totally GREAT!

As per the requirements of the certification, There were a few required 'components' of the certification. I had to do a deep dive, an underwater navigation dive, and the rest I could tailor to my own liking from a extensive menu of options. I ended up choosing a few others, and managed to 'cross-train' a Nitrox dive with my deep dive (which is why, I believe, I didn't get narced).

Ko Tao was beautiful, and I had a great time living in my little bungalow at the end of Sairee beach. I had also taken a scooter up the mountain to a really nice vantage point and taken some pictures. It was actually pretty treacherous.

After I had done my certification, I still had a few days left, where I had planned on doing osme recreation diving. Then, as fate would have it, my instructor Deano told me about this try-a-dive thing at the Tech-Shack. I really had no idea what i was in store for, but agreed anyway. The next morning we met in front of the Big-Blue-Tech office and began our 2-dive technical course.

Tech diving is really fun, although by its very nature it's not meant to be a recreational activity. It is the skills and proficiencies you need to work in the professional diving field. This includes knowing how to use a bunch of new gear (and re-learn all the old gear, now with a technical diving spin on it), having to incorporate a bunch of new techniques into your repertoire, and having to face a brand new scenarios underwater.

The gear is a lot cooler in tech-diving. First of all you carry two of everything because tech-divers dive alone. This also includes two0tanks instead of one. You feel like a navy seal with all that jazz on. You also have to learn how to fin backwards. Do in-place rotations (helicopter spins), and fend off assailents meant to represent other tech divers who have run out of air, and are accosting you for yours. All in all very cool and the guys at the Tech-shack were really cool, caring, and extremely into what the were doing. Click the link below to view a gallery of tech-diving pics, they're pretty cool!

Tech Diving

I finished up the week with two recreational dives at Pottery and Japanese (two of the local Sairee beach dive sites. They were pretty cool. We did some pretty cool swim-throughs and played around groupings of rocks. There was a turtle and some other really interesting things. All-in-all, some really nice dives.

I just have to mention here, that Big-Blue diving resort was great and I am really glad that I went there. The diving experience was immense and I really enjoyed myself almost beyond words. The people there were also great, and the staff was freindly and generally amazing. If you dive and are planning a trip out that way, I highly recommend Big-Blue!

Then there was my injury on the last day.... to be continued....