Turtle Release

These guys were raised in a sanctuary, and are now being put back to nature.... cross your fingers!

Final Day

Its been a long hard slog, but tomorrow.... we do our final test called the Stress test. Hopefully I shall be able to get someone to film it for us, if not I shall have to describe it for you...

Anyway, since we have been working for the last 15 hours... we are having an early night.... Love to all.!!! Tomorrow we become Divemasters!!!! YAY!!!

A Very Special Happy Birthday

Today is a milestone birthday for my Dad (Roger)

Wishing you a good one pops... and very sorry we cannot be there to celebrate!

Lots of Love,

Simon and Jen

Blind Boxing!

Here is David and James battling for the world title!

Almost there!

Today Jen and I completed our final assist. The last open water course where we have to assist the instructor.

All went well, and all that remains of our Divemaster course is a Scuba Review and leading Fun Divers on a tour. Once that is done, we shall do the stress test and snorkel test... more info when these happen......! Date for completion is 30th March, the next 2 days we are helping to build a new artificial reef...! Sweet!!!

SD

One for the Geeks

Heres the local electricity lines.... Jeff, I think they made need some lessons!

A bit of Life

Here is a quick montage of some undersea creatures we've already filmed.... wait till you see it in High Def!

Equipment Failure!

Well, today was a breeze..... sort of...

We were doing reef surveys, teaching students how to do Fish ID, differentiate coral etc.

Unfortunately, as I got off the boat, a piece of plastic fell in the water... so I put my fins and mask on, and dove back into the water to retrieve it... Unfortunately, even though I had my hands covering my mask... the water pressure decided to make my mask implode.!

Needless to say I am fine, bar a couple of cuts, and a slightly swollen area above my eye... I think I was extremely lucky not to have come off worse...!!

SD

Encounter

Well, I happy to report that Jen and I have FINALLY seen our 1st...... Whaleshark!!!!

Nearly 400 dives, in some spectacular places, and never quite being there at the right time to see one.... we did today!!

The dive site is called Southwest Pinnacle, about 30 mins boat ride from Koh Tao. We were on a Multi-Level Speciality Dive... dropping down to 30m on our 1st dive, and 26m on our 2nd.

The visibility for the first 15m was pretty bad and then dropping below a thermocline, it became pretty clear. On our 2nd dive, Jen and I went back down, and pottered about for 2o minutes. Then Jen was furiously making signs to me.... I turned around and WOW.... it was about 10 metres away from us..... We watched it for about 10 seconds, swimming past us... before we turned around to alert other groups of divers..... when we turned back it had dissapeared into the poor visibility... Coming up on the boat.... nobody else saw it.... and needless to say.... were pretty gutted!.

Jen.... in a cave

No Posts

Hi guys..... Been working every waking minute for the last few days.

Will try and update tomorrow with some fun stuff!!


SD

Bowling

Here is Bowling... the Divemaster way..!

Internet

We have a sporadic connection at the mo.. Just managed to get on the blog and see all your lovely comments about my foot.

Well the good news is, that its got much better, here is a photo from after the dressing was removed yesterday... infection gone!!! Yippee... Now scrape daily and wait to heal...

The Gammy Foot

Hi guys,

Well its official.... I HAVE to stay out of the water for the next few days. I woke up this morning to find my foot generally leaking pus everywhere. Went to the clinic, who then scraped it (ouch!) then stuck a needle in the bottom of my foot about 20 times to drain the pus out (BIG OUCH!). I am now on antibiotics, and have had to cancel assisting an advanced open water class today and tomorrow, but Jen is on it instead... Guess I can catch up on Eastenders!!

Gotta go back to clinic tomorrow for more scrapes, drains, and new dressing... will try and take a photo of the action!

SD

Just as I posted.!

I just read an email, as I posted the last post, that a fellow video guy, John McIntyre.... has been taken down in the UK on a underwater film shoot, with a serious pulminary disorder.... again only a shallow dive. John, if you are reading this... Jen and I are thinking of you mate... I will be in contact asap.... and we wish you all the best... bloody hell.... I am gutted...

SD

Not Much Time

As we are in the midst of assisting teaching open water courses, we are working about 16 hours a day for the next 2 days. Unfortunately, that means there isn't time to edit the bowling nite we had last night. Needless to say it will be sorted in the next few days.

On a good note, the incident that happened last week has some positive news. The man in question has been under constant medical care, and has shown some small improvement. Fingers crossed he should be out of the recompression centre in a few weeks... We look forward to seeing him back here. Hopefully he will be willing to be interviewed about the unfortunate turn of events.

Our Alarm Clock

These bugs are called Cicada.. The small one is a young un, and the larger one a fully grown adult.

Cicadas live underground as grubs for most of their lives, sometimes up to 17 years. They feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging. Then one day they burrow back up, grow wings and live for a couple days making a huge racket (like a cricket, but louder!).

Whale Spotting

Unfortunately, while we were in a classroom, these 2 bad boys were spotted.

Thankfully, the video guys managed to capture some footage....

Sealife is certainly hotting up!!!

Another Round up of Divemaster Course

DAN Oxygen First Aid for Scuba Diving Injuries - 1 Day course & Exam

This course is specifically designed to educate divers to recognise possible scuba diving injuries and to provide emergency oxygen first aid.
Topics covered: Respiration, Circulation, Heart, Blood vessels, Blood, Gas exchange. Diving injuries such as DCI (Decompression Illness) AGE Srterial Gas Embolism & DCS (Decompression Sickness) as well as different delivery systems and set ups. I'd suggest this course to anyone.

Open Water Diver Assist - 3 Days

Day 1 - My first assist as a DMT . I didn't have to attend the mornings classroom theory but met up with the 6 open water students after lunch.
My role was to assist the instructor with the logistics, predive set up of equipment for each the students, supervise student divers not receiving the immediate attention of the instructor, assist with any learning difficulties, respond to or prevent diver problems as they occur. Their first session was in the pool which was very busy & murky, watching them going through multiple skills for 2-3 hours or so and finishing the day very wrinkly and cold.

Day 2 - Met up with students for their first dive in the sea. I supervised skills as the instructor was doing skills one on one. A couple had problems with mask clearance and their buoancy but nothing major. The second dive of the day was much better, longer dive, students pretty controlled but very messy at the 3 min 5m safety stop. On board I had to do a dive breifing which turned out ok.

Day 3 - 7am start. The students had just 2 more dives to complete to be certified. First dive of the day was pretty good. Only had to tell a couple of students to watch their buoyancy and it's funny to watch some swim with their arms but will disappear with time and once they've done a few more dives. All in all it was a good dive until it came to the safety stop they were all over the place. 2nd dive everyone seemed more controlled, all managed to complete there skills sucessfully and safety stop very well. So another 6 divers on the planet.

Advanced Open Water Assist - 2 Days

Day 1 - 3 Dives of which one is a Night dive - Covering navigation on land and underwater. This is a much more stress free assist. Just need to help suspervise them on their navigation and lead them on a short dive as the end of each session. My experience was good, managed to get them back to the boat within meters and point out quite a few fish to them. The night dive I just followed at the back keeping an eye on the students just incase anything went awry.
Day 2 - 2 dives, one of which was a Deep dive of 30 meters and the other a Naturalist dive. On the deep dive the instructor found a sandy area where he played scissor, stone paper ..this is done to see if anyone has any narcosis ..if they had, then they probably wouldnt be able to deep dive as narcosis strongly affects diver performance, impairing ability to concentrate and observe accurately. Divers have reported visual and auditory hallucinations, dizziness, paranoia and depression.
The 2nd dive, Underwater Naturalist, the students had to look out and identify fish.

Physiology - Lecture & Exam

Covered the primary purpose of the respiratory and circlutory systems, gas exchange. Signs, symptoms and differences of DCI (Decrompression Illness) DCS (Decrompression Sickness). Lung over expansion, Oxygen toxicity, Heat Stroke, Heat exhasution, Hypothermia, the anatomy of the ear, heart & lungs and injuries that can occur and the recommended emergency first aid.

Dive Skills and the Environment - Lecture & Exam

Covered the basics of Tides, waves and how they affect diving, Boats, general first aid, navigation and diving injuries.

The Next Door Neighbour

Here is the island next door. It sits about 1km West of the coast of Koh Tao.

The whole island is one big resort... very cool, but I couldn't stay there for too long... I would go stir crazy..!!!!