25th December 2011

Merry XMAS!!!!!!

22nd December 2011

A big congrats to all the instructors who passed the Reef Check Instructor course... The first one ever held on Koh Tao, and now some new instructors to spread the Eco goodness!

Nice one guys!!

16th November 2011

Here is a quick piccie of my recent course students! What a crazy mad bunch they were...

They learned to dive in some pretty tough conditions, and 4 of them even continued to Advanced... what a great group...!

13th December 2011

Sorry about the lack of posts, but I am currently teaching an Open Water and an Advanced course... in bad weather, high winds, big waves and poor visibility...!

Tough conditions, but great students! I will post when the course finishes...

x

SD

7th December 2011

Here is the fishing net removal video... some parts are poor due to bad visibility.!

4th December 2011

 I said we might try a dive and we certainly did.   

Yesterday afternoon at Crystal we bumped into instructor Nick and he told us about a massive net that was covering most of the northern side of Chumphon Pinnacle, one of our deep dive sites.  The net started around 25 metres and went to the bottom..  Something had to be done, so within a very short time, we’d arranged a boat, signed up over 20 DMT’s/Instructors/videographers.

Simon and I arrived at Crystal early, it was great to see so many people turn up.  Dive kit ready,  equipped with lift bags, cutting inplements we all headed down to the boat, set up our gear and sat down for a briefing.  As we had a lot to do, we staggered the groups entry time.

At 30 metres, you can only stay a max of 20 minutes and doing physical work, you’ll use your air so much quicker, so 10/15mins after group 1 entered the water, group 2, came down to take over.  which worked pretty well considering.  The biggest surprise was the actual size of the net.  It was huge, I only saw around a fifth of it and what Si had filmed.  It certainly going to take a few more trips to remove it, not that we’ll be able to get it all out.

3rd December 2011

Si’s been suffering badly from Man flu  ...but don’t worry, he’s been well looked after :-D 

 

One morning he was so lifeless that I actually walked into Mae Haad to buy some provisions.  On my return, I prepared boiled eggs n soldiers with a lovely cuppa and then later, heated up some potato soup with lovely fresh bread.  

Most of the day was spent lazing on the sofa, watching tv and drinking tea

.

Yesterday he felt ok, so we went out for lunch and then went to the pool to read, relax and to get some fresh air.  After an hour or so, hot and sweaty, we had a quick dip then just as we were about to get out,  Nath & his kids turned up and we ended up throwing them around, as you do, which was fun at the time but later in the evening, Si felt dreadful.

Today, he’s feeling much better, still a bit achey but his temperature has come down and hopefully might try diving tomorrow...

1st December 2011

It’s been so quiet on the Island that we’ve not had any work for what seems like ages.  It’s been good to recharge the batteries but also pretty frustrating.

The biggest event that’s happened was James’s leaving do.  A crowd of us met at Safety Stop for food and drinks which was very chilled.  As most of us had signed up to go on the morning boat (7am) or were teaching,  it wasn’t going to be a late one.   By the time the majority of people had left, James thought it would be a nice idea to have ‘one for the road’ at Vibe.  

  
By chance, Vibe was pretty busy with lots of the Crystal crew and a couple of hours later and far too many G&T’s, we stupidly accompanied everyone to ‘FishBowl’ (beach bar in Sairee) ..probably the 3^rd time we’ve been there, very rare for us ‘oldies’ which inspired quite a few people to come along. 

 
By the time we got there, people were very drunk.  Simon & James played with the fire poi whilst I perched on one of the numerous beanbags chatting and watching several people charging into the sea fully clothed and naked  ..not a nice sight.

I think I only moved twice, once to the bar to buy a coke and sprite ..and then to rescue Si from a drunken conversation ;-D   We left James around 2.30am still partying away.  

In the morning, I woke to the sound of Simon being very ill ..Urgh!!!!       Next time when anyone says “One for the road?” I’m definitely saying NO!!  ;-D

...By the way, none of us made it for the morning boat :-)

Simon also has developed "Man Flu" and has been recuperating for a couple of days... while I have been looking after him.