Now reaching the conclusion of her training, for the past 18 days she’s been taking the intensive PADI Instructor Development Course preparing her for life as a PADI Diving Instructor.

Image: Diving Internships Thailand – soon-to-be instructor Katie poses for an underwater snap

This last couple of weeks of the diving internship have involved Katie developing her own teaching style, including giving classroom presentations, conducting shallow water skills sessions and running open water dives with students.

So far, so good, and today Katie has begun the final step – the PADI Instructor Examination. PADI’s external examiners have arrived on Koh Tao to conduct a three day examination to make sure the new bath of instructor hopefuls are up to standard.

We’re confident that Katie’s training and experiences over the last few months will put her in a strong position, and we’re wishing her all the best over the next couple of days. Hopefully in a few days time we’ll be celebrating a new PADI Instructor here on Koh Tao…updates to follow!

                          

This afternoon saw the completion of Shay, Joel, Louisa, Patty and Alex’s PADI Rescue Diver course here at Simple Life Divers!

These guys were all put through their paces, with a number of panicked snorklers, divers, swimmers – shock, horror, missing and unconscious divers.

After a large amount of surface swimming (Joel and Louisa!) these guys really excelled in all that had been taught to them over the previous 2 days, successfully managing to revive both of the DMT victims, (Nathan and Sam)!

Congratulations guys -  for Shay, Patty and Joel, enjoy your Divemaster internship, and hopefully we will see Alex and Louisa back at Simple Life soon for their Divemaster Course!

                          

Save Koh Tao marine conservation

Back in 2009, the project was creation of the ‘Hin Fai’ biorock structure. A series of domes were laid underwater off Koh Tao’s north-west coast, with a weak electric current passed through the structures to stimulate coral growth and create an artificial dive site.

For 2010 the project is even more spectacular, with the creation of Koh Tao Buoyancy World near the popular Twins dive site.

Koh Tao’s ‘Twins’ dive site is a series of coral covered shallow pinnacles lying off the west coast of Koh Nangyuan. The shallow depth, massive variety of marine life and flat sandy areas just off the dive site make Twins a popular dive spot for PADI dive training. Understandably a lot of divers visit the Twins dive site each day.

In an effort to ease pressure on the dive site and offer Koh Tao scuba diving instructors a valuable training aid, Buoyancy World will be an artificial reef structure custom designed for PADI dive training. The artificial reef will incorporate:

• Hoops and rings, perfect for peak performance buoyancy training
• Caves and swim-throughs
• Hover weights and balance beams
• Permanent fixed CESA lines for the PADI Open Water course (for the controlled emergency swimming ascent skill)
• Underwater navigation way-points, ideal for fine tuning natural and compass navigation
• Transects for coral reef monitoring / Reef Checks

In addition, work will also be undertaken to encourage corals and marine species to inhabit the artificial reef including:

• Coral nurseries and anchoring points
• Fish nurseries
• Divers habitats for coral reef species

Finally, some sculptures and art work will be added to the artificial dive site to enhance the diving experience.

Work will be taking place between the 6th and 10th Febraury, with the main deployment taking place on the 7th. For this the project has the use of one of Koh Tao’s large night boats to help simplify logistics.

All dive schools are asked to avoid diving Twins between 12pm and 6pm on Feb 7th, to allow the work to take place unhindered.

                          

Eric perfecting his buoyancy during the Koh Tao PADI Advanced Open Water Course.

Posted By PADI Dive Instructor Jon:

Well done to Marylee and Eric on completing there PADI Rescue Diver course.

After catching the diving bug after their PADI Open Water Course they decided to continue their training up to PADI rescue diver level, which would better prepare them for future planed diving excursions.

En-route highlights of the advanced course included grey reef sharks on the deep dive, multi-level computer dive showing the benefits of a computer assisted dive and  the peak performance buoyancy dive helped fine tune their diving.

The underwater navigation dive built on the introduction of using an underwater compass use during the PADI Open Water Course and we finished the advanced course with a magnificent night dive.

Marylee and Eric’s PADI Rescue Course started with some important self rescue skills. One of the main advantages of the rescue course is that it builds diver confidence, both in being able to assist one’s self and helping others. Along with the usual exercises of rescuing tired, panicked and unresponsive divers both underwater and afloat there was always time to sneak an extra fun dive in at the Chumphon Pinnacles, descending down along the anchor line to 30 metres to search for sharks.

Yesterday after practicing the mentioned skills the couple completed their final scenario, locating and rescuing a missing diver.

                          

In salty seawater most people’s bodies are roughly neutrally buoyant. In English, that means they neither sink nor float.

But since water conducts heat away from the body many times faster than air, to keep us warm whilst scuba diving we wear an exposure suit. In the warm tropical water of Koh Tao (29-30C), divers generally wear a 2.5mm neoprene ‘shorty’ wetsuit. Neoprene is a highly buoyant material, so the result is that a diver wearing a wetsuit now floats a bit.

So in order to be able to descend at the start of our dive, we need to carry some lead weights, usually mounted on a weight belt which divers wear around their waist. With an empty BCD (buoyancy control jacket) a diver is able to descend, then, when they reach the depth which they want to stay at they add a little air to the BCD to regain neutral buoyancy, allowing them to hover effortlessly and explore the dive site.

Wearing the correct amount of weight is critically important when scuba diving.

Way too little weight and you won’t be able to descend at the start of the dive. In Koh Tao, that means swimming back to the boat to get more lead weight, which wastes time and effort. Even if you have just enough weight to get down at the start of the dive, as you use up the air in your tank throughout the dive you’ll become increasingly buoyant, so may find it difficult to stay underwater later in the dive, which poses other serious problems. So it’s critical that you’re carrying enough weight.

But what if you carry way too much weight? This leads to equally serious problems. Too much weight means you’ll have to add lots of air to your BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy at depth. The weight mounted around your waist causes your body to twist, so rather than scuba diving in a horizontal streamlined position, you’re now more upright with a lot of drag. That means you’ll expend much more effort, will consume your air supply more quickly restricting your bottom time, and be at a higher risk of overexertion. Plus diving from boats here in Koh Tao, Thailand, a diver who is significantly over-weighted may find it difficult to climb back up the ladder at the end of the dive, or may need to remove their weight belt to get back on the dive boat. So you certainly don’t want to be heavily over-weighted.

Image: An over-weighted and correctly weighted diver

New divers are often unsure of how much weight they should wear. Student divers may never have dived in the ocean before so will need guidance on choosing the right amount of lead weight for scuba diving. Even seasoned divers may have had an extended break from diving and might be carrying a bit more fat, or the warm tropical water of Koh Tao means they’ll be diving with significantly different scuba equipment which again affects how much lead weight they should wear.

As a Koh Tao PADI Divemaster, you’ll need to keep an eye on the amount of weight which divers are wearing, giving help and advice to divers who need it.

So how do you know how much weight a diver should wear?

The easiest way is to perform PADI’s buoyancy check. Once you reach the dive site, with all your scuba gear on you take a normal breath and empty all the air from your BCD. If properly weighted, you should float at eye level then as you exhale will be able to descend.
Working as a PADI Divemaster in Thailand, most likely you’ll be required to do this with customers many times. As you build up experience, you’ll eventually be able to estimate the correct amount of weight for most scuba divers.

Making sure all the divers are properly weighted means you’ll have much more enjoyable dives, where the divers which you’re guiding or assisting are comfortable and controlled, with a proper streamlined position which allows them a nice slow breathing rate and long bottom times.

And how much weight should a Thailand PADI Divemaster wear?

If fun diving for yourself, you’ll want to wear exactly the right amount of weight to allow you to enjoy your dive. However, if you’re working as a PADI Divemaster in Koh Tao, either guiding certified divers on an underwater tour or assisting a PADI Instructor with the training of new divers you’ll want to change your approach.

It’s usual for PADI Divemasters to carry a couple of extra weights during dives. If a student diver or customer does discover that they’re under-weighted during a dive, you’ll be able to give them a weight which will allow them to complete their dive in comfort and safety.

That wraps up the Divemaster Internship Thailand mini-lesson on carrying the correct amount of weight. Check back again soon for more snippets from our Koh Tao Scuba Diving Internships.

                          

In this article we’ll focus on how a PADI Divemaster chooses the best Koh Tao dive site for any given day. Consider this.

Koh Tao has more than 30 dive sites close to the island, ranging from beach dives to shallow coral reefs, deep isolated pinnacles, small islands and even ship wrecks. So what influences where we go scuba diving each day?

Here’s a look at the important factors which a PADI Divemaster considers when deciding on the dive site:

Environmental Conditions

Safety is of paramount importance when choosing a dive site. A big part of that is making an assessment of environmental conditions – specifically waves, current and general weather. Information is gathered from a range of sources including weather forecasts from the internet, tide tables, direct observation of the weather and speaking to the boat captain.

We always want to dive where the waves are lowest. Big waves make it more difficult to get in and out of the water, especially when climbing a ladder to get back aboard the dive boat whilst laden with dive equipment.

Luckily in Koh Tao we can dive either side of the island, so can always head to the sheltered lee-ward side of the island, away from the wind and waves.

Similarly for currents, unless drift diving we’d prefer to dive where there is little or no current, so if there’s a choice we’ll decide to dive when the tide is slack (not coming in or going out).

Ability of the Group & required training activities

Most PADI courses focus on building up dive skills and experience within controlled limits. For example Discover Scuba Diving or the first two dives of the PADI Open Water course must be conducted within a maximum depth of 12M, whilst the PADI Advanced Course deep dive can go to a maximum depth of 30M.

Plus, during the Open Water course, most PADI Instructors will appreciate you choosing a dive site which has shallow areas with a sandy bottom, which they can use to carry out any required underwater skills.

Even certified divers have maximum recommended depth ratings. PADI Open Water certified divers should stick to about 18M, PADI Advanced Divers can head right down to 30M, whilst Deep Specialty certified divers can dive right down to the recreational limit of 40M.

A Koh Tao PADI Divemaster must always consider the ability of the divers on the boat and the limits determined by required dive training to choose a dive site which has a suitable depth.

Time Constraints, Logistics & Economic Factors

Scuba diving is a business, so there are practical and economic factors that must also be considered.

For example, at Simple Life Divers we run two dive trips daily – one in the morning and one in the afternoon, which each make two dives. That means we need to plan dive sites so that we’re able to stay on schedule. We depart from Sairee Beach on the west coast of Koh Tao.

Almost any two dive site combination is possible during our half day trips. But you wouldn’t want to dive our furthest north dive site (Chumphon Pinnacles) followed by our most southern dive site (Southwest Pinnacles). We’d generally hit one of the further dive sites first, then motor back towards Koh Tao during the surface interval, diving one of Koh Tao’s closer dive sites second.

Also consider the cost of diesel. If you were the senior PADI Divemaster on the boat and chose to visit dive sites which are the furthest apart, you’d rack up some pretty serious fuel bills. Much better is to plan a northern combination one day, then a southerly trip the next.

Making the customer happy

People go diving to enjoy themselves, and we want to show them a good time where they see lots of marine life. As you gain experience as a PADI Divemaster in Koh Tao, you’ll develop your own opinions about which dive sites you prefer, and will know what marine life lives where.

That means that provided you’re able to satisfy all of the above, by speaking to divers and finding out what they’re interested in you’ll be able to tailor the choice of Koh Tao dive site to give them what they want.

If avoidable a Koh Tao Divemaster wouldn’t choose to dive the same dive site every day, as repeat customers would quickly become dissatisfied. Much better is to rotate around the Koh Tao dive sites, visiting different spots each day.

Diving Conditions

There are a number of other conditions which can affect the quality of a dive and overall diver safety. One big example is underwater visibility. Sometimes the water is crystal clear which is great. At other times disturbance of sediment, thermo-clines or algae blooms can reduce visibility to almost nothing which means that you can see very little and buddy separation becomes increasingly likely. Visibility varies from day to day, but it is well worth speaking to other divers to find out where conditions are best.

So that’s a brief look at the theory of how PADI Divemasters choose a dive site.

Now’s your chance to put theory into practice! Looking at the information given on the Koh Tao dive site map below, propose two dive sites for the following list of conditions:

Dive Trip 1. Two dives during the afternoon session

A strong wind is blowing in from the north-east. 2.5M high waves crashing on the east coast of Koh Tao. Minimal current throughout the area as it’s slack tide. The morning’s dive trip just got back and they said visibility was poor below the thermo-cline, which they reckon happened at about 26M, but pretty clear above.

On the boat, instructors Alex and Steve are each teaching a group of Koh Tao PADI Open Water students (dive 1 & 2, max depth 12M), meanwhile PADI Divemaster Lisa is running a scuba review for some rusty divers.

Which two dive sites are you going to send the Simple Life boat to?

Dive Trip 2. Two Dives in the Morning Session

Today there is a brisk breeze from the north-east, with wave height getting up to a maximum of about 0.5-1M. At the time the divers will be in the water you predict a gentle current flowing from north to south.

On the boat PADI Scuba Instructor Warren is running a PADI Advanced course. He’ll be doing the deep dive first so would like to get his students down to about 26M, then he plans to make the underwater navigation dive second, for which he’d appreciate a shallow sandy bottom. Plus PADI Divemaster Tim is guiding a very experienced group of divers, who dived the Chumphon Pinnacles yesterday morning.

Which two dive sites will you choose for the morning dive, getting back in time for lunch?

Dive Trip 3. Two dive afternoon trip

Reports have come in that there are two whale sharks hanging around at the Chumphon Pinnacles. Manager Luke has scrambled together a group of certified divers, there’s an underwater videographer onboard, and PADI Instructor Nikki is running a Deep Specialty course.

Which two Koh Tao dive sites are you going to send the boat to?

Answers:

Dive Trip 1: You’ve got to stay on the sheltered west coast of Koh Tao, out of the waves, and choose shallow easy dive sites for the PADI courses. Good choices would include Twins, White Rock or even 3 rocks.

Dive Trip 2: They need some depth, want to see something good and have already seen the Chumphon Pinnacles, so a good choice for your first dive would be the South-West pinnacle or Shark Island. Since you need to get back to Koh Tao on time, you’ll need to choose a much closer second dive site such as White Rock or Hin Pee Wee.

Dive Trip 3: Scuba diving with a whale shark is a once in a lifetime experience, and we’re lucky to be able to provide such fantastic scuba diving here on Koh Tao. Best would be to double dive the Chumphon Pinnacles.

That wraps up a quick look at how Koh Tao PADI Divemasters choose the best dive site each day. Cheack back again soon for more free lessons from Simple Life’s Thailand PADI Divemaster internships.

                          

In most cases, third and fourth quarter figures show signs of economic recovery for many developed western countries, but there’s a long lag time expected till we see that recovery manifest in unemployment rates. Estimates for September and October showed shockingly high unemployment rates in the west, at 7.8% in the UK,  a 9.3 % average across the whole EU, and equally gloomy figures across the Atlantic with 10% in the U.S. and 8.5% in Canada.

With recruitment slowing down, arguably the hardest hit group are under 25 year olds, including new university graduates. It’s unlikely that we’ll see this situation change till late 2010.

Fortunately over here on Koh Tao, we’ve been insulated from the slowdown, and have enjoyed a great 2009 with sunny weather and lots of tourist visitors As always we’re enjoy the great scuba diving and still have a thriving and vibrant island atmosphere. If you’re growing agitated with the employment situation in the West, taking time out during 2010 to join a scuba diving internship might be just what you need.

Taking a PADI Divemaster internship or training through to PADI Scuba Instructor, is a great way to spend time whilst the west recovers, and most importantly it’s a very cost effective way to enjoy the adventure of a lifetime in the Far East. Our dive internships give you the skills and experience you need to work as a PADI dive professional. That means that after your initial scuba training, you’ll be able to earn a living as an instructor or Divemaster on Koh Tao. Koh Tao, Thailand is as busy as ever at the moment, with paid gap  year work coming up on an almost daily basis.

And when the time is right and you do decide to make the move back, having worked as a PADI Divemaster or instructor makes an interesting and exciting addition to any resume.

See our website for more details.

                          

Paul First arrived here at Simple Life Divers Koh Tao back in July. After completing his Advanced Open Water course with Alex, decided that he too would like to work in the dive industry. The PADI Divemaster course is the first professional qualification in the dive industry. PADI Divemasters and Instructors are the  most in demand dive professionals in the recreational scuba diving industry, mainly due to PADI ’s world wide recognition.

Since taking up the challenge Paul has been busy progressing through his scuba diving internship; studying, assisting, fun diving and completing training exercises. Just the other day Paul and fellow DMT Tim came out to complete a skills circuit and their final test ‘The Equipment Exchange’ where they demonstrate their problem solving ability by exchanging scuba equipment underwater while sharing one regulator ( pictured above). Well done lads!

                          

To keep everyone up to date with what’s going on here on Koh Tao, we’ve launched this Thailand diving internships blog. You’ll be able to read the latest news of what’s been going on around the dive shop and Koh Tao dive sites, and can see photographs of all our diving interns in action. We’ll also feature news from special events and seasonal festivals here on tropical Koh Tao.

This Koh Tao scuba diving internships news blog is a great resource is you’re thinking of traveling to Thailand to take a diving internship – it will give you a real insight into what things are like here on Koh Tao. You’ll be able to see the PADI Instructors and Divemasters which you’ll be working together with, and get a better idea of life on Koh Tao.

Similarly if you a have friends or family attending a scuba diving internship on Koh Tao, this blog provides a great way to see how they’re getting on. We’ll feature news stories about the current PADI diving interns and feature comments and reports from the guys themselves.

So watch this space – much more to come…