Save Koh Tao Festival Day today & tomorrow. An outdoor festival rivalling those like Woodstock, Glastonbury, or Monstors of Rock but Koh Tao style! You know there'll be food, & drinks, & live music & fashion shows & I'm sure there'll be sex, drugs & rock'n'roll tho maybe best leave that for the confines of your own home. And as ever Big Blue is leading the way with another live action song & dance compillation. You may well remember when 'Grease' was the word, & then we Zombie strutted our stuff to Thriller, & last year we jigged and jagged our way thru River Dance. Well this year we're evolving The Evolution of Dance & taking it a step further! Come watch. We're on stage tonight at 9pm!Another Whaleshark in the water again today. (Well where else are they going to be?) I know. Boring! We've seen a few turtles lately too. & Cobia's. Groupers seem to be a little hard to find at the moment tho. But the Barracudas are still huge in numbers & there does appear to be a few different schools of them around at various dive sites which is a good sign. & then there's heaps of Jacks or Trevally around as well so although I'm sure most of you who aren't here with us right now in Koh Tao would rather see a whaleshark those of us who are here right now are happy to see quite literally everything else!
“Best part of our trip so far!”
- best dive instructor ever! (Med) had such a good time we ended up paying
out to do our advanced aswell as our openwater. the staff made
everything much more enjoyable. the resort is right on the beach and a
seven eleven right at the top of the road with an atm. great local bars.
incredible dive sites and we saw a whale shark! we got free on site
accomodation because we dived with big blue. started in a fan room but
because it was too hot we moved to an aircon dorm (still free) with no
hassle. lockers for use just need a padlock. would definately reccomend
to ANYBODY going anywhere near thailand. I'll be back!
- best dive instructor ever! (Med) had such a good time we ended up paying
out to do our advanced aswell as our openwater. the staff made
everything much more enjoyable. the resort is right on the beach and a
seven eleven right at the top of the road with an atm. great local bars.
incredible dive sites and we saw a whale shark! we got free on site
accomodation because we dived with big blue. started in a fan room but
because it was too hot we moved to an aircon dorm (still free) with no
hassle. lockers for use just need a padlock. would definately reccomend
to ANYBODY going anywhere near thailand. I'll be back!
Thursday 26th April 2012-
Its like Whaleshark soup out there! In the last 24 hours we've dived 4 divesites & 3 of them had a Whaleshark! 3 different Whalesharks too! Not the same one at three places! We have customers right now who have logged more dives with a Whaleshark than without one! One guy has been diving with us for the last 2 weeks & has logged 15 dives with Whalesharks! In fact Whalesharks are becomming so common right now we're even offerring guaranteed Whaleshark dives or your money back! How's that for world class diving! Guaranteed dive with a Whaleshark! At Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia they offer guaranteed dives with Whalesharks for 3000 AUD per dive & send choppers out over the reef to spot them then relay the GPS Coordinates to the Diveboat. We charge 800 Bt & just jump in anywhere! You know- "Same same, but different!"Save Koh Tao Festival is in 3 days! Come join in the fun, there's lots of fun day time stuff to do and night time performances including Big Blue's Dance! Buy your raffle tickets from the shop - 200B and prizes include iphones, ipods, bicycles, dive courses etc. This is the best event of the year so don't miss out! Koh Tao Underwater Festival 28th & 29th April 2012
I went to Koh Tao only expecting to do a discover dive but ended up
staying for 8 days and completing both my Open Water and Advanced
Adventurer certifications with Big Blue. The accommodation at both sites
is more than adequate and free when you are diving with the school and
are all within 2 seconds of the beach. Everyone working at Big
Blue is friendly, helpful and fun especially the instructors and DM's.
The courses are well run, instructed to the highest level, safe and most
importantly FUN. I would have no hesitation in recommending this school
to any of my friends and I will be heading back here to complete my DMT
once I have saved a little more money.
Monday 23rd April 2012-
Hmmm. Never thought I'd be saying this but we're finding it pretty difficult to get to a divesite without a Whaleshark on it at the moment! Can you believe that! Seems to me there are 5 whalesharks around Koh Tao at the moment. 'La Toya' is hanging out at Sail Rock or Samran Pinnacle. Then we got "Billie Jean" cruising around Southwest Pinnacle, Shark Island & Aow Leuk. We got "Dirty Diana" at Hin Wong & Laem Thien area going back & forth along the east coast of the island. Then there's "Randy" cruising around Nang Yuan Island at Twins, White Rock & the Sattakut Wreck & the 5th Whaleshark "Michael"seems to be doing a relay race between Green Rock & Chumphon Pinnacle.Divers from Big Blue and New heaven joined forces to restore the giant clam population on Sairee Beach yesterday. Over the last year, we have been cultivating over 300 clams in a nursery off Aow Leuk bay, and yesterday we took 69 of them to their new home in Sairee! Clams are filter feeding invertebrates who keep our water quality nice and clean. Due to predation, pollution and people collecting them to use their shells for jewellery, ornaments and for the aquarium trade, our populations of clams on Sairee have depleted and need a little help. So, 25 divers from Big Blue and New Heaven came together to re-home some of the nursery clams. When clams reach over 15cm, they begin to put down a permanent "foot" using strong muscle fibres. We took clams from the nursery that were around 12-14 cm and relocated them to suitable areas on Sairee. Now they are settling into their new home, and we will keep a close watch on our new reef additions!
“Spectacular experience.”
I'll start by saying that is very rare that I write a review.... after
reading through some of the comments I felt compelled to write. I'm
so surprised to hear people complaining about their experience at Big
Blue!! I travel a lot and can honestly say this was one of my best
holidays to date!! Big blue does not advertise glamorous or
luxurious accommodations, but it is comfortable, clean and safe! Why is
that so horrible?! The staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and I
can't imagine any concern from a customer being brushed off. Every time I
went into the shop to ask a question if the first person couldn't
answer, they found the answer for me! I was thoroughly impressed with
the customer service.As for instructors- every one that I encountered was full of personality and willing to share a good laugh. I spent 6days at Big Blue and don't have one bad thing to say about it!The
instructors were so friendly and personable, the restaurant was
consistent and while the accommodations weren't ON the beach- they were a
minute walk from it! There was one review that commented on the
distance they had to walk to get to the dive school. Big Blue has 2
different accommodation choices. One is right next to the school, dorm
style accommodations, clean and comfortable but not private rooms. They
also have their new rooms about a 5minute walk down the beach. WELL
worth the walk. The new rooms are bigger and can be booked privately for
2 or more people. You're a "hop skip and a jump" from the action, but
can get a good nights sleep before your early dives! The only draw back
of those rooms was no AC. They do have fans, and honestly you get a
really nice breeze from the water so you hardly notice. I would
go back to Big Blue in a heart beat!! If you are looking for an
affordable, comfortable and fun vacation destination then I'd definitely
recommend you visiting" Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
I'll start by saying that is very rare that I write a review.... after
reading through some of the comments I felt compelled to write. I'm
so surprised to hear people complaining about their experience at Big
Blue!! I travel a lot and can honestly say this was one of my best
holidays to date!! Big blue does not advertise glamorous or
luxurious accommodations, but it is comfortable, clean and safe! Why is
that so horrible?! The staff are beyond friendly and helpful, and I
can't imagine any concern from a customer being brushed off. Every time I
went into the shop to ask a question if the first person couldn't
answer, they found the answer for me! I was thoroughly impressed with
the customer service.As for instructors- every one that I encountered was full of personality and willing to share a good laugh. I spent 6days at Big Blue and don't have one bad thing to say about it!The
instructors were so friendly and personable, the restaurant was
consistent and while the accommodations weren't ON the beach- they were a
minute walk from it! There was one review that commented on the
distance they had to walk to get to the dive school. Big Blue has 2
different accommodation choices. One is right next to the school, dorm
style accommodations, clean and comfortable but not private rooms. They
also have their new rooms about a 5minute walk down the beach. WELL
worth the walk. The new rooms are bigger and can be booked privately for
2 or more people. You're a "hop skip and a jump" from the action, but
can get a good nights sleep before your early dives! The only draw back
of those rooms was no AC. They do have fans, and honestly you get a
really nice breeze from the water so you hardly notice. I would
go back to Big Blue in a heart beat!! If you are looking for an
affordable, comfortable and fun vacation destination then I'd definitely
recommend you visiting" Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Friday 20th April 2012-The best shop girl in the world just dropped one! Congratulations Kate our Big Blue Shop girl for the last 5 years who is on maternity leave ( she thinks she's quit, but I know otherwise) has just given birth to a beautiful bouncing baby boy called Alexander. Just over 4 kilos, Kate & Alex must be truely blessed cos from where I'm sitting, Alex Junior looks just a little bit like Buddha himself! Congratulations Kate & Alex & welcome to the world Alex Junior (AJ), we're all very much looking forward to meeting you.
So not quite sure how to take the comment from one customer today who said "Would you mind if we dived somewhere where there isn't a whaleshark. I've done 6 dives with you so far & all 6 was with a Whaleshark. I would quite like to see something different!" Can you beleive that? Don't you know Whalesharks are very sensitive creatures. Jacques Cousteau would turn in his grave! Not sure whether to spit in his wetsuit or piss in his mask! Cheek of some people!
We have 1 guy signed up for the mammoth 18 day advanced trimix liveaboard, diving all the amazing wrecks in the gulf of Thailand, South China Sea and the Malacca straits. The Giamani is the only boat in the Koh Tao area that has the range to get to these brilliant wrecks. As Big Blue Tech are an affiliate of this charter boat we will be heavily involved with the wreck diving trips available on this fantastic boat. Here is a detailed itinerary for this once in a lifetime expedition. If you are CCR trimix trained and want to see some amazing wrecks please give us a shout asap as only a few places remaining & this is truely a trip of a lifetime! You would just hate to miss out I'm sure.
Tuesday 17th April 2012-
Today was a good day in the fight for stopping illegal fishing. Yesterday the Fisheries Department found a non-local boat using cages to fish in the protected zone around Koh Tao, and arrested all 5 on board, including the captain. On board we found hundreds of fish, including; scribbled filefish, trigger fish, bat fish, big groupers, cobia, sweetlips, and of course tons of snapper, rabbit fish, and fusilers. they had also been collecting large cowrie shells. Today they made the captain return to the locations were his cages are placed (with the Marine police, the local government, and members of Save Koh Tao) to empty the cages. Rosemary Allen of FilmCo was there and got it all on tape, so stay tuned to see the video with interviews from the people involved. The people spear fishing at shark island will be next . . .
Another special trip this morning organised by our self proclaimed 'Best in the World' Divemaster team, to Samran Pinnacle & the Wreck! Samran, a series of 3 pinnacles closer to Koh Phangan than to Koh Tao, but very rarely dived as it does seem to be a bit more of a fishermans site than a divers site. But being the isolated series of rocks that it is it also makes for a good pitstop for all the travelling pelagics we get in this part of the ocean. Common visitors to Samran are big schools of King Mackerel, Barracudas, & last time we were there we got to dive with 2 whalesharks at the same time. Should be an awesome mornings diving, apart from the getting out of bed before 6am lark!
“BigBlue in one word, FANTASTIC!!!!” I love Ko Tao and BigBlue Diving, i´m had more then 70 Fundives with Big Blue, and all was amazing!!! The Divemaster´s are really good, (maybe the best of the World, Special Thanks to Steven ;) ) the landscape and the divesites are pretty good. My favorites are Chumpon Pinacle, Greenrock, Whiterock, The Wreck, ant lot more....The Accommondation are nice and cheap. I was 4 times here and i will come back, for sure. Best fishes, Kai Fischer"
I love Ko Tao and BigBlue Diving, i´m had more then 70 Fundives with Big Blue, and all was amazing!!! The Divemaster´s are really good, (maybe the best of the World, Special Thanks to Steven ;) ) the landscape and the divesites are pretty good. My favorites are Chumpon Pinacle, Greenrock, Whiterock, The Wreck, ant lot more....The Accommondation are nice and cheap. I was 4 times here and i will come back, for sure. Best fishes, Kai Fischer"
Curtis Lentz, SSI & PADI Instructor at Big Blue. American. Little bit rural. Special. Slow. Red neck. Seriously he has a red neck! Nice enough guy just not much there. Up top. Brought up on Jeremy Springer. Live. In the audience. Main guest on " Breast feeding for Teenagers- for or against?" Carries a gun. Well doesn't actually but if we all lived by the Constitiution here like they do in America he'd definitely be carrying a gun. A big one. More than enough to do some serious damage at any University campus or other public shooting range. As I say nice enough bloke. Bloody stupid haircut though.
Born on an organic produce & livestock farm, brought up in a caravan park, graduated from the Basketball Diaries School of hard knocks in Gangland Baltimore, one time murder capital of the world, & after finishing his studies for the NRA (National "over my cold dead hand" Rifle Association) became an animal killer, sorry, "Hunter", probably shot lots of things dead like all good American young men do these days, & then fled as far away as possible as soon as Barrack Obama came to power. Hence his presence here at Big Blue. We were looking for a gun toting, Beetle nut chewing hillbilly from the US of A & we got one!
Congratulations to Lice Christensen, Neil Draycott, James Campbell, Adam Britton and David Mead who have all recently completed the BSAC Marine Conservation course. The course was run at Big Blue Diving, Koh Tao. This 5-day course was run by Jennifer Mathews who is Big Blue Diving - Marine Conservation Chief Instructor. Jennifer is also BSAC Thailand’s Marine Conservation Advisor. The BSAC Thailand Marine Conservation course is open to BSAC Ocean Divers and above. It is also available to divers who have been trained by other agencies.
The course is designed to give students with little or no prior knowledge or experience of marine conservation the chance to learn about coral reefs and the problems facing them around the world. Advanced background understanding in ocean processes and composition, coral reef ecology and pressures affecting them will help them understand the need for marine conservation. The student will gain experience in identification and practical conservation activities. It is expected that upon completion students will be able to accurately identify many aquatic organisms and processes from which they will be able to design and implement appropriate activities in order to contribute to ongoing conservation priorities. As to show their support for this course, BSAC Thailand is donating all of its Marine Conservation materials sales proceeds into a pool which can then be used to help finance Thai Marine Conservation projects.
If you would like to know more about this course, please contact Jenifer at info@bigblueconservation.comStatistically speaking you have 1 in 700,000 more chance of being killed by a dog, 1 in 1 million of dying while in the bath tub, 1 in 5 billion of being killed by space debris, 1 in 86,000 of being killed by poisoning, 1 in 3 million of being killed by freezing, 1 in 2 million of being killed by lightening, 1 in 5,000 of being killed in a car crash, 1 in 2 million of being killed in a tornado, or being killed by falling out of bed, and if you dive with Big Blue, well judging by the last 15 days only well you have 10 chances in every 15 of seeing a Whaleshark! You know... statistically speaking!
Saturday 14th April 2012-
Who wants this tea device, the Sharky tea infuser. You put your tea in the bottom compartment, attach the dorsal fin top, and set it afloat in your (preferably glass) cup. The effect of the tea infusing into the water from the shark appears both beautiful and exciting according to the Argentinian designer Pablo Matteodo. Making tea at home just got a little more dangerous. Duhn-duhn! We're gonna need a bigger kettle.
Awesome opportunity for the right person here on Koh Tao! Looking for a Dive Shop Manager for a little dive center on the south side of Koh Tao (Chalok Baan Khao). I would love to help find someone to fill this position. Great potential at a once-busy shop which has been badly mismanaged for years. Contact me if you are an Instructor with any kind of management experience. No gluttons or alcoholics, please... jim@bigbluediving.com
“Schönes Erlebnis!” - Ich habe vor 2 Wochen einen Open-Water-Divers- Kurs bei Big Blue gemacht und war sehr zufrieden! Besonders der deutsche Tauchlehrer Felix Breuer bestach durch viel Wissen rumd ums Tauchen und hat unsere Gruppe in den 4 Tagen gut ausgebildet und umfangreich informiert. Das Tauchen selbst war natürlich sowieso umwerfend toll! Vielen Dank!" Funf out of Funf! :-)
- Ich habe vor 2 Wochen einen Open-Water-Divers- Kurs bei Big Blue gemacht und war sehr zufrieden! Besonders der deutsche Tauchlehrer Felix Breuer bestach durch viel Wissen rumd ums Tauchen und hat unsere Gruppe in den 4 Tagen gut ausgebildet und umfangreich informiert. Das Tauchen selbst war natürlich sowieso umwerfend toll! Vielen Dank!" Funf out of Funf! :-)Friday 6th April 2012-
Widely considered Koh Tao's premier dive site, Chumphon Pinnacle is also one of the island's most challenging with occasionally strong currents. Ranging from depths of 12m to 40m, the site is a group of massive rocks arranged in a rough oval and running north to south. Visibility is superb in season, and the site plays host to a wide variety of pelagics as well as reef fish. Great barracuda, king mackerel, grouper, and tuna throng to Chumphon all year around, and in season whale shark sightings are common. As the site is a fair distance offshore, visitors from the open ocean are unpredictable -sailfish, oceanic white tip sharks and bull sharks have also been spotted. Map courtesy of Zain Zaini, PADI Divemaster in Training, Big Blue Diving, Koh Tao's premier PADI Divemaster Graphic Design Cartographic Design Felicity. Ah-hmm... facility!
“Brilliant diving instructors” I recently done my open water and advanced scuba courses with the big blue diving school and thoroughly enjoyed it, all the staff were really helpful and friendly and our diving instructor Paul Tanner made both courses a lot of fun and I managed to see a whale shark. Overall I had an amazing time and would recommend big blue." Cheers AlexP. Good of you to take the time to write in & express your opinions to the world. Much appreciated Alex. & look forward to seeing you again for some more underwater fun on your next trip to Koh Tao!
Right... just so you know. I got my team all ready, refreshed, & roaring to go. I got 4 Dive boats ready for action. I got 5 six bed dormitories with AC & hot water shower, 5 basic fan bungalows, 16 fan rooms & 5 Air con rooms all cleaned & ready at Big Blue 1. I got 16 double & twin bed rooms, 8 fan & 8 AC at Big Blue Guesthouse, and I got 16 AC bungalows on the beach, 7 four bed dorms, 7 three bed rooms, & 7 AC rooms on the 3rd floor overlooking the pool & with Sea views at Big Blue 2, all ready for tomorrows post full moon rush from Koh Phangan. You know... just so you know!
I recently done my open water and advanced scuba courses with the big blue diving school and thoroughly enjoyed it, all the staff were really helpful and friendly and our diving instructor Paul Tanner made both courses a lot of fun and I managed to see a whale shark. Overall I had an amazing time and would recommend big blue." Cheers AlexP. Good of you to take the time to write in & express your opinions to the world. Much appreciated Alex. & look forward to seeing you again for some more underwater fun on your next trip to Koh Tao!Right... just so you know. I got my team all ready, refreshed, & roaring to go. I got 4 Dive boats ready for action. I got 5 six bed dormitories with AC & hot water shower, 5 basic fan bungalows, 16 fan rooms & 5 Air con rooms all cleaned & ready at Big Blue 1. I got 16 double & twin bed rooms, 8 fan & 8 AC at Big Blue Guesthouse, and I got 16 AC bungalows on the beach, 7 four bed dorms, 7 three bed rooms, & 7 AC rooms on the 3rd floor overlooking the pool & with Sea views at Big Blue 2, all ready for tomorrows post full moon rush from Koh Phangan. You know... just so you know!
Tuesday 3rd April 2012-
Minke Whale also spotted at Chumphon Pinnacle this morning as well. Probably about 6 meters long so still relatively small. Recently we seem to be getting a few more Whales than we've had before here in Koh Tao which is obviously a good sign. They don't tend to hang around too long unlike the Whaleshark who has been known to hangout at one divesite for as long as 3 weeks. But they do tend to be seen in small pods of maybe 3-6.
In the immortal words of the 90's legendary Irish singer Sinead O'Connor "Its been 5 whalesharks in 5 days"! Sail Rock, Shark Island, Twins, Chumphon & Hin Wong! & today there were 2 whalesharks at different sites at the same time so there's definitely more than one in the water here right now. Must be whaleshark season! Better take your seats ladies & gentlemen. I have a feeling this season could be a Monster!
Last chance to book yourselves some accommodation in Koh Tao before the chaos begins with the Full Moon Party people over from Koh Phangan on the 6th April & then its Songkran! Thai New Year! One big long silly water fight all day long! So its going to be a very busy couple of weeks coming up so get on the blower, the computer, the fax or the telgram if thats what you're used to but get booking something or there'll be nothing left!
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