27th February 2015
The Divemaster mentors took the new Trainees, all 40 of them on an epic night dive the other night, they went to Shark Island where nobody else on Koh Tao would be diving, and had the site all to themselves and the conditions were perfect. This group of Divemaster trainees are working through a new teaching format which has been a great success. With the entire classroom based work and exams completed, they can now concentrate on developing their water based skills. As well as night dive workshops they have done Buoyancy and a Search and Recovery workshop. With all the theory understood they are ready sink their teeth into assisting instructors and working with the Divemasters in leading certified divers. Really good job guys Well Done.
This week has seen the first and last of many things, first dive trips departing from our new resort, the last ever DMT meeting at the old resort. First courses being taught in Chaba, and tonight will be our last drinks in the Big Blue Bar previously known to many as Deck Bar, Blue Bar and Higher Ground to name a few. The Farewell party is tonight at Higher Ground. There may be a few tears!
The full day trip guys went off at the crack of someone called dawn to enjoy the delights of Sail Rock, it has been a long time coming this year but the visibility is now up to 20-25 metres – nice! Lots of fish and a few GoPros found on the bottom too! Only thing missing on this trip was a Whaleshark! So its fingers crossed time that these big beauties start making the rounds past Koh Tao
14th February 2015
Last night we held a Charity Valentine Auction in which participants from Big Blue, Rocktopus and Pheonix divers, sold themselves off to the highest bidder. From the start of the night it was clear it would be an adult only night and small children were banished off to bed. We raised a massive 38,000 baht which will be split between 2 charities that are close to all our hearts. Firstly the Koh Tao Animal Clinic who provide and unending amount of support and love to all the island animals and pets and also to Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians who are actively promoting and preventing the brutality of killing poor dolphins and whales in Taiji Bay, Japan. Yesterday was World Love for Dolphins Day. Members of staff were sold, abused, stripped and basically given no choice in what they were told to do as it was for such good causes. The night was incredible and we thank all of you for taking part and apologise to people who were out beaten in the auction war, and to anyone we may have blinded by the sight of certain instructors undress- all for charity!
So where are you? Sitting in an office cubicle staring dreamily at our pictures or you are deciding where to go next on your holiday, or maybe you are in Asia and trying to decide where to go next. Thailand should be high up there on your list. Not only is the weather fantastic, we have great food, great Thai boxing, and they love Mr Bean! But of course the diving here is great. Koh Tao is the perfect place to do your initial certification. Gaining your Open Water certificate is a great achievement and one of our passions as instructors is seeing you graduate and see our passion infect you. Speak to most of our instructors and divemasters and they will tell you how they came here for a 2 week holiday and just never left. If you want to do some more experienced diving we also have Big Blue Khao Lak which offer liveaboard and day trips out to the Similan and Surin Islands. Or we have our Technical diving team that can take you beyond the limits of recreational diving, and introduce you to deeper and more equipment intensive diving. On the other hand you may not want to dive with all the bulky equipment so we also have Freediving here. Basically if it has anything to do with water we can do it! So what are you waiting for, book that ticket and head over to see us. But warn your boss and family as you may not want to return!
10th February 2015
As you may have seen on our facebook page a few days ago, it is official; we are preparing to move to our new resort which isn’t really new as it has been called Big Blue 2 for a few years already. We are building a new equipment room, new classrooms and offices and more accommodation and come the 1st March we will be down there permanently. Many of you who have done courses with us in the last few years will already know the location with our swimming pool for courses. Same faces, same diving just a new (ish) location which is only a 4 minute walk from Big Blue 1 on Sairee Beach where we can still enjoy our sunset beers when all the diving is done.
So many people have been through Big Blue Diving over the 21 years, you as our most valuable people our guests and students, but also as DMTs, as Divemasters and Instructors, our dogs (Ugly and BBD aka The General aka Big Black Dog aka Bebo, Sausage, Panda, MooMoo, and Uri), not to mention all our restaurant staff, boat staff and Captains. Big Blue is and always will be a special place to many of us, having made possibly some of the most amazing friends ever! That being said it is the people not just the place and apart from the location changing these friendships and memories are what brings us back year, after year, after year, yes it will be a sad time for many of us who have worked at Big Blue 1 whether it is for only a year or 10 years, we all have some very fond memories of working and playing at this resort. That is why we are inviting you all to our Farewell Bash on Friday 27th February at The Higher Ground Bar. This is open to everyone, so if you are trying to decide where to do your diving course, or if you are already a certified diver and you want to come fun diving, come and do it will us, this is a very exciting time for us and we would love it if you could be with us. #realdiving
Side mount course have been really kicking off the last few weeks and incorporating them with wreck Specialties our Techies have been busy. If you are interested in doing something a little different while you are over here this is an option. Instead of having the tank strapped to your back you have one mounted under each are, giving you better buoyancy in the water and with 2 tanks you can have much longer dives. If you’re interested contact us at info@bigbluetech.net
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