techdivethailand

4 PADI Divemasters graduate from DJL Diving Internship

After completing their Divemaster Trainee internship here on Koh Tao, Luke, James, Christian & Ceilidh have qualified as PADI Divemasters.

Image: From left, the new PADI Divemasters - James Wynn [UK], Christian Leach [Australia], Ceilidh Speir [Canada] & Luke White [UK]

To celebrate their achievement, the guys took part in the Koh Tao ritual snorkel test - drinking a cocktail through a mask and snorkel.

Image: The snorkel test @ Lotus Bar, Koh Tao Thailand

James is now continuing through to PADI Instructor, taking his Instructor Development Course [IDC]. Luke and Ceilidh are staying on Koh Tao, planning to work as PADI Divemasters, and Christian is returning home.

Image: Luke, Christian & James in Choppers Bar

Congratulations to all, and we hope they all continue to have plenty more diving adventures!

DJL Diving qualifies as PADI Gold Palm Resort

We’re happy to anounce that DJL Diving has been upgraded to become a PADI Gold Palm Resort [from our previous status of PADI Dive Resort].

The higher status is a result of the effort we’ve put into maintaining safe, quality PADI Diver training plus a range of exciting diving options.

In the words of PADI ‘The PIRA Gold Palm Resort membership classification is awarded to progressive PIRA Members that excel in providing quality services to traveling divers. A PIRA Gold Palm Resort presents a professional image and actively promotes the benefits of recreational scuba diving and snorkeling, dive travel and environmental awareness. A Gold Palm Resort’s appearance and performance compares favorably with quality resort dive operators in the local area and exceeds the local norm for dive resort standards.

With the opening of our new pool / bar / restaurant expected within the next month, we’re hoping to have another great year in 2008.

You can see our new PADI Gold Palm Resort status displayed on the PADI Website by searching through the ‘Find your PADI Dive Center’ feature.

Koh Tao Diving News now available through Silver Sands Resort website

Now, even more people have access to the latest scuba news from DJL Diving, thanks to syndication through the new Koh Tao Silver Sands Resort website.

Each page displays our latest scuba diving news stories in the left hand tab - readers can access the full story by clicking on each headline.

To check it out [and read about the beach accommodation available at Silver Sands Resort] visit http://www.silver-sands-resort.com

New website for Silver Sands Beach Resort & Bungalows

Our resort partner on Koh Tao - Silver Sands Beach Resort, now has it’s own website giving details of their fan and AC bungalows and rooms.

The website includes an online booking facility for accommodation, so if you’re traveling to Koh Tao and need to sort out somwhere to stay, check out the Silver Sands Resort website. You can see photos from each room, a resort map and details of resort facilities.

Key pages on the new Silver Sands Resort website are:

Silver Sands Resort, Koh Tao homepage

Facilities at Silver Sands Beach Resort 

How to get to Koh Tao

Silver Sands Beach Resort Map

Fan Garden Bungalow, 2-3 person, with hot water

Fan Garden Bungalow, 2-3 person, without hot water

AC Hotel room, 2 person, TV, hot water

AC Garden Room, 2-3 person, TV, fridge, hot water,

AC Garden Bungalow, 2-3 person, hot water, no TV

Fan Garden Bungalow, 2 person, without hot water

Diving with Sharks at the Chumphon Pinnacles, Koh Tao Thailand

Almost everyone that goes diving wants to see the big fish - it’s natural that every diver that visits Koh Tao wants to dive with the sharks at the Chumphon Pinnacles, north of Koh Tao Thailand.

Image: 3 Sharks at the Chumphon Pinnacles [taken by Arne D’Hoore]

The problem is that all the dive operators visit the Chumphon Pinnacle at the same time - either the early morning race to see sharks or early afternoon.
With DJL Diving’s high speed RIB, we don’t have to adhere to the normal Koh Tao diving routine - we’re much more reactive. It takes just 10 minutes to reach the Chumphon Pinnacles, so we can pick & choose the best time to head out to see the grey reef sharks & bull sharks!

Image: DJL Diving’s high speed RIB

We’re now running late afternoon shark diving sessions, double diving with sharks at the Chumphon Pinnacles. We go when there are no other dive operators at the Chumphon Pinnacles, to get the best possible diving experiences.

Since there’s no generator or compressor on the RIB, it sits at the surface, completely silent. This means that the sharks come right up over the pinnacle, often even breaching the surface. Around the pinnacle we’re surrounded by the 2 metre long sharks!. Diving with sharks off our high speed RIB is a dive experience not to be missed!

Image: Mexican ‘fun-diver’ Gloria pulls a face on the RIB

If you’re interested drop us an e-mail to check availability. We only take a max of 5 divers per trip to make sure everyone has a great dive.

Rotting fish odour & welding with sunglasses | Annual dive boat maintenance

Lots of Thai fishing boats, rotting fish odour & welding with sunglasses - it could only be the annual dive boat overhaul in Chumphon boat-yard on the Thai mainland! 

This year the main work has included replacing sections of woodwork from the top deck and hull, plus a lot of attention to the engine, repairing ‘wear and tear’ from the corrosive salt water environment! The engineer who attended to our boat actually consults for the Lomprayah Catamarans [presumably he knows what he’s doing!].

We’ve also added a rear dive platform to make entering the water easier in rough sea conditions plus attached a second ladder to the starboard entry point to make exiting the water more simple.

The compressor housing has been rebuilt, plus we’ve added new tank ranks, increasing the capacity of the boat to comfortably accommodate 40 scuba cyliders.

Last of all, there’s a new paint job and color scheme to sporting the DJL Diving logo. Hopefully the dive boat will continue to serve us well in 2008!

Sairee Beach Accommodation Full | Koh Tao busy with New Year scuba diving rush

Since the New Year’s celebrations we’ve had a rush of people arriving on Koh Tao island.

With many visitors still in ‘party mode’ it’s not too busy around the Koh Tao dive sites, but Sairee Beach resorts are filling up quickly or already full!

If you’re planning on arriving on Koh Tao, Thailand in the near future our advice is this:

Get in touch before you arrive and reserve some accommodation - it will save you a lot of hassle once you get here! If you’re interested in scuba diving or want to learn to dive in koh tao we’re happy to help out!

Great Open Water Diving conditions on Koh Tao dive sites

If you’re looking to learn to dive on Koh Tao in the new year you couldn’t have better conditions for scuba diving. We’ve had absolutely no waves for more than a week now, radiant sunshine & great visibility.

It’s been perfect for making use of our high speed RIB. We’ve been running regular dive trips out to the deep pinnacles off Koh Tao, Thailand - Chumphon and Southwest, plus wreck diving on the Unicorn. At Chumphon, the divers saw more than 15 sharks in one dive!

So if you’re traveling to Koh Tao to learn to scuba dive after Xmas, don’t hesitate to get in touch - you’ll be sure to get some fantastic diving in!

Monsoon Rainfall eases off for Scuba Diving Courses

Good News! It looks as though the majority of our monsoon rainfall is at last behind us, leaving Koh Tao, Thailand with bright sunny conditions.  We’re already experiencing an increase in the number of people visiting Koh Tao, to learn how to scuba dive.

The start of November saw Koh Tao, Thailand receive an incredible amount of rainfall. Portions of Sairee Beach became flooded, as drainage systems failed to cope with the excess rainfall!

One glass shop window even collapsed in, under the wash of water displaced by a passing taxi!

At last the sun has returned, so we can continue to enjoy the great scuba diving which Koh Tao has to offer.

Swimming Pool Plans unveiled (for PADI Open Water & Divemaster Internship training)

We’ve decided to make use of the land behind DJL Diving creating a pool, bar & restaurant in the Silver Sands resort garden. The swimming pool will be great for shallow water training, both on the PADI Open Water Course and for Divemaster Internship skills circuits etc.

Building should start in the new year, and is expected to take about 1 month.

The pool will be split level, to make confined water dive training easy. Surrounding the pool there’ll be plenty of space to relax on loungers and enjoy the sun, plus we’re going to including seating in the pool so you can enjoy a cocktail whilst you’re sat in the water.

We plan to open the restaurant & bar from 11:00 - 23:00 serving drinks plus a mix of Thai and western cuisine. This will double up as a teaching area for scuba diving theory during the daytime.

We’re already looking forward to BBQs & beers! We’ll keep you posted with progress!